Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Agatha All Along’ On Disney+, A ‘WandaVision’ Sequel That Finds Agatha Harkness Without Her Powers

We’ve been waiting about three-and-a-half years for Marvel to make the promised sequel to WandaVision that features Kathryn Hahn’s witch Agatha Harkness. The show’s gone through what seems like dozens of title changes, settling on Agatha All Along, which seemed like the obvious choice. The show has finally arrived. Is it a worthy sequel to Disney+’s first Marvel series?

AGATHA ALL ALONG: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A woman drives through the woods in her car.

The Gist: The woman is a police detective named Agnes (Kathryn Hahn) who is called to the scene where a body has been found. She’s on the Westview PD and has been serving a suspension since punching a suspect, but been put back on duty by the chief. We don’t see the face on the body, but the person’s fingers are black. “Who are you?” asks Agnes. One of the big pieces of evidence is a stamped library card with no names on it.

The chief brings in an FBI agent (Aubrey Plaza) to help the investigation, and the two have a tumultuous history. But the questions the agent asks, like “Why are you doing this?”, indicate that she’s not there to talk to Agnes about the case.

As the case gets more frustrating, the agent visits Agnes at her house to try to figure out why she’s in this situation. Agnes hears a noise upstairs and eventually catches a teenager (Joe Locke), who has broken into her house — he’s hit by a car driven by Mrs. Hart (Debra Jo Rupp).

At the station, Agnes interrogates the teen, but her reality starts to shift. At the morgue, the agent reveals herself to be Rio Vidal, a witch in Agatha Harkness’ coven. Agnes wakes up naked in a different version of her house, realizing that she’s Agatha and she’s still trapped in Westview, without her powers. Oh, and Rio is trying to kill her. And she has the teenager tied up in a closet.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Agatha All Along is a direct sequel of WandaVision, and in the opening episode, Agatha finds her caught in the kind of TV-show fantasy that Wanda Maximoff built for herself during that show.

Our Take: It’s pretty easy to figure out where Agatha All Along, created by Jac Schaeffer, starts. Yes, WandaVision streamed almost four years ago, but we know that after Agatha’s epic battle with Wanda, she was still caught in Westview. So, in Agatha’s fantasy world, she’s a Mare Of Easttown-style police detective. When we see the “opening credits,” our suspicions are confirmed.

What we didn’t want to see was Agatha caught in a bunch of drama series tropes for half a season or more. We’ve been there and done that with WandaVIsion, and we didn’t want to see that with Agatha. Luckily, Agatha is dragged out of the fog by the end of the episode, but it’s an Agatha who doesn’t have any powers.

Disney’s promotional material and trailer give us an indication of a plot, but at the end of the first episode, that plot isn’t particularly evident. We’re hopeful that Schaeffer and her writers are going to get into that plot relatively quickly instead of screwing around with cutesy parodies. As much as we would love to see Hahn playing various TV archetypes like we saw her doing in WandaVision, we are a whole lot more excited to watch her as Agatha.

(UPDATE: After catching the second episode, it definitely feels like the plot is going to be a quest-type story, with Agatha gathering witches played by Patti LuPone, Sasheer Zamata, Ali Ahn and Rupp into a motley coven. It’s definitely a much better use of Hahn as Agatha than just continuing the WandaVision format.)

Sex and Skin: We see Agatha’s bare tush after she awakens in the real Westview.

Parting Shot: After Rio leaves Agatha’s house, Agatha realizes she has the teenager tied up in her pantry.

Sleeper Star: When Debra Jo Rupp shows up as Mrs. Hart, we know that she’s going to have a place in Agatha’s world. Of course, she’s always fun to watch in whatever she does.

Most Pilot-y Line: The detective that meets Agnes near where the body was found says that the body was near the “wudder”. This may be the actor’s natural accent, or it may be there to emphasize that they’re in New Jersey, but it’s distracting either way.

Our Call: STREAM IT. We’re excited to see Hahn, Plaza and the rest of the cast of Agatha All Along take Agatha’s story in whatever direction it goes.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.