What If...? Review

The high point comes early. The zombie episode is a genuine horror comedy with real stakes, and the Doctor Strange episode, in which a grieving man consumes an entire universe trying to undo one death, is the only instalment that uses the format for tragedy rather than novelty. Both work because they commit to an ending the films could never reach. Most of the rest simply reshuffles: this character gets that serum, this hero dies instead of that one, and the plot then replays scenes you have watched before with different voices.

The cel shaded animation is a real limitation, stiff in faces and weightless in motion, and the near total return of the film cast highlights the few recastings badly. The Watcher is a poor narrator, forever announcing that he must not interfere before interfering, and the first season finale collapses into an assembled squad fighting a villain in a void, which is the exact move an anthology exists to avoid. Later seasons improve the animation and lower the ambition.