Three years after the fantastic “WandaVision” made history as the first Marvel Studios series on Disney+, we get to return to Westview for “Agatha All Along”, a new nine-episode series about the infamous Agatha Harkness, who is played by Kathryn Hahn.

In the opening episode, finds herself living in Westview as a police detective, since the Scarlet Witch is making her live out her life pretending to be in a TV show.  The show kicks off with Agatha investigating the death of a woman who was found in the forest. This sets off a chain of events as this woman represents the Scarlet Witch, who “died” after being crushed at the end of “Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness”, which has allowed the spell to weaken enough to let Agatha, with the help of a suspicious goth Teen, break free of the distorted spell.

However, Agatha finds herself without any powers, which results in her setting out on an adventure on the legendary Witches’ Road, a magical gauntlet of trials that, if survived, rewards a witch with what they’re missing.  She, along with Teen, then spends the second episode putting together a coven of witches to start the adventure. 

In the third and fourth episodes, we see the coven of witches head along the Witches’ Road, with each episode representing a different trial, which is a bit like a more intense escape room experience!  These trials all take place in various houses that completely change the look and tone of the show, especially as all their outfits change along with it, which keeps things fresh.

One thing that is very noticeable about “Agatha All Along” is that it feels like a television show; it’s not a movie cut up into chunks.  Each episode has a specific story point, while also moving along the main storyline, and each episode is around 40 minutes long, but when you take off the “previously on” and credits, each episode is barely 35 minutes, but the format seems to work much better than most of Marvel’s previous Disney+ shows.  The use of practical effects is a welcome change, and there are plenty of different physical sets that don’t make it feel like some actors are just reacting to green screens.   

I do have a little issue with the opening episode because if you haven’t seen “WandaVision” or “Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness”, you’ll probably be completely lost or miss what’s actually going on.   It’s a shame, as I think this show will appeal to an audience beyond the typical Marvel fan, but it makes too many assumptions about its audience to understand what’s going on.  

Making a show about a villain is always tricky, especially if they try to make you feel sympathy for her, and that’s the biggest problem for this show, it keeps reminding you that Agatha and these characters, generally, would typically be the villains of the story,

Another major part of this show is the music, or more specifically, the use of a single song, “The Ballad Of The Witches Road”, which is almost drummed into your head repeatedly, to the point where I was getting bored of it by the fourth episode.  Using the song to open the portal to the Witches Road made some sense and worked well, but by contrast, in the fourth episode, it feels way too forced and seems like nothing more than a vessel for Kathryn to perform and kill a few minutes. 

Aubrey Plaza steals every scene she is in, since her character brings many different elements to the story, teasing being the show’s villain and love interest along the way.    Joe Locke is great in this show, and the whole subplot where we don’t know who is his since they are teasing that he could be one of two characters, but knowing Marvel, it could be another Ralph Bohner situation, of misdirection, just for the sake of it.

“Agatha All Along” reminds me of many other supernatural shows from over the years, like “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” and “The Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina”.  If you enjoy those types of shows, this is probably going to work for you, but make no mistake, this isn’t your typical superhero story. It’s a show about a group of witches trying to get their powers back.  So it’s not going to click with everyone.

It’s not going to please everyone, and I can already tell this show is going to split the audience, especially in the online community, where many “fans” will take issue with a show featuring strong female characters and gay relationships.  It’s very obvious that this show is going to split the audience, because if this series didn’t have the “Marvel” brand attached, it would just be seen as a supernatural witch series, but the “Marvel” brand is going to bring expectations to it, which it doesn’t deliver.

This show does feel like a step back for Marvel and feels very much like an idea that got floated around at Marvel’s offices during the Disney+ boom, where they thought they could experiment and that everything they make would be the biggest thing on the planet.  But if that meeting happened today, this show would probably never get past the brainstorming session.

It’s great to see Marvel explore lesser-known characters and take risks with different genres.  I’m certainly looking forward to watching the rest of the show, but I feel that for a considerable chunk of Marvel fans, this isn’t going to work and is entirely skippable. 

Overall: “Agatha All Along” is a bit of a mixed bag. There are some fun elements to the show, and I did enjoy watching it, as it’s refreshing and does highlight that there is much more to Marvel comic book stories than just your typical superhero adventures.    I’d easily recommend that anyone who enjoyed “WandaVision” check out this series and see if it clicks with you, but sadly, it’s just not on the same level as that fantastic show.  It’s ok, but that’s not really good enough for Marvel.  Hopefully, it improves as the show goes on, but so far, it hasn’t blown me away.

Rating: 3.5 Out Of 5

The first two episodes of Marvel Television’s “Agatha All Along” are available to stream on Disney+ now, and a new episode will be released each week.

Are you looking forward to the return of “Agatha”?  Let me know on social media!

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

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