By Esther Zuckerman, Bloomberg

TV Review
Agatha All Along
Disney+

AGATHA HARKNESS, the Marvel witch played with fabulous flair by Kathryn Hahn, became a sensation largely thanks to the jaunty earworm “Agatha All Along,” which she performed in the seventh episode of Disney’s 2021 hit series WandaVision. A chorus asks: “Who’s been messing up everything?” To which Hahn winningly sings, in her best Broadway belt: “It’s been Agatha all along!”

Given that WandaVision was the first Marvel franchise to drop on streaming service Disney+, and that critics largely agreed the series felt like a creative leap forward (and away from the already tired Marvel Cinematic Universe), Hahn’s star turn all but guaranteed her a spinoff.

Three years later, Walt Disney Co. has made good with Agatha All Along, a nine-episode series stacked with a dream-team cast of divas and character actresses that also features another original, surprisingly good tune from songwriters Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez. To get to the good stuff, though, you’ll have to make it through an uneven story setup that makes you wonder whether the series will stick its landing.

The last time we saw Agatha in WandaVision, Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen, absent from Agatha All Along thus far) trapped her in the town of Westview, leaving her powerless and hallucinating. The first episode of Agatha picks up where WandaVision left off, opening with a parody of an HBO drama: Still under Wanda’s spell, Agatha believes herself to be Agnes, a small-town detective hunting down the killer of a Jane Doe. It’s a not-so-subtle spin on Mare of Easttown, with Hahn doing her best bad impression of Kate Winslet (and a Saturday Night Live sketch).

Although it’s very funny, it also feels like filler leading up to the real action, which kicks off with a mysterious goth teenage boy (Heartstopper’s Joe Locke). He arrives in town and awakens Agatha from her stupor. Meanwhile she has another visitor: a vengeful witch from her past, Rio Vidal, portrayed with a sexy villainy by Aubrey Plaza. Rio warns that a menacing cohort known as the Salem Seven is on the way to kill Agatha, angry at a past offense.

It’s not until the second episode, which was released alongside the first on Wednesday, (after that it’s on a one a week schedule) that we get to the real meat of the plot. To fully regain her powers, Agatha has to assemble a coven and walk a dangerous magical byway that will end in either death or enhanced power. The path is known as the Witches’ Road, the route to which is summoned via a ballad on which the cast expertly harmonizes. (This isn’t the last time you’ll hear “The Ballad of the Witches’ Road,” which I found myself involuntarily humming the day after I watched the screeners.)

The coven is one I’d happily join. Theater legend Patti LuPone is magisterially kooky as Lilia Calderu, a brassy soothsayer who’s working as a cheap psychic when Agatha approaches. Former SNL cast member Sasheer Zamata’s Jennifer Kale is a potions master who’s taken to selling wellness items such as probiotic candles. And Ali Ahn is Alice Wu-Gulliver, a ne’er-do-well nepo daughter of a formerly powerful witch rock star who’s been reduced to working security at a Hot Topic-type store.

The other sorceresses are skeptical of Agatha’s intentions — as they should be, because she has only her own interests at heart. But despite their reservations, they team up with Agatha on her quest, all in need of their own type of fulfillment. They’re also joined by the nonwitch, suburban gardener Mrs. Hart (Debra Jo Rupp, a holdover from WandaVision), who thinks Agatha is inviting her to a party; in reality, Agatha needs someone with a green thumb to complete the coven. Eventually, Plaza’s Rio is also integrated back into the fold, bringing with her the brand of wide-eyed, alluring chaos in which the actress specializes.

In its initial episodes, Agatha All Along, created by Jac Schaeffer, offers up a lot of mysteries. The biggest one: Who is this goth boy whom Agatha simply calls “Teen,” since whenever he tries to say his own name a spell prevents him from doing so? Locke brings an adorable earnestness to the part, which one has to assume will somehow be complicated as the narrative progresses. Two other questions: Just who is Rio Vidal? And what is her history with Agatha? Plaza and Hahn’s scenes together bristle with a palpable chemistry that’s not entirely chaste, and therefore quite radical for a Marvel product (though we’ll see how far they actually take it).

The fun really begins when the ladies hit the literal road and are greeted with a series of magical trials that test their supernatural abilities. Without spoiling too much: Each trial comes with a variety of absurd costumes. The first includes a setup that plays like a Nancy Meyers movie gone horribly wrong. That’s followed by one with the cast in groovy 1970s wigs, forced to rock out to stop a curse.

If the rest of the series’ nine episodes follow this path, with each installment providing another goofy trial, Agatha All Along should be a swell, silly time. That said, the emotional stakes so far feel remarkably thin. It’s unclear why we should care whether Agatha regains her power, other than that it’s amusing to watch Hahn and her co-stars ham it up.

When Marvel premiered WandaVision, it was the start of a new era for the studio. It was less about introducing new superheroes and more about expanding the boundaries of what was possible within the medium, inflecting existing characters with real pathos. It was a Marvel product that transcended the Marvel baggage. Three years later, Agatha All Along arrives as a bit of an afterthought. It’s got its charms, but it feels haphazardly thrown together, and the magic isn’t fully there.