Agatha All Along: Episode 1 Review

Seekest Thou the Road

The evil witch who stole the show in the very first Disney+ Original Series from Marvel, WandaVision, returns in her own nine episode series. Agatha Harkness is breaking free from the spell Wanda Maximoff put her under at the end of the WandaVision and must find a way to regain her powers.

The Mare of Easttown

The series opens with Agnes of Westview, who believes she’s a detective called back from a suspension to investigate the murder of a Jane Doe found in the woods. Kathryn Hahn’s “Agnes” must work with a federal agent, played by Aubrey Plaza, to solve the murder. This leads to a true crime procedural experiment that lets the viewer know that Agnes, or Agatha, is still stuck in the world Wanda left her.

This has nice ties to the WandaVision series which took viewers through decades of television evolution while explaining Wanda’s psychotic break following the events of Avengers: Endgame. With Wanda’s apparent death in Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the spell over Agatha appears to be breaking and it’s up to some important characters to help her break free.

Agnes Becomes Agatha

Rio Vidal, Aubrey Plaza’s character, is finally able to reveal the Jane Doe that Agnes is investigating is Wanda (although we don’t see Elizabeth Olsen). This allows Agatha to break free of the spell and the true crime procedural and accept that she is a witch, although she has no powers and is meant to fight to the death with Rio. Viewers get a tease of a fight before Rio agrees to let Agatha regain her powers to make it a true victory. Rio warns she’s informing the Salem Seven before leaving.

This is an odd situation. While it’s obvious that Rio is more powerful than Agatha and should win a fight, if they hate each other, why would Rio want Agatha to regain her powers? It hints at honor which Agatha has never shown in her limited on screen appearances. It also hits at a past relationship, either romantic or otherwise. Plus, viewers have never seen Rio in the MCU before this episode, so they don't know how to judge her character. The whole thing is rather odd and makes Rio look dumb.

The Teen

During her time trapped in the true crime procedural, Agnes captured a teen breaking into her house and took him to jail. Once she breaks free of her spell, she understands that the teen is in her pantry meaning he was real and it was more of an abduction than an apprehension. Still, he hinted at the road which is clearly setting up something important for the rest of the series.

While no mention of his name came in episode one, the teen looks like an older version of the kid who played Wanda’s son, Billy, when they were in the Hex in WandaVision. In the comics, Billy grows up to be Wiccan, so it would make sense for him to be in a show about witches. Plus, if it is Billy, it gives another connection to both WandaVision and The Young Avengers property that has seen hints in WandaVision, Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Hawkeye while being directly addressed in Ms. Marvel and a post-credit scene in The Marvels.

Special Presentation

Previously, Marvel released two Special Presentations that brought some characters to holiday specials around Halloween and Christmas. Those specials, Werewolf By Night and The Guardians of the Galaxy: Holiday Special provided a 45 minute visit back to the world of Marvel with characters or stories that really didn’t need an entire film or series. Agatha probably would’ve benefitted from a special presentation.

When Kathryn Hahn stole the show in WandaVision leading to Marvel greenlighting an Agatha project, I was skeptical that it deserved an entire series. But this was during pandemic restrictions when Disney was leaning heavily on Disney+ to make money because many of their parks and cruise ships were still prohibited from operating, at least not at full capacity. Once the special presentations debuted, I thought Agatha would make more sense as a special presentation rather than a series. I could see continuing her story in a 45 minute special presentation. Disney and Marvel plowed ahead with a series and while I can see where they intend to go, I still think this show would’ve benefitted with a special presentation in the three years since WandaVision ended to check in with the character. The Mare of Easttown bit could’ve been there with Agatha starting to break free at the end to set up this series.

Rating

While I was not big on this series being greenlit, and my expectations were low, the first episode certainly cleared the bar I set for it. The show is definitely uneven at times, but the unmistakable talent of Kathryn Hahn and Aubrey Plaza more than make up for the uneven start. I’m not sure it will hold up for nine episodes, though. I wonder if this should’ve been a series of special presentations or a special presentation with four to six episodes instead of nine. Still, the first episode delivered for me.

Check out Agatha: All Along exclusively on Disney+

Article Written By: Jeremy Brown for Stelmach Brown Media 2024

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