DUBAI: Whisper it, but there are signs that Marvel is coming out of its post-“Avengers: Endgame” slump. After a string of movies and shows that boasted more misses than hits, the recent “Deadpool & Wolverine” not only joked about the dip in output quality over the last couple of years, but has gone some way towards showing there may be life in the comic-book behemoth yet. So the pressure is certainly on “Agatha All Along”, the latest miniseries to hit the Disney+ streaming service.
A spinoff from the excellent “WandaVision,” the show sees Kathryn Hahn reprise her role as the villainous Agatha Harkness. Still trapped in smalltown America, and stripped of her magical powers, Agatha is released from the last vestiges of Wanda Maximoff’s spell by a teenage kid (“Heartstopper” star Joe Locke). Realizing she needs to walk the legendary Witches Road in order to reclaim her powers, Agatha sets about building a new witches coven to help her.
The show’s secret weapon is Hahn. Slipping effortlessly back into the role, she’s all snark and sass as she reluctantly admits that she can’t get her powers back without the help of her new coven family. Perhaps taking inspiration from the success of “WandaVision,” creator and showrunner Jac Shaeffer leans into the weird, fourth wall-breaking silliness — a true crime detective show spell Agatha gets stuck in is “based on the Danish series Wandavisdysen.” On top of that, a raft of new characters led by Locke, Patti LuPone as a Sicilian witch, returning star Debra Jo Rupp, and Aubrey Plaza (stealing the first two episodes at least with her role as a warrior witch) give Hahn the perfect foils to explore Agatha’s backstory.
Marvel shows, on the small screen at least, tend to be at their best when they tell intricate, thought-out stories about weird and wonderful worlds, sidestepping some of that grandiose, world-ending pomp typical of the MCU movies. With “Agatha All Along” — and more specifically, with Hahn leading such a great ensemble cast — Marvel might very well be back to winning ways.
