This article contains spoilers for VisionQuest season 1 episodes 1 and 2.From the first episode of VisionQuest, it seems that the chief pleasure of the show will be watching Paul Bettany and James Spader chew the scenery. The actors reprise their Marvel roles, with Bettany back as a more questioning, less empathetic Vision than we’ve seen before, and Spader returning as a more avuncular, but still genocidal Ultron. The two crackle in every scene they share, as they prod and debate with one another about the value of humanity and the value of the humanities. The actors clearly love playing off each other, and we love watching them do it.It’s a good thing, then, that Disney+ decided to air the first two episodes, “No Strings” and “Theseus,” back to back. While the pilot episode gets mired in exposition, unappealing visuals, and unmoored performances, the second clicks into place, giving the show some forward propulsion. Were it not for “Theseus,” VisionQuest would start in the wrong direction, leaving its leads to simply munch on bland and tasteless digital scenery.cnx.cmd.push(function() {cnx({playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530",}).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796");});Part of the difficulty comes from VisionQuest‘s awkward position as third part in a trilogy that includes WandaVision and Agatha All Along, with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness thrown in there as well. It’s been five years since we last saw Vision in WandaVision, and 11 years since his debut in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Moreover, Vision rarely drove any of those stories, and was often subordinated to Wanda’s arc.As a result, VisionQuest needs to devote much of its first episode to catching up viewers, which it does in sometimes inelegant ways. The series takes place after the events of WandaVision, in which Wanda Maximoff not only created the twins Tommy and Billy, but also resurrected Vision, who died when Thanos pulled the Mind Stone from his head in Avengers: Infinity War. WandaVision revealed that the government organization S.W.O.R.D. built a cold, unfeeling copy of Vision (dubbed “White Vision” because of his colorless look), who did battle with the resurrected Vision. By the end of the series, Wanda releases her hex, thereby causing the resurrected Vision to die, but not before he transferred his memories into White Vision.Thus, VisionQuest begins with White Vision trying to figure out his identity, which he does through two methods. The more visually compelling of the methods involves taking human form, calling himself Sherwood Ellis, and working in the Edinburgh pub where his previous version spent his last happy days with Wanda, which we saw in Avengers: Infinity War. There, he exchanges friendly banter with the barkeep Fiona (Polly Frame), as she dispenses motherly advice via a thick brogue.The pub setting provides the strongest parts of the “No Strings,” and not just because Bettany has easy chemistry, playing a slightly awkward man trying to figure out humanity, not unlike Brent Spiner’s best work as Data in Star Trek: The Next Generation (a comparison VisionQuest showrunner and Star Trek: Picard season three showrunner Terry Matalas rejects, as you can read about here). It also works because it introduces the most dynamic character in these early eps, the hired assassin Paladin, played by Todd Stashwick.Together with his handler (Diane Morgan, a.k.a. Philomena Cunk), Paladin and his team attack the pub in the hopes of capturing Vision for an unknown buyer, killing Fiona in the process. The scene crackles with energy, thanks in part to the visuals, with light streaming through bullet holes in the manner of the Coen Bros. movie Blood Simple, and thanks in part to the performance.Stashwick knows how to play a compelling heavy, but he seems so much more brutal and direct here, as if he’s annoyed by having to be in a Marvel show. Even though his chemistry with Morgan feels dulled by the decision to keep her physically separated from him, Stashwick commands attention every time that he’s on the screen. That’s particularly true of “Theseus,” which gives us more about Paladin’s background. When Paladin loses control, befuddled by his mysterious client and a shadowy assailant, or forced to recall part of his past, then Stashwick finds moments of vulnerability, hinting toward a richness not immediately apparent.The same can be said of Bettany’s take on Vision, who is explicitly a different character than the synthezoid we saw elsewhere. As this Vision tells Paladin, he has the Avenger’s face, “but not his virtue.” He is alienated from his feelings, even able to slaughter Paladin’s men, which Bettany expresses by moving seamlessly from his kindly British gentleman persona into something mechanical.Less effective are sequences that take place inside the Mindscape, a virtual mansion where Vision is waited on by a team of AIs, all manifestations of characters we saw/heard in robot form earlier MCU entries. D.U.M.-E and U, robots from Tony Stark’s workshop, appear as silent handymen played by Henry Lewis and Jonathan Sayer, respectively. F.R.I.D.A.Y., Stark’s replacement for J.A.R.V.I.S., is a personal assistant and life coach, portrayed by Orla Brady. Emily Hampshire appears as E.D.I.T.H. a.k.a. the glasses that Peter Parker almost used to call a drone strike on Flash Thompson in Spider-Man: Far From Home. And James D’Arcy sort-of reprises his role as the butler Jarvis from Agent Carter, but this time as the AI J.A.R.V.I.S. that preceded the J.A.R.V.I.S. that Bettany voiced and who eventually became Vision.Yes, it’s a lot. And, in theory, watching these delightful actors do funny bits together would be a lot of fun. But the artificiality of the setting, the broadness of the roles, makes every scene fall flat. At best, the sequences play like lesser versions of WandaVision (we’re introduced to the Mindscape via jaunty ’50s music and close-ups on suburban products and mod-cons); at worst, they play like actors’ exercises. They sure look like they’re having fun together. Us viewers, not so much.Which brings us to James Spader as Ultron. Look, Spader is utterly delightful. His screen presence as a thoughtful, vaguely hedonistic weirdo has only gotten better as he ages. Spader’s costuming in VisionQuest—long hair, wild beard, ostentatious clothing choices; he appears only briefly as a giant robot before taking human form—only accentuate those qualities, making him feel like a more sensuous take on Doctor Who‘s nemesis, the Master.But as much as Ultron and Vision trade shots about their previous encounter in Age of Ultron or observations about Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights, their conversations never reach the depths that they seek. It all feels like clever banter, being exchanged by two likable, but slightly unfocused, actors standing in digital stage spaces.Fortunately, “Theseus” picks up on the pilot’s final plot point, and starts to get moving. “No Strings” ends with the reveal that Paladin has found Wanda and Vision’s son Thomas, who has somehow survived being dissipated at the end of his mother’s hex. Played by Ruaridh Mollica, the Scottish Thomas is working as a con artist, alongside his partner Lisa Molinari (Lauren Morais), whose backstory opens the second episode.Unlike his brother Billy, played by Joe Locke in Agatha All Along, Thomas was not raised in a loving family and has to fend for himself alone. He does not feel confident in his powers, nor does he take kindly to learning through Paladin that he has a father. Even more than Stashwick, Mollica gets to play a properly human character, despite his character’s absurd background. By quivering his voice, by creasing his brow, Mollica relays an internal conflict that better embodies the show’s questions about selfhood and identity than any of Bettany and Spader’s bombastic scenes.Comic book readers know that Thomas becomes the super-fast Speed, and these episodes show why that’s such a good thing. If VisionQuest wants to be a worthy successor to WandaVision and Agatha All Along, it needs to run as fast as it can away from the empty banter and exposition that marred “No Strings” and toward the substance on display in “Theseus.”VisionQuest streams new episodes every Wednesday on Disney+.The post VisionQuest Episode 1-2 Premiere Review: Coming Into Focus appeared first on Den of Geek.