WHAT IF…? Season Two
Sliding Bores
UK/US Disney+, streaming now
Head writer AC Bradley
Cast Jeffrey Wright, Hayley Atwell,
Benedict Cumberbatch, Samuel L Jackson
The episode of this show we’d really like to see is “What If… The Wheels Hadn’t Fallen Off The MCU?” Instead, this second season of Marvel’s alternate reality anthology show is a reflection of the current state of the franchise: flashes of brilliance and stunning visuals, but overall looking tired, formulaic and increasingly lacking in focus.
In season one the What If…? scenarios were big, bold and attention-grabbing: Peggy Carter becoming the First Avenger; T’challa becoming Star-lord; Ultron winning. Single divergent choices or events that span off into new realities. With season two, though, it feels more like we’re increasingly looking at alternate reality free-for-alls where anything goes: Avengers in 1602; an alternate timeline in which European colonisation of the Americas never occurred; Doctor Strange Supreme’s reality-bridging Sanctum Infinitum.
Even in more traditional episodes, such as “What If… Iron Man Crashed into the Grandmaster?” the What Ifs feel oddly esoteric, and hardly the big questions fans might debate online. The series is also becoming increasingly serialised with Peggy Carter taking centre stage (and even talking to the Watcher, who narrates the series at some points), and more reliant on revisiting its own internal mythology.
All of which should be fun, but actually distracts from the series’ simple, enticing conceit. On the plus side, it still looks absolutely gorgeous, with some of the most exciting animation you’ll see made for TV. The characters – many voiced by the original actors from the films – feel authentic, and there are plenty of really witty and clever ideas.
The standout episode, “What If… Kahhori Reshaped the World?”, centres on an all-new native American character, bravely uses the Mohawk language throughout (with subtitles, of course); the result is rather like the MCU’S version of Prey.
But like the MCU overall, it simply doesn’t feel as good as it used to.
Dave Golder
An episode about Red Guardian was planned for the second season, but then held over for season three.