Review: Agatha All Along, “Through Many Miles of Tricks and Trials” | Season 1, Episodes 3
The witches face their first trial as Agatha All Along finds it structure
After last week’s one-two punch of very different episodes threw me for a bit of loop about what kind of show Agatha All Along wanted to be in the long run, this week’s installment helps clear things up. Based on what we get here, it seems like showrunner Jac Schaeffer is aiming to make an old-fashioned weekly genre series like Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Charmed, where likable characters tackle episodic problems that will (hopefully) all come together into one larger storyline by the end of the season. That used to be the default way most genre shows operated, but it’s increasingly fallen out of favor these days—especially with the end of the Arrowverse over on The CW. So it’s fun to see an MCU series try to bring it back, even if the results are a tad uneven.
This week, our Coven of Misfits stumbles upon a Nancy Meyers-esque coastal home just off the Witches’ Road and face the first of five trials that will test their individual types of magic (potions, protection, green magic, divination, and whatever it is Agatha does). A poisoned bottle of wine means Sasheer Zamata’s Jennifer is up first, and while the premise is simple, it leads to a nice locked-room drama that lets the show indulge in a whole new visual palate while we get to know our main characters better.