Wonder man 2026 just released yesterday as of this writing and I finished it today. I have some conflicted feelings about it but am overall positive on it. Let’s start with the…
Strengths
- Performances of Yahya Abdul Mateen II and Sir Ben Kingsley – I think the character work performed by these two were exceptional. I thought the writing was affecting, emotional and the performances really elevated the entire season.
- Absurdism / Comedy – Josh Gad’s episode ‘door man’ stands out to me for this point, I don’t want to spoil it by going into detail. I will say it’s very difficult to make absurdism funny without completely losing the plot and alienating the audience. I feel like this show balances it well.
- Cameos / Guests – Josh Gad, Joe Pantaliano, Ashley Greene, Natsuko Ohama… very talented people I’ve seen and enjoyed in other things who had very little screen time, where I kept asking “Is that..!?!?” Made the experience more fun.
- Art reflecting reality – Yahya Abdul Mateen is from New Orleans Louisana as his parents in the show speak with creole accent (I believe they mentioned from Haiti in the show). Simon Williams’ (Mateen’s character) is father passed away relatively young, in reality as Mateen’s also did. I think as a choice to write around the main character to loosely mirror the actor’s life is a good one, his reactions felt genuine when referencing his father who passed as an example.
Criticisms
- Second hand embarrassment – I don’t enjoy this as a writing device, it happens a little too much in this show for my liking, but not enough to scare me away (as it unfortunately did in the otherwise great The Studio with Seth Rogan).
- Pacing /Drags in Spots – I have a highly technical, objective measurement to quantify when I feel pacing is bad. It’s when I watch something, get irritated and watch it on fast-forward and feel like I missed nothing. Science! I did that a couple of times around episode 6. Not overly poor pacing, but it did happen.
Overall I really enjoyed the series. Mateen and Kingsley were a joy to watch. The superhero powers aspect to it is relatively understated. It’s honestly an examination of friendship, family, going after your dream and the costs associated.