To this day, the strangest thing about WandaVision is that Marvel never bothered to make anything else like it. Emerging from the anxiety-fueled chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 hit was a surprise even for Marvel skeptics. The superhero factory’s first TV effort delighted early on with its nostalgic trip through the medium’s history, suggesting that the studio had more to offer than record-setting comic book epics. Unfortunately, that delight was short-lived, as the series eventually devolved into the usual Marvel fare, skipping a proper ending in favor of a tease for the next MCU film.
This is the first hurdle facing Disney+’s new series Agatha All Along, which premieres Wednesday: A baffling three-year gap between the initially-promising series that spawned it. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is also in a very different cultural position than it was in 2021; it’s currently struggling to bounce back from multiple creative and commercial setbacks, as well as the general fatigue that comes naturally from any serial enterprise lurching into its second decade. Was audience affection for WandaVision a shared delusion, a Tiger King-style blip? Or was there really something there?
Judging by its first four episodes, Agatha All Along indicates the latter—provided viewers are patient, and not afraid to get burned again.
It’s best to treat Agatha All Along as a sequel to WandaVision. Also created by Jac Schaeffer, the new series assumes familiarity with the first Disney+ Marvel show, but blessedly little else in the MCU canon. Picking up where things left off for Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn), the show drops viewers right where they left her three years ago: trapped in a magically-induced delusion in a New Jersey suburb (another pandemic metaphor?) before a jilted ex (Aubrey Plaza) rips her out of it, eager for revenge. Talking her way into a stay of execution, Agatha embarks on a journey down the Witch’s Road — a metaphysical path towards reclaiming her lost powers. But first, she’ll need to form a coven of witches and solve the mystery of a teenaged boy (Joe Locke) whose name no one can say.
There’s fun to be had with a premise like this. Unfortunately it takes a while to get there. Agatha All Along‘s debut pair of episodes are not terribly representative of the show. In fact, the premiere spends half its runtime on a Mare of Easttown parody that starts funny but wears out its welcome at triple the length of an SNL sketch. The crew of witches is not assembled until the second episode; their journey down the road does not begin until the third, which streams a week after the premiere. It feels like creative malpractice to demand such patience from viewers who by now must be actively convinced to watch a Marvel production, with nothing but its star’s considerable appeal to carry them through.
Hahn gives it her all—but as with WandaVision, Agatha is at her best when there is a cast of characters for her to bounce off of. As is usually the case when a scene-stealing supporting player becomes a lead, Agatha All Along does a lot to bring the witchy fave back down to Earth, stripping her not just of her powers but of her chaotic streak. The series immediately improves when the cast is rounded out by the likes of Sasheer Zamata, Ali Ahn, and Patti LuPone (!) — in fact, the show doesn’t feel like it truly begins until the other witches are present.