Agatha All Alongside looks like a witch’s potion brewed particularly to make me giddy with pleasure. How might it not, when its elements embody magical trials, rocking songs, and Patti LuPone herself?
The MCU’s newest TV collection serves as a follow-up to 2021’s WandaVision, specializing in Wanda Maximoff’s (Elizabeth Olsen) nosey neighbor turned witchy nemesis Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn), and taking its title from her Emmy-winning introductory theme tune.
But despite the fact that Agatha All Alongside finds itself in superhero sequel territory, the collection and showrunner Jac Schaeffer (additionally the creator of WandaVision) forge their very own path down the Witches’ Street. Sure, you will nonetheless discover style pastiche within the vein of its predecessor — though far much less excessive — in addition to witchy characters struggling to regain what’s been taken from them. However Agatha All Alongside‘s deal with a coven of underdogs additionally invitations new kooky characters into the MCU, whose chemistry with Agatha is the present’s greatest superpower.
What’s Agatha All Alongside about?
Kathryn Hahn in “Agatha All Alongside.”
Credit score: Chuck Zlotnick / Marvel
Agatha All Alongside kicks off with a WandaVision-esque TV present spoof. This time, as an alternative of Wanda taking the lead, it is Agatha. Sporting a shawl, a hardboiled detective angle, and hints of a Delco accent, she’s the spitting picture of Kate Winslet in Mare of Easttown. (A pretend credit score sequence calls the present Agnes of Westview.)
Nevertheless, Agatha’s gritty homicide thriller is nothing greater than the distorted stays of Wanda’s spell over Westview. In actuality, she’s utterly powerless after her battle with Wanda — it takes a mysterious Teen (Heartstopper‘s Joe Locke) to interrupt her out of her enchanted jail. (Sure, Agatha All Alongside purposefully obfuscates Locke’s character’s title, going as far as to cowl his lips and silence him when he introduces himself. Belief that there is a witchy motive why.)
Teen — as Agatha calls him — desires Agatha’s assist to get to the Witches’ Street. It is a legendary path riddled with lethal trials, and whoever reaches its finish receives the factor they need probably the most. For Agatha, that will be the facility Wanda sucked away throughout their battle. For Teen…effectively, similar to together with his title, Agatha All Alongside performs that reveal near its chest. However to ensure that this unlikely duo to succeed in the Witches’ Street, they will have to assemble a coven.
Get able to fall in love with Agatha All Alongside‘s coven
Sasheer Zamata, Joe Locke, Kathryn Hahn, Patti LuPone, Debra Jo Rupp, and Ali Ahn in “Agatha All Alongside.”
Credit score: Chuck Zlotnick / Marvel
It is no shock that Hahn is pleasant in her return as Agatha Harkness. She instructions the display with only a single twirl of her many cloaks, or a disgruntled groan on the compassion of these round her. Nevertheless it’s Hahn’s chemistry with Agatha’s new coven-mates that finally ends up being Agatha All Alongside‘s best power and shock.
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First up on Agatha’s recruitment checklist is Lilia Calderu (Patti LuPone), a psychic with a little bit of a diva streak. (And sure, Patti LuPone enjoying a witch is strictly as enjoyable because it sounds.) Becoming a member of her is potions witch Jennifer Kale (Sasheer Zamata), sporting a sarcastic streak that always rivals Agatha’s personal disdain. Alice Wu-Gulliver (Ali Ahn) is the daughter of a mystical rock star who mysteriously vanished in her makes an attempt to seek out the Witches’ Street, leaving her with a tough protecting shell and a skepticism of all issues magic. And a shock addition to the crew is none aside from Agatha’s Westview neighbor Sharon (Debra Jo Rupp). She’s no witch (she’s actually extra there to fill a coven quota), however her perpetual confusion makes for a welcome foil to the centuries-old witches’ blasé strategy to witchcraft.
Teen is a superb foil for the coven as effectively. His fanboying and bouncy enthusiasm over the Witches’ Street break up the opposite witches’ resentment for one another (however largely Agatha). Frankly, he acts as a little bit of an viewers stand-in as effectively, as a result of who would not be excited to hang around with this coven and watch these actors play off each other?
Rounding out Agatha All Alongside‘s forged of witches is Rio Vidal (Aubrey Plaza), a strong witch whose first interplay with Agatha post-spell is holding a dagger to her throat. Clearly, there’s some historical past there. Based mostly on the crackling chemistry between Hahn and Plaza, my cash’s on former lovers. (With Agatha All Alongside being toted as “the gayest Marvel undertaking but,” this is hoping I am proper.)
Rio and Agatha aren’t the one witches with troubled pasts. Each member of the coven has skilled some form of ache or setback. Why else would they be determined sufficient to attempt their hand on the life-threatening Witches’ Street? Watching these ladies open up about traumas — many hinted at in some genuinely spooky visions — proves a reasonably shifting (if generally heavy-handed) expertise. These backstories add depth to the in any other case hilarious group interactions, chock-full of the form of fast-talking and sniping that solely happens whenever you’re in a room with larger-than-life personalities.
The Witches’ Street is a spotlight of Agatha All Alongside
Patti LuPone, Sasheer Zamata, Kathryn Hahn, Debra Jo Rupp, and Ali Ahn in “Agatha All Alongside.”
Credit score: Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel
The bonds of Agatha All Alongside‘s coven are solid within the fireplace of the Witches’ Street, which looks like a twisted play on The Wizard of Oz‘s personal yellow brick model. Amongst swaths of gnarled bushes and stretches of mud that devour anybody who strays too removed from the trail lie assessments that Agatha and her companions should conquer. Every take a look at will not be solely an opportunity for the witches to show their mettle, but additionally for Agatha All Alongside to have some extra genre-bending enjoyable with a trial-of-the-week format.
Take, for instance, a harmful pit cease in a beachside mansion that looks like one thing proper out of Large Little Lies. Or a dangerous go to to a ’70s-era recording studio. These trials come full with their very own magical costume modifications, paying tribute to WandaVision‘s episodic change-ups. They’re additionally a complete blast, particularly the a number of moments when singing turns into a life-saving software. Severely, any second that sees Hahn and LuPone main a witchy woman group had me punching the air in pleasure.
That pleasure could begin gradual in Agatha All Alongside‘s earlier recruitment levels, however by the top of the primary 4 episodes despatched to critics for evaluate, it was at a fever pitch. Here’s a Marvel present that is unafraid to be campy, kooky, and bizarre, that ditches the “eight-hour film” formatting of different MCU collection and embraces the episodic energy of TV that WandaVision harnessed so effectively. Add that to the dream workforce of Hahn and her coven, and you have a present that is nothing wanting magic.