With films such as Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Eternals and The Marvels, and TV series like Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, and Echo, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has spent much of its post-Avengers: Endgame phases trying to respond to criticism that it’s not inclusive.

Agatha All Along furthers that mission via a Hocus Pocus-y story featuring two lesbians and one gay male character on a predominantly all-female adventure. Alas, any points won for representation don’t overshadow the ho-humness of this small-screen affair—a pleasant trifle that’s nothing more than a franchise footnote.

Agatha All Along, which premieres Sept. 18 on Disney , is a follow-up to 2021’s WandaVision, and though it eventually proves somewhat disconnected from the MCU’s serialized narrative, it begins where its predecessor left off.

In a dour riff on Mare of Easttown called Agatha of Westview, Agatha (Kathryn Hahn) is a sullen detective investigating the death of a Jane Doe, chewing gum and grousing at everyone (including her colleagues and boss) in caricatured fashion.

Kathryn Hahn

This is a continuation of WandaVision’s TV-parody alterna-realities, and it comes to an end (after three years for Agatha and too long for us) with the appearance of an FBI agent (Aubrey Plaza) who’s actually Rio, a witch determined to shake Agnes from her boob-tube delusion........

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