Review

Agatha All Along: quality over controversy

9.11.2024

Translation: Katherine Martin

Marvel has pulled a blinder with Agatha All Along. The studio’s ditched generic superhero clichés and contrived diversity for a gritty, complex story that draws you in with unexpected twists and strong female characters.

Beware: this article contains spoilers for WandaVision, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Agatha All Along. However, I’ve hidden the spoilers for Agatha All Along in pop-out info boxes. That way, if you’re still planning on watching the series, you can read on without worrying about ruining it for yourself.

Every time Marvel Studios makes a new live-action TV series, the TV gods seem to flip a coin. Heads means a gripping story and depth, while tails means mediocre special effects and lame characters. Sadly, the coin’s clearly landed on tails more often in recent years.

The second season of Loki was a glimmer of hope. Echo, on the other hand, was an utter snoozefest. Secret Invasion was a damp squib dressed up as a hard-hitting thriller. Moon Knight and Ms Marvel started strong. But then, as Gamestar’s Sören Diedrich put it so beautifully (in German), the series got lost somewhere between giant animal deities and colourful glitter battles with Djinn. And the less said about She-Hulk, the better…

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Having belonged to Disney since 2009, the studio churned out nothing but superhero smash after superhero smash from 2010 to 2019. Since Endgame, however, all it seems to be good at are superficial characters, forced Disney Channel-esque gags and unnecessary political messaging.

Or am I mistaken?

More than just family entertainment

I hardly dared hope. But with Agatha All Along, the coin really has come up heads again. And I don’t seem to be the only one who thinks so. On Rotten Tomatoes, a database that collects film ratings from across the internet, the series gets a whopping 83-per-cent approval rating from both critics and audiences – more than the second season of Loki.

And that’s saying something.

The magnificent Kathryn Hahn steals the show yet again as Agatha.
Source: Marvel/Disney+

The story begins pretty straightforward. Three years have passed since Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), the Scarlet Witch, robbed Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) of all her powers and banished her to a mind prison. The goal? To put a stop to Agatha’s evil doings for all eternity. But since Wanda died in Dr Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the prison has weakened. Just enough for a mysterious teenager (Joe Locke) to break in and free Agatha.

Together, they now have to enter the fabled Witches’ Road with a yet-to-be-founded coven of witches. If they survive the many miles of tricks and trials – as the ballad serving as both a warning and a guide goes – it won’t just be glory waiting for them at the end. It’ll be what they desire most: power.

Sounds exciting. And terrifying. Perfect for the darker days around Halloween. However, it also sounds like a story with potential to be royally screwed up. Especially when it’s unfolding on Disney+. A platform which, for better or worse, is geared towards family-friendliness. Is that really a good fit for a scary horror story?

So much for horror having no business on Disney+.
Source: Marvel/Disney+

Plus, we’re seeing another coven – a bit of a red flag since «the power of maaaany!». And queer actors in leading roles. Homoerotic relationships. Disney adding those points to its story checklist in a bid to demonstrate their new moral superiority, despite them neither making sense nor being necessary for the plot, is nothing new. I mean, remember Strange World? That’s exactly why I feared the worst before watching Agatha All Along.

But then…

Halfway through the season, things get dark – and there’s one twist after another

Nine episodes in, it’s clear to me that Agatha All Along’s never been as tame or as overtly political as I’d feared. Quite the opposite, in fact. The series is good. Really good. But not perfect.

After episode four, fellow editor Patrick Vogt and I were complaining over coffee that Agatha All Along has its dire moments. Such as when the Salem Seven begin pursuing the coven, bodies contorted, with spiders, maggots and worms bursting out of their mouths. But that’s another example of Marvel’s classically childish humour, which unnecessarily interrupts the gritty tone again and again.

Argh!

Visually, it’s always on point. But there’s too much Marvel humour in the first half of the season.
Source: Marvel/Disney+

From the season’s halfway point onwards, however, the plot really turns up a notch. Penned by WandaVision writer and Agatha All Along showrunner Jac Schaeffer, the story’s dramatic, uncompromising – and actually really sad. Characters die. Several of them. The ballad warned of exactly that: those who fail to pass the tests will pay with their lives. At the same time, others find life…in a bittersweet way. I won’t give away any more than that.

There are also plot twists that even I, an old Marvel comic and series veteran, didn’t see coming. One of them actually made me want to start watching the series from the beginning and keep my eyes peeled for subtly hidden clues. Clues that suddenly seem so obvious that I wonder how I could’ve missed them. Those are the best twists.

Which plot twist am I talking about? It’s not the one about the teenager really being William Maximoff, Scarlet Witch’s son. Nor is it that Ryo is actually Death incarnate, who Thanos tried to impress in the comics by wiping out half the universe with a snap of his fingers. Or that William Maximoff himself unconsciously created the Witches’ Road with the force of his greatest desires. Similar to the way his mother created the Hex in WandaVision to revive Vision and even create children together. No, the best twist is that Lilia Calderu hasn’t experienced time in a linear way since the first episode. The montage that brings order back to her chaos in the seventh episode is cinematic genius par excellence – and perhaps the best plot twist I’ve ever experienced in a Marvel series.

It’s as if Marvel’s read my article about what’s going wrong for the MCU and taken it to heart. The Disney Channel humour dwindles until it disappears completely. As does my impression that Marvel’s trying to pander to an increasingly younger audience. The plot in general turns out to be much cleverer than I would’ve expected, especially in the second half of the series. And the new characters? They’re finally more than just brand ambassadors promoting Marvel’s next movie or series. I feel emotionally invested in their fates, and they leave me feeling moved.

Apropos: Yes, lead actor Joe Locke is gay. As is the character he plays, Billy Kaplan. A boy who dies instantly after a tragic car accident and whose body’s possessed by the soul of the simultaneously dying William Maximoff. He makes his first appearance in the comics in 2005, which follow a similar story. Growing up in a typical New York household, Billy Kaplan’s always had to struggle with the difficulties of being a gay teenager – at least to the outside world. But when he finds out he’s the reincarnation of William Maximoff, son of the Scarlet Witch, things get even worse. So, anyone accusing Disney of having changed William «Wiccan» Maximoff’s sexuality as a result of its corporate political guidelines is wrong.

By the end, almost all the characters had won a place in my heart – and I want to see more of them!
Source: Marvel/Disney+

What can I say? Marvel’s still got it after all. Even though it touches on controversial issues, leading to shitstorms and rage-baiting among fans and in (unfortunately increasingly toxic) internet discussion forums. This isn’t the case with Agatha All Along. Jac Schaeffer’s creation feels unique. Fresh and not overdone. All without the OTT multiverse shenanigans. Fans on most review portals have blessed it with very good ratings.

And that’s exactly how it should be.

In a nutshell

More of this, Marvel!

Bravo. At long last, we have a live-action Marvel series that not only promises consequences, but actually follows through with them!

This works because Agatha All Along throws its weight behind characters that quickly find a place in audiences’ hearts. It’s also because the story contains so many surprises that it makes you want to go back and watch the series all over again. And Marvel’s achieved all this on an ultra-modest budget of only 40 million dollars. As a matter of fact, Agatha All Along looks more beautiful, more tangible and, above all, more real in places than the massively disappointing Secret Invasion with its approximately 225-million-dollar budget. Not too shabby.

Agatha All Along makes it abundantly clear that women and minorities can easily lead a project successfully. Marvel’s most recent issue hasn’t been «wokeness» per se. It’s been poor writing. And Agatha All Along is worlds away from that.

Header image: «Agatha All Along» / Marvel / Disney+

51 people like this article

Luca Fontana

Senior Editor

Luca.Fontana@digitecgalaxus.ch

I write about technology as if it were cinema, and about films as if they were real life. Between bits and blockbusters, I’m after stories that move people, not just generate clicks. And yes – sometimes I listen to film scores louder than I probably should.

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