VisionQuest’s identity crisis is also the MCU’s

Bettany and Spader incisively mine new layers of AI characters whom the MCU’s architects desperately want to humanize. But is it enough if their efforts are trapped in a laborious TV show that spins its wheels and offers a backstory for a villain we haven’t seen in 11 years? Particularly when Marvel’s latest Big Bad, Doctor Doom, is set to arrive in theaters in a little over a month? The lead performances notwithstanding, VisionQuest requires its audience to care about the antagonist from one of the weakest Avengers films. Back then, Ultron was a thinly sketched villain whose desire to destroy humanity was barely fleshed out. While VisionQuest does a better job of explaining his complexities, and Spader does rock those hats, the show falls back on a familiar premise, pitting Vision and Ultron against each other. 

In the process, VisionQuest crumbles under the weight of its myriad, often competing goals. It wants to be a standalone family drama about avoidant fathers and an emotional tale of coping with Wanda’s actions and loss. But it’s also a snazzy techno-thriller, complete with two robots falling in love and making out, and with nanobots that can possess and kill humans. VisionQuest also messes around with tone and visual aesthetics as a tip of the hat to WandaVision—hence the sitcom riffs in its finale. But it also wants—or is likely mandated—to be a crucial piece of the wider MCU puzzle in the run up to Avengers: Doomsday. 

The finale closes with Wanda, who died at the end of 2022’s Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness, resurrected by a hooded figure. Evidently, Scarlet Witch will have a role to play in Doomsday. The scene comes on the heels of Tommy asking Vision if they’ll see Wanda again. Vision responds, “We’ve said goodbye before, so it stands to reason we’ll say hello again.” The line is a fantastic snapshot of the MCU’s crisis—its inability to let go of beloved characters (and actors), leaving it stranded between the old and the new guard. 

VisionQuest solidifies this by not making room to develop Tommy, a.k.a. Speed. Who knows if we’ll see the Maximoff twins again, and in what capacity, but if the MCU’s treatment of Kamala Khan, Kate Bishop, Eli Bradley, and Riri Williams is any indication, there’s not much hope for a Young Avengers spin-off anytime soon. On a micro level, VisionQuest satisfyingly concludes a trilogy that grew, both organically and inorganically, from one of Marvel’s unqualified live-action TV successes. But on a macro level, it proves how difficult it was for any of these shows to forge their own identity; it certainly didn’t help when real-world misconduct necessitated significant creative overhaul. It’s a strategic error—the overpromising that these shows would enhance and/or fill in the gaps between MCU movies, and instead leaving behind scores of shows and characters that had minimal impact on the franchise. Ironically, a lack of vision is to be blamed. 

Saloni Gajjar is The A.V. Club‘s TV critic. 

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