“When I look over my shoulder, what do you think I see? Some other cat lookin’ over his shoulder at me. And he’s strange.” From The Season of the Witch, written by Donovan Leitch.
We finished Agatha All Along, Marvel’s latest teevee miniseries, and I’ll say upfront that my daughter Adriane and I enjoyed it a lot. I realize that in today’s parlance, the binary people who infest our culture with their perverted parochial worldview think that means we feel it was the greatest work television has ever fostered upon humanity. Well, not quite. “Enjoyed it” is perfectly acceptable. That means we had a good time watching the series. If everything was, in succession, the “best ever,” within a few days our heads would explode.
Of course there’s the usual bevy of stubby incels who look at the show and count organs. The show stars six vaginas but only one penis. Obviously, the typical incel believes (he doesn’t think, so he must act off of his beliefs) this can not be a real Marvel product, and therefore, it must be part of the Deep State conspiracy to destroy everything that is wholesome, manly and Marvel-American. I wonder how that’s going for J.D. Vance right now. If you are following any incel’s advice on anything at all, you need to check your meds.
You might respond “Hey, Agatha All Along isn’t a superhero show.” Well, nor was — and nor is — Doctor Strange. Or Tomb of Dracula. And so on. Witches aren’t real, but masks and capes are? Your sense of wonder must be pretty damn snooty.
If you didn’t watch Agatha All Along, which is sort of a sequel to WandaVision which sort of was not a superhero show either, then you missed out on a typically superlative performance from Patti LuPone, who appeared in seven of the nine episodes. That’s entirely on you; I consider willfully missing LuPone to be a form of self-abuse. You also missed out on Kathryn Hahn’s return to the role of Agatha Harkness, who is and has long been part of damn near every Marvel universe created by the House of An Idea. And you also missed Aubrey Plaza, which is a lousy way for you to conduct your life. Just sayin’.
There’s a strong and wonderful subtext of social satire in this series. It presents, um, real witches in our contemporary society and sheds light on both cultures. It’s very clever in that regard; we usually conform witchcraft to the models of the ancients. In the Marvel Universe, they are more than that, to be sure.
If you thought of WandaVision as a superhero story and Agatha All Along as something else, well, I don’t see that. However, next year (or so) Marvel is doing a Vision teevee series, and I’m not going out on a limb by suggesting having seen both series would be an asset to your Marvel television experience. I don’t think they’re planning on adapting Tom King’s brilliant Vision series, although I’d be all in favor of that. They might do so because Tom is doing so much heavy lifting on the Lanterns HBO series and on Warners’ Supergirl movie.
Two more things, and this is not damning with faint praise: the title “Agatha All Along” is brilliant… but I really love the credit “Death created by Jim Starlin.”
If you are an eligible American citizen and you have yet to vote and today is Monday, please vote tomorrow. If you are an eligible American citizen and you have yet to vote and today is Tuesday, please vote today. If you are an eligible American citizen and you did not vote and today is Wednesday or later, you are a loser. Or, at the very least, you did not read last week’s Brainiac On Banjo. Shame on you.
