Along Review

The prevailing wisdom about the Marvel Cinematic Universe on television is that everything started off with a bang with WandaVision, and then has been a parade of diminishing returns ever since. Personally, I was never that high on WandaVision, and have enjoyed several other series in the meantime (Hawkeye especially). But one part I did love about WandaVision was Kathryn Hahn. And I was all on board for her to take center stage as the title character of the spin-off, Agatha All Along.

This... mini-series (?) / first season of an ongoing series (?)... focused on witch Agatha Harkness embarking on a quest to regain her powers, bringing along a mysterious companion known only as "Teen," and a coven of other witches with their own emotional and supernatural baggage. Adventure -- and sometimes hilarity -- ensued.

Shockingly, despite this being a spin-off of another MCU property (that itself served as a sequel to other Marvel stories), I felt like the "required reading" of Agatha All Along was relatively low. And I found that wonderfully welcome at this convoluted point in the franchise's ongoing (and sometimes abandoned-midway through) story arcs. Agatha's a witch who has lost her powers, and wants them back. For at least half the run of the series, that's really all you need to know; not even the particulars of how she lost them feels all that important. And while Marvel's "it's all connected" ethos does assert itself more fully by the end of this nine episode run, this did feel like to me like one of the more "stand-alone" offerings in the MCU in quite some time. (At least, one of the only enjoyable ones.)

The writing of the series was clever as hell. For one thing, it presented twists that felt genuinely earned. More than once in the run of episodes, things were revealed that made you want to go back and watch the show again from the beginning -- because you recalled where you'd noticed some seeds planted earlier, and suspected that you'd spot even more if you were to go back looking for them.

But more importantly, the show used essentially every episode to give one character the spotlight (even as Agatha herself remained the gravitational center of the proceedings). This worked brilliantly because each of the characters was well-drawn, fascinating, and different. Every episode about a new character was a story I felt eager to see. Not only did I love seeing performers I knew doing great work -- people like Aubrey Plaza and Patti LuPone -- I enjoyed the work by performers I did not know well before this -- people like Sasheer Zamata and Ali Ahn. (And watching Joe Locke in something other than Heartstopper was both jarring and entertaining as well.)

Kathryn Hahn, handed a starring vehicle, came across like a star. Anyone who has seen her anywhere else in her long career would know that she excels at getting laughs, particularly when she's playing a prickly, strong-willed character as she does here. But over the course of Agatha All Along, Hahn is also called on to be dramatic and show real vulnerability. And often, she has to turn on a dime in the same scene. She is, simply, great throughout.

But... I unfortunately must agree with the prevailing wisdom I've seen about the show: it did not stick the landing. The first eight episodes of Agatha All Along are a triumph, among the best television of the year. And if you were to cut off that eighth episode a minute or two from the ending, I think you'd have a satisfying and complete story. But of course, nothing is "complete" in the Marvel Cinematic Universe; we have to leave open some possibility of bringing it back if it's successful, some tease for fans who read the original comics, some connective tissue.

Episode 9 is all of that. There is more great work from Kathryn Hahn in a series of flashback scenes -- but the audience has already gleaned the context that these scenes make explicit. And then the rest of the episode is a lengthy exposition dump that undermines parts of what you've watched so far in the season, followed by a long runway lining up the next "take-off" for these characters. It simply doesn't feel necessary to me; all of it could have been episode 1 of a prospective season 2, if indeed the story does continue. It isn't needed here.

I think that final episode takes down to a B+ a series I might have otherwise called an A-. But whether or not we're quibbling over which side of that line it should be on, I was pleasantly surprised by the show. I feel like it was a series that stretched the MCU tropes about as far as they're ever allowed to be stretched, absolutely knew what its strengths were and leaned into them... and had a hell of a catchy song from Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez to burrow into your brain.

Most of you who'd be reading this probably watched the show already. But in case you didn't -- check it out!