Agatha All Along, in just five episodes, has proved that Marvel’s TV department still knows what it’s doing after all.
This summer’s biggest hit, Deadpool & Wolverine, constantly made fun of the fact that Marvel isn’t doing too well right now. The studio’s big screen offerings have been… less than ideal, shall we say, and its TV shows haven’t been doing particularly well either. We’re still trying to get rid of the horrible taste Secret Invasion left behind.
So it’s a bit of a surprise that this year’s best Marvel project is Agatha All Along. Kathryn Hahn reprises her role as Agatha Harkness from Wandavision, and it’s a series that – initially – didn’t appear to have any particular reason to exist. After all, Agatha was a relatively small character who isn’t due to be a big presence in the MCU’s future.
Yet, Agatha All Along is an absolute hoot. We reported on 4th October that Agatha All Along is one of the cheapest projects to emerge from Marvel by far, and it has us wishing that the studio would keep cutting corners – because whatever it’s doing, it’s working.
The show, which has just premiered episode five at the time of writing, follows Agatha as she gathers a coven of fellow necromancers to follow her on the magical Witches Road. They’re also joined by Joe Locke’s Teen, whose identity has been one of the series’ biggest mysteries and was finally revealed in episode five. We won’t reveal it here – the internet is already full of spoilers – but it’s an intriguing, if a slightly predictable, revelation that we explored in our own dissection.
Agatha All Along adopts a monster-of-the-week approach, but instead of monsters, it’s trials that our coven of witches have to complete in order to progress on The Road, which promises to fulfil their wildest dreams if they make it to the end. Episode five found the witches in a cabin in which they had to play with a Ouija board – which in turn revealed itself to be a trial for Agatha.
What followed was an excellent toeing of the line as to whether Agatha is a villain or a protagonist. She was the villain in Wandavision, but Agatha All Along has largely positioned her as a hero, albeit with questionable morals. Episode five reminds us that Agatha truly is a villain and to not trust her in the slightest.
That episode’s events tie the series into the MCU, but the highest compliment we can give to Agatha All Along is how separate it feels from Marvel’s films. It’s a common complaint – one that this writer shares – that Marvel’s TV shows have become mandatory watches in order to keep up with the larger shenanigans that Kevin Feige and his minions have planned across the extensive film universe.
Agatha All Along has also managed to be a rating success. Brad Winterbaum, Marvel’s head of streaming, television and animation, confirmed to Variety that Agatha All Along has the best continuation rate of any Marvel show, meaning people are coming back to watch Agatha and her fellow witches rather than checking out after one episode.
Together with Loki season two, it seems that there is hope for Marvel’s TV shows yet. The next live-action Marvel series will be Daredevil Born Again. If Marvel continues this approach to their TV shows, then we can positive things.
Agatha All Along streams on Disney+ with new episodes released every Thursday.