Agatha All Along - Premiere - Review

When Marvel announced that WandaVision was getting a spin-off show that was focused around Agatha Harkness, part of me was concerned as traditionally, tv spin offs rarely do well. Then the show was given its name, House of Harness, but then it changed to Cover of Chaos but that didn’t last long as it became Darkhold Diaries and now Agatha All Along. Is there a good show here, or is it nothing more than a bewitching series of name changes?

Before I dive into the review, you can relax, this review is going to be entirely spoiler free.

When we last saw Agatha she was transformed into a super chipper lady by Wanda, but now 3 years have passed since that moment and we are now catching up with her. We do of course know what happened with Wanda, if you do not please watch Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Now we are getting to see Agnes in her new life, who has found herself working away in Westview as a detective of their police department and a murder has taken place, which sends her down the rabbit hole. As Agnes attempts to unravel the mystery of who this victim is, how they came to be in the middle of nowhere, the FBI shows up and things get complicated. It is at this point where I would start to talk about characters and such, but I honestly don’t want to do that here, as it would begin to spoil things, needless to say there are some new and familiar faces around and things become a little magical.

Now Kathryn Hahn played an odd version of Agatha in WandaVision as she was pretending to be someone else, and only near the very end did we see her true Agatha appear. This time we get to see the real Agatha, a lot of her actually and it is honestly delightful, as Hahn simply chews up the screen. In the comics Agatha is often seen as an older lady, who has power to spare and a kind heart and so far we have never seen that from the MCU version of her. Hahn does manage to make this version of Agatha something fun to watch and as she starts to meet other witches again, she really stands out from the rest of the coven. Speaking of the coven, there are a series of meet and greets with the witches Agatha recruits and some are entertaining, some not so, but in the end she gets her group together. The reason is of course for the Witches Road, which can only be opened by a coven upon singing a special ballad and good luck getting that out of your head.

By the end of the two episode premiere, the coven find themselves heading onto the road and while I have seen more, I won’t say more again for obvious reasons. But while the two episodes run for around 35 minutes each, once you remove credits and such, it doesn’t actually feel like it is that long. I have often criticized Marvel shows in the past for failing to deliver show lengths that make it worth watching and keeping a good pace on the events contained within, this time its kind of the reverse. The shows run time are good, but the pacing feels a little rushed and there is a story reason for Agatha wanting to rush through, but from a viewer perspective it doesn’t quite work. Again the problem is that without spoiling why I think it doesn’t quite work, I can’t tell you why, but once you watch it you will see what I mean.

As the show is a semi-sequel to WandaVision it does contain a similar visual vibe, at least in the parts of the first two episodes. That connection does help give the show a familiar starting point, but when Agatha starts to round up some more witches, it starts to become a little different, beyond the premiere, things get even more unique, so look forward to that. The rest of the cast is made up of some familiar names and some new ones and while each has a decent introduction, some do feel a little stuck in a stereotype. The shows music, provided by Christophe Beck is fantastic and it does contain that catchy tune written by the incredible duo of Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez. The three of them are returning from WandaVision, which again helps with that connective thread.

The premiere of Agatha All Along is a fun, if speedy ride. We get to encounter Agatha as she continues to deal with the fallout of the spell Wanda placed her under but then also as she attempts to build up a coven. Seeing Kathryn Hahn finally show off more of her version of Agatha is great and when she spends time with the other witches, becomes delightful. The shows issue right now is that it is speeding through things and unless you are 100% caught up on your Marvel Cinematic Universe history, you might feel left out. If you are, or simply don’t care, then let me spell it out for you, the witching hour is upon us and much like T.A.H.I.T.I. it is magical.

The Score

9.0

Review access provided by Disney

The Pros

Kathryn Hahn just delights as Agatha, unleashed and unchecked and it is do fun

The show doesn’t waste time, getting right into the main story…

The Cons

… that speed though does come at a cost of leaving some confusion in its wake

There are characters that appear, but then are just forgotten almost as quickly