Review: Wonder Man, “Yucca Valley” | Season 1, Episode 8

Hey free subscribers - it's moved quickly, and the show may be small in scale, but if you binged through Wonder Man and want to discuss, here's a preview of Caroline's review of the finale. $5 lets you join the conversation and read everything we're sending to paid subscribers.

For most of this season, I’ve gone back and forth on how ambitious Wonder Man wants to be. Is this ultimately just a fun, meta comedy excursion that shouldn’t be taken too seriously? Or is this a series that’s actually trying to say something bigger? Up until as recently as the penultimate episode, I still wasn’t sure what tone Wonder Man was aiming for. So I’m delighted to report that this finale manages to seamlessly blend the former with the latter. This is a series that wants to have a good time. But it’s also one that has stuff on its mind too.

In fact, “Yucca Valley” is a masterclass in how a strong finale can weave a largely disparate season together. While this episode leaves Simon and Trevor’s story open for potential future adventures, it also manages to pay off just about every major and minor thread that’s been baked into this season too. That starts with the absolutely genius choice to shift Trevor’s Mandarin past from a goofy running joke to an actual meaty bit of storytelling. In retrospect, Trevor re-embracing his role as the Mandarin is an obvious payoff to all those many, many references to his fake-terrorist past. And yet because the show kept those references so light and comedic, I didn’t see it coming.