Marvel's latest streaming show feels like a cut above the rest
This is a spoiler-free review.
It’s hard to find anyone excited for the latest Marvel series on Disney+ anymore. I don’t blame people. I like them more than most, but even I can see how Marvel have struggled to make themselves relevant in the T.V. landscape.
From rejecting the episodic nature of classic television (which would’ve nicely mirrored the iterative nature of comic book storytelling) in favour of endless limited series that feel like repurposed feature film screenplays, Marvel have been floundering when it comes to creating truly successful T.V. projects.
Their reluctance to create second seasons for any of their shows and the mixed messaging with regards to how necessary these shows are to understanding the latest movies also hasn’t helped things.
Who's Been Messing Up Everything?
Back in May, Disney CEO Bob Igor announced that Marvel was slowing down their output to focus on quality over quantity. While this is undoubtedly good news for Marvel Studios’ future, it did cast shade on the upcoming Marvel projects that weren’t benefitting from this new ethos. Indeed, he remarked that many of their upcoming shows, including Agatha All Along, are “a vestige of basically a desire in the past to increase volume.”
Yikes. It didn’t exactly inspire confidence that Agatha would be worth watching. The fact that Kathryn Hahn’s Agatha Harkness is getting her own show has always felt a bit odd though. First appearing in Marvel Studios’ T.V. debut WandaVision, Agatha stole the show later in the series by being the surprise villain who came with her own catchy theme tune.
Hahn is a funny and charming actor who was easily capable of convincing an audience that she was both an overly saccharine neighbour and an evil sorceress who wanted to steal Wanda’s magic powers. She was one of the best parts of the show, and Marvel were clearly eager to capitalise on her popularity.
Well, here we are, nearly four years later. Nobody’s talking about how great WandaVision is anymore. Marvel shows on Disney+ aren’t exciting anymore. Nobody seems to care about Agatha All Along.
And after watching the first two episodes, I think that might be a shame.
Agnes For A Little While
When we last saw Agatha Harkness (Hahn), she’d been trapped by The Scarlet Witch in a reality-warping spell that forced her to live as her folksy ‘Agnes’ persona as punishment for her misdeeds. But when FBI Agent Rio Vidal (Aubrey Plaza) visits Westview, Agnes is forced to question the validity of her memories and embark on a new quest for power.
Agatha Harkness is, admittedly, a very unusual choice for a character to lead her own television series. She’s quite literally the first character to have their own MCU show (or movie) who has never had her own comic-book series, or dedicated comic-book arc. While that doesn’t exactly sound like a strong basis for a T.V. show, over the years, Agatha has been involved in a couple of interesting stories, and from the looks of things, Agatha All Along appears to be adapting the best ones.
Before watching the episodes, I was a little sceptical about whether the writers could make an interesting solo story for Agatha, but after seeing references to Nicholas Scratch and the Salem Seven, I’m hopeful that the show is going in the right direction (Indeed, the only interesting direction that it’s possible to take Agatha; no spoilers—if you’ve read a lot of Fantastic Four, you know what’s up).
Hahnbelievable
Of course, the most obvious reason to watch Agatha All Along is Kathryn Hahn’s performance. Things have changed for ‘Agnes’ since the events of Wandavision, but without giving anything away, Hahn is given the opportunity to act in a style that is totally outside her wheelhouse, and it’s wonderful. She does it with just the right amount of tongue-in-cheek to let us know she’s aware of the trope she’s inhabiting while also delivering on the emotional reality that it requires.
There’s a heist-movie-style recruiting sequence in the second episode that introduces some supporting characters. Patti LuPone as a self-proclaimed medium, complete with a crystal ball, is the best of the lot. She delivers some lines that would sound like gobbledygook coming from anyone else’s mouth and makes them sound real.
There’s also a part in the second episode with some chanting witches that gave me goosebumps. It’s incredibly effective (in stark contrast to how a similar witch-chanting scene was done in a recent Star Wars show…). There are also some creepy moments that, although a bit simple, served to unnerve.
I remain a little unconvinced by Joe Locke as the yet-unnamed ‘Teen’. He’s present through a significant portion of the show, and although he did get a few laughs out of me here and there, for the most part his character’s naivete comes off as a little grating. It’s not ruining the show by any stretch though, and I’m looking forward to seeing how the mystery surrounding his character develops.
Wicked Witch of Westview
The first episode is set up as a sort of mystery, and I have to say that I had a very good time, as a fan, putting the clues together. Maybe some of the dialogue was a tad on the nose—designed for someone like me to read between their lines—but it was great fun being in that sweet spot of being half a step ahead of the plot; of thinking I had things figured out just in time to be proven right.
So far, Agatha All Along feels cohesive and substantial. A lot of Disney+ shows wear me out by feeling bloated—like they’re too afraid to progress the plot too much per episode for fear of running out of material. Agatha clipped along at a nice pace though, and each episode ended on decently tantalising turning points.
With episodes coming out weekly from now on, it’ll be a while before we get to see the forest from the trees and judge whether Agatha All Along was a worthwhile endeavour, but from what I’ve seen so far, things are looking good. If you’re a casual Marvel fan feeling a little burned out by their recent output, stick on Agatha and see how you feel. I think you might be surprised.
***
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