By 
This review contains spoilers for Agatha All Along episodes 1 and 2.
As a sequel to WandaVision, Agatha All Along has some pretty big shoes to fill. WandaVision is still pretty well regarded as one of the best Marvel projects to come out of the post-Endgame era, with its story of grief and love as told through the lens of sitcoms striking a chord in a lot of us, and proving that Marvel can still think outside of the box when it wants to. With WandaVision creator Jac Schaeffer back as showrunner and now stepping into the director’s chair for a few episodes (including these first two) Agatha All Along had a lot of potential right out of the gate.
While these first two episodes of Agatha All Along might not be quite as captivating or mysterious as its predecessor’s, this show manages to both feel at home in this world of pop-culture homages that Schaeffer has crafted while also carving its own path down the spooky Witches’ Road.
Episode 1 “Seekest Thou the Road” begins as a fun homage to Mare of Easttown and the true crime genre as a whole before Agatha breaks free from Wanda’s spell and remembers who she is. With a mysterious Teen (Joe Locke) and Rio Vidal (Aubrey Plaza), an old flame, encouraging her to claw her way out, Agatha finds herself again just in time for Rio to try and take her revenge. As fun as it would be to watch Kathryn Hahn act her way through hours of loving homages to prestige dramas, with only nine episodes to tell this story, it makes more sense to dive in as soon as we can.
And boy do we dive in. As soon as Agatha breaks free, Rio barges through her door in her full witchy glory to deliver vengeance. Though we don’t yet know exactly the grievance for which Rio wants revenge, their fight is dripping with the tension and betrayal of a lover scorned. Hahn and Plaza are electric when they share the screen, and their chemistry is palpable. Although Agatha convinces Rio to wait until she has her powers back to kill her, that doesn’t stop Rio from sending the mysterious Salem Seven after Agatha, presumably for their own revenge against the infamous power-stealing witch.
Agatha is back to her full self (minus her powers of course) at the start of episode 2 “Circle Sewn with Fate, Unlock Thy Hidden Gate,” and on the hunt for a coven powerful enough to get her to the Witches’ Road. Thus, we get to meet more of the series’ witchy co-stars in this episode, all of whom bring their own spark of power to the show. Just as their characters all have their own skill sets to contribute to the coven, Patti LuPone, Sasheer Zamata, Ali Ahn, and Debra Jo Rupp all bring something wonderful to Agatha All Along, and it’s so fun to watch them play off of, and even match, Kathryn Hahn’s slightly bitchy witch vibes.
Joe Locke is also a lot of fun to watch as the Teen. His energetic eagerness to learn more about witchcraft and traverse the Road is the perfect juxtaposition to Agatha’s selfish cynicism. His excitement for the journey ahead is infectious and makes me excited to go on this journey with them. There’s also the massive question of who he actually is, with some kind of protective magic hiding his identity from the witches he travels with and us, the audience. Time will only tell, but I will absolutely be seated when the big reveal comes.
As they all gather at Agatha’s house to sing the haunting “Ballad of the Witches’ Road,” (good luck getting this catchy song by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez out of your head) and open a portal to this magical realm, Agatha’s past catches up with her as the Salem Seven come to collect, just as Rio promised. Poor Sharon a.k.a. Mrs. Hart (Jo Rupp) gets swept up in all of this as the coven’s designated “Earth witch,” having just enough latent power to get the job done and keeping Agatha from having to seek out the true final member as determined by Lilia’s (LuPone) divined list – Rio. Rio’s name may not have explicitly appeared, but the designation of a black heart on the list, and Agatha’s odd insistence on trying to traverse the road without an Earth witch in the first place, points to her as the true final member of the coven.
Episode 2 ends with the coven finally reaching the legendary Road, to the genuine surprise of some of the witches who weren’t entirely sure it was real. Agatha narrowly misses the wrath of the Salem Seven (for now) and sets off down, down, down the Road with her new coven, ready to face whatever trials this mysterious realm might have in store for them.
Agatha All Along is already proving to be a spooky, campy, witchy good time, and potentially the gayest Marvel show in existence thus far, which we love to see. While it’s too early to say whether or not Agatha is as good as WandaVision, fans of the show will certainly be in for a treat. Jac Schaeffer has crafted a magnificently bewitching corner of the MCU, and it’s a world that is genuinely fun to spend time in.
The first two episodes of Agatha All Along are streaming on Disney+. New episodes premiere Wednesdays, culminating with the finale on October 30.
Learn more about Den of Geek’s review process and why you can trust our recommendations here.
The post Agatha All Along Review: A Bewitchingly Good WandaVision Follow-Up appeared first on Den of Geek.
