Agatha All Along

Episodes 1 and 2: I feel like Agatha All Along shines most when it shows Agatha front and centre. There are some genuinely funny moments with her, especially in the climatic tail end of episode 2. But I feel as though needing to share the spotlight with Teen (who I believe will turn out to be Wiccan) dampers her character a bit to be thrust into a mentor archetype. To add onto this, I believe Teen also shines most brightly when he is on his own aswell. It feels like these 2 characters could be so interesting, but together they are just "Teen fangirls over Agatha" or "Agatha does something mean to him." Obviously I've only watched the first two episodes, but I feel as though, however good Joe Lockes performance as Teen is, the need to share the spotlight with the witch is what drags both characters down. But these remaining 7 episodes could change my mind. Safe to say i am looking forward to the coming weeks and will be seated every Thursday. Episode 3: Episode 3 just elevates Agatha Harkness as a character to me in all ways, she's funny and conniving but remains to her character of trying to cheat the system and backstab anyone she can, but I quite enjoy how her development with 'Teen' has evolved she didn't need to say it but it's obvious she believes that he is her son which also gets some development during her hallucination and exposition from other witches. Sharon is a funny addition that is lost too soon and Lillia Cardew stands out in term of the rest of the coven. Overall I believe this is the best episode so far that gives us hints at all of the covens past and 'Teens' identity (which got leaked anyway but I'm going to ignore that for now) Episode 4: A small step up from Episode 3 in my opinion, but not by much since it seems to be following the same formula for each episode, meaning the only real differences are personal preference. Agatha continues to get ample development and the audience is able to connect with her more, I enjoyed the false jumpscare of Rio and I'm enjoying her and Agathas dynamic at the moment, although I am wondering what may happen to the other witches now since it's quite obvious from trailer footage that things won't go well. The music rock type theme was fun and I liked all the characters outfits, it's fun to see how the roar changes and affects them even if just visually, the story of Alice and her mother was done quite well too although I believe the possession of Lilia could have either been expanded upon, or not shown at all because it loses its significance after the first time it happens. This version of the ballad was fun and it was heartwarming to learn that it was a protection spell for Alice, who is quickly becoming a favourite of mine. Overall the Episode, while not too impactful on thr overall narrative, serves its purpose and helps establish relationships in the coven and foreshadows future events. Episodes 5: What. The. Fuck. Before I go into a long rant because im so passionate about this character I'm gonna discuss the episode as a whole. The overall episode was okay, I enjoyed the coven getting their small revenge on Agatha as a way to escape the trial and it was nice to see Agatha's mother return but Alice dying was actually quite sad and "teens" reaction was bittersweet. I'm not sure about the ending, besides the obvious, but I'm excited to see where the story goes since it's just Rio and "Teen" left on the road. Time for the obvious incoming long ass rant. Marvel. If you're not going to give an authentic adaptation of one of my favourite comic book characters and a character that has helped me on a deep emotional level I would rather you not even try to adapt him at all. Besides the obvious Jewish erasure from Billy Kaplan, they refuse to even acknowledge his real parents and instead call his "mother" Wanda. Which may be technically correct, the body that Billy inhabits is that of a completely different teenager. To completely ignore them would be to do a disservice to the character. This boy doesn't even resemble Billy in anyway besides physicality either. He has the complete opposite ideals to Billy Kaplan and just decides to toss Agatha, Jen and Lillia to what he believes is certain death? Billy Kaplan would NOT do that unless Teddy was in serious danger. This is just a goth witch obsessed teenager that Marvel has slapped the title of "Wiccan" onto when he doesn't even match who Billy is in the comics. I really hopes Marvel does better because although the overall episode was okay, the fact that they have gone this route just twists the show for me. I have been waiting years for Billy's introduction to the MCU but this is not Billy Kaplan. This is almost a completely original character with the name of Billy Kaplan (They may even change it to Billy Maximoff for whatever reason). Episode 6: I really don't know if I'm being honest. This isn't william kaplan this is an oc with some characteristics of william kaplan. Also if Agatha comes out of the side of the road then where are the other 2? The witches road doesn't need to make entire sense but I feel like there needs to be a reason for why it seems like (from trailer footage) some people get thrown back to West view and some get put back into the road. It's just a tad inconsistent. This might be because I also just had a major stressful day. But I don't really find this episode that entertaining, the most entertaining parts of the last 4 were seeing the witches interact with each other while here it was just Billy. Episode 7: Bit late to review but this is genuinely the best episode of the series. Besides 2 glaring factors, but before I get into them I'll discuss the positives. The episode, while confusing at first, is a perfect pay off to Patti Lupones character of Lilia, with the way she interacts with the other witches to her final twist at the end with the Salem seven, the outfits were also amazing and the ending makes me quite excited for the next 2 episodes. All of this is amazing but I just wish that Patti Lupone was an original character and not a white washed one because she is a phenomenal actress that really outshined everyone this whole episode, infact almost all of the characters, besides "Billy" are written fantastically and I love all of their interactions. Overall the Episode is amazing and beautifully shot and acted but that doesn't take away from the "queer puns" that are probably only really funny to younger queer people (which is just a minor issue) and the fact that several characters are really not themselves, featuring ethnic erasure and white washing (q major issue). Episode 8 and 9: The finale was pretty good. Character arcs were tied well and agathas backstory with Nicholas was quite emotional at times and the fact she used the witches road ballad as a way to scam and steal witches power was a good twist. What I DIDN'T like however was 1. Wiccan's costume. It looks like it was bought at a spirit Halloween before he came to help Agatha. 2. The fact he is still an out of character oc for wiccan who was just okay with throwing Jen and Lillia to certain death in episode 5 but suddenly now he feels so guilty about not even killing Sharon Alice and Lilia? It needs to make sense. 3. The fact we barely see Jen in these last 2 episodes. Nowhere in episode 8 after she leaves the trial, nowhere to be seen in episode 9 except for a cutaway to show she's alive. 4. The fact we didn't learn anything in this trial about Jen's past. In the first trial we learned snippets from everyone, in the second we learned about Alice and the curse, episode 5 taught us more about Agatha and her journey, episode 7 shows us Lilia's progression throughout her life and episode 8 is just Jen figuring out Agatha bound her? But this could have been figured out through a normal conversation anyway?? 5. The obvious fact that Billy is still ethnically erased and an oc who is far too connected to wanda than he should be. Overall the show is good. But there's a few plot points that I wish were expanded upon and I wish they did Billy Kaplan justice, because he was treated as Billy Maximoff during the entire show instead of who he really is.