In this Wandavision spinoff, Agatha All Along follows Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) as she lives her days without her powers, working a regular job and effectively blending in. Her dull days are shattered after a dead body is found and a mysterious teenage boy crosses her path. The goth teen breaks her free from a spell that had her distorted and begs her to take him to the Witches’ Road (a magical path staged with trials, and if you survive, you receive a reward). Once Agatha concludes the teen is on to something, she desperately puts together a coven and sets off for the “Road”.
In case you’re wondering why he’s referred to as “Teen”, it’s because that’s all we know. Every time Agatha asked for his name, his mouth would be censored (an apparent spell). When riding in the car together, she asks for his backstory, and the entire time he’s speaking, his voice is drowned out. A phenomenon she couldn’t believe, she turned up the volume on the radio to make sure her hearing was accurate. There was noise aplenty in the background but the teen’s voice was simply drowned out while talking about himself. When he was finished, his voice returned and he continued as if nothing happened.
The tone the studio was going for was “dark comedy.” Funny moments are scattered across the first two episodes, and the “dark” aspect won’t kick in until episode three. Fans of the series were looking for a horror element to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and Agatha All Along (AAA) premiered just in time for Halloween.
Overall, the series does nothing for me. It became clear back in March after Disney’s horrific series, Renegade Nell, that they’re throwing everything at the streaming service and going with whatever sticks. While Hawkeye was a hit, Echo was not, and the TV-MA rated series is yet to receive an announcement on another season. Disney went extreme with Echo, making it the first TV series in the MCU with a mature rating, and did a deep dive into sorcery and satanism with Renegade Nell. With AAA, there’s a deeper dive into witchcraft than was seen in Wandavision. Potions, divination, consulting mediums, and occult symbols riddled throughout the end credits; I could go on and that’s just the first two episodes. All of these things are outside of the weird scene where she becomes conscious of where she is and appears at her house completely naked. Again, we’ll see if horror or brief nudity sticks for the House of Mouse but at first glance, the series doesn’t impress (unless there’s a huge turn towards the end of the season or that Teen turns out to be a shock character).
In addition to Kathryn Hahn, the series stars Joe Locke, Sasheer Zamata, Ali Ahn, Maria Dizzia, Paul Adelstein, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Okwui Okpokwasili, with Debra Jo Rupp, with Patti LuPone, and Aubrey Plaza.
Agatha All Along gets a 5.5 out of 10. Again, unless there’s a huge plot twist coming soon, this flat dark comedy does nothing for me. The brief nudity is the real head-scratcher because it wasn’t necessary. She could’ve just appeared, she didn’t have to appear naked. It feels like the industry will continue to push boundaries as long as they can before fan sentiment tells them to stop.
Marvel Television’s Agatha All Along premiered September 18 at 6:00 p.m. PT/9:00 p.m. ET, with the first two episodes, exclusively on Disney+. The series will air episodes weekly on Disney+.
-Jon Jones
Photos: Courtesy of Disney