Agatha All Along: WandaVision's Surprise Witch-Villain is Powerless to Save Her Own Series

By John Kirk

Rating: C

There’s been much hype and anticipation over the release of Disney+’s Agatha All Along, given the revelation at the end of the streaming service’s acclaimed WandaVision.

Kathryn Hahn stole the show with her portrayal of Wanda Maximoff’s false best friend in the illusory town of Westview, sycophantically trying to leech power from the Scarlet Witch. She was secretly Agatha Harkness, a witch of great power.

Of course, Disney was going to want a spin-off, but sadly, this is one that could have been burned at the stake.

Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) seeks a spell to remain her powers.

Agatha Harkness is a character from marvel Comics with an incredible legacy. First introduced in the pages of The Fantastic Four as a governess for Franklin Richards, the son of Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman, Harkness was revealed to be a legendary witch from the days of Salem. In comic lore, she was a magical mentor for Wanda Maximoff, aka the Scarlet Witch. She faced off against villains like Annihulus and even had the respect of heroes like Doctor Strange.

She deserved better than this.

The story:  Released from her spell and three years of playing roles and imprisonment within the town of Westview by a sixteen-year-old Goth witch-wannabe (Joe Locke), Agatha finds herself free but bereft of power. Her solution? Find other witches, form a coven and walk the Witches’ Road in an attempt to regain her sorcerous abilities.

The main reason for the anticipation for this series is Hahn. Her performance in WandaVision was notably spectacular and was a fantastic reveal. Plus, the character she plays is a legacy character of Marvel lore re-invented to fit within the confines of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Hahn has a comedic sass about her that gave her not only the flexibility to play the abundance of roles required of her in that show, but a great deal of audience appeal as well.

However, Agatha All Along doesn’t have that four-colour comic appeal. While not a super-hero in the MCU, this character still has a range that extends into the realm of super-heroics. Agatha doesn’t have powers per se any more, just a desire to regain what was taken from her.

There’s also a sense of mystery about her relationships with other powerful characters like Rio (Aubrey Plaza) or the afore-mentioned Goth teen. Her association with these powered characters is supposed to somehow remind us that she is a super-powered being, but that’s about the extent of it. There’s lots of rhymes, silly jokes and scenery that is played down and far from the dimensionality you’d expect in a story with comic book origins.

More Walt and less Stan, I guess.  

There really is very little in terms of super-power flash. Sure, there are cheap cauldron effects, some shape-changing and admittedly a good deal of thought put into the types of different witches, which we learn about as Agatha goes to form her coven. But little else.

Sadly, this is actually on purpose, according to press notes. In a direct contrast to the CGI and effects of Wandavision, producer Brad Winderbaum stated that the idea was to differentiate the show from the visual effects of the MCU. Sadly, this is part of why the show fails to reach its intended audience of comic-reading, superhero-loving fans.

In fact, the effects were supposed to be around the same level as 1989, the year this takes place.

The humour in this show really doesn’t fully succeed either. Styled as a dark comedy of sorts, according to Disney’s press releases, it fails to hit that mark. Hahn is definitely gifted with a goofy comedic talent, but in this story, she displays a callousness and proclivity for betrayal in her comedy that is overdone and obvious. In short, the jokes are predictable.

To my mind, there’s a misdirect in regards to the title. The implication in Agatha All Along is that there was some sort of master plan that she had in the previous show that hopefully would be revealed in this series.

However, we don’t really see that as the major motivation for regaining her power.  It’s hard to see how it was Agatha all along, when the first four episodes show her to be powerless. This basically diminishes the character and undermines the show’s purpose.

What’s also truly disappointing is that the presence of comedic talents like Aubrey Plaza and Debra Jo Rupp don’t help either. Their characters’ connections are too limited or are far too underused to make them relevant to the appreciation of the story. While Rio (Plaza) does provide the immediate incentive for Agatha to regain her power, the ambiguity of their relationship is distracting to the story.

There are some musical interludes in the show. While this may seem a strange thing it actually does make sense for a coven of witches to be singing their spells. Still, while the first time is novel, the second time is a bit much despite the talents the performers bring to the table. But I confess, I was entertained by the instrumental performances more than just the straight vocals in the beginning.

But that just brought a well-recognized Disney tone to the show at the expense of a Marvel one. I was reminded of all the musical witches Disney had at its disposal. The comedic overtones combined with singing witches brought to mind memories of Frozen, The Little Mermaid or even Hocus Pocus.

While the standout Ballad of the Witches’ Road is definitely a great performance, it also reminds the audience that, yes, it was Disney and not Agatha all along.

Agatha All Along. Starring Kathryn Hahn, Aubrey Plaza, Joe Locke, Ali Ahn, Sasheer Zamata, Patti Lupone and Debra Jo Rupp. Agatha All Along streams on Disney+, September 18.