Agatha All Along

When Marvel Studios announced a TV series starring the villain from WandaVision, it came as a big surprise to many. However, Agatha Harkness is by no means an unreasonable character to build an entire TV series around as she has appeared in several comic books and was a central character in last year's video game Marvel's Midnight Suns. Agatha All Along stands out as one of the few Marvel products to focus on a former antagonist, and it's with mixed success that Marvel has managed to tell an eerie and unique story in this nine-episode mini-series.

Those who have been following WandaVision and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, in particular, will know that Wanda Maximoff has been through an incredible amount since losing Vision in Avengers: Infinity War. In WandaVision, she cast a spell on an entire town and managed to re-create Vision and two sons who could only exist within her spell. However, it was Agatha who kept pulling the strings ("it was Agatha all along!") and proved to be constantly exploiting Wanda, which ultimately led to a battle where Wanda finally became the Scarlet Witch and cast a spell on Agatha who was then manipulated into living a normal life in the community of Westview. After the Scarlet Witch sacrificed her life in the second Doctor Strange film, the link was broken and Agatha slowly began to revert to her former self.

Agatha was already an interesting character in WandaVision, and thanks to a phenomenal performance from Kathryn Hahn, she brought life and energy to the character, and in Agatha All Along she does this with even more finesse. Hahn continues to play a vicious and selfish witch who cares only about becoming stronger and ultimately the most powerful witch in the world. In the TV series, however, her character is allowed to blossom a little more, showing that there is something more behind her signature untrustworthy smirk, something tragic that could drive many to madness. Hahn really shines in the role of Agatha and makes it almost impossible to know what she is actually up to and what her true motivations are.

To regain her powers, she, along with other witches and an unusual teenage boy (who is arguably the most important character in the series), set out on the legendary Witches' Road, which consists of several challenges that they must survive to reach the end of the road. Each challenge is related to one of the characters and is extremely reminiscent of the Escape Room film series where trapped characters have to solve puzzles within a certain time to survive. Each challenge will also teach them something that will eventually bring them closer together, but Agatha All Along also shows for the first time in a long time in a Marvel sense that there are consequences for those involved and that there is not always a happy ending at the end of the road.

As I mentioned earlier, each episode is mostly limited to one challenge, and since they are based on each witch's past experiences, each challenge is unique. In one episode, the group is dealing with a person's possession that immediately brings to mind The Exorcist and in another, a demon is out to kill them all. So, the TV show dabbles a lot in very creepy and unpleasant areas but it never ever gets so creepy that it can be called a horror show.

While each challenge is unique, not all are particularly interesting. The first time the group is faced with a joint mission, the scriptwriters deliver with class, mixing humour, horror and suspense in an exquisite way. But already in the next challenge it all falls apart and feels less important or relevant. Even though each episode is meant to make the different characters blossom, several of them remain uninteresting and the conclusions of each become one big anti-climax. It's only Agatha's and the teenage boy's backgrounds and narrative arcs that are actually important and make them key characters.

Unfortunately, the ending of the TV series falls pretty flat for me and felt neither grandiose nor particularly satisfying, for that matter. A brief battle is fought (is there even an alternative for Marvel?) but it's extremely weak and really completely unnecessary. In my eyes, it's only there because the formula demands it. Even the final scene hints at an upcoming adventure, but whether it involves these characters or others from the Marvel universe remains to be seen, however regardless of that being the case, even this feels rather underwhelming. Despite strong acting performances, the unique style and a strong character development for Agatha Harkness, Agatha All Along falls pretty flat for me. It's not bad, but it's not particularly good either. It's just incredibly mediocre.