Marvel set the bar a little too high for themselves with WandaVision. Their first Disney+ Marvel series won over fans with a compelling story of Scarlet Witch’s fractured psyche, told across many different TV show genres. Marvel has never been able to reach those heights again, and sadly, the whole Wanda thread has gone awry, leading to her apparent demise in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. And it’s against that backdrop we get the spinoff, Agatha All Along, returning Kathryn Hahn to the fan-favorite role of villainess Agatha Harkness. And while it doesn’t quite recapture the WandaVision magic, Agatha All Along casts a witchy spell of its own that should make for spooky fun this Halloween season
Agatha All Along initially looks like it will follow in the same stylistic footprints as its predecessor, with a mystery wrapped inside of TV tropes. Trapped inside the television neighborhood of Westview, New Jersey, with her powers stripped away, Agnes’ mind has turned away from sitcoms and towards crime dramas, such as the Mare of Easttown parody titled Agnes of Westview. Playing a hard-boiled but troubled detective, Agnes has discovered the body of a dead woman in the woods. And of course, there has to be some internal friction with a rival detective (Aubrey Plaza) who seems to be suggesting there’s more to Agnes than even she realizes.
But this mystery is just a cover for another, like a glamour if you will. Agatha is freed from her curse by an unnamed Teen (Joe Locke), and it isn’t long before she’s back to her old, self-involved ways. Her first order of business is getting back her powers, and to do that she’ll need to walk the dangerous Witches Road. Agatha has walked this path before and knows it can’t be done alone. With the adoring Teen by her side, Agatha sets out to recruit a coven to join her on this journey. But that proves no simple task because Agatha’s reputation precedes her everywhere, and it ain’t pretty. Witches know she can’t be trusted, or better put, witches know Agatha can be trusted to do what’s best for her and nobody else.
Agatha All Along is the creation of Jac Schaeffer, who also created and wrote WandaVision. While the previous show explored Wanda’s grief through escalating weirdness, the emotional demands aren’t nearly as high this time around. Agatha is looking out for herself, at least through the first four episodes provided to press, and so our emotional investment isn’t quite as deep. But that’s not to say there’s nothing at stake. Behind the insults and threats, many of them aimed at Teen who follows along like a pet, there’s a sadness and a longing that Agatha is trying to hide. But we see it, especially when an old frenemy arrives, Rio Vidal (Plaza again), bringing with her years of anger and a lot of sexual tension.
The coven recruitment drive is a blast, and allows Schaeffer to kick down the doors into the occult side of the MCU. We see other witches such as Marvel Comics character Jennifer Kale played by comedian Sasheer Zamata, here reimagined as a potions expert who owns a struggling shop. Debra Jo Rupp, who played Mrs. Hart in WandaVision, returns under real name Sharon Davis. She’s basically tricked into the coven because Agatha needs use of her green thumb. The great Patti LuPone plays fortune teller Lilia Calderu, and she more than most seems wary of Agatha’s true darkness. And I was personally quite pleased to see The Diplomat star Ali Ahn as security guard Alice Wu-Gulliver, a protector witch whose entire life has been bad luck.
Each witch has something to fight for that leads them to join Agatha on this foolish quest. Kale’s in debt up to her eyeballs as her failing shop just can’t sell enough essential oils and other spiritual baubles to pay the bills. Calderu hopes to regain her gift of foresight, while Wu-Gulliver hopes to learn the true fate of her mother, Lauren Wu, a rockstar and necromancer who penned “The Ballad of The Witches’ Road”, a song they all must perform on the journey.
And then there’s Teen. He is both the show’s biggest mystery and not really one at all for eagle-eyed fans of WandaVision and readers of Marvel Comics. The thoughtful and shy Teen (we only get a glimpse of his boyfriend) is very likely to be Billy, aka the superhero Wiccan, one of Wanda’s sons created through her use of chaos magic. But for now, he’s basically Agatha’s familiar and does anything she asks. The boy has been cursed with a sigil, which prevents any utterance of his real name or revealing personal information. The question is who placed the sigil on him and why?
Agatha All Along proudly lives up to its claim as Marvel’s “gayest” project yet. The undeniable romantic chemistry between Agatha and Rio burns at the center of the series, as well as Teen’s search for an identity, the witches’ lifetime of persecution and their empowering feminine bond, it all should resonate with the LGBTQ community as so many witchy things do. The closing credits feature witches from multiple iconic TV shows and films, notably feminist role model Lisa Simpson who famously asked why confident women are always referred to as witches, and Fairuza Balk who was both a terror and a powerful coven leader in The Craft, probably the introduction to witchcraft for an entire generation of people.
Despite all of the warnings about the Witches Road, actual threats and scares are minimal. The troupe find themselves tested in a series of supernatural challenges, most of which are pretty easy to solve and have silly consequences. It’s tough to take them seriously. Even when one of the group falls, it isn’t long before Agatha All Along picks right up and moves on like nothing ever happened.
Unlike WandaVision which was designed to be examined, Agatha All Along is meant to be enjoyed the same way you might enjoy something mildly eerie like Hocus Pocus or The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. The easily likeable characters, including Agatha who is the mean girl we love to hate, and the campy vibe are the right ingredients for this entertaining witch’s brew.
Agatha All Along is streaming now on Disney+ with new episodes weekly.
