Agatha All Along - First two episodes

''Down, down, down the road, down the witches' road...'' in Agatha All Along.

''Who's been messing up everything? It's been Agatha All Along!'' This is how we were introduced to supreme witch Agatha Harkness in February 2021 in the seventh episode of WandaVision. A spin-off was soon announced that would focus on Agatha. It is now three and a half years later and Agatha All Along has finally premiered on Disney+. Was it worth the wait?

In Agatha All Along (which has had no fewer than four different titles in the past almost four years, namely: Agatha: House of Harkness, Agatha: Coven of Chaos, Agatha: Darkhold Diaries and the final Agatha All Along) we follow the famous witch Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn, Tiny Beautiful Things) who awakens after three years from the spell that Wanda Maximoff places on her at the end of WandaVision. Agatha's powers are gone, stolen by Wanda, and so she decides to walk the infamous 'Witches' Road'. But she does need a coven for that.

That coven is formed by a group of second-rate witches and a mysterious young man. To form this coven, a number of cast members have been added to the ensemble. The new and well-known roles are played by Joe Locke (Heartstopper), Aubrey Plaza (The White Lotus), Debra Jo Rupp (That '70s Show), Sasheer Zamata (Woke), Ali Ahn (Raising Dion) and Patti LuPone ( Pose).

I'm a fan of Marvel, let's start with that. I think most of the films are great and I also enjoy watching the series. But the very best thing Marvel has ever done is Marvel's WandaVision. What a formidable piece of television that is. So the fact that the story is continued in Agatha All Along is great. As Debra Jo Rupp said in an interview, “Agatha All Along is the second installment in the WandaVision trilogy, culminating in Vision Quest.” This series is scheduled to appear in 2026.

Agatha All Along is exactly what you think of when you think of a series featuring second-rate witches walking the impossible Witches' Road together, led by Agatha Harkness in Hahn's portrayal. That will of course be all camp. And camp it certainly is. It's wonderfully wrong, but also just great old school fantasy. It's funny. Not in a hilarious way, but in a funny, comedic way. But at the same time there is also a lot of heart in it, you feel that this was made with a lot of passion. It's not just another Marvel action scene, but a truly original passion project.

After two episodes, there is of course still a lot to say about whether the tension of the story will continue well throughout the season. In any case, I am very curious to see how it will all turn out and what this will mean for the sequel to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Because everything always flows together in the Marvel world.

That is perhaps the biggest drawback to Agatha All Along. Without WandaVision things are a bit difficult to understand. And you can't actually properly watch WandaVision without first watching a collection of films. Nevertheless, I am convinced that you can also enjoy Agatha All Along without all the prior knowledge. You won't understand the references, but the showrunners' goal was to create a series that was accessible to everyone. I think that's still not entirely true, but Agatha All Along is certainly the most accessible of all the series.