Marvel Studios: Avante

This series is episodic, so it is better to rate individual episodes. The series is ongoing, and I will update my review as I watch new episodes.

9/10 - These episodes don't waste time by retelling the movie's/show's story, but rather focus on deep dives into casting, character development, screenwriting, stunt work, effects, costume/set design, music, cinematography, etc.

* Loki (season 2)

* Deadpool & Wolverine

7/10 - These episodes don't have any mind-blowing new trivia, and they still focus a bit too much on simply retelling the movie's/show's story, but they check all the boxes for a good behind-the-scenes documentary by exploring the casting, screenwriting, stunt work, effects, costume/set design, etc.

* Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

* Hawkeye

* Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

* Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol 3

* Echo

5/10 - These episodes have some good info and I'm glad I watched them, but at least 50% of the show follows the series' terrible 2/10 formula.

* WandaVision

* What If...?

* Eternals

* She-Hulk: Attorney at Law

* Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

* Secret Invasion

2/10 - These episodes contain no new information and are essentially in-depth plot recaps of the movie/show that you already watched, as told by the leading cast & crew.

* The Falcon and the Winter Soldier - This one is particularly heartbreaking to watch as you can see all of the cast are genuinely excited for the show, believing themselves to be part of something that will be amazing, but completely oblivious to the fact that the director and screenwriters are destroying everything good about the series by trying to pull the plot in too many directions at once.

* Loki (season 1)

* Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

* Ms Marvel

1/10 - Same 2/10 formula, except they either completely ignore or fail to explain the decisions behind elements that were drastically changed for the worse compared to the comics.

* Black Widow - When talking about Taskmaster, they all but directly say "Diversity is literally the only thing required to make a good movie/show" as if that somehow justified their decision to destroy every element of the character that fans enjoy and turn him/her into one of many mindless martial arts masters in the MCU, which was a horrendous decision regardless of the character's gender. They also state "Black Widow is unique because she is just really well trained and isn't actually a superhero" while completely ignoring the fact that they bizarrely gave her superhuman strength and endurance for this film.

* Thor: Love and Thunder - actual quote: "Don't worry about (all the previous Thor movies). You can pretty much forget everything about them."

* Werewolf by Night - 15 minutes of "making of" documentary buried alongside 40 minutes of the director's family home videos.

I think this is very cool. I have always liked behind the scenes stuff, and I love Marvel as well so this is a perfect thing for me to watch. I think it is so cool how they go through and talk about all the behind the scenes stuff they needed to do to make the series come to life.

This series is really cool. If you watched these shows, I recommend watching their Assembled episode.

For a long time now I've had a big problem with Marvel Studios' behind the scenes content. The MCU is the biggest franchise on the planet arguably but their special features on the DVDs and Blu-Rays have been extremely lazy and lackluster ever since Disney bought the franchise. When this was announced I was praying that it would finally be the MCU BTS content I've been craving for years, but in the end it was more of the same. Here are my two biggest issues:

1) The background music. It's so loud, obnoxious and incessant. I find it so difficult to actually hear in the information I'm here for. It's okay Marvel I won't lose interest during quiet moments.

2) The editing. Marvel behind the scenes featurettes are all edited in the style of those short-form, minute long, special look behind the scenes videos Marvel posts to social media to get fans hyped for an upcoming movie. They're basically quasi-trailers that feature the cast or directors explaining the general plot of an upcoming movie paired with footage of the film and couple tidbits of b-roll or on-set footage sprinkled in.

The MCU as a franchise, it's producers, directors, actors, VFX artists, production designers and concept artists all deserve a proper deep dive into their work on the level of The Lord of the Rings behind the scenes for The Matrix trilogy for example. This isn't even a Disney problem per-se because Star Wars still has excellent behind the scenes on their Blu-Rays too.

But Marvel's behind the scenes content, including this show are basically glorified special look trailers extended. They're edited in the same snappy, quick, loud and flashy manner that trailers are and when this content becomes longer than a couple minutes it becomes extremely annoying and grating.

Assembled is primarily just the actors and directors explaining the show we've already seen over footage of the show we've already watched with a few moments of actual behind the scenes sprinkled in. It's as though they're selling us a product we've already all bought. Now Assembled isn't as guilty of this as the BTS featurettes on the Blu-Rays. We do actually get some decent looks into the production of WandaVision, especially in the first third that explores the 50s and 60s episodes, but after that it's basically a giant recap with the writers and actors.

I think overall my problem is that I feel pandered to. I don't come to behind the scenes content to get a glorified summary of a show or movie I've already seen. I want to see how it was actually made. And I don't need constant music and quick cuts to keep my attention. I can just watch craftspeople doing their craft for a while. I love just seeing directors direct with the actual on-set sound in the background, or seeing costume designers talk us through their process, or VFX artists explain in detail how they did what they did. This stuff is extremely interesting its what we're all here to see.

BTS content is why I wanted to get into the film industry in the first place. Overall this was a fun glimpse into the making of the show but it was just that, a glimpse. I didn't learn anything that I didn't already know. I really hope one day the MCU can give us some making of content worthy of the final product we all love.

TLDR: Basically just a glorified recap than an actual Making Of show.

Although I would have loved to beans and cheese all over this show, they only really talked about the legacy of WandaVision, not how they made it. That's about all I have to say. Beans and cheese.

All of this behind the scenes are the reason why WandaVision will win so many Emmys, including Elizabeth Olsen and Kathryn Hahn. Watching this team work in terms of direction, screenwriting, musical composition, visual effects and acting is completely extraordinary. It's a brilliant trip behind the scenes, and I hope that all MCU mini-series that follow this one would be on the same level as WandaVision.