Disney+’s Agatha All Along Is the Kooky, Queer, Witchy Side-Quest the MCU Has Desperately Needed

Since the debut of WandaVision in 2021, Disney+’s Marvel television experiment has been chasing that same high. Unfortunately for them, each subsequent series has failed in increasingly worse ways to capture that lightning-in-a-bottle show’s magic, from the scattershot Loki to the woefully dull Echo. And even though Agatha All Along doesn’t quite fill WandaVision’s big shoes, it gets pretty damn close. 

Agatha All Along picks up three years after the events of WandaVision, where, if you’ll recall, the formidable Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) left the dastardly Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) under her compulsion as Westview’s nosy neighbor. But after the events of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness left Wanda seemingly crushed (taking the Darkhold down with her), Agatha remains trapped in a decaying hell of her nemesis’ creation. With the help of the mysterious Teen (Joe Locke) and sinister witch Rio (Aubrey Plaza), Agatha steps out of Wanda’s curse and into the light, ready to take back her power. The only catch? To do so, she must walk down the deadly Witches’ Road, and if she wants to survive, she’ll have to bring a coven. Filling that role are the down-on-their-luck, disparate witches Lilia (Patti LuPone), Jen (Sasheer Zamata), and Alice (Ali Ahn), each of whom has their own reasons for seeking the power The Witches’ Road promises. 

While Agatha All Along is not a full-fledged love letter to television like its sister series was, creator Jac Schaeffer infuses all the right lessons from WandaVision‘s success into this series. WandaVision was structurally boxed into an episodic format with its weekly TV tributes, and while Agatha takes a page from that playbook for its Mare of Easttown-inspired premiere, once Agatha sheds Wanda’s spell, the series takes on an identity all its own. Like its Marvel television peers, Agatha has hints of the “eight-hour movie” structure, but the series makes a concerted effort to remain episodic, and embraces episode-long arcs that make each outing stand out as their own distinct story within this overarching journey. It’s the bare minimum, sure, but it’s beyond refreshing to watch an MCU series that doesn’t seem to actively hate the medium it’s utilizing, and that actually harnesses the strengths of the format to elevate its goals; imagine that! 

From the very first episode, Agatha’s stakes are immediately clear and compelling, foregoing the twisted multiversal threats we’ve grown accustomed to from recent Marvel romps in favor of a more personal journey. While Agatha is absolutely an arrogant, eccentric jerk, she also has shades of a sympathetic loner under her sweeping coats, and that layered take on this now-iconic character makes her someone you can’t help but root for despite her ultimately selfish aims. And the connections Agatha forms while on the road are just as rewarding, especially since her history with each member of the coven offers various challenges in every episode. 

Through these compelling, character-driven twists and turns, it’s the performances that make this series must-watch TV. Katheryn Hahn is smarmy and sweet by turns, tapping into the delightfully campy charade that made WandaVision’s Agatha stand out in the first place. Joe Locke is earnest and funny as the mysterious Teen, while Patti LuPone, Sasheer Zamata, and Ali Ahn each bring a unique twist to their witches. But even in this undeniably stacked cast, it’s Aubrey Plaza as Rio who steals every single scene. From the crackling chemistry she shares with Hahn’s Agatha to the masterful chaos she deftly wields in unexpected and kooky ways, Plaza effortlessly infuses a tangible humanity into her complicated role. It’s a beautifully layered take on a character that could’ve veered into one-note territory in anyone else’s hands. And while she is woefully underutilized in the first four episodes available for review, once she steps back into the picture, it’s impossible to look away from this magnetic performance. 

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of this series is how queer it is. Agatha All Along isn’t gay in the way Natalie Portman (wrongfully) exclaimed that Thor: Love and Thunder was “so gay,” or the way that Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel is gay to me, but actually, honest-to-God gay. After years of only scraps of queer-coding and small, almost-laughable inclusions in various projects, it feels surreal to see so much queerness baked into this series’ DNA, with nearly all the main characters being some flavor of queer (spoken and otherwise). In particular, the relationship between Agatha and Rio is the driving force behind so much of the show’s underlying mysteries, and their deliciously toxic ex-vibes are elevated by the electric chemistry between Hahn and Plaza. And even beyond its more explicit representation, the series’ overall campy nature and frequent musical numbers make this Marvel project feel less four-quadrant and more tailored to a queer audience. 

Overall, Agatha All Along is a surprising win for a battered Disney+ TV pipeline that’s still bent, but no longer fully broken. With the only MCU knowledge needed for this trip down The Witches’ Road being WandaVision and the passing understanding that Wanda “died” in Multiverse of Madness, Agatha feels accessible and unique, offering a spooky, fun Halloween-season romp sure to keep you on the edge of your seat week after week. Just four episodes in, this series has a clearer identity than almost all of its predecessors, and fantastically utilizes the medium and its talented players to craft an engaging, funny, smart, sexy, singular show. After years of MCU disappointments on both the big and small screens, who knew that the project capable of breathing new life into a tired cinematic universe would be Agatha All Along. 

Agatha All Along premieres Wednesday, September 18th on Disney+. 

Anna Govert is the TV Editor of Paste Magazine. For any and all thoughts about TV, film, and her unshakable love of complicated female villains, you can follow her @annagovert.

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