PremiumWhat If…? Season 3 Review: Life and MCU were better without this swan song
What if…? 3 Review: It seems like the show was written keeping every criticism in mind without figuring out which was actually constructive.
What If...? Season 3 Review
Last Updated: 05.10 PM, Dec 30, 2024
What If…? Season 3 Review: Plot - The world in the possibility-laced universe is on the brink of extinction. But the Watcher is generous enough to give the team a chance to redeem themselves, so Carter’s team now has the power of the Watcher. But is that enough for this plan to work that wants to transport everyone to a parallel universe? How will these new heroes do that? What will this mean to the Multiverse and the madness that this plan unleashes?
What If…? Season 3 Review:
The beginning of the Multiverse Saga in the Marvel Cinematic Universe came in with so many questions. For the fans who are not comic nerds, this meant a completely new dimension in their folklore of superheroes that so far was pretty much simple, where Earth’s Mightiest Heroes were fighting a massive villain who could destroy the world with a finger snap and some infinity stones (which, just by the way, are now nothing more than paperweights). So, just when they were busy figuring out exactly what the Multiverse means to the universe, Marvel, with a (not so) simple animated show, explained how it is a realm of endless possibilities, and what comes out of which corner is not something anybody can guess (unless you have read the comics). What If…? sat right in that cavity where the audience needed an idea and entertainment both.
The first season was the right foray into this world, where we saw multiple short stories unfold in various episodes, showing how the Watcher looks at endless possibilities and that What If…? is his favorite game because he clearly has too few friends, and he is busy Earth-flexing and chilling. So the season also garnered much praise because now they were slowly getting the hang of this new concept. The second season, without much delay, came right in time to then give the audience another dose, where we saw a story that continues with a thread and has an endgame in the finale episode—not like the first season, which was disjointed (in a good way). Even that worked because the characters introduced were not run-of-the-mill, the stories were far from usual, and there was a lot of thought put into what makes this world stand out and why it doesn't.
So, when the makers decided to crack this format for the third and final time, what did they do? Can they win it for the third time in a row? Certainly not. What If…? Season 3 never feels like a swan song that wants to do justice to everything introduced until now while adding something more to elevate the entire product. Instead, this season looks like a rush job, where the makers are more intent on stuffing the entire season with as many characters as they can, mostly from MCU phases 4 and 5. Nothing is wrong with this attempt if they had had a very strong hold on the material as they did earlier. The problem arises when all of them assemble, including Captain America (Sam Wilson), Kate Bishop, and Ironheart, and they have nothing to do.
That's the recurring problem of What If…? Season 3. Most of the characters shown, other than the ones already lead in this story, have nothing much to do but to be available on some orders and complete that task. No one gets a story beyond the book they are drawn on, and that makes this season the most disappointing. Most of the things become one-tone, paper-thin stories because their impact on the show and on the larger universe is very bleak, and that makes us question why we invested three years into this show we called the most potent multiverse outing in a long while.
The two episodes that impressed me the most are, of course (and a lot of you already guessed because we are on the same boat), "What If... Agatha Went to Hollywood?" and "What If... the Hulk Fought the Mech Avengers?". They are fun to sit through because they are controlled and still wild in their ideas. There is Moon Knight in the latter, who is wasted for the most part here, but then there is also Sam and Bruce forming a bond and partnership that you would probably want to see in live action and on the big screen. Their story is the most intriguing because it doesn't aspire to stuff things beyond its size, and it only chews what it can swallow. So does the Agatha episode, which brings back the witch. She absorbs the power of a celestial, and you know how fanatically wild she can go with a power that strong with her. These are the crescendo-riding episodes that give some soul to this rather dud season, which lives in packets and not sequences; we don't even mention episodes.
The other episodes are rehashes of old ideas or are instantly forgettable because they do nothing to the story, except for "What If... the Emergence Destroyed the Earth?" which is a brilliant idea mostly wasted. Watch it, and you will realize how, in the right hands, this story might just be the most potential idea for a live-action movie. Ambitious but also very substantial. The problem that arises the most in What If…? Season 3 is that fact that, even in the finale season, the show is not making any effort to connect itself to the grand scheme of the Multiverse Saga. It is very dedicated to just staying where it is, and that will not work for an IP like this one.
What If…? Season 3 Review: Final Verdict
What If…? Season 3 was riding on a lot of expectations, and this finale season makes us feel that we shouldn't have asked for one. With too few highs and many lows, this is a bitter goodbye.
Watch What If…? Season 3, now streaming on Disney+ Hotstar in India. Stay tuned to OTTplay for more information on this and everything else from the world of streaming and films.