Highlights
- Many of the Marvel Cinematic Universe series felt unnecessary and could have been condensed into movies, resulting in a lot of additional content that wasn't necessary.
- Introducing new characters through dedicated movies would have been a better approach, allowing fans to become familiar with them without feeling force-fed.
- The only two MCU TV series that worked universally were Loki and WandaVision due to their unique storytelling and intriguing mysteries that left room for questions and had major repercussions for the MCU moving forward.
At this point, there is so much content in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that making a few shows seemed to make sense. With more than a decade of movies under their belt, working some of those characters, side stories, and oddball characters into shows seemed like the perfect idea. It was a low-stakes way to give fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe stories that probably wouldn’t make it to the big screen while also being able to try out different formulas for the universe.
The issue with a lot of the anticipated MCU series is that nearly all of them felt incredibly unnecessary, to the point that they could have just been movies. The two mediums are different and allow for stories to be told in different ways, but with the MCU leaning heavily on their winning formula, a lot of the shows feel just like the movies except with a lot of additional content that really wasn’t necessary.
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The Disney Plus Marvel Series Were Too Bloated
One of the most common complaints about Marvel’s series is that they are all far too bloated. The level of bloat that can be felt in nearly every series contributes to other complaints like aimlessness, boring scenes and other content, and episodes that are too long for their own good. While just about all of the series have some excellent redeeming qualities, many of those same series could have easily been condensed into a film that likely would have ended up being received a lot better.
When a lot of MCU fans think back on series filled with weaker characters like TheFalcon And The Winter Soldier, Moon Knight, and even Hawkeye, they tend to not recall the finer details of each of the episodes. There was often just too much going on and far too much time spent trying to make fans like characters that the bogged-down nature of the shows tended to have the opposite effect. When looking at The Falcon And The Winter Soldier, a series running for only six episodes may not seem like a lot at first, but at anywhere from forty to fifty minutes per episode, the entire series ends up being longer than four hours in total to watch from start to finish.
While MCU fans aren’t likely to complain about getting more time with Falcon (now Captain America, the latest who can do it all day) and Bucky, the series is two hours longer than the average MCU film. That means that there is a lot of space to fill, and when MCU fans are used to high-octane action, a TV series taking the time to sow down a lot can really make fans feel all the bloat that is added in so that the series can hit the required runtime for six episodes.
Movies For New Characters Would Have Fared Better
While the new characters that were introduced in the MCU TV series are great for the most part, it’s pretty tough to say that not introducing them in their own dedicated movies was a bit of a miss. MCU fans are used to being introduced to characters through a cheeky guest appearance in someone else's film before having their solo outing if they don’t just get their own solo film without that kind of thing. A movie would have allowed fans to get used to Kate Bishop, Kamala Khan, Marc Spector, and more without feeling as if they were being force-fed to the fans.
Even thinking of Hawkeye, the concept of a Christmas story in the MCU is something that a lot of people seemed excited about, so having a dedicated Christmas movie to introduce Kate Bishop could have made for a delightful outing in which the runtime would keep the plot tight and free from bloat. Think about how the MCU introduces Peter Parker – rather than a four-hour adventure that gives fans everything they need to know about him, he is introduced for the first time in Captain America: Civil War, and he only spent a handful of minutes on screen before the plot carried on, leaving fans excited for his inevitable solo adventure.
Only Loki And WandaVision Work For TV
When it comes to the various MCU television shows, the only two that are universally considered to have worked are Loki and WandaVision. A major reason for this is that both series tried something unique with characters fans was already intimately familiar with while also leaving intriguing mysteries to wonder about at the end of each and every episode. Both series additionally had major repercussions for the MCU moving forward that are immediately clear while also leaving room for a lot of questions. At the same time, the other MCU series have tried the same thing, which has been met with mixed reviews.
Both series ripped out a lot of the common tropes of the MCU and strived to be different from their established characters. WandaVision was a bizarre sitcom/mystery for much of its runtime, and it worked perfectly thanks to the tight and self-contained story that was planned out and told. At the same time, Loki works with a lot more moving lore than was introduced in other series, but each and every episode feels as tight as it possibly can be with only the most important information being revealed precisely when it needs to be revealed.
A big reason for all of this is likely that the main focus of each series, Loki and Wanda, already have a long history in the MCU. The various side characters that each series introduces, like He Who Remains, are important, but their development is constrained in the best way possible in order to keep the story moving forward. Think of each series, there really isn’t downtime or wasted runtime throughout either. There is always another aspect of a mystery to be uncovered or a new revelation to be found.