The first Marvel series for Disney+ is built on a fascinating concept but the closer it draws to MCU reality, the more turgid it becomes. The rich tropey world that WandaVision builds out of satirical sitcom interpretations is layered, clever and brilliantly realised but rather shows up the flat grey melodrama of the MCU aesthetic the more the latter intrudes. Despite the tonal disparity, that the strange Pleasantville/Truman Show premise was even greenlit at all is a minor miracle and it's a bold beginning to the corporation's plush filmic TV canon. It's glorious to see Bettany and Olsen flex their considerable dramatic muscles and both of them do a superlative job of grounding the show, whether in full epic comic movie mode or in whichever sitcom era they reside.

There's a rich supporting cast too and Hahn and Peters throw in spirited turns - the MCU comic reliefs seem a little snarky and superfluous in comparison, prized awkwardly out of their respective contexts but the whole strange ensemble is quite compelling. Also Photon was there as well. The pacing of WandaVision is quite uneven with a two-steps-forward-one-step-back approach born out of an obviously sincere but rather patronising desire to make sure the broadest possible audience is keeping track of the concept. It's the difficult tonal marriage of these two (somewhat conflicting) desires that prevents it from building too successfully on the promise of the first few unsettling installments and the flashy grand finale is somewhat of a grey superhero squib.

So certainly not bad but here's hoping the next Disney+ series is a bit more small-screen minded in terms of week-to-week episodic pacing, which would give the wider cast and entire series a bit more room to breathe naturally. What they sacrificed for consistency in the earlier parts was made up for by some truly subversive television which I wasn't expecting at all - so absolutely fair play to them for that and Make Mine Marvel always.