Hey, everyone — today I want to review a show that recently premiered on Disney Plus, “Agatha All Along.” Before I begin my review, I want to say that there will be spoilers for the first episode in here, and it will ruin the show, so please proceed with caution. Apart from the story of “Agatha All Along” just being a blessing to new media — with the wonderful writing of a gracious and respectful story about witches — the show also does a beautiful job with its casting, production design, and camera work.
Beginning with the casting, we have Patti LuPone, the Woman of Broadway, who uses both her singing and acting to the fullest of her abilities with her character. Then we have Joe Locke, who is known for his acting in the British Netflix TV show “Heartstopper,” who shocked fans with his impeccable American accent. With Aubrey Plaza, Debra Jo Rupp, Ali Ahn, and Sasheer Zamata, this show is stacked with accomplished actresses ready to create an exceptional show.
Now to my favorite part of film: production design. When the show began, I was immediately confused because suddenly, I was thrown into a detective TV show when I thought I was watching a show about witches. Later in the episode, when I learned that it was all a hallucination for Agatha, it made looking back at the first episode so interesting. The production designers knew exactly how to meld Agatha’s real life with her hallucination. Turning white picket fences into crime scene tape and having characters’ costumes and hair design range drastically in between eras helped make the transition from hallucination to reality seamless. The first half of the episode felt like a drama set in a small Midwestern town while the second half back in the Westview we knew from the last episode of “WandaVision”. Starting the show like this, to me, cemented the fact that it was going to be amazing. I had loved “WandaVision” because they had cared so deeply about the production design, and now with this show doing the same, it makes me excited to watch every new episode.
Finally came the camera work. There is one scene in the show where Agatha finds a body and the camera work was just beautiful. Agatha and the audience are trying to find out which woman this body belongs to, but cannot because when the face is finally revealed, the audience doesn’t get to see it. Agatha is intentionally placed in front of the body blocking the audience’s view. It’s a subtle, but beautiful detail that made my film major heart flutter a bit.
All in all, I really enjoyed the first three episodes of “Agatha All Along” from both a Marvel fan and film major perspective. I’m sure you will, too! I give the show a four out of five Big Oles, and I’m excited to see where the rest of the season will go.
