‘Agatha All Along’ Puts the MCU Under Kathryn Hahn’s Kooky, Captivating Spell: TV Review
variety.comAlison Herman TV Critic The Marvel Cinematic Universe built an empire on minor characters, proving that strong execution and an overarching brand could elevate once-fringe figures like Black Widow or the Guardians of the Galaxy into franchise mainstays. (With A-list IP like Spider-Man and the X-Men leased out to other studios at the time, this was partly out of necessity.) But even by Marvel’s own standards, the Disney+ show “Agatha All Along” marks the deepest of deep cuts.
Kathryn Hahn’s title character, a witch who survived Salem only to run afoul of Elizabeth Olsen’s grief-stricken Wanda Maximoff in Marvel Studios’ TV debut “WandaVision,” has never even headlined a comic book of her own.
Agatha got her own spinoff almost entirely on the strength of Hahn’s scene-stealing performance — which is why the earlier series, not Marvel Comics, is credited as “Agatha All Along’s” source material.
That approach pays off in the nine-episode series, a magical quest that takes its tonal cues from Hahn’s big, brassy, cock-eyed performance. (Critics screened four episodes in advance.) Marvel has been in something of a creative and financial slump as of late, with viewers fatigued by an increasingly interchangeable, interconnected onslaught of output.
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