Disney has brought us both great entertainment and, well, some… ify creations this past year. Casual viewers may be wondering where the continuously-hyped-up WandaVision series lies. Is it great entertainment? Or did it fall flat after all those positive expectations were built up by anticipating fans?

Not long after the events of Endgame, the newly married Wanda and Vision move to New Jersey. They both navigate their lives of working, concealing their powers, and raising a family through a constantly fluctuating sitcom. The members of Westview, the New Jersey community, work to make Wanda and Vision’s life very interesting.

Some peers I’ve heard talking about this series have complained about the beginning and majorly enjoyed the end. Or they liked the beginning, but disliked the end. The beginning may be boring to certain types of viewers. It is meant to model classic sitcoms. Not Friends, but the OG classics like the Dick Van Dyke Show, Bewitched, I Dream Jeannie, and I Love Lucy. These shows were made when most of our grandparents were kids, so of course they wouldn’t be targeted to the modern teen, whatever that is…

I know that I really enjoyed the beginning episodes of this series. When I was little I would always watch these classics, but WandaVision was able to bring more to the table. Some people will get distracted by the black and white film image and remain unaware of the clever humor that is in play. I really enjoyed one of the scenes where Vision is working in the office and reacts to a strange song (“Yackety Yac”) that is playing on the radio. It kind of connects our perspectives to that time period. Vision doesn’t understand the song. The majority of students probably wouldn’t understand this song if they didn’t regularly listen to oldies. This scene is only one of the many funny moments in the episodes.

Though black and white introduces the series, color comes later, so don’t worry. You won’t be stuck trying to guess what colors are actually there behind the screen. The show eventually fades into color and shifts through different decades, attempting to mirror other sitcoms from those times.

For me, the only downside to the beginning of the season was that it was hard to understand what was truly going on plot-wise. Why the heck are Wanda and Vision living in New Jersey in the fifties? I have seen all the Marvel movies, so I can’t imagine how hard it would be for someone who hasn’t dove into the Marvel Universe to understand this.

Eventually, all those questions got cleared up. I, like many other viewers, wanted to find out more, so I continued to watch despite some initial issues with the series.

The other half of the season definitely answers all of the pressing questions most have after finishing the first few episodes. One of my biggest questions was, how did Wanda bring Vision back to life? This thankfully got answered.

There was still a lot of humor integrated into this half. Most jokes could be understood by the general public. One of my favorite scenes was when Vision and Lucy are waiting in a themed van that they stole from the circus. They’re sitting at an intersection waiting for a bunch of things to pass through the road. Eventually, so much time has passed that Vision even has a while to be interviewed.

Something that could be labeled as “ify” was one huge twist involving Agnes, the nosey neighbor. It was full of many unanswered plot holes and felt somewhat random. I feel like the creators of this series could have done a better job preparing this twist. I was incredibly confused by it — it felt like it came out of nowhere.

The acting was actually pretty well down. Elizabeth Olsen (who plays Wanda) and Paul Bettany (who plays Vision) worked extremely well together. The more serious scenes and humorous scenes didn’t seem forced, and it looked like they were having a good time. Olsen was able to portray the sadness of her character that came from such a difficult life. Bettany’s concern for his character’s wife and family really showed through the film in a convincing way that brought the viewers through the pain with him.

Speaking of viewers, WandaVision had 8,127 views measured across SVOD platforms in January of 2021. If you’re not really a film statistics kind of person, I’ll just tell you — this is a pretty big deal. People probably just wanted to look for something to be excited about in such an abnormal (and somewhat mondain) year, and WandaVision was that something. The overall budget for the season was about $225 million, “making it the most expensive TV show in history,” according to a reddit post.

Overall, I really enjoyed this show. It combined sitcoms for all different age groups with the amazing Marvel Universe. Despite a few minor bumps in the road while watching this, I would definitely give this series a  9.5/10.