Wonder Man Review – A Marvel TV show that has almost no superhero action…and it’s all the better for it | television

WWe’re back in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If you feel fatigue creeping up on you already, kick it out! It will be fine. Even though Wonder Man revolves around (in my unbelievable estimation) the 30th MCU series produced by Marvel Television and its companions — from the dizzying heights of WandaVision to… well, She-Hulk — it’s a little gem.

Which is very little in MCU terms. Not only are the eight episodes long, but they also eschew spectacle in favor of storytelling. It’s a radical idea, but you never know, it might catch on.

The story is that Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, who plays Black Manta in DC Comics’ Aquaman films) is an actor who has been trying to make it in Los Angeles for the past decade. Unfortunately, his inability to stop overthinking a role causes him extreme pain on set and gets him fired even when he manages to land a role. But he has loved the character of Wonder Man his entire life, and when the opportunity comes to audition for a role in a superhero movie about him, Simon jumps at it. There he befriends Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley, who plays Trevor in several MCU films, a drug-addicted actor hired by the villain of Iron Man 3 to play “The Mandarin,” the terrorist leader of the 10 episodes – keep it up).

Always be careful not to befriend an actor. Trevor is a cat’s paw for the Department of Damage Control, a mysterious government organization that works to protect the public from supernatural threats with a state-of-the-art prison that must be filled before its budget is cut. DODC has been tracking our man Simon since he was 13 years old and he emerged unharmed from a house fire that should have killed him. We gather that his love of the disturbing Wonder Man movies he watched as a kid with his father is what draws him to the role. Ignorant of the existence of the DODC, Simon still keeps his powers hidden because in this Hollywood, people with such powers are banned from working after an on-set disaster that is the subject of an entire episode (beautifully done, even if it interrupts the momentum) about halfway through the series.

However, the real essence of the thing is not the superheroes, repressed or otherwise. It lies in two things. First, in its close and poignant examination of the growing friendship between the two men. Trevor’s mentor status becomes increasingly real, with shades of Olivier’s advice to actor Dustin Hoffman, who burned himself out making Marathon Man (“Dear boy—why don’t you try acting?”) and Noel Coward’s advice to all actors (“Speak up, don’t bump into the furniture”), teaching the less experienced man to get out of his own way and improve his career, and thus his life.

Second, we get reflections on the film industry and masterclasses – several of them, really – in the art of acting. No, that’s not a sentence I thought I’d be writing about a dusty piece of MCU intellectual property, either. But what a joy it is to do it! We follow Simon as he collects audition tapes, talks about character choices, finds different takes, stories, and tones of voice, and watches him/Abdul-Mateen put them together. And we have Trevor/Kingsley advising him on alternative techniques, discussing his options, showing us what having a supportive off-camera line reader can do, and demonstrating the difference a lifelong immersion in stage as well as screen can make. At some point, the actor-characters simply sit down and exchange some of their favorite speeches—from Shakespeare to Salieri to Amadeus—and the boundaries between them, between the actor-characters and the actors and us, begin to blur. It is as elegant a display of art and its power as you can find.

For those who want more superhero stuff, Wonder Man will disappoint. There are moments where we see Simone’s roaring powers building up and occasional scenes when they are unleashed. But the strength of this show lies in its depiction of the relationship between the leads and its interrogation of the effects of art and how it corrupts it. Forgive me, but it’s clever and sweet and absolutely wonderful.