La Ron S. Readus
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Every Marvel Show on Disney Plus RANKED (VIDEO SCRIPT)
🕑 Added 2021-10-11 20:00:04 +0000 UTCOh? You thought I’d hide the TRUE answer to which show I hold in high regard in the THUMBNAIL?
To quote the baddest of Bill’s Deadly Vipers, “You didn’t think it was gonna be that easy, did you?”
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Readers, with the recent release of the What If season finale, we now have 4 completel shows from Marvel Studios now available to watch on Disney Plus.
Some of them were good, some of them were okay, and some of them...could’ve taken a bit longer to cook.
At least, that’s what I think in regards to the four that we have so far. And while all of them are unique in their own way, I’d be lying if I didn’t say that some left me full while others left me wanting.
So that’s why I thought it’d be fun if I gave my personal ranking of the four MCU shows currently available on Disney Plus, and what both did and didn’t work for me regarding them and why they’re in the places that they are
So let’s get this out of the way with the obvious number 4, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
I know it, you know it, your dog knows it, even your Snyderverse Extremist friend knows it.
There were definitely a lot of things that personally rubbed me the wrong way about the series.
The way they feel like they only have to acknowledge systemic racism once, as if it only happens once.
/How they handled the Isaiah Bradley b-plot by saying “I know how we can make up for all the torture and disenfranchisement. We’ll give him a statue! Now we’re even!”/
And then there’s the Flag Smashers plot, how things got changed around for Covid and made things feel out of place in certain areas
/Like, Sam officially taking up the Captain America mantle was cool, and it was nice to see Bucky acknowledge that he and Steve couldn’t see how giving that mantle to him thinking nothing of it came from a place of privilege. But not only did the show feel like it just didn’t go far enough for me to feel like they successfully DID anything with that narrative, but it just felt muddled overall. Least favorite for sure./
With that being said, the number 3 spot EASILY goes to What If.
This is one of those shows that -- because this is the MCU we’re talking about -- if it weren’t for the existence of ANOTHER show, THIS show wouldn’t feel as prominent.
Because the way Marvel announced it, it felt like it was something we could watch at our own leisure; that because it’s an animated anthology show filled with one-offs of different ideas -- since that’s what the comic it was inspired by was -- it wasn’t required watching or had a place in any of the upcoming sagas of Phase 4 and beyond.
/Then the Loki series happened -- more specifically, the Loki season finale happened -- and now it kinda has a proper place in the MCU lexicon./
While I definitely had episodes I enjoyed more than others, one thing I liked about the structure of What If -- like Doctor Who and Cowboy Bebop before it -- was its ability to stay a show with a series of one-shots, but still have an overarching narrative
But the consistency in my enjoyment of said one-offs up until the Guardians of the Multiverse two-parter is kinda why it’s number 3 for me instead of being a bit higher on the list.
/There are some episodes I really enjoyed, a couple I just weren’t digging, and others I thought were just okay./
And after being exposed to the anthology-to-overarching story formula in the previously aforementioned shows in which pretty much EVERY episode-slash-scenario worked, I kinda had my expectations high and hoped What If would bring that same energy as opposed to the various degrees of enjoyment per episode that we got.
/Oh, well. Here’s hoping season 2 is better./
So I’ve done a significant amount of soul-searching for which one takes the number 2 spot and which one is number one, and I took a lot of things into consideration
With that being said, I have to say that my number 2 is Loki
Loki did a lot of things I was looking forward to in a Marvel Studios television series.
But part of the reason why it's number 2 instead of number 1 is that while it is arguably the first bit of media in Phase 4 to guide us in the direction of the next overarching saga in the MCU, it didn’t hit me as hard as I was hoping it would.
Like, yes. I greatly appreciate Loki for setting up how the ACTUAL multiverse works in the MCU.
/And using the finale to introduce the concept of Kang and to show us exactly how he’s going to be a threat not only in Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantimanium but in the rest of the films and television shows that’ll make up the Multiverse Saga is a great way of properly establishing things and making sure the show is required watching to know the current process of the upcoming crisis./
However, I can’t help but agree with a lot of individuals that THIS variant of Loki was the wrong variant of Loki to learn and accept that he’s a narcissist.
I understand that post-Avengers Loki is the ONLY one they could really go with since the Avengers only had enough Pym Particles to go back to certain areas in time and wanted to get the Mind and Time Stones at the same time in Endgame. But in my opinion, the one that TRULY deserved to go on this journey was the Loki at the end of Thor Ragnarok
That’s why my number 1 will pretty much ALWAYS be WandaVision.
Not only was the storytelling consistent and intriguing throughout damn near every episode, but it also helped give better definition to magic TRULY being magic in the MCU as opposed to just pseudo-science to appease the Christian Moms Against Witchcraft crowd. Also, let’s remember that WandaVision continues to hold the record as the only Marvel Studios show on Disney Plus that had weekly releases to successfully be talked about with the release of EVERY NEW EPISODE. The internet anticipated its release every Friday. It was damn near impossible to avoid spoilers outside of just not using the internet until you watched it. Thanks to the queer cult following it developed, there’s a house-ballroom mix of the WandaVision theme song. And a trap mix of Agatha All Along thanks to Marvel’s blerd base.
WandaVision was a fucking moment. A moment that Marvel Studios thought they could reproduce with the likes of Loki, but were slightly unsuccessful in doing so because of how well versed the show was when it came to exploring Wanda’s trauma while also adding to the lore of the MCU. And hopefully now that Agatha is getting her own spinoff show later on down the line, Marvel will be able to catch lightning in a bottle again. I’m not holding my breath, but I’m rooting for them.
Now more than likely I’ll probably be updating this list when either Hawkeye or the next 4 Disney Plus shows from Marvel Studios come out. But as of right now, that’s pretty much my order of enjoyment regarding what we have so far, after taking into consideration storytelling, characterization, enjoyment, and impact.
But until that day comes Readers, your homework assignment for the day:
Write in the comment section below what your personal ranks are for the four Marvel Studios shows currently available on Disney Plus
Or, if you feel like sharing with the rest of the class, which of the newly announced shows that are coming soon you’re looking forward to watching the most.
Right now mine is Moon Knight. Because I need to know if Dracula’s gonna pay him back his goddamn money.
Whichever question you decide to answer, I’d love to know your thoughts.
