Agatha All Along: Seekest Thou the Road

September 19, 2024 4:53 AM - Season 1, Episode 1

In small town Westview, Detective Agnes’ murder case sends her down a road that changes everything.

The Verge: Agatha All Along is a whimsical road trip through Marvel’s world of witchcraft

AVClub: Agatha All Along is a fun, refreshingly brisk Marvel show

Vulture: Which Witches Are Bringing the Most to Agatha All Along’s Coven?

posted by 1970s Antihero (19 comments total)

The second I saw *that chair* I knew we would be seeing more of that chair.

That chair is a magnificent feat of production design.

Also, murderous Aubrey Plaza is THE BESTEST Aubrey Plaza.
posted by Faintdreams at 5:44 AM on September 19 [1 favorite]

I knew ahead of time (thanks to trailers) that the show would open with Agatha/Agnes being locked into a Mare of Easttown-type police procedural; after watching this, I regretted not checking out at least one of the episodes of that series to see how many tropes they brought in from it. (I also wonder if, since Evan Peters is in that series, the producers at least tried to bring Ralph Bohner back for a cameo.) Nevertheless, it's a clever idea; applying rational analysis, or even some degree of real-life intuition, doesn't really help in a situation where everything's soaked in magic. And there's still a mystery involved: what's the deal with "Teen"? (I mean, we know who he's supposed to be, or at least we do if we've been keeping up with pop culture stuff, but there's still a question of who obscured his identity, and why.) And even the end credits sequence is tantalizing, with Lisa Simpson and what I think might be a snippet from Aubrey Plaza's character from Legion.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:57 AM on September 19 [1 favorite]

It was Fairuza Balk from The Craft in the credits.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 7:25 AM on September 19 [5 favorites]

Spooky and kinda gay, loving it so far!
posted by ellieBOA at 10:38 AM on September 19 [1 favorite]

There's no way I was going to watch this series, but I don't know if we needed a whole episode to setup .
posted by kokaku at 11:57 AM on September 19

I will watch Kathryn Hahn do anything so I like seeing her playing a depressed detective in a prestige crime drama as well as being Agatha.

Aubrey Plaza forever.
posted by edencosmic at 5:09 PM on September 19 [3 favorites]

Good thing that the procedural bit didn't last too long (and also knowing this wasn't gonna be the entire show), because man, it dragged and was flat. Not the crazeball of WandaVision, but you can't have everything.

NakedAgatha is quite fun.

Much as I hate calling someone "Teen," it's interesting that he's vocally bound and doesn't seem to be aware of it, and has a distinct puppy energy that somehow works with Agatha, go figure.
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:50 PM on September 19 [3 favorites]

Which chair?
posted by sixswitch at 8:57 PM on September 19 [1 favorite]

Also, somehow I have never before heard Donovan’s Season of the Witch! I thought it was the “original song” mentioned in the credits 😂
posted by sixswitch at 6:08 AM on September 20 [3 favorites]

I thought this was a very solid start. The procedural part was hilarious to me, particularly the Danish title card. And Aubrey Plaza is a joy. I'm watching this with my partner who may never have seen a single Marvel thing. He's a Joe Locke fan so we're going to give it a shot
posted by Nelson at 6:29 AM on September 20 [1 favorite]

I'm glad that they ended the procedural thing early too, but it did have a few choice bits. I liked how one of the detectives had a specifically Baltimore accent and another had a Minnesota accent (which I took as nods to The Wire and Fargo respectively).
posted by whir at 6:11 PM on September 21 [3 favorites]

I have wishful thinking that Aubrey Plaza's presence in this show is a crossover with Legion, since the Shadow King can somewhat cross realities, but I doubt the current Marvel powers-that-be are that sophisticated unfortunately.

If you haven't seen Legion, I highly recommend it
posted by AzraelBrown at 7:33 AM on September 23 [4 favorites]

I really liked it - when Agnes becomes full on Agatha she reminds you of what an unrepentant piece of work she is. Props to Kathryn for being on board for that scene when she runs outside, that's going to be all over Tumblr.
posted by Ber at 1:29 PM on September 23 [1 favorite]

Speaking of the transformation scene, Agatha's frustrated peeling of layer after layer reminded me sooo much of Eustace removing the multiple layers of dragon skin in Dawn Treader (book, not movie). They both wound up naked and both received outside aid in the process (Aslan and Rio, respectively).
posted by Mogur at 3:37 PM on September 23 [2 favorites]

LEGION - although very Premium TV is NOT A Recommend To All kind of show.

I enjoyed Wandavision, but couldn't stomach Legion and bailed quite early into season 2 - I should have listened to my gut and bailed earlier, but that's on me tbh.

I'd STRONGLY SUGGEST anyone considering watching LEGION peruse it's Does The Dog Die page first.

It's full of very Adult and very Sophisticated horror and other upsetting elements.
posted by Faintdreams at 9:10 AM on September 24 [3 favorites]

Faintdreams, I have a similar criticism of Legion in that at some point, you'll have to be okay with r@pe being used as a plot device. I immediately dropped the show at that point and don't care if it was "explained away" in a satisfactory manner or not, it's def. not a show I recommend for that specific reason (though I was a rabid fan of Season 1).

I was cringing a little and hoping not to get "every episode is a different TV genre" out of Agatha, but the first two eps have me pretty hooked! I only mention this because The Afterparty already pulled that off so spectactularly.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 7:33 AM on September 25 [2 favorites]

I dug it, I enjoyed the concept and execution of "embittered detective" plot/character used as an actual mind trap
posted by eustatic at 7:43 PM on September 26

I was mostly confused here. I had to ask my spouse, who has better memory than me, whether we had seen Aubrey Plaza's character before. There didn't seem to be a reason why she would be trapped in a TV show after Wanda Maximof was trapped, too? I have generally liked the Marvel TV shows (and very much liked Wandavision) but this one was mainly confusion and jokes. The "she's most sincerely dead" one was the most memorable. Cautiously continuing to watch.
posted by wnissen at 4:11 PM on October 2 [1 favorite]

Hmm, guess I'm a bit of an outlier, I wanted the police procedural to go for much longer. I was in love with the idea of the narrative itself preventing her from finding out the truth, but not in the "oh the author conveniently made the chief come in and interrupt her right before she figured things out" way and in the "there is a magical force with agency that is using the tropes of a police procedural to manipulate and shape her life to contain her." And yet, little things slip through until it all unravels. I found it so clever and would have watched probably three or four episodes of watching the narrative come undone and Agatha freeing myself. In fact I fully expected this to happen because they comitted so hard to the bit and got so much of the genre spot on.

But possibly I just miss the good seasons of Haven. It felt like such a love letter to people who love women in detective fiction, which incidentally describes the friend who recommended it to me, which is probably part of why I expected the procedural frame to continue for longer. Still, Hahn had so much fun with the end of that episode that I didn't mind anyway.
posted by brook horse at 7:57 PM on October 4 [1 favorite]