6
votes
Wonder Man S01E01 - "Matinee"
Link information
This data is scraped automatically and may be incorrect.
- Title
- Marvel Television's Wonder Man | Full Episode: S1 E1 "Matinee" | Disney+ Original Series
- Authors
- Marvel Entertainment
- Duration
- 32:48
- Published
- Mar 3 2026
I’ve heard a lot of people saying they loved this show and the fact that it was Marvel was incidental. I remember describing certain Marvel content like that previously, but I really couldn’t get into this show even after a few episodes. It seems like a sappy love letter to acting and I don’t connect with that at all and found it quite boring. It’s a shame because I really like Yahya and the director
See, I loved it specifically because it was a sappy love letter to acting. I was never involved in film and television, but I studied theatre in college, and the whole "searching for the truth of the character" aspect that the first few episodes ends with really struck home for me. I loved watching the sincerity as Simon searched for and eventually found the perfect way to land those audition lines.
The fact that I'm also a Marvel geek helped keep my interest up for the interwoven Super plot that takes over in the later episodes. Plus, I've been a fan of Ben Kingsley for a long time, he's just a powerhouse of a performer.
I liked it in that it was Marvel adjacent, but it didn't really require homework. You need to know that superhumans are a thing, and that Ben Kingsley's character used to be a supervillain(ish), and the show gets you up to speed with that pretty quickly. Other than that, it's pretty self contained and you're on the same page with anyone who watched everything Marvel since 2009, and it's fun. There's a lot of tinseltown self love in the show, but I can deal with that if it means I don't have to update my Excel document about which faction of which bad guys has what space macguffin. There's a time and a place for that, and I appreciate the break.
I agree with all that, but it still didn’t land for me. I seem to be in the minority though because it’s gotten a lot of praise and frankly I’m glad because I think Marvel needs more projects that check the boxes you mentioned. Or just more that are less cookie cutter.
I really liked how it was able to resolve a Marvel show without resorting to big CGI fight scenes.
Wandavision for example was a love letter to sitcoms across the decades, but it ended with a superhero fight which was very different from the rest of the show.
Wonder Man spoilers
So to end this story about a man hiding a part of himself in order to keep a job, they don't make him fight some twist villain. Instead, he has a slip up, but his friend who betrayed him steps in to take the blame so he can achieve his dream. He achieves his dream, but instead of continuing to act, he uses both his star status (the thing he's worked for) and his superpowers (the thing he's tried to hide) to break his friend out of jail.
This ending has some superhero stuff without feeling like a different show. I felt it was pretty well done.
I liked the series, but what really baffled me was reading that Ben Kingsley is 82 in this, born in 1943. He somehow acts and looks a lot younger.