A Lot or a Little?
What you will—and won't—find in this TV show.
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Positive Messages
a little
As with most superhero yarns, this one leans on the "hero" part: otherworldly beings gifted with special powers who fight against villains to protect ordinary mortals. But weirdness of narrative obscures simplicity of this setup.
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Positive Role Models
a little
Wanda and Vision are depicted in an unusual way, not as one-note as most superhero characters. They're given light comedy and mystery to play; throughout, they're loving to each other, thoughtful to those around them.
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Violence & Scariness
some
Spooky visuals -- e.g., a man in a beekeeper's costume with no face climbs out of a manhole on an ordinary suburban street and stands threateningly. Violence is very limited in early episodes but builds to more typical superhero action, with battles, witchcraft, people in danger (some even come close to disintigrating), children in peril, familial loss, characters being zapped into mummy-like corpses, and more.
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Sex, Romance & Nudity
a little
Sexual content is infrequent, particularly in retro episodes that open the series. The most "adult" scene has Vision asking Wanda to "get the light" before they burrow under the covers; audience whoops on the laugh track.
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Language
a little
Cursing and language is infrequent, but "damn" is heard.
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Drinking, Drugs & Smoking
very little
Occasional references to drinking: "How is anybody doing this sober?" asks Agnes at a school fundraising meeting.
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Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that WandaVision centers on two characters from the Marvel universe: Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany). Here they're a married couple starring in a series of homages to vintage-style TV sitcoms that progress in era as the show goes on, starting in the 1950s. So content starts out very tame, with mild cursing ("damn"), references to drinking ("How is anybody doing this sober?"), and a scene in which a married couple turns out the lights and crawls under the covers together. But as the "real" modern world starts breaking through the WandaVision sitcoms, expect mature content to increase, especially violence, since superhero narratives typically progress to battles involving super powers, destructive villains, and deadly battles with lots of special effects. A scene in an early episode in which a character crawls unexpectedly out of a manhole in a beekeeper costume and turns to show that he has no face clues viewers in to expect spooky visuals, sudden shocks, and unexpected violence. Another unsettling moment shows bright red blood on the hand of a character otherwise depicted in black and white.
What's the Story?
WANDAVISION stars Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff, aka Scarlet Witch, and Paul Bettany as Vision -- you know them as heroes from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. When we meet them, 1950s-era Wanda and Vision have just arrived to their perfect new home, in a perfect new suburb where they can set about being as normal as possible with periodic wacky visits from nosy neighbor Agnes (Kathryn Hahn), of course. But when Wanda and Vision start questioning their lives -- and when messages from Somewhere Else begin to break through -- the couple soon realizes all is not as it seems.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how often fantasy and science fiction are ways to talk about tough real-world issues. Does the acceptance of the unreal make it easier to discuss the real? What real-world evils are represented by the forces that are hunting Wanda and Vision?
What time period is the show set in? How can you tell? How does a show communicate its setting in costumes, styling, stage dressing? Does the time period of the show change? What dramatic purpose is served by the changes in setting? How do visuals change as the setting changes?
What's the difference between TV shows and movies? What types of stories can be told in a movie versus episodically on television? Which do you prefer?
