Kathryn Hahn in Disney+ Marvel Spinoff

Very early in her WandaVision spinoff series, Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) comes to suspect that the world she’s living in might be more limited than it appears. Oh, sure, from moment to moment her hometown looks normal enough, if an awful lot like a Mare of Easttown knockoff. But increasingly, she been getting the sense that there’s some bigger picture here she’s just not seeing.

She is, of course, right. By the midpoint of the premiere, she learns she’s been ensnared in a magical trap that gives her the illusion of freedom while in reality keeping her constrained within strict boundaries.

This is, not coincidentally, a bit like what it feels like to watch a new Marvel project these days. Considered as its own entity, Disney+’s Agatha All Along (or at least the four 40ish-minute episodes sent to critics) could be a decently promising new adventure, with a lovable cast and a cheeky sensibility but also a lot of room to grow. But jerky pacing and relentless rug-pulling ultimately make it more persuasive as an exercise in brand extension than as an enchanting adventure in its own right.

Like its foremother, Agatha All Along comes from Jac Schaeffer, who borrows from herself the trick of leaning into pop culture tropes. But the murder mystery-style opening is something of a feint. The new saga pulls more frequently from the long history of TV and movie witches, starting with a Yellow Brick Road-like quest: Having lost her powers in the WandaVision finale, Agatha determines that the only way to regain them will be to travel a metaphysical path known as the Witch’s Road. Because the rules of her craft (as well as those of entertaining television) prohibit this lone wolf from flying solo, she grumpily assembles a coven.

Agatha All Along’s most effective charm is its cast. Hahn is a sardonic delight as Agatha, able to shift on a dime between grim and mischievous, snarky and sincere. Agatha might technically be a supervillain, but I dare you to dislike a woman who responds to a fellow sorceress bemoaning their community’s reputation for poisoning apples and stealing babies with a deadpan, “Babies are delicious.” In the words of Teen (Heartstopper’s Joe Locke), her mysterious fanboy-familiar-sidekick: “Name a badder bitch.”

Hahn enjoys a fizzy chemistry with all of her co-stars, but she’s especially crackling opposite her archnemesis Rio, played by Aubrey Plaza as one of her signature intimidating yet oddly magnetic weirdos. And while it’s hard to put too much stock in buzzy soundbites about Agatha All Along being the “gayest” Marvel entry yet — we’ve certainly heard that before — it’s true that their scenes together in the first four chapters are laced with plenty of juicy sexual tension that I can only pray pays off in the next five.

The rest of Agatha’s skeptical crew includes the legendary Patti LuPone, who seems to be having a blast as the sort of boho witch you might find beneath a strip-mall “PSYCHIC” sign; Sasheer Zamata as a more modern potion maker who hawks jade eggs and supposedly organic skin care to Goop types; and Ali Ahn rounding out this collection of spooky-lady archetypes with a Hot Topic vibe, though she’s really an ex-cop who’s the daughter of a cursed musician. Then there’s Sharon (Debra Jo Rupp, returning from WandaVision), who might not be a witch at all but instead fits the “nosy neighbor” cliché that Agatha once posed as.

As anyone might expect of such a stacked cast, it’s a pleasure simply to hang out in their midst. That they all high-key hate Agatha, for apparently good reason, just adds to the fun. I could watch episode after episode of these women sniping at each other while begrudgingly putting aside their differences to overcome whatever fantastical obstacle confronts them that week. And that is what this show is, sort of. While the Witch’s Road manifests physically as a forest trail illuminated in dull, airless CG, its true nature is as a succession of trials, each tailored to an individual witch and a corresponding look.

One goes full Nancy Meyers-core, dropping the gang into a luxe seaside cottage and draping them in tasteful neutral knits while they race to undo the hallucinogenic effects of a strange poison. Another brings them into a lavish ’70s rock star pad, stocked with instruments and glittery outfits so that they might engage in a supernaturally mandated jam session. The logic behind each aesthetic isn’t always clear, but it’s amusing enough as an excuse to give the costume and production design teams (led by Daniel Selon and John Collins, respectively) plenty of runway to shine.  

It’s the actual storytelling that tends to be hit or miss. By the standards of franchise extensions, Agatha All Along is blessedly light so far on lore, Easter eggs or references to the “multiverse.” There’s not none of that — it might be nice if, say, the question of Teen’s true identity (presumably as a future Young Avenger or whatever) did not so consistently overshadow the more present concern of who he is as a person and what he means to Agatha. But the project mostly avoids feeling like one of those Marvel tales that exists solely to set up other Marvel tales.

Unfortunately, it also stops short of feeling like a series that needs to exist for its own sake. It’s not so much that its flaws all point back to Marvel as it is that it feels like a show that hasn’t figured out what it’s doing beyond expanding on successful IP. Although it has potential, the character-driven ensemble dramedy it could be seems hindered by both the need to hurry this plot along and its awareness that Agatha needs to be the main attraction.

So the scripts rush through the supporting players’ backstories, hand-wave away the details of lore and favor big splashy moments over intricate world-building. To the latter point, this show loves itself a musical moment, and even manages to deliver a real earworm of a portal-opening ballad thanks to Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez. But Agatha All Along lacks the patience and the curiosity it needs to truly make its story sing.