Honestly I am baffled by this.

People go in for the most boring mediocre shit 99.99% of the time, but every once in awhile, everyone suddenly and inexplicably decides to like something actually good, no matter how bonkers and weird it is.

Make up your mind, General Public! https://twitter.com/CultureCrave/status/1360636238491832320
I suppose it helps that the weirdness is relatively managed, coached within a traditional action-adventure framing narrative, and tied to pop culture nostalgia. While the whole thing is also piggy-backing on the most popular ongoing franchise in the world. Still though… WEIRD.
Like I imagine it would probably have had FAR more negative reactions if it waited til episode 7 or something to do the "what's going on in the real world" episode. Like they really only let the mystery ride for three eps before rushing in to hold hands. So Twin Peaks it ain't.
Still, it's always a bit jarring when anything even REMOTELY formalist or innovative or avante-garde actually achieves mainstream super-popularity. :P
"Marvel: The Post-Modernist Holiday Special"
I suppose another part of it is that it ALSO appeals to that incredibly dangerously popular mindset fostered by social media and such - and fuelling things like Q - of wanting to "decode" and "solve" things. From the various reactions I've seen, a MASSIVE chunk of WandaVision's…
…aren't enjoying it in terms of it's stylistic pastiches, great acting and highly varied WAYS for the cast to act, cool camera tricks, meta-commentary, story about grief and loss and meaning and mental health and trying to find answers, and straight up HORROR, like I am, but…
…instead watching it out of a desire to… like… "solve" it? And figure out "what it all means"? And what it portends for the future of whatever the fuck "phase" of Marvel we're now on?
Also they're being foolish because obviously the answer is that Mojo and Mephisto teamed up and got Agatha Harkness to fuse her magic with AIM technology to make a soul-stealing TV show. CLEARLY. :P
I wonder if next episode will cause fans of Modern Family or The Office to get all pissy on social media about the show comparing them to Bewitched and Family Ties and such. 🤣
BTW:

Why the fuck isn't @Paul_Bettany a MASSIVE FUCKING STAR?!? I have NEVER seen even a SINGLE SECOND of footage in ANYTHING in which he wasn't RIDICULOUSLY brilliant and charismatic and adding enormously to the scene!!!!

Even just his VOICE next to RJD's giant face was good!
Talented comedic actor demonstrates dramatic skill: Brilliant! Genius! Have awards!

Talented dramatic actor demonstrates comedic skill: Heh heh. Cute. Moving on…

Talented actor is equally capable of excelling in comedy AND drama simultaneously from the start:
There are also no words for how much I want D'arcy and Bettany to act opposite eachother at some point. :P

God I wish D'Arcy hadn't gone in for the yellowface in Cloud Atlas though… cos he's SO fucking good…
I straight up DREAM of a parallel universe version of the Cloud Atlas adaptation that DIDN'T do the "same actor plays multiple parts" thing. DREAM of it.

Because then they could've focused on "particular dynamics and relationships and betrayals and oppressions (etc) recurring…
throughout human history, in different contexts, but terrifyingly (or beautifully) identical ways" and "people with widly varying demographics and genders and races and such being 'reborn' into roles within those dynamics" and even the subtle "plot arc" of a recurring betrayer…
…slowly learning compassion for the recurring martyr and eventually (at the book's middle 'apex', though presumably the movie would require it at chronological climax) making the decision NOT to betray in self-interest… THAT COULD'VE BEEN DONE WITHOUT MUDDYING THE WATERS WITH…
…EXTRANEOUS QUESTIONS LIKE "CAN TOM HANKS PLAY A TEENAGE GIRL" AND SHIT.

The most frustrating thing is it feels so … HALFWAY. Like they wanted to honour the book's theme of particlar roles and events and "characters" recurring throughout history, but… as soon as it realized…
…they couldn't do that by recasting the actors over and over in each role without seeming silly (like, say, having Ben Whishaw play Ewing, Frobisher, Rey, Cavendish, Sonmi, and Meonym), rather than going to the WISE solution of "no multiple roles except where clearly feasible"…
…they decided "let's just cast the actors into whateverrole in each era is fun and feasible to do! Fuck the actual theme we were invoking in the first place! And fuck any problems with the yellowface and semi-blackface and transmisogyny-invoking drag this involves! Whishaw and…
…Sturgess are cute guys, so that means they'll be believable as women, right???".

It's just…

THE MOVIE WAS SO CLOSE TO BEING GREAT BUT REFUSED TO ABANDON A GIMMICK EVEN WHERE IT PROVED INHIBITORY.
I am rambling, but I don't care, because I *think* Bettany is no longer tagged. :P
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