Agatha All Along review: great cast, but slow pacing

Agatha All Along is an okay show so far, and its biggest problem is pacing. I had seen the first four episodes around the series premiere, and at that point I gave it 6 out of 10. I was excited for this show going in, and I was still excited to see what would happen next. By the fourth episode, some things had caught my curiosity. But it's a slow start.

Agatha All Along (2024) is the Disney+ series starring Kathryn Hahn, Aubrey Plaza and Joe Locke. This isn't a full review. It's my first reaction, followed by a look at what other critics said in their first reactions and how I felt about them.

Agatha All Along starts slow, and episode four is where it caught my attention

I saw many reviews online, and some people said they really liked the first episode. To me, the first episode was boring. I guess it's necessary, because the show has to tell you what happened in WandaVision. If you've seen WandaVision, you already know. If not, it's easy to get up to date, and for the most part the first episode of Agatha All Along does a good job of that.

Episode two was okay. I enjoyed it a lot more than the first one. I couldn't tell you any memorable parts from episode three. There are a few good parts in episode four, and by then the show had caught my attention.

Unfortunately, I think the show suffers from what many shows have suffered from lately. It's not only Disney+, either. On Amazon Prime, The Rings of Power has suffered from this as well. The problem is that it's slow. Some people might be okay with that, and that's fine.

Why the Agatha All Along review embargo worried me

One thing I found interesting was the review embargo, meaning the point at which critics could talk about the show. It lifted when the show aired, once the first two episodes dropped on Disney+. When I heard that, I thought it wasn't a good sign. If nobody can review a show until it's already out, that's not good.

I'll also say this up front: I'll never shame anybody for liking anything. That's your personal opinion, and the same goes if you dislike something. But I saw some weird reactions. I saw people say they absolutely loved this show and that it's one of Marvel's best. I'm sorry, but for me it's just not that.

Kathryn Hahn, Aubrey Plaza, Debra Jo Rupp and Teen are the highlights of Agatha All Along

The show has many intriguing and interesting ideas and characters, and there are some interesting name drops. Mephisto's name is dropped in there to make you think, which the people behind the show said in an interview. There are also some interesting connections that make you wonder. The theories will be back, and we're probably going to hear some Mephisto theories. I already have some of my own.

The show started slow, but there are sprinkles of great parts, and I like all the characters. I like Teen. There's an interesting part about his name that the show digs into, which I won't spoil. I think he adds a lot to the show. Then there's Debra Jo Rupp. I love her. She is awesome, and to me she shines in many of these episodes.

I do enjoy the musical side of the show. I typically like most musicals. I liked the new Willy Wonka movie, Wonka, and thought it was pretty good, and I like The Greatest Showman. If you like those, you'll probably like the singing scenes in this. I like Agatha as a character, I like Kathryn Hahn, and I like Aubrey Plaza and her character. She shows up, but it takes a while to get into her character or the story.

What critics at Collider, ComicBook.com and Screen Rant said about Agatha All Along

A critic from Collider called the first four episodes a strong sequel to WandaVision with their own identity, said "the songs are great," praised the electric dynamic between Hahn and Plaza, and said Debra Jo Rupp brings the laughs. She does. The same critic called it "the scariest MCU project to date" and said weekly theories are back. Theories are definitely back. I don't like scary horror stuff, and this isn't scary to me at all. There are creepy parts, but nothing scary. I also don't think it's a strong sequel to WandaVision yet. It does have its own identity, and you hear Wanda's name a few times. We'll see how it ends.

A critic from ComicBook.com, a friend of mine, said it has a slow start, and it does, but that it gets rolling by the end of episode two. He found it more mature and spookier than he expected, called Hahn and Plaza fantastic, especially together, and wrote: "I fear the middle may be redundant but I hope it stays so engaging and fun." I don't think it's incredibly engaging. Across the first four episodes, though, a few plots got my attention. I want to know now. Please don't wait until episode nine to reveal this. That's my biggest concern: I think it needs to move faster.

Another critic from ComicBook.com called it a delight, describing the first four episodes as kooky and "legitimately funny and surprising" by MCU comedy standards, with dynamic performances across the board. She wrote that "unsurprisingly the show works best when the entire coven is together." I like the whole cast, and I think they work well together. They really get into it in the third and fourth episodes, and that's my issue: it takes a while to get going. There's a lot to set up, and I'm all for a good story, but it all depends on episodes five through nine.

Screen Rant called the show "another successful spell" for Marvel Studios, said Hahn lights up this corner of the MCU, called her chemistry with Plaza magical, praised Joe Locke and the coven ensemble, and described it as a "fantastic tribute to witches throughout pop culture." All the actors are good in this. There's no problem with the cast. I think it comes down to the story and the writing. I'm glad people like it, and I think this will depend on your personal taste.

Pacing is the problem for Agatha All Along and many streaming shows

Agatha All Along is nine episodes long, and it feels like the thinking was that it could have been an Agatha movie, but instead it would be dragged out over nine episodes on Disney+. I don't think that's the move. You probably could have made an Agatha movie, and it probably would have gone over well. There are many pieces to a puzzle that weren't being put together in the first four episodes.

The whole time, I was thinking "let's pick up the pace." Even when things start to happen, I want them to happen faster, because they still drag out. I think streaming shows suffer from this because there's so much time to tell a story that people take their time when it isn't necessary. You probably could have cut a lot of Agatha All Along and made it six episodes. I don't know what's coming next, but some of this could be cut.

If Marvel can figure out how to cut through unnecessary things, it could have some truly great shows. If Agatha All Along cut some parts and got to things faster, I'd probably say it's a pretty great show. Instead, I sometimes found myself bored, and I think that's a big problem Marvel and other studios will have to deal with. We used to say streaming shows were new, but Disney+ has been around more than a few years now. You can set things up and tell a good story without boring your audience.

Still, "I don't think it's a disaster." I don't think it's really bad. Where it shines, it shines well, and it's witchy, with some cool moments, so it's worth watching if you've been interested. It also arrived at a good time, with spooky season underway. I hope the pacing picks up and I hope there's more magic. If it finishes strong, I hope to move it from 6 out of 10 up to a seven or eight, and if it has a crazy story in store, maybe even a 10. But at that point, it was a 6 out of 10.