After delivering such a bold, 180 degree turn with its fourth episode, it’s not exactly surprising that the gloriously original
Wonder Man retreats back to something more standard in response by delivering a fifth episode that veers dangerous close to filler. However, leave it to a show as endearing as Wonder Man to take a completely unnecessary plot thread and turn it into something weird and kooky.
While you’d think that the show would want to capitalise on the revelation that Simon and Trevor have both received callbacks for the titular movie as quickly as possible; however, after diverting our attention with the marvelous Doorman episode, “Found Footage” manages to avoid that rather major plot point with something rather more frivolous. Is the sparkly sheen of Wonder Man rubbing off already, or can Marvel’s newest show manage to surprise us once again? Over to you, Trevor and Simon…
While the duo of Simon Williams and Trevor Slattery should be celebrating the recent news that they both got callbacks for Von Kovak’s odd choice to reboot the old superhero movie, Wonder Man, but once again we find Simon unable to get out of his own head and enjoy this potential victory. As Trevor’s seen how destructive things can get when Williams is on edge, he uses a few classic acting techniques to get his superpowered buddy down – but this proves to be the only good thing that occurs over the next, few hours.
For a start, Trevor’s been avoiding calls from angry Department Of Damage Control Agent Cleary who is curious to know why his mole has disposed of the wire he was wearing to prove that Simon has powers. But before Slattery has a chance to deal with this, another face from his debauched past turns up to make things difficult. It seems that Trevor owed some drug dealers a great deal of money back in his drugged-up, pre-Mandarin days, but after being led into an alley way, Simon manages to take care of things using his formidable power set.
However, this only proves to be the start of Trevor and Simon’s troubles as they realise that the latter has been filmed using his powers by a passer-by who claims he’s going to post the evidence on-line if the blundering duo don’t help him out with a personal problem.
Before you know it, the pair are up to their eyeballs in a strange, candy making scheme, another attempt from the drug dealers to get their money and even a police stand off, but it will all be worth it if a random phone call from Simon’s agent proves to be true. The good news is that the two have made it to the next round of auditions and will get to meet Von Kovak in person, the bad news is that it’s been brought forward and is occurring right now!
I’m not exactly sure why a season that only has eight episodes that barely run at 30 minutes each would need a filler episode directly following a flashback episode that barely included any of the main characters, but it says a lot about the enjoyable nature of the show that it manages to circumvent such a technically unnecessary installment. There’s nothing that occurs within the story that will seemingly have any effect on the rest of the season and even the scenes of Trevor calming Simon in the midst of an anxiety attack are things we’ve already seen them do. But while other shows would be blaring warning signs that a show with only eight episodes is starting already to repeat itself, the unfettered charm of the show manages to impressively make what should be a nothing episode into something quirky and fun.
Maybe the writers figured that the rigours of auditioning for Kovak and the increasing pressure of Agent Cleary would mean that we’d have less time to enjoy the double act of Kingsley and Abdul-Mateen in the wilds of LA and they figured that they’d give them one last crazy adventure before their Wonder Man journey really begins – but against all odds, I think they were right. For a start, watching Slattery stumble through anything proves to be prime entertainment, but it’s truly impressive that even though the MCU now has plenty of bizarre and filthy line readings thanks to the unending stream of thought that pours from the mouth of Deadpool, the man who once played Ghandi gets to drop the verbal atomic bomb by uttering the legend “I feel like Stevie Nicks having coke blown up her bunghole.”
Alongside more “Trevorisms”, we also get Wonder Man’s first proper fight scene as Williams rag dolls a bunch of thugs in order to save Slattery from catching a bullet. Again, it’s nothing that we haven’t seen before in the greater world of the MCU, but watching Simon flex his ion powered muscles in a fight is probably something that the show needed, even if it would have been fine without it. In fact, watching the more obvious superhero traits slowly creep into a show that doesn’t really need it should be quite worrisome – almost like if Trevor was to fall off his thirteen year wagon.
However, once again, it’s the characters that make this odd, farcical diversion into LA crime and Found Footage proves to have a ton of witty little moments to keep it flowing. From the fame worship of the candy makers who seem genuinely thrilled that the Mandarin has swung by their house (Trevor’s reaction to the news that Esteban and his friends used to do Mandarin impressions at school is priceless), to the fact that neither Simon or Trevor have no clue how a GoPro works and would have been spared this entire ordeal if they did still proves that Wonder Man still has that juice, but with three episodes still remaining and the pair not even securing their roles in the upcoming production, is the show in danger of speed walking to the end? Major proof that this won’t be the case still lies with that winning central duo who still provide that strange, mismatched, Lenny and George type energy that’s still providing genuinely touching moments. Watching Trevor use the breathing square to help Simon deal with his issues provides the kind of depth you wouldn’t expect from a “comedy twist character” that still stubbonly pronounces his job as “act-tor”.
If it feels like I’m scared that Wonder Man is going to erase all of its good work by wrapping everything up with a typical superhero smash up, you only have to look at past shows such as Secret Invasion to see that Marvel Studios have a tendency to revert to type no matter how innovative their shows start. However, as long as that central duo holds, I feel that Wonder Man has the ability to withstand anything – even a CGI stuffed climax. While arguably the least of the episodes so far, this show still prides itself in acting the part.
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