The world has a way of evening things out. Take this week, for example, with The Penguin debuting as one of the best comic book television adaptations of the century, while Agatha All Along limps along as one of the worst. It’s a cringe-worthy, grating, tedious, and monotonously boring spooky fantasy.
The Disney+ series has been the worst since Secret Invasion and is easily one of the worst Marvel streaming series ever. Agatha All Along lacks basic scares, thrills, laughs, and any semblance of the joy typically found in shows like this. It makes you wonder exactly who this series was created for.
Perhaps those fierce Hocus Pocus loyalists developed over the last few decades? Either way, the first four episodes of Disney+’s Agatha All Along are a calculated misfire on almost every level.
Disney+’s Agatha All Along Season 1 Review and Synopsis
It’s a shock to have Agatha All Along crash face first the way it has. For one, the series is from Jac Schaeffer, who wrote two episodes of the creative WandaVision and co-wrote the story of the criminally underrated Scarlett Johansson vehicle Black Widow.
However, Schaeffer is credited for writing the remake of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Hustle, so you start to understand what the series was up against.
The story is meant for the spooky season of Halloween. As we have seen, this manufactured holiday fare has been popping up throughout September. The problem here is the show becomes tedious and mundane the more “ominous” the series becomes.
Agatha All Along is One of the Worst Series Disney+ Has Ever Done!
Taking place after WandaVision, the show begins with Kathryn Hahn’s Agatha trapped in the bleak and dismal life of Westview, New Jersey, working as a detective investigating a headless body found in the middle of the woods. Agatha is married to her job and stays at the precinct at all hours of the night.
Additionally, her child’s room remains empty and untouched. As she prepares to settle in for the night, a federal agent, Rio Vidal (My Old Ass’s Aubrey Plaza), with whom she shares a past, shows up at her door—along with a pesky teen thief-in-training (Heartstopper’s Joe Locke) who steals something from her home.
Due to spoilers, we can’t reveal much more, even though the trailer and articles all over the internet already explain what’s happening. One major issue is that the opening episode is boring. It’s written as though the audience has no idea what’s happening.
Disney+’s Agatha All Along is Virtually Free of Humor and Fun
However, since we already know who Agatha is and who the body belongs to, the entire 41 minutes feel like an exercise in futility. Any humor comes from a few Easter eggs and WandaVision cameos, but they only elicit a few snorts and “meh’s.” There is virtually no humor or fun, which is desperately needed to cut through the series’ ominous tone.
Additionally, the writing is incredibly lazy for such a big production. Episodes two through four become standalone outings addressing the backstories of the new cast traveling down the infamous “Witches’ Road.” However, whenever Schaeffer and her team write the characters into a corner, they pull out an eye-rolling chant or a laughable potion concoction to move the story along.
Agatha All Along is one of the few shows where the writing and acting refuse to complement each other. Sasheer Zamata seems to have lost any sense of comedic timing, and her role is reduced to monologues of exposition. Additionally, Hahn, who should be the center of the series, gets lost in the shuffle as soon as the show begins its jaunt down the road to nowhere.
Is Disney+’s Agatha All Along Season 1 Worth Watching?
That is precisely why Agatha All Along is not worth watching; the series undermines Hahn’s performance from the end of the pilot. Hahn’s Agatha is much more interesting (and even complex) when the character tries to navigate her present world and uncover the truth. After that point, Hahn’s comic timing is cut off at the knees. The writing doesn’t live up to her talents.
While one can appreciate the theme the show strives for—female community and empowerment—the tone could be more consistent, the special effects could be stronger for a Marvel production, the characters are flat, and filling the scripts with weak witchcraft clichés.
Only four episodes of Agatha All Along were made available to critics, so it’s nearly impossible to judge a miniseries based on only seeing half the episodes. If that is any indication, the series lacks the magic of imagination from the start.
The first episodes were screened for critics. You can stream the first season of Agatha All Along on Disney+ on September 19th.
Agatha All Along Season 1 Review — One of the Worst Marvel Television Series Ever!
The world has a way of evening out things. Take this week: The Penguin debuts as one of the best comic book television adaptations of the century, while Agatha All Along is one of the worst. It’s a cringe-worthy, grating, even tedious, and monotonously boring spooky fantasy that has lazy writing, lacks scares, laughs, and any semblance of the joy that comes with shows like these. The first four episodes are a calculated misfire on almost every level.
