TV Review - What If...?

The Marvel Cinematic Universe or MCU is building the idea of a multiverse, which is a concept of alternate timelines or alternate realities. It's the idea that if people made different choices in their past, it could result in vast changes to their present or future. A lot of the times, the changes aren't that vast. Each episode is its own self-contained story. The series is basically an anthology, in the vein of Black Mirror (2011) or The Twilight Zone (1959). Except, it's playing with characters and stories from the MCU, shaking things up. To me, unfortunately, things aren't shaken up enough or what could be interesting gets lost somehow. The episodes therefore are hit or miss.

The 1st is "What If... Captain Carter Were the First Avenger?" It basically takes the events of Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) and gender-swaps it. That's it. There's nothing significant about it. The whole thing plays out with not much surprise or commentary, at least not any commentary that wasn't explored in Agent Carter (2015). I did find it weird that the episode went out of its way to include Steve Rogers and give him just as much to do when Peggy Carter wasn't afforded the same opportunity in the 2011 film. It's frustrating that in an episode that makes Peggy the super-hero, it's still mostly about Steve Rogers.

The 2nd episode is "What If... T'Challa Became a Star-Lord?" This one takes the main character in Black Panther (2018) and puts him in the plot of Guardians of the Galaxy (2014). There were two things wrong with this idea. The first thing is that unfortunately T'Challa isn't what makes Black Panther the film it was. What was special about Black Panther was the idea of Wakanda. There is a reason that the phrase "Wakanda Forever" was the phrase people all across the country embraced. It wasn't "T'Challa Forever." No offense to the late Chadwick Boseman! Instead of taking the opportunity to further explore Wakanda, an African country that's never been colonized, which was a bit of my criticism of Black Panther, this episode removes it almost completely.

The second thing is the idea that this episode suggests that T'Challa was able to talk Thanos out of his plan that we saw him execute in Avengers: Infinity War (2018). If one remembers, Thanos was so dedicated to that plan that he sacrificed his own daughter, Gamora, in order to achieve that plan. He had to kill someone that he loved in order to get the Soul Stone and to achieve his goal. If Thanos was so dedicated to that plan that he was willing to kill his own daughter, I am really curious as to what T'Challa could have said to talk him out of that plan. Unfortunately, this 2nd episode skips over that conversation between T'Challa and Thanos. We're merely supposed to accept that the conversation happened and that T'Challa was successful. Therefore, the most interesting thing about this episode is skipped. Therefore, it makes anything else that happens in the episode lame by comparison.

The 3rd episode is "What If... The World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?" This was a good one, as it was a murder mystery where the victims were the Avengers and Nick Fury is the detective trying to figure out who is killing his team. One of the most interesting things in The Avengers (2012) was the idea of the super-heroes fighting each other. It's always fun to imagine who would win in one of those fights, how they would win or why. Captain America: Civil War (2016) carried out that idea even further, but even in that film, punches were being pulled. This episode has no punches pulled and becomes a deadly battle of Avengers killing each other. It makes the whole episode more gritty than anything the MCU has done.

The 4th episode is "What If... Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?" This was a bad one, as it seems to defy the logic of everything that we knew about Stephen Strange and the space-time continuum. This episode decides that Stephen Strange can't become the super-hero who helps to save the world unless his love interest, Christine Palmer dies. It's a similar premise as the episode "The City on the Edge of Forever" in Star Trek (1966). It follows Stephen Strange as he attempts to prevent Christine from dying. However, the MCU film Doctor Strange (2016) already showed us a reality where Stephen Strange becomes a good super-hero with Christine being alive. I don't understand the logic of this episode because it contradicts what we learned in the film. Until now, none of the episodes contradicted what was in the films.

This episode also contradicts or undermines what we saw in Loki (2021), the Disney+ series that preceded this one. In Loki, we learn that there is the Time Variance Authority or TVA that is supposed to exist outside the timeline and makes corrections when something happens that isn't supposed to happen. It's a ridiculous premise, but if we are to accept what happens in Loki, then it begs the question of where the TVA is during this particular episode. This episode literally gets to a point where Stephen Strange is doing things to the timeline that he allegedly shouldn't be doing and the TVA is nowhere to be found.

The 5th episode is "What If... Zombies!?" This was another good one. It was just fun to see the Avengers dealing with a zombie apocalypse. Like with the 3rd episode, it simply puts the MCU in a completely different genre and plays with it in expected and cliché ways. Yet, it's still highly entertaining. I think I liked this episode because again it pits the Avengers against one another. In that regard, it puts a twist on the zombie genre that was refreshing.

The 6th episode is "What If... Killmonger Rescued Tony Stark?" This felt like a pointless one. It takes the villainous plot from Black Panther and simply finds another way for the villain to get where he's going, but the villain is still going to the same place and still has the same motivations. It doesn't contradict anything. In that regard, it's akin to the 2nd episode. However, at least, the 2nd episode shook things up in a way that this one doesn't.

The 7th episode is "What If... Thor Were An Only Child?" This one seemed to be an excuse for Thor to fight Captain Marvel. I appreciate the episodes that pit one Avenger against another. However, the reason for Thor and Captain Marvel fighting is flimsy and actually makes no sense. Captain Marvel fights Thor because she perceives him to be a threat, an alien invasion, but Thor is clearly not a threat. He's just partying and having fun, but he's clearly not bad or evil, so the fight feels pointless. Unfortunately, this is a feeling I had for most of this series.

Rated TV-MA.
Running Time: 30 mins. / 8 eps.

Available on Disney Plus.