What I’m Watching: What If…? (Season Finale)

What If…? Season 1, Episode 9 “What If... The Watcher Broke His Oath?” (B)

It was all building to this, which at least is good to know since I wasn’t so sure how everything was all going to come together and what the impetus for more would be. Starting with Captain Carter and Black Widow going in for a mission was enticing, and then we saw the Watcher choose all of the people that he needed in order to be able to go up against Ultron, brought together in a pub façade manufactured by Doctor Strange. There was still a perhaps excessive comic focus on Thor, who just wanted interdimensional Chinese food delivered, in a way that I don’t think was quite as pronounced when he gained a lot of weight and lost a lot of motivation in “Avengers: Endgame.” After they were all declared the Guardians of the Universe, he managed to attract enough attraction to get Ultron there before they were prepared, but fortunately Strange’s spell was sufficient in protecting them. Less fortunately, Gamora was right to realize that the crusher had been designed to destroy the stores only on her world, and it took the cleverness of Zola being uploaded as a virus to bring him down. Naturally, Killmonger wanted to use the regained stones to better his world, but that’s not how any of this is supposed to work. Black Widow getting sent to a world that had lost their Natasha Romanoff was a worthwhile ending, and the major discovery during the credits just indicates that there are more multiversal exploits to come. I wanted to make sure I watched this show but ultimately don’t feel like I needed to, and I don’t think I’m going to make a point to watch season two unless this series somehow ends up winning major awards.

Season grade: B
Season MVP: Peggy Atwell as Captain Carter

What I’m Watching: What If…?

What If…? Season 1, Episode 8 “What If…Ultron Won?” (B)

The concept in this episode is definitely very interesting, but it gets difficult to stay involved and engaged when a being possesses such incredible power that nothing can defeat them. Having Ultron hear the Watcher while he was narrating to the audience was a major breakthrough moment, one that signaled just how destructive he could be given his newfound perception of the grandeur of the universe around him. His constant noting of a need for peace was starkly contradicted by the way in which he laid waste first to the planet and then to Thanos when he walked through the portal with all the stones, sawing him in half with his eyes instantly instead of even trying to divine his purpose (which in this case, was equally genocidal in nature). Conjuring hundreds of versions of himself to “bring about peace” everywhere by destroying everything was a fearsome notion, and it hardly seems like one dossier would be enough for Black Widow and Hawkeye to be able to stop him. I did enjoy Captain Marvel’s “Listen, Skynet” barb, and if anyone was going to give the Watcher a hard time for sticking to his principles for so long and finally needing to break them, it would be Doctor Strange, who had to examine his own complicated morals a few episodes ago. Hopefully, this will all lead to an enthralling multiversal conclusion, or maybe season two will feature characters hoping from one world to the next, which I would find more appealing than the inconsistently satisfying episodes of this season.

What I’m Watching: What If…?

What If…? Season 1, Episode 7 “What If…Thor Were an Only Child?” (B-)

I do like Thor and think that he’s become an entertaining part of the MCU, especially in “Avengers: Endgame” after he stopped taking care of himself and gave in to base impulses. That said, I haven’t seen “Thor: The Dark World” or the far more well-regarded “Thor: Ragnarok,” so I can’t say that my familiarity with the Norse god is as strong as it should be. What was somewhat interesting – and surprising – to me here is that Loki wasn’t written out of existence, but instead was raised by others and ended up still being part of his life. Loki is a character who has become fantastic all on his own thanks to his TV show and his previous appearance on this very series, and the fact that he was still relevant in some way detracted from the experience here. Thor being interested only in partying wasn’t much of a stretch, and Captain Marvel being brought in to get things back on course was fun, though it would have been more enjoyable to have Brie Larson voicing her, especially with all the other regulars like Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Kat Dennings, Clark Gregg, Cobie Smulders, Frank Grillo, and more on hand. I guess Thor did end up getting whipped back into shape and putting on a scholarly hat, but I’m more interested in the ending, which seems to directly reference the episode that has already aired after it, something I may not have known if I wasn’t so behind at the moment. The concept that this could feed into Ultron winning and these multiverses coming together is far more appealing to me than much of what we’ve seen so far.

What I’m Watching: What If…?

What If…? Season 1, Episode 6 “What If…Killmonger Rescued Tony Stark?” (B-)

Even though I definitely saw the first “Iron Man” movie and I’m pretty sure that Killmonger first appeared in “Black Panther,” which I also saw, I still don’t remember the exact details of who was involved in the various inciting elements of their origin stories. This series is highly dependent on that knowledge, since the differences that are seen relate to what characters aren’t involved and how their absence or presence changes everything. It was interesting to see Killmonger save Tony and how the two of them worked closely together, which came to a swift and deadly end when Tony realized Killmonger’s true intentions but then ended up getting killed since the trained warrior was able to get the best of him. Having him command an American army to invade Wakanda only to not to do it because he had his own ulterior motives was somewhat intriguing but ultimately not all that involving. As usual, I spent most of the episode wondering which voices were the same as the actors from the movies. I think I thought that it was Robert Downey Jr. as Tony, but apparently that wasn’t the case (it was Mick Wingert), but most of the rest were the original voices: Michael B. Jordan, Chadwick Boseman, Leslie Bibb, Jon Favreau, Paul Bettany, Don Cheadle, Danai Gurira, and Angela Bassett, with Jeff Bridges and Letitia Wright replaced as Obadiah Stane and Letitia Wright as Shuri replaced. That’s probably the most enjoyable part of this show, since its storylines are hit or miss.

What I’m Watching: What If…?

What If…? Season 1, Episode 5 “What If... Zombies?!” (C+)

This episode felt relatively unnecessary to me, since the idea of zombies is always complicated given the way that it slows down or completely neutralizes the brain capacity of those afflicted. In this case, they were still able to use the powers, technology, and portals that they had and still knew how to use, which didn’t exactly track. The notion there, I guess, is that it just turned them into flesh-hungry beings who did everything they possibly could to keep eating. That was even truer for Wanda, who had Vision making sure that his bride had all the food she needed to keep her fueled since she was so incredibly powerful. Yes, it’s fun to hear the voices of familiar actors, especially Mark Ruffalo, Paul Rudd, and, once again, Chadwick Boseman, but it felt far too focused on a different sort of twisted dedication than we saw in “WandaVision” which wasn’t nearly as fulfilling as that show. If this is what future episodes are going to be like, I don’t see a real need to continue watching, but I feel like I want to stay as up-to-date as possible on my MCU fare, so I’m not ready to give up just yet. But I would appreciate an opportunity to see cleverly-plotted alternate histories that make active use of the different characters who we haven’t always seen interact and show how their stories could have gone, like the first three episodes of this show managed to do in a decent and engaging way.

What I’m Watching: What If…?

What If…? Season 1, Episode 4 “What If… Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?” (B)

I feel like I’m saying this a lot, but I don’t remember all that much about Doctor Strange even though I’ve seen the 2016 film starring Benedict Cumberbatch, whose upcoming sequel is going to be the next big epic MCU crossover following the events seen in “WandaVision” and “Loki.” I do have an affinity for one character related to this protagonist after interviewing Benedict Wong recently, though he didn’t play much a part in this episode. What I do understand is that Doctor Strange was probably the most powerful of all the characters in the two Phase Three-concluding Avengers installments, and that he had the ability to see so many different outcomes and yet wasn’t going to intervene since that might unduly influence the result. This alternate version of events was deeply troubling since he became obsessive rather than all-knowing, and wanted to use all the power he was able to harness to bring the back the love of his life rather than better the universe as a whole. I’ve seen many shows and movies where one person’s death is inevitable and the universe finds way to accommodate for an attempted subversion of fate, and in this case, both the Ancient One and the Watcher did what little they could to prevent Strange from using his full abilities to self-destruct everything around him. Splitting him into two different versions that could exist in the same timeline was a bit of a head trip, and while this episode started out intriguingly, it went down a less interesting and more convoluted path on its trip towards a desolate end.

Take Three: What If…?

What If: Season 1, Episode 3 “What If... The World Lost its Mightiest Heroes?” (B)

I think the most appealing part of watching this show is recognizing the voiceover acting since animation isn’t as exciting as the real thing (though I’m sure some would beg to differ). I wasn’t sure if all of them were the main actors who have previously played these roles, though I would recognize Michael Douglas’ voice anywhere. That said, I haven’t seen either Ant-Man movie, so I’m a bit lost on who he is and how much this diverged from reality. Also, Black Widow was very central to this episode but she was voiced by someone other than Scarlett Johansson, while Samuel L. Jackson, Clark Gregg, Jeremy Renner, and Mark Ruffalo were all back as Nick, Colson, Hawkeye, and Hulk, respectively, along with Tom Hiddleston, whose Loki has his very own Disney Plus MCU series. While it wasn’t clear how and why all of the future Avengers were alternately dying and being framed for someone else’s death, I did enjoy that Loki appeared with his army that Colson described as from Middle-earth rather than Earth, and that Fury thought to negotiate with him since he was there to avenge Thor’s death, a mystery that S.H.I.E.L.D. very much wanted solved too. Ending with Loki duplicating himself to make it look like Fury was everywhere was clever, and Loki managed to get what he wanted, which was the willing subjugation of the human race. I like that all of these episodes end with a teaser of how things might still change, like Captain Marvel showing up for the fight after all the action has happened, ready to take back Earth from Loki in whatever future lies ahead.

Round Two: What If…?

What If…? Season 1, Episode 2 “What If… T'Challa Became a Star-Lord?” (B+)

I’m not sure whether this show is inspired by ideas that have been previously posited or merely just concepts they think audiences will find exciting. While I missed a few Marvel movies, namely “Captain America: Civil War” and “Thor: Ragnarok,” I have seen both “Guardians of the Galaxy” films and “Black Panther,” so theoretically that should have given me all the context I needed for this episode. T’Challa did seem to be quite amenable to his situation and managed to be a friendlier version of Star-Lord, one who shared a real connection with Yondu. I liked that Nebula was more of a hero from the outset here, and that her relationship with Thanos was considerably better, one that may have needed therapy rather than horrific mistreatment and torture. Hearing Thanos try to defend his worldview as not being genocide because it’s random and efficient to Okoye was entertaining, and I like that major characters like that made only minor appearances rather than being overly emphasized when they’re not as central to this particular story. It was fun to be able to hear recognizable voices like Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, and Josh Brolin, while a few, like Chris Pratt’s, were absent, which wasn’t a problem. Most of all, it was nice to have the late Chadwick Boseman back even just briefly as the voice of this very likeable hero who was just as endearing in a different costume and a different identity than we’re accustomed to seeing him wear in the MCU.

Pilot Review: What If...?

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Pilot Review: What/If

I'm trying something new with my pilot reviews, so from now on, check out video takes on each new series, which I'll embed below and you can also watch by subscribing to movieswithabe on YouTube.

What I’m Watching: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D: Season 4, Episode 16 “What If…” (B+)

This show has been off the air for over a month, and it’s a bit disorienting to have this first hour take place exclusively in the Framework. As if what we had seen May go through while she was fighting for her life and thinking that she had broken free so many times was nothing compared to this. It’s a throwback to see Hydra in such a prominent position of power, and this alternate reality does, as Daisy and Simmons discovered, put each of the imprisoned characters in a state of misery that they would hate and surely will once they discover what is going on and that nothing about this is real. Simmons’ strategy of telling people that they don’t really exist probably isn’t the best way to go about it, and Daisy isn’t being terribly subtle either in her efforts to glean intelligence to gain the upper hand. Waking up with Ward was another major throwback, and casting him as a mole for the good guys was a cool twist. I had expected Radcliffe to be the big terrifying doctor, and having Fitz assume that role, playing so far against type, was an intriguing surprise. I should have seen Aida as the director coming, and having a relationship with Fitz is an interesting addition, especially because, in all likelihood, this may be the real Aida fully aware of what she’s doing and who she is. It’s good to see one glimmer of hope in Daisy’s ability to get through to Coulson and have him remember her name, so maybe they won’t be stuck in this world for all that long.