‘What If?’ Season 3 Evaluate

It is exhausting to consider it is already time to say goodbye to What If…?. The anthology sequence has been a spotlight of the latter portion of the MCU, permitting viewers to spend time with fan-favorite characters with out disturbing the prevailing canon. The ideas different from considerably believable to completely wild and all the things in between, and alongside the best way, What If…? additionally took daring new steps in an inclusive path. With Season 3, premiering in the present day on Disney+ as an eight-day occasion, the sequence sticks to kind of the identical system, with a deeply entertaining batch of episodes burdened with the wonderful function of capping the series off in a satisfying way.

Back when What If…? Season 2 premiered, I in contrast the latest batch of episodes to the primary season, and located that whereas there have been standout moments throughout each seasons, the primary leaned extra into the idea of really standalone tales, whereas the second functionally created its personal MCU elsewhere within the multiverse. Season 3 manages to be a little bit of each, however maybe as a result of the sequence is coming to an finish, general takes fewer wild swings than in seasons previous. There are some of those signature, out-there “what ifs,” however, like Season 2, they really feel prioritized when it comes to significance, with some mattering greater than others within the bigger narrative. Simply the actual fact that there’s a “bigger narrative” in any respect is one thing I’ve at all times been on the fence about, even when mentioned narrative is the a part of the story that gives probably the most time with my favourite characters.

‘What If…?’ Season 3 Is not Delicate, and That is a Good Factor

Indubitably, Season 3 of What If…? is the present’s bleakest but. Whereas the sooner seasons had riffs on Christmas movies, winks on the heist style, or cartoonish showdowns with the episode’s villains, moments like this are few and much between in Season 3. This is not precisely a shock. It feels as if the world round us has been transferring in a bleaker path for fairly a while, and all media is a mirrored image of the time by which it was made, be it intentional or in any other case. The subjects that What If…? Season 3 touches on are hardly new to the MCU, and even the broader superhero style; greed, energy, violence, prejudice, and subjugation stay on the coronary heart of what drives the villains. Episode 6, “What If 1872,” is especially unafraid to instantly name out the injustices its heroes are combating, and unsubtly hints at comparable points nonetheless occurring in the present day. What’s new, nevertheless, is how completely hopeless so lots of the episodes really feel.

Sure, each story wants a low level by which the characters consider they can not proceed the battle; each Marvel film has that second. However the sheer, colossal, multiversal scale of the sequence actually amplifies that helplessness, with the eventualities The Watcher (Jeffrey Wright) chooses to visit feeling extra cataclysmic than they normally do. Absent from this season is the lighthearted air of “What If T’challa Turned Star Lord” and “What If Comfortable Hogan Saved Christmas,” or the groundbreaking nature of “What If Kahhori Reshaped the World.” Season 3 does have its comparatively lighter episodes with enjoyable ideas — these starring Howard the Duck (Seth Inexperienced) and Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) come to thoughts — however even these are tinged with the bigger, cosmic scale of all the things occurring round them.

Nonetheless, this in the end works within the present’s favor. Whereas it’s considerably corny when the primary episode basically ends with the type of overt, spoken ethical that we of a sure era keep in mind from our Saturday morning cartoons, that very same thought continues all through the remainder of the season, providing a coherent throughline that has nothing to do with the multiverse and technically connects each story. Superpowers apart, it’s love, friendship, and above all, hope and the audacity to maintain combating when all the things is in opposition to you, that can win the day, and What If…? Season 3 would not even attempt to disguise that that is the message it desires viewers to remove when all is alleged and executed.

Does ‘What If…?” Season 3 Stick the Touchdown?

So does What If…? truly handle to attain that elusive aim of sticking the touchdown? Briefly, type of. Season 3 did course-correct slightly my frustration with Season 2, which put Captain Carter (Hayley Atwell) — my favorite character, to be clear — at the heart of some, but not all, of the episodes, making these she wasn’t in really feel secondary to these she was. At the least in Season 3, most episodes are given the possibility to face alone — even when they sometimes join again to earlier seasons — whereas episodes that cowl the general arc are confined simply to their very own tales, reasonably than spanning the season as an entire. I am caught between the concept the series-long plotline did want some closure, and in addition loosely wishing there hadn’t been one in any respect, which might have enabled Season 3 to take some bolder, but smaller-scale, swings reasonably than staying so targeted on big-picture occasions. There might then have been more room for comedy, or more room for an additional episode targeted on my other favorite character, Kahhori (Devery Jacobs). However this type of wishful pondering is a what if in and of itself, is not it?

Clearly, this is not a everlasting goodbye to the world of What If…?. With Marvel Zombies in the works and set to premiere next October, viewers will get to remain considerably inside this little animated multiverse that is been created. However because the MCU begins to backslide into the previous and acquainted, dare I say the predictable, it is a disgrace to be shedding a present that operated so properly in parallel to the live-action universe. What If…? typically pushed boundaries and wasn’t afraid to be foolish, or to essentially take this concept of “what if” and run with it to any absurd conclusion. It is a sequence that, when the final episode airs on December 29, will really be missed, even when it does stumble slightly in its ultimate steps to the end line.

What If…? Season 3 premieres December 22 on Disney+, with one new episode dropping per day till December 29.

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