Agatha All Along Hits the Scene: Is It Another MCU Flop or a Salvation?

On September 18, Agatha All Along by Jac Schaeffer, showrunner of the most original project of the franchise WandaVision, started with two episodes.

Kathryn Hahn returned to the role of the witch Agatha Harkness, and her long-time rival was played by the star of Season 2 of The White Lotus Aubrey Plaza.

Here's What the First Two Episodes Showed Us

The plot of the series takes us back to Agatha, who is under the spell of Wanda. Having lost her powers, the villain is forced to live in the town of Westview as the main character of a fake detective series in the spirit of Mare of Easttown.

Suddenly, Agatha's longtime rival, the witch Rio Vidal, appears, eager to get even with Harkness for past grievances. Agatha, however, manages to convince her that she will have much more fun defeating her when she gets her powers back.

A dark magic fan comes to Harkness' aid, wanting to gain magical powers of his own, and helps her get out of Westview. Together, they set out to find other witches and put them through a series of tests to get Agatha's powers back. The already delicate situation is complicated by the fact that the mysterious Salem Seven are already after Agatha's soul.

Agatha All Along Seems Faceless and Too Slow So Far

The idea of the plot itself is quite intriguing, but there are serious problems with its implementation. First, we are sadly shown Harkness in captivity under Wanda's spell. The authors failed to show in a memorable way how the not-so-simple villain suddenly turned into an obedient "puppet" under the influence of Maximoff's magic.

The introduction lacks catchy details that would at least emphasize the mystical background of the story with bright individual strokes or subtle hints. WandaVision dealt with this in a much more inventive way.

There Are No Memorable Characters, Except For Agatha and Rio Vidal

Agatha still escapes the spell thanks to a young stranger – but how exactly the "fan" managed to free her from the spell of the powerful Scarlet Witch is not explained in the first episodes. Or maybe the creators left those details for the next seven episodes.

Once free, Harkness begins to assemble a team of witches to fight the mysterious Salem Seven – they were never really shown in an hour and a half of screen time. The assembly of the "team" of witches does not look particularly interesting. In fact, none of the witches – including the boy who rescues Agatha – stand out.

The main star of the series, along with Kathryn Hahn, is Aubrey Plaza, who plays the role of Rio Vidal. In the scenes she is given at the beginning, Plaza looks impressive and bright. However, the number of these scenes and their total running time in two episodes are so small that it is too early to draw any serious conclusions about her character.

Agatha All Along Still Has Time to Pick Up the Pace

Agatha All Along started slowly and vaguely. After the first episodes, the question arises – was a spin-off about the villain from Wanda/Vision necessary at all?

One can only hope that Jac Schaeffer and her team were not able to offer the audience a convincing beginning of the story, but saved something exciting for the middle and the end. Otherwise the series will join the already impressive list of modern failures of the MCU.