Earlier this week, Marvel released their new show “Wonder Man” on Disney+. The show features eight episodes based on the old “Wonder Man” Marvel comic books. The show follows Simon Williams, an actor in Hollywood who is starring in a reboot of “Wonder Man,” who secretly has superpowers of his own.
In episode 1, “Matinee,” the show opens to a viewing of the original “Wonder Man” movie back when Simon was a kid, before jumping to the present day. In the present day, Simon is marking up a script and warming up in his trailer before a production assistant comes to bring him over to the set of what he is currently shooting.
Now I don’t want to spoil too much of the episode’s plot, but Simon repeatedly oversteps the director and pushes through changes, and she grows increasingly annoyed throughout filming. He not only annoys the director but also drives everyone on set crazy because they can’t get anything done. They call the showrunner, who then decides to cut his role and fires Simon.
We then cut to a short montage of Hollywood. Followed by Simon trying to park his car in a cramped spot. Then he walks into his apartment to see that his girlfriend had hired movers and was moving out and leaving him, and hoping to be gone before he got home. It doesn’t seem like things are going too well for Simon here. There is then a very small earthquake that to me represents his life cracking and falling apart, when in reality his superpowers are pushing through.
He then goes to see a movie to relax a little and runs into actor Trevor Slattery who, when leaving, learns that Von Kovak is remaking ‘Wonder Man,’ and Simon can’t believe it. He runs down to his agent and demands to get an audition, even though it is the last day of auditions. Simon asks his agent to “work her magic” and get him an audition because he “was born to play this role.” She is hesitant after she learned he got fired from his previous job that morning because he couldn’t do simple acting easily. Once she leaves the office, Simon goes on her computer, finds an email about ‘Wonder Man’ casting, and calls the casting director’s assistant and works his way into an audition.
At the audition, he runs back into Trevor, who can see that Simon is stressed, so he gives him some tips before he goes into the audition to ensure that he can blow the casting team away. When he goes into the audition, he gets very nervous when he can’t find his notes in his pocket, but decides to do the audition without them and gives a performance that very well could land him the role.
By the end of the episode, we learn a few things through dialogue that I will not spoil here, but we are yet to learn if he got his role as ‘Wonder Man’. So if you want to figure out what happened, along with some other stuff I didn’t share here, you will just have to watch the episode and the following seven on your own.
Overall, I give what I have watched from the show a solid 8/10. I love the story, especially as someone who is going into the film and television world and loves the Marvel TV shows. The show gives off the same Marvel Cinematic Universe Television vibe that the other Marvel shows I have watched give off, so I can’t wait to watch the other seven episodes, which are currently streaming on Disney+. I would love to hear what you think of the show, as well as what shows you would like me to review and talk about next. You can let me know in the comments of my new post on my Instagram account @eidanwexlermedia.
