Rating: TV-14 | Episodes: 9 | Runtime: 60 minutes
Release Date: September 18th, 2024 (USA)
Studio: Marvel Studios / Disney+
Creator(s): Jac Schaeffer

Who’s Sharon?

I wasn’t sure what to expect from “Agatha All Along” since I was pretty lukewarm on “WandaVision” while so many others loved it. I thought that series started off strong before discovering it didn’t really have anywhere to go. Not because the grief angle wasn’t good, but because it lost its visual and cinematic intrigue the moment the veil was pierced. What felt fresh and unique suddenly devolved into the same old explosive MCU nonsense sans true emotional stakes (until the theatrics finally finished to allow the characters to feel them).

Creator Jac Schaeffer seems to have felt the same because she’s fixed this error. Rather than give up the game halfway through, she hides the fact there’s even a game being played. Not fully, of course. We’re talking about Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn), after all. A game is definitely afoot. The question is therefore whether another game is also being played. And, if so, which is truly in control? Because we know right from the first mention of the “Witches’ Road” that something is amiss. Agatha being the only one who knows how to get there and the only one to ever survive is simply too convenient. Lies are everywhere.

As a result, we’re forced to take it all at face value with skepticism. We’re forced to assume what we’re seeing is real. The actions are the cause of chaos and drama, not the machine itself. Rather than give one woman sole power (Wanda), Schaeffer spreads it amongst the entire cast. Sure, they don’t all grieve the death of a loved one, but they do all grieve. The past. Lost power. Waning purpose. Agency. That’s the beauty of the road, after all. It’s a construct of trials magicked into existence so those who survive can earn their most precious wish. Unlike Wanda, however, the only people put at risk here are these willing travelers.

That’s what I really loved about the show because it inherently means that earning their wish won’t always be accomplished via a happily ever after. The road doesn’t just give through addition. It also heals through subtraction. It supplies the opportunity to prove who these witches are by ensuring they learn what they seek was never truly gone. You live that long with the easy button and you forget power isn’t found in magic alone. They might all scoff when “Teen” (Joe Locke’s second lead is the victim of a sigil that won’t let witches know who he really is) suggests “analog magic,” but getting back to their roots is exactly what’s needed.

He’s our entry point—even after discovering his identity changes dynamics. And Agatha is the villain despite her position as anti-hero protagonist. The latter is crucial because we do need to respect the fact she’s a killer. This show isn’t about giving her redemption. It’s about understanding her cruelty. Yes, she isn’t as intentionally malicious as Rio (Aubrey Plaza), but the sarcasm and deflection only mask the fact she will kill whomever she must to regain her “purple.” The maternalism she shows “Teen” is thus drawn to be as potentially authentic as it is presumably a trick. Rumor does say she traded her own son for the Darkhold.

Hahn is unsurprisingly great in the role and her rapport with Locke carries the series by toeing the line between symbiotic and parasitic. That said, though, I’d be lying if I didn’t say the supporting cast really steals this thing. While Agatha and “Teen’s” arcs last the full nine chapters, Jen (Sasheer Zamata), Lilia (Patti LuPone), and Alice (Ali Ahn) are given much more potent and compressed revelations. LuPone is by far the best with her episode “Death’s Hand in Mine” proving the unequivocal highlight in writing, structure, emotion, and stakes. Add Debra Jo Rupp in a smaller comic relief role and it’s impossible not to be taken by this makeshift coven.

It leans heavily on the main Wizard of Oz trope that filters through a ton of media (shades of Labyrinth and even The Usual Suspects populate the climactic reveal as a result) for good reason considering the physical journey we see is also a psychological battle for each respective participant. The special effects work is solid, the “Witches’ Road” song is perhaps the first Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez piece that I actually like, and the humor is on point from the opening “credits” (based on the Danish series Wandavisdysen). And while it does ultimately end like most MCU fare with a tease of what’s to come, “Agatha” effectively fulfills its own mysteries with definitive resolution too.

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[L-R]: Alice Wu-Gulliver (Ali Ahn), Lilia Calderu (Patti LuPone), Mrs. Hart/Sharon Davis (Debra Jo Rupp), Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn), Teen (Joe Locke) and Jennifer Kale (Sasheer Zamata) in Marvel Television’s AGATHA ALL ALONG, exclusively on Disney +. Photo by Chuck Zlotnick. © 2024 MARVEL.