What If...?

It all started from first season when they really made us realized what if... ? In every vast imaginable possibilities for marvel comics. Mainly, it was a great effort through animations to make us understand the interconnections of every marvel movies and shows totally independent of each other and they did succeed by connecting X-Men, SpiderMan, Elektra, Blade, Daredevil, Fantastic Four, etc. Under one Brand and Studio.

But, they ultimately made this particular show's story totally oriented towards "The Captain Who Never Was" i.e. Peggy Carter, making it all about her along with extra irrelevant short What Ifs stories of other characters totally made for Fill Ups.

Talk about potential wasted. In a world where literally anything is available for them to do... They ran out of cool stories after the first season. The first season had fun, exciting, interesting stories - with our favourite marvel characters doing awesome things. Then the second season came along and they chose to focus on lame characters, and "what if's" that were no longer meaningful or interesting to watch. For a 30 min show things felt slow for much of each episode. Many of the episodes felt skippable and I had to resist zoning out. Where's more of the "zombie" level of What Ifs? That was crazy and wild. That's the kind of What If scenarios I wanted to see.

Now that the first season is over, I can confidently say that this series has exceeded my expectations. It uses witty scripts and detailed animation to bring the fans the service they've been wanting and more. Each episode is quite varied so there are many different scenarios and you never know how it will turn out or which characters will show up. The series wastes no time explaining any of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and just gets to the point of the scenarios, and also starts to merge the scenarios without warning. This is for the fans, not casual viewers! However, the variety of episodes also means that the quality and tone also vary quite drastically. The short runtime means that many events and battles are cut short. There was a good amount of care to make everything canon and consistent, but there are still some shortcomings and the power/ability of each character seemed to be contrived based on the needs of the plot.

I enjoyed the first season more than the second. The first season had a propulsive narrative force anchored by the Ultron-Watcher storyline that made for a satisfying finale. The second season didn't have that same overarching plot, as the episodes seemed a lot more cut off from each other. I did enjoy certain episodes, especially the first one with Nebula joining the Nova Corps as I felt it gave off a very steam punk sci-fi vibe that I dug. I also liked the episode involving Hela and the 10 rings. I felt it did a good job basically mimicking the plot of the first Thor movie, but with Hela as the main protagonist. I did appreciate a lot of the action in the second season, but the pacing in both seasons is just so fast paced. This is understandable, as they are attempting to pack in an entire story within 30 minutes of run time. That being said, it's so fast paced that the show doesn't give you pause to breathe and take in the different story beats... especially the dramatic ones. Overall, I felt that the second season was more boring than I would've hoped. The first season was an 8, but I'm going to downgrade the show as a whole to a 7 after completing the second.

The first season was great, and I had previously given the overall score a 9 - particularly as a result of a few memorable episodes, namely the Doctor Strange, Zombies, and two finales.

The second season was very forgettable. Watchable at best, but I wouldn't watch again, or want to. If I were to rate this again, I would probably give it a 5 or 6/10.

I am 2 episodes into the 3rd season and I'm really not sure I can be bothered to watch anymore, so I am changing my overall review down to a 3. The first series has bumped it up from a minus something or other.

I would say it's a bit like how Marvel has gone so far down hill since the infinity saga began. Season 1 of What If was very much like the Infinite Saga. Season 2, comparable to the 'meh' films that followed like The Marvels, and so far in season 3, I feel like I've just been made to watch Madam Webb. Whether it's Disney or Sony, it's all Marvel and as sad as I am that the amazing Stan has left us, I am glad that he didn't have to see this downfall.

Sorry Disney, but next time the renewal is due, I think that's enough of this subscription.