Wonder Man 1x05/1x06 Full Reaction!
Added 2026-02-05 20:09:27 +0000 UTC
Comments
We share the autistic headcanon. Simon and Kingpin are two of the best cases of the autistic representation in the MCU, particularly for how real and nuanced it is. I feel that look of “I have no idea how to respond to this, someone give me direction!” The episode felt more chaotic Paul Thomas Anderson than Safdie, but good comparison. Last one I saw of either Safdie was The Smashing Machine. (Wish people would have told me about the needles in advance.) Their work feels like Altman meets Cassavetes lite, yet not bad. That is a fair point about Trevor and the candy. Seen plenty of Law and Order. Don’t remember the specific episode mentioned, but I too was told about the joke, and it is great. Inevitably we both think of Herzog. Sounds imbecilic of people thinking Gunn, though I do take your point on the movie’s opening does sound a lot like something you would see Gunn do. Sounds about right about the people letting their Snyder fanboy show. Again, Pretty Woman, if I’ve even seen it completely start to finish, like Save the Tiger, it’s been years since I saw it. Like here on patreon with Top Gun, I had seen it before, it was just so long. I too missed the reference until Von Kovak spelled it out. As I say, Jason Alexander is happy for George helping him escape the shadow of being the bad guy who tries to rape Julia Roberts, so he avoids the thing like Jeff Daniels being stuck in the Flap of it all, and Tony Goldwyn forever haunted by Carl. (Though again, evidently Scandal allows him to escape that, and even if I ever see that show, he’s still going to be Carl to me.) Second the mesmerizing thing of just watching these two great actors work off each other. All of that is so deeply very real to me. Jess says she got called out, affected me the same way, and with the past experience being recalled. The dream did take a second before the brain catches up with the thought you mention. Adore the reaction that Jess had there. Sounds fun with the Muppet Show, which Mom’s greatly looking forward to seeing. Yeah, as of the end of these episodes, the dread of the bullshit liar revealed trope was strong. Yeah, occasionally, the trope CAN sometimes work, but generally, the trope is such bullshit. The dread of it here, I don’t blame you for needing to work up the strength to watch it. This reaction’s up, so, as you describe, can’t put it off anymore. Hurts too with Trevor really jumping up on the list of favorite MCU characters, making it into the top ten.
Thomas Corp
2026-02-07 02:11:44 +0000 UTCThe Barnaby development has me thinking of Comic Book: The Movie, written and directed by and starring Mark Hamill about a classical superhero being changed to a dark and gritty movie character like was everywhere in the zeitgeist of 2003. It's not quite as good as it could have been, but worth a look. I also instantly thought of a particular Good Place exchange that's perfectly relatable even if you've never seen it: "I'm not angry, just disappointed." "Oh come on, everyone knows that's worse!"
Ryan
2026-02-07 01:45:20 +0000 UTCI've had someone try to teach me that breathing technique. It didn't really take. And I'm now very much headcanoning Simon as autistic, in these episodes especially there's no mistaking that look of "I have no idea how to respond to this, someone give me direction!" The first one is just a plain good time without much more to comment on, actually feeling kind of like a Safdie movie with how it brings in a bunch of threats from different angles until they bounce off each other in unexpected ways. Though I did cringe quite a bit at Trevor eating the candy, thinking "You are very much not a person who should be biting something you're not 100% sure isn't drugs." And while I've never seen a single episode of any Law and Order, some fans were nice enough to explain the joke that in the episode Simon's talking about, the plan doesn't work and the bad guys go scot free. The next one is pretty much what I've always imagined working on a Werner Herzog movie is like, and also why I never want to do it, as fun as some parts would be. Some dipshits have called Von Kovak a spoof of James Gunn, and granted his idea of the movie's opening does sound a lot like something he'd do, but otherwise you are really letting your Snyder fanboy show, guys. I've never once had the slightest interest in Pretty Woman, so I was grateful this was one joke they did explain. And we get plenty more mesmerizing stuff from just watching these two great actors work off each other, with the added complication that they have to keep in mind how their character would play these scenes rather than themselves. Somehow that whole angle is totally seamless and I never feel like I'm seeing Yahya and Ben poke through. The dream surprise didn't get me, just because I figured there's no way something that game-changing would happen publicly with a whole two more episodes to go, but that was easily the highlight of this video. And guys, if you're ever feeling that something like these roles feels impossible, just remember that we're now in a world where an episode of The Muppet Show referenced 12 Years a Slave, Precious, The Last Picture Show, Hannah and Her Sisters, Everything Everywhere All At Once, and Emilia Perez all in one go. Of course, there's still the inevitable discovery of Simon discovering the truth about Trevor, which I haven't worked up the willpower to watch yet. But with this reaction now out, there's no excuse for it anymore.
Ryan
2026-02-07 01:38:30 +0000 UTCThe obsession with this show is mutual; I too wish we had more. Why the FUCK did they release this all at once!? We both had a really fun time with the first episode. A whole ass mess, and we both lived for it. Trevor wants to have a good time, yet Simon’s too tightly wound to be able to enjoy the victory. Both are familiar. You leaned towards Simon on that one, and yeah, I too lean more toward that one. There have been the Trevor side of things. I feel it how Simon says that if he gets so close to Wonder Man and it doesn’t happen, how he’s very likely to not recover from that one. Oh, I felt that one in the bones. Too real. Love Trevor being a sweetheart with the relaxation technique. And yes, fair that said technique would not have been good for you when you had your congestion problems. Shame that Trevor’s past catches up to him. Leads to chaotic fuckery. Almost getting sidetracked by Simon and Trevor’s shock over the plot twist of the film. It turns out that Barnaby, Wonder Man’s only friend, is going to betray our hero, oh, the painfully ironic parallel. We had about the same reaction to this revelation. Simon knowing the Law and Order episode that he did is me. That’s getting personal, show. Felt a disc slip, and yelled, “AH! Oh, my back!” when the guy talked about doing Mandarin impressions in middle school. There were plenty of prequel memes before prequel memes back in those days, so I do relate to the spirit of it, to be clear. I love how Trevor called bullshit on the gopro uploading straight to youtube. He asks, and I’d have sounded similar to Simon in that I’d have noted, “I mean, I know that youtube premieres are a thing, but I don’t know specifics on how you do it. Maybe, yes?” Great when he asks the one lady who tells him that you’d need to hook it up to a laptop first, but it can’t actually upload from the gopro itself, and it gets a laugh at how Trevor is vindicated. And they get that taken care of and head to the callback. Leads to the next episode. Fun little scene showing how Trevor scored the role of the Mandarin. Loved your realization of what it was. Von Kovak is really leaning into the Herzog in this one. Strange that he had no refreshments for anyone like some donuts from Dough’s Holes. New shop in Park Ridge, of all places. Everything about the callback scenes are HELL. The whole thing is a personal attack. We both get seen and/or exposed. Shared knowledge that the environment would be too unpredictable for Simon. Our hearts go out to him. I get both sides of this. Sometimes, you overprepare for shit. Sometimes that helps, sometimes not. You spoke of how it did for you, and I do get that. Sometimes, you do get put on the spot, and you are assessed by how you respond to that which is what Von Kovak is after here. My favorite production in high school, the role I was asked to read for, then got, I only had a minute or two to think, and it actually worked out very well. Other times I crashed and burned. Ad-libbing isn’t the strongest suit. Or one time at a convention, they had a voice acting workshop. You read from an anime that I had never seen before, so that was helpful in just taking it in, and just working with that. Here, Simon defaults to dialogue from stuff already memorized, which is a very real thing. Trick there is if one is going to do that, or something like it, channel the spirit, rather than copy wholesale. That also was in high school. The one part, took it in, voice in the head came up with the proper inspiration, and I said, “Ok, I know exactly how to play this.” I felt Von Kovak’s dissatisfaction with Simon doing that, and I wanted to give Simon a hug. Shared thing of the heart just cracked there. I also didn’t recognize the reference until they said what it was. Makes me realize that I haven’t seen Pretty Woman completely start to finish in years, if at all. Best part of the whole movie is how Jason Alexander has never minded being forever George Costanza as it allowed him to escape the shadow of Pretty Woman, thus avoiding the fate of Jeff Daniels forever stuck in the Flap of it all, similar to how Tony Goldwyn is forever haunted by his one villain role. (Though apparently Scandal has helped him escape that, still trying to figure out how the fuck that one happened.) Not too often that a dream fake out gets you like it did, holy hell that reaction was worth every goddamn penny, Jess. Oh, we responded very much the same to Trevor giving Simon the inspirational talk. I lost it at Trevor saying to Simon that the real him isn’t his condition. Means a lot, Jess, that we shared losing it at that part. And Ben just brought it with Trevor’s lines where he convinces Simon that all the pain, joy, everything is who we are. “Mirror up to nature”, as he says. A universe inside all of us, for we contain multitudes. And how we share our pain, our grief, our joy, and the audience becomes less alone in theirs. All of which speaks to me very deeply. And I knew that you would similarly respond to it as I did. Trevor’s talk does the trick, and the two fine gentlemen get the job. And after giving it some thought, Trevor’s been jumping up on my list of favorite MCU characters, making it to the top ten. Shame that he’s in hot water with Cleary. We both assessed the same how Trevor is stalling to buy time for his friend. Fantastic how Trevor weaponizes how he’s a known former terrorist, thus his word in court isn’t going to go over well, and you see Cleary stew over having not considered that. By the way, it does get the good laugh of Trevor having Cleary listed as Uncle Vanya in his contacts. Then there’s the opening up time. I recall you’ve spoken on the event/wedding planning. The OCD would be well weaponized for such a profession. We know only too well how there are the times when you come to greatly rely on the OCD, and separating from that is a herculean task at times; the difficult contention of the beast that just eats, that you either feed or fight. Simon and Trevor speak to me so much. I see how you gravitate more toward Simon. He likely does have OCD, or at the very least, it would not shock me if he has it. He is, very much like Kingpin, definitely on the autism spectrum, so there’s visceral relating to him there. Maybe the writers don’t intend that, as there are cases where characters are embraced as autistic and it’s not planned by the writers. One big example, for instance, is Hank Hill on King of the Hill, where when you revisit the show in adulthood, you see all the signs and symptoms, and you realize why you so gravitated towards the character as a kid. And subsequently, you just embrace the character with open arms. Same thing here where Simon is on the spectrum, and it’s so accurate and well done that I appreciate it. And I appreciate everything you’ve been opening up about and just saying on this show. You’ve spoken of loving us for how we get you. This feels like a reversal where the way you speak of this show, Simon, I feel very seen. It all means so much. Truly, this show is becoming one of the best things to share with you, Jess, thank you so, so very much for the heartfelt reaction.
Thomas Corp
2026-02-05 21:33:26 +0000 UTC
