What If...? - Season 3 - Review
I have always been a fan of ‘What if’ stories, some of the Star Wars ones were my personal favourites, which is why I went into the first season of Marvel’s What If...? hoping for a lot more than I got. When Season 2 came around, I thought we might get something better and while it was ok, it didn’t knock my socks off. So could it be that the third time was the charm?
Before I go any further, this will be a spoiler free review, while I have seen all the episodes, I will only talk about the first two in detail, if at all.
When I saw the title for the first episode of Season 3 it made me think that maybe we're going to get some more out there stories, I mean with the name of ‘Hulk Fought Mech Avengers’, it had to be quite different. Episode 2 being called ‘Agatha went to Hollywood’ seemed like it would be more pedestrian by comparison, but if you've watched any of the episodes up to this point you will know that a title doesn't necessarily mean anything, compared to what happens within the episode. Now in the first episode it's quite literally in the name there are mech suits, and while Hulk is there he's not really there, so that part of the title is a bit misleading. But the basic gist of it is what if Marvel's characters entered a Kaiju movie, take that and you get a better understanding of what you're going to see. The second episode was nothing like I thought it was going to be, we all know who Agatha is in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and I expected a little more 1930s film noir, what we got was anything but. However, out of the two episodes I have to say that I prefer the second over the first if only because it felt like it had a grand narrative and this is where the season as a whole falls short once again.
The first and second seasons had this same issue and this season is continuing that trend. There are some episodes that feel like they are part of a grander narrative, but there are also just as many that feel like they are tacked on to pad the runtime. The 4th episode, of which I will not spoil anything about, was packed with so much fun and I seriously wanted more of it, but it didn’t connect to any of the other episodes, outside of a character or two. One of the later episodes had a grand story, but it was only connected by an action towards the very end and even that was tenuous at best. The bigger issue is that while the first season eventually connected all the episodes to each other via the final, this season doesn’t achieve the same. In fact, there are more episodes that are not connected then are, with some feeling half done as a result.
An example of the half-done aspect would be the first episode, the story kicks off big and then never really slows down, until a beat before the final scenes. I am all for moving a story along, but the problem is when your entire case is built around people having issues with X, you need to give them time to adjust to X either being present or not and this didn’t have that. I am obviously using X in place of the actual thing, just to avoid a spoiler. Regardless of the name, the issue remains the same, and the second episode had a similar pace and while I prefer it to the first episode, if you start at 8 and ramp up to 10 right away, you can’t bring it down without it feeling pointless, but if you keep it at 10, then you never feel like there is a threat to the characters. Now not all the episodes have this, there are some that do have a slow build up, the episode 1872 is like that and by the time the credits roll, it felt like there was a proper story arc that you could enjoy.
Something that I did enjoy was the presentation, from the outset the show established itself by using the MCU characters as a base, with plenty of folks looking as they do in the movies. Where Season 2 changed was that they started to include some more original or new characters and this season expands that even further. There is no surprise to say that some familiar faces appear, Winter Soldier and Red Guardian are two of the returning characters, as they appeared in the teaser from the end of Season 2. The new line up consists of a few familiar faces like Storm and while I won’t say where they show up, a mutant that I was not expecting to see soared into the show as well. Something that I liked was that more of the post-Endgame characters appeared and while some show up multiple times, there are still a few who are underused. The new characters do mean that some of the more familiar characters are cut from the show, which you will either be fine with or angry about, but I don’t think it hurts it long term.
Perhaps a real highlight of the shows presentation is that the animation seemed bolder than before, you see this in the growth in old school cartoons, check out Season 1 of The Simpsons versus Season 5. While the first episodes in the first season didn’t look bad, there just seems to be more going on here and I like it, the final scenes in the final episode also have some amazing visuals, but spoilers.
The shows audio also seemed grander in this season, nothing against the others, but I think with some stories there was just more to explore, soundtrack wise. The cast that brought the characters to life did a great job, there were again so many returning names from their live action roles, it was easy to connect with those characters again. I will say that the Grandmaster does appear in one episode, but Jeff Goldblum is not voicing them, now no disrespect to Matt Friend who does an incredible job impersonating Goldblum, but I can hear the difference and it feels like a cheap cop out. There are some new characters for the show who are getting all new voices and there is one, I can’t say who, but it feels like it is a bit of a waste of the actor, actually there are two like that. Overall, I can’t fault the audio, the score is incredible when it needs to boost the on screen action and the cast is great.
The final season of What If...? is the best one yet, the animation has found its groove, with some sequences really being able to showcase the style in incredible ways. The audio is great, the cast brings their characters to life in an easy way and the score helps elevate some really crucial moments. But there are issues, a few of the episodes feel like they rev up to max and then stay there the entire time, which makes for a story that is hard to invest in. There are some stories that feel like they connect to a grander narrative, but only a few of them do and even some of those connections feel like they could have been done elsewhere. If you have watched all the episodes up to this point, you are going to enjoy what is here and while this is the strongest season to date, if you don’t watch it, I don’t think you are going to miss anything major. What If…? Season 3 is a strong season and the best of the series, it has some great stories and a satisfying ending, which is what I wanted to see.
The Score
8.0
Review access provided by Disney
The Pros
The inclusion of newer MCU characters and a host of non-MCU characters is great
The animation feels a lot richer this season, with the show not being shy with details
The Cons
Some of the stories feel like they are just there for a character or moment and it feels weird
A few actors bring characters to life, but only in minimal ways and it feels like a bit of a waste
