Agatha All Along 1×1 and 1×2 Review: “Seekest Thou the Road” and “Circle Sewn with Fate / Unlock Thy Hidden Gate”

Agatha All Along starts off with a bang: a take on True Detective in one, and the beginning of the plot in the other.

I’ve been a Marvel Cinematic Universe fan since the first Iron Man. I think I’ve seen almost everything (still need to finish Luke Cage and never got into The Punisher, Iron Fist, or The Defenders), and have enjoyed almost all of it.

My favorite so far has to be WandaVision. It was funny, sweet, inventive, and sad – all rolled up into one. I also loved the ‘show within a show’ concept, and thought it was handled excellently. It was both a send-up and a love letter to TV sitcoms throughout history.

So when I heard the show was getting a … spin-off? I guess? revolving around Kathryn Hahn’s character Agatha Harkness, I was super excited. Hahn basically stole every scene she was in, and I was eager to see more of her. When I started hearing more about the show – that it was going to be a musical, that it was going to be queer (at least for Marvel), and some of the cast (including Patti f’in’ LuPone) – I was hooked.

The first two episodes dropped on Disney+ on September 18, and I finally had the time (and energy) to sit down and watch them.

The first episode, “Seekest Thou the Road”, grabbed me instantly. We start out with Agatha ‘stuck’ in a crime show called Agnes of Westview, a True Detective style drama looking for the murderer of a Jane Doe. (She’s Agnes O’Connor, the ‘lead’.) A teenager played by Joe Locke (Heartstopper‘s Charlie Spring) breaks into Harkness’s home, looking for something called “The Road”. She’s joined by Rio Vidal (a very sexy Aubrey Plaza), an FBI agent brought in to investigate the murder as well (at least in the show within a show).

Harkness discovers the Jane Doe is actually the body of Wanda Maximov, and ‘Agnes’ discovers she’s actually Agatha and had been trapped under Wanda’s spell for three years. (It’s been THREE YEARS since WandaVision???) The actual plot of the show actually gets going at this point, as Agatha starts her journey to regain her powers. Vidal is another witch, out to kill Harkness.

In the second episode, “Circle Sewn with Fate / Unlock Thy Hidden Gate”, we find out that Locke’s character was the one who broke Agatha out of the spell, wanting to go on “The Witches Road”. Harkness realizes she has lost her power and needs to find a coven in order to regain them. We follow her as she starts to recruit other witches to join her.

The send-up of True Detective – at least to this person who only knows the show from pop culture (it’s a bit too dark for me) – is hilariously on point. It’s dark, it’s gritty, and it’s got sexual tension between Agnes and Rio out the wazoo. I kept waiting for David Tennant to show up!

The transition to the ‘real’ plot is believable and follows just close enough to the story of WandaVision while still being ‘different’ enough to be its own thing. Hahn does a great job of balancing the two different characters (Agnes and Agatha), making them distinctive enough to where there’s no question as to which one she’s playing at the time. (And we get I think Marvel’s first ‘nude’ scene, as at one point Agatha is supposedly naked – and we get to see her bare butt as she runs back to her house.)

Locke manages to hold his own, his American accent somewhat disturbing to me after two seasons of seeing him in Heartstopper. I find him adorable (hey, I’m old enough to be his … well, you get the idea) and I look forward to seeing what else he’s capable of doing.

Meanwhile, Plaza is amazing. I never got into Parks and Recreation (I tried, and it just never grabbed me), so I only know her work by proxy and the few small roles she’s had in other projects. In this role, she exudes sexuality – and her ‘fight’ scene with Hahn is surprisingly erotic considering we’re watching a Disney show.

The rest of the supporting cast is also fun. (I am still giggling at the idea that they managed to have someone call LuPone’s singing ‘pitchy’!) I am eager to see how they continue in the story. The show also manages to bring back Mrs. Hart (Debra Jo Rupp) as an ‘average’ person recruited in to replace Vidal’s place in the coven.

I’m too close to the fandom to really judge whether you can watch this show without having seen WandaVision (or Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, for that matter). But if you enjoyed WandaVision, you’ll definitely enjoy this. It’s a delve into the magic side of the MCU, and compelling enough to make me impatient for the rest of the series. It’s also incredibly feminist: Locke is really the only (apparently) male in the main cast, at least so far.

Agatha All Along has a total of nine episodes and is available – as mentioned – on Disney+. More information about the show can be found both on the Marvel website and on Disney+’s website.

Author: Angie Fiedler Sutton

Angie Fiedler Sutton is a writer, podcaster, and all-round fangirl geek. She has been published in Den of Geek, Stage Directions, LA Weekly, The Mary Sue, and others.

She also produces her own podcast, Contents May Vary, where she interviews geeky people about geeky things. You can see all her work (and social media channels) at angiefsutton.com.

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