Do you assume Patti LuPone would have the ability to clarify who Tony Stark is? Does she know something concerning the multiverse? Might she cobble collectively three information about Kang the Conqueror? Or the distinction between Captain Marvel and Ms. Marvel? Is she aware of Wanda Maximoff and the way she grew to become Scarlet Witch? Did she watch WandaVision?
Just like the likelihood of Patti LuPone exhibiting as much as a Madonna live performance, the reply to all of the above isn’t any, by no means, or completely not.
LuPone will let you know herself that she has no concept how something within the Marvel universe works. That’s what makes her good for Agatha All Alongside, the place she performs the kooky fortune teller Lilia Calderu. It may appear counterintuitive, however the truth that even one of many present’s stars lacks baseline Marvel data goes to point out how straightforward it’s to get into the brand new WandaVision spinoff. It’s a superbly foolish spooky season teaser, even for non-Marvel followers.
Viewers require little or no background data to grasp the present. That’s given the collection a serendipitous story-telling cushion, permitting everybody concerned a bit extra artistic slack to point out us how essentially the most maniacal 400-year-old witch to ever hang-out the planet acquired her groove again. It’s a journey that takes us to a spoof of Mare of Easttown, an uncanny play on Bravo’s Actual Housewives, a winking riff on The Wizard of Oz, and so many bizarre locations in between.
Agatha is extra all in favour of creating witchy nonsense than sticking with superhero seriousness. Every episode is filled with spells and potions and magic, somewhat than reminding you what the Avengers are as much as. There’s comedic, spooky world-building occurring right here in a method that Marvel’s common fare not often permits.
All you might want to know for Agatha is that Agatha Harkness (Kathyrn Hahn) is a magic consumer who messed with the very highly effective Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), a.ok.a. the Scarlet Witch, and misplaced. Wanda took away all her energy, zapped all her reminiscences, and sentenced her to stay in a New Jersey city known as Westview. Caught within the suburbs with no magic and no id, Agatha’s profession is in shambles.
Her all-time low is the place Agatha All Alongside picks up.
Because of the assistance of Teen (Joe Locke), a personality that goes by the title “Teen” due to a spell that doesn’t permit him to say his precise title, and triggered by Wanda Maximoff’s dying (see: Physician Unusual within the Multiverse of Insanity), Agatha breaks out of her trance. Like anybody dwelling a lifetime of quiet desperation in suburban New Jersey, she realizes she must regain her powers, and to take action, Agatha might want to assemble a gang of witches — a divination skilled (LuPone), a potion brewer (Sasheer Zamata), a safety mage (Ali Ahn), and an earth magic enchantress (Debra Jo Rupp) — to search out the “Witches Highway” and cross its varied trials.
A gaggle of misfits strolling down a street and having to assist one another alongside the way in which? It’s an inverted riff on one other very well-known story a few street, a depraved witch, a bunch of recent companions, and a hard redhead with all of the items combined and matched. Sadly for her coven, Agatha could be very into double-crossing. Happily for her coven, everybody is aware of that Agatha is a double-crosser. Attending to the top of the street would require teamwork and maintaining Agatha in verify — issues neither Agatha nor her coven appear able to doing.
When Agatha All Alongside was greenlit, Marvel mania was nonetheless driving excessive on the again of 2021’s WandaVision, the potential for a multiverse of parallel timelines and worlds, and the promise of a brand new period of Avengers. Controversy surrounding Jonathan Majors’s home abuse allegations and a collection of middling motion pictures has absolutely derailed that momentum, however the checks had been already signed and filming wrapped for Agatha in Could 2023.
Agatha doesn’t must set the desk for the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the collection doesn’t function a personality that prominently figures into Marvel’s greater plans. This might all change, however there’s presently no expectation for the Tony Award-winning LuPone to be busting out of an Iron Man go well with to tackle Physician Doom (as implausible as that sounds). Nor does there appear to be an enormous plan for Hahn’s Agatha to hyperlink up with any of the prevailing Avengers.
With out the strain of being an integral piece of the Marvel design or needing the characters to save lots of the world (as is the MO of so many Marvel tasks), showrunner Jac Schaeffer and Agatha’s artistic staff have been allowed a bit extra freedom to create a present on their phrases. That materializes within the present’s penchant for foolish musical moments and a number of costume modifications. An episode later this season (critics got 4 episodes to evaluate) finds the ladies trapped in a Nancy Meyers-esque coastal mansion, full with poison wine and a treacherous luxurious rest room.
The one predictable factor concerning the collection is that not everybody within the coven goes to make it to the top, and nobody, not even Agatha, is assured a contented ending. Maybe the witches will all activate Agatha. Maybe Agatha will, once more, betray the witches who belief her. For as soon as, something and every thing might occur in a Marvel present, and that’s a fascinating chance.