Wonder Man Review: Celebration of Hollywood and Acting is a Huge Success for The MCU

The next Marvel installment is the show Wonder Man, a hollywood-centered project created for television by Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings) and Andrew Guest (Hawkeye).

Synopsis:

"Aspiring Hollywood actor Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is struggling to get his career off the ground. During a chance meeting with Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley), an actor whose biggest roles may be well behind him, Simon learns legendary director Von Kovak is remaking the Super Hero film “Wonder Man”. These two actors at opposite ends of their careers doggedly pursue life-changing roles in this film as audiences get a peek behind the curtain of the entertainment industry."

Cast:

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Ben Kingsley, Arian Moayed, X Mayo, Zlatko Burić

Release Date:

All 8 Episodes Now Streaming on Disney+

Compelling New Lead Character In Simon Williams

Credit: Marvel/Disney

Wonder Man/Simon Williams is a character that I wasn't totally familiar with before this show, but after the eight episodes I'm compleltey invested in him and wherever he shows up next. Obviously that has to start with Yahya Abdul-Mateen's performance. The best thing he does is make Simon incredibly relatable. Sure, none of the audience has dormant superpowers, but his desire to rise to the top in his profession is something that is inherent in all of us. This isn't a Marty Supreme story, which feels like an more exaggerated telling of someone attempting to find their way into their chosen field, but it's incredibly grounded and rooted in real human experience. Even the first episode opens us up with Simon facing incredible hardships, not to mention still recovering from a few traumatizing childhood events, and Yahya is able to make you want to root for him from the very beginning.

The other element that he brings is a really emotional and accurate portrayal of anxiety. It's not really apparent at first and may never be clear to the naked eye, but Simon has an incredible case of overthinking with the root cause probably being a deeper anxiety since he was a child. We see this reflected with his powers, attempting to keep them in control in tense moments. In some of those early moments, he's basically experiencing a panic attack as he tries to keep them in check. I think bringing this in as a theme for both a superhero show and a Hollywood show was brilliant, with it working on many levels. It makes Simon a much more relatable character, which in turn allows the audience to be more invested in his journey. Yahya is an absolutley a capable lead and I'd love to see more of his journey in the future of the MCU.

Ben Kingsley Brings Humor and Heart

Credit: Disney/Marvel

After introducing Simon as our lead character, Wonder Man also brings in an old favorite in Ben Kingsley's Trevor Slattery. Although Kingsley has portrayed Slattery as more of a comedic side character in both Iron Man 3 and Shang-Chi, this show allows for him to really delve deeper into an emotional part of the character. Sure, there's some hilarious moments with him in here and I'll get to that, but I really appreciated the depth Kingsley was able to bring to this show. I surely hope people don't forget that Kingsley is a legendary actor and if they did, this show was able to remind everyone. There's themes of recovery, identity and fame with Trevor from the very start. Not only as a recovering alcoholic, but Trevor also has to recover from the idea that his identity is known as the Mandarin to anyone that ever sees him. The notorious fame that comes from that actually becomes a very deep sadness for him as a character and Kingsley really plays it out to perfection.

The duo of Simon and Trevor instantly became one of my favorite things in the entire show. Their comedic timing with each other is unbelievable, taking an already funny script and elevating it to a level that had me dying laughing multiple times while I was watching. It's mostly because this is a completely unlikely duo, something that Simon and Trevor are also very aware of. But they have a common goal of trying not to fall through the cracks of Hollwyood and that allows for all the emotional work between them. It really is a bromance in every sense of the phrase. I can't go into details for a fear of spoilers, but there's a speech at the end of Episode 6 (maybe my favorite episode in the whole show) that really emphasizes their incredible relationship. Both of them really need each other at this time in their lives and it's beautiful to see the journey they go on.

Marvel's Take on "The Studio"

Credit: Disney/Marvel

I remember partly rolling my eyes when I heard people calling this show Marvel's version of The Studio, one of my favorite new shows in recent memory. I figured it was people just making a basic connection between "shows based in Hollywood", but now I can totally see where the comparison comes from. Sure, there's no Matt Remick or studio involvement in Wonder Man, but they are both inside Hollywood stories that really hit home with me. I personally love projects that are about filmmaking or just Hollywood, like Babylon or La La Land for example, and this show falls right into that trend. Not only is there an infinite number of references to the entertainment industry, but it also paints a very real picture of what it feels like to be an actor trying to make it in this era of filmmaking. From Episode 1, Simon is scrambling to find his shot and preparing to say the exact words that he needs. In this case, he can't get out of his own way, so seeing how he finally does get around it and get his shot is really beautiful. I will say, just on a general level, seeing guys like Joe Pantoliano and Josh Gad play exaggerated versions of themselves was just phenomenal.

I wasn't sure if I'd have time to fit this anywhere in my review, but Episode 4 really touches on how quickly somebody can disappear in this industry. The episode is relatively disconnected to the rest of the show, in black/white and resolving around Demarr "Doorman" Davis (Byron Bowers). Demarr is living a relatively simple life in before he gains powers, giving him the ability to open doors and gain overnight fame. His life completely turns around, booking a ton of projects and riding around into the same club that he was working at previously. What happens after that is a devastating story about how quickly things can change even with the level of fame that he encounters. I think this is a really dark, but necessary side of the industry that they explored and I really appreciated it. It ties directly into the show by the end, but really stuck with me due to its realness.

Stumbles in The Middle

Credit: Disney/Marvel

I really enjoyed Wonder Man on the whole, but there was a slight point towards the middle where I thought it might lose me. As much as I enjoyed the Doorman episode, it leading into an Episode 5 that also really didn't have much overall connection to the narrative started to lose me on the show a little. It's not like Episode 5 doesn't have some good laughs in it, but it's really pointless as an episode and entirely random when looking back at it. Episode 6 became one of my favorite episodes because of how it ended, but the beginning was also somewhat slow. All this is to say that in the middle, Episodes 4-6, I just felt my interest slipping a little. I don't think the problem was too many episodes, but just the route they took to explore this part of the story. Wonder Man is also just a very grounded show with a fairly simple concept. I'm not necessarily knocking it for that, but it just means it didn't blow me away enough to rate it as one of the best MCU shows ever. It's absolutley on the higher end, as you'll see from my ranking below, but I'm not sure it'll stick with me as much as the other shows above it.

Final Thoughts

I think this show is an exceptionally creative installment for Marvel and not like anything they've ever done before. That alone makes me respect it even more and then there's the great character introduction of Simon Williams, plus some amazing humor with Kingsley. I was definitely invested in the majority of this show and I can't wait to see where they go next with Simon's story!

Rating: 4/5 Stars

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