Four years after Marvel waded into streaming waters, it has become clear that the experiment resulted not only in a string of subpar shows, but also had a trickle-down effect on the studio’s film slate. The world, however, was a different place back in 2020. The MCU was a formidable beast. The rather impressive WandaVision inspired confidence in the idea of television shows based on Marvel characters. But it’s 2024 now. And it seems like we’ve regressed to the point where something that can politely be described as a spinoff to a spinoff — Agatha All Along — is being presented to us like the next big event series.
Starring the wickedly charming Kathryn Hahn in the role of the titular witch, Agatha All Along has been spearheaded by Jac Schaeffer, who was also the creative force behind Marvel’s streaming debut. In hindsight, WandaVision remains the MCU’s finest hour on TV — an inventive examination of grief that doubled as a loving homage to the medium of television. It was always going to be a tough act to follow, and for a while — around 25 minutes, to be exact — it seems like Agatha All Along is attempting the obvious and trying to recapture some of that Scarlet Witch magic.
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A still from Marvel’s Agatha All Along.
Episode one — four were provided for the purpose of this review — begins with Agatha Harkness seemingly trapped inside a crime thriller series modelled on Mare of Easttown. The episode gets its own humorous opening title sequence, replete with fake names and faux ominous music that sort of sets the tone for what’s to follow. The trouble is that Agatha All Along changes gears with the exuberance of a teenager who’s taken his dad’s car on a joyride. Every subsequent episode begins on a clean slate, resetting the stage for an entirely different adventure that requires viewers to re-engage with both the characters and the story again.
It doesn’t take too long for Agatha to snap back to ‘reality’, which is to say, she realises that the gritty scandi-noir show that she seems to be embedded in is simply an illusion. Agatha discovers that for the last three years, she has been imprisoned in the ‘town’ of Westview by Wanda Maximoff, after having been dispossessed of the dangerous ‘Darkhold’. Even to somebody who has seen (and enjoyed) both WandaVision and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, a lot of this exposition sounds like mumbo-jumbo. But deep-cut references — or even superficial ones — aren’t the show’s biggest problem. Agatha All Along is ultimately too episodic to be engaging.
Of course, there’s likely going to be a larger narrative arc that reveals itself as the season progresses, just as there was in WandaVision, but four episodes is barely enough to truly get a read on a show like this. If Marvel is fine with the entire season being judged on the basis of four episodes, however, then everything is fair game. In preparation for an incoming onslaught of some kind, Agatha goes on a mission to create a coven of her own. She rounds up a bunch of outcast witches, each of whom has a specialty — one is an expert in potions, another in divination — and takes them along on an adventure down the ‘road’.
This is an homage to the Wizard of Oz, and like the central foursome in that classic, the coven encounters a string of trials along the way to an unknown destination. These challenges put them inside strange new sandboxes — one seems to be inspired by an ‘80s daytime soap, while another appears to be riffing on ‘60s counter-culture — but there is a glaring lack of ambition that makes the whole thing seem a little facetious. It’s almost as if Agatha All Along is trapped in a prison of its own. Briefly, it seems as if the show is trying to unpack the anxieties of middle-aged women. But this is a complete guess. The queerbaiting, on the other hand, is more on the nose.
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A still from Agatha All Along.
There was an opportunity here to explore bigger themes, to play around with the tropes of not only television, but storytelling as a whole. Agatha All Along could’ve also benefited from diving more determinedly into the occult, to borrow a page out of Sam Raimi’s book and embrace the kookiness at its core. Streaming on Disney+ can no longer be an excuse to pull punches, can it? Scroll a little further and you’ll find the Deadpool movies on the same platform.
Somewhat surprisingly, Agatha All Along barely even qualifies as a superhero series, which has to be a first for Marvel, doesn’t it? The only example of super-heroics, at least in the first four episodes, is when Aubrey Plaza shows up in a scene-stealing cameo as Agatha’s presumable nemesis, and in three minutes flat, elevates the entire experience into something way more arresting. If nothing else, her reappearance is enough reason to continue watching. Otherwise, Agatha All Along is a rather feeble attempt to replicate the success of Loki, because Marvel might have overestimated the affection that audiences have for this character.
Agatha All Along
Creator – Jac Schaeffer
Cast – Kathryn Hahn, Joe Locke, Sasheer Zamata, Patti LuPone, Ali Ahn, Aubrey Plaza
Rating – 2/5
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