tek's rating: ½

Agatha All Along, on Disney+
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Caution: spoilers.

This is a spinoff of WandaVision. Its title is a reference to a musical scene in that series, but the title was originally announced as "Agatha: House of Harkness", and later "Agatha: Coven of Chaos", then "Agatha: Darkhold Diaries", and then (as a joke) "Agatha: The Lying Witch with Great Wardrobe", before finally settling on the actual title.

Well, one thing I never spoiled in my review of "WandaVision" is that Wanda's neighbor, Agnes, eventually turned out to be a powerful witch named Agatha Harkness. The spell that everyone in town was under had been broken at the end of that series, but when this series starts, Agatha has been the only one in town left under the spell. For the past three years, she has believed herself to be a police detective named Agnes O'Connor, in what appears to be a gritty police drama show. Everyone else in town is befuddled by the things she says and does, but I think sometimes they vaguely play along, not knowing what else to do, and other times Agatha just sees and hears them saying and doing things that make sense in her perception of the world, even if that's not what they're really saying and doing. It's pretty weird. But the spell Agatha is under is broken at the end of the first episode, I guess at least partly by a teenager whose name isn't revealed until later in the series. (Apparently, a sigil has been placed on him that prevents any witches, including Agatha, from learning anything about him, including his name.) So Agatha just calls him "Teen". But Teen isn't the only one trying to snap Agatha out of her delusions. There's also an old acquaintance of hers named Rio (Aubrey Plaza), who wants to kill her. But once she remembers who she is, Agatha makes a bargain with her not to take her life until she gets her magic back (which Wanda had taken in the previous series). However, Rio also informs Agatha that the "Salem Seven", a powerful coven with a major grudge against Agatha, are tracking her down.

Teen wants to travel something called "the Witch's Road" with Agatha, but first they'll have to assemble a coven. They recruit a few reluctant witches who each have something to gain by going along on the journey, including Lilia Calderu, Jen Kale, and Alice Wu-Gulliver. They need one other witch to complete the coven, so Agatha drags someone named Sharon Davis (Debra Jo Rupp) into the group, lying about her being a witch. (Sharon has no idea what's going on, and Agatha keeps calling her "Mrs. Hart", which was a character she'd been forced to play in Wanda's sitcom, in the previous series.) The group chants a song that's supposed to open a gateway to the Witch's Road, but Agatha seems a bit surprised that it actually works. Then the Salem Seven show up, and everyone starts down the Road together, to escape them. Along the journey, they'll have to face a series of trials before reaching the end, and it's far from certain that everyone will survive. In episode 4, Rio joins the group, and we eventually learn something about her that I'm not going to spoil. In episode 6, we finally learn Teen's identity and backstory, but I'd rather not spoil that, for now. In the penultimate episode, those who survive finally reach the end of the Road. In the finale, episode 9, we get some backstory for Agatha, set in the 1750s, before the story returns to the present. And I guess that's all I want to reveal about the plot.

There's definitely some major stuff that goes on, which will undoubtedly be followed up on in future movies or series (or possibly a second season of this show). I'm interested to see what happens with all of that (at which point I'll have to spoil some things I've refrained from revealing yet). Anyway, this was a fairly entertaining show, though I didn't like it as much as I did most MCU series. It had interesting characters, and overall an interesting story. Agatha herself is probably the most entertaining, but least likable of the characters. And I really liked the imagery used in the closing credits, as well as the music. And I guess I don't know what else to tell you.


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