Jac Schaeffer’s Agatha All Along: The Witch We Needed

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Spoilers!

Agatha delivered incredible twists and turns, transforming its reputation into one of the best Marvel series so far, dodging the aggressive attacks like a pro. Dominating the social media chatter due to its quality and loyal fandom, the show was able to defuse the toxic negativity that lately surrounds Disney. Can you recall that awful marketing campaign with the changing titles that was clever but, for some reason, ignited more hate than curiosity? The show is up there with WandaVision and Loki, and what Jac Schaeffer was able to create here—the mystery, the feels, the shocking revelation—is what got us hooked so hard. With all that success, given that the ratings are not mind-blowing, are we going to have a season 2? Or are we going to explore the story in the next Marvel series in Wanda's corner of the MCU, as some of us would put it?

I am rewatching the series because of the way it makes me feel. Do you remember when Agatha told Billy what she wanted to hear from her mother and what her mother should have told her:

"Don't you dare feel guilty about your talent. You survived. So you broke the rules. 'Big deal.' That's what kept you alive! That's what makes you special! That's what makes you a witch!"

I have never felt more understood by a character than by the those Jac Schaeffer worked with. Wanda, Agatha, Billy. As a gay man, I still underestimate my talents and am apologetic for my past, whereas a true villain like Agatha would excuse my behavior and give me the green light to be myself—a true villain.

And what about the conversation between Lilia and her teacher:

Maestra: Death comes for us all.
Lilia: You say it like it’s a comfort.
Maestra: It is what we all have in common.

This show has such beautiful rewatchability, and it was able to amaze people with its cleverness—people who understood that the show was not made to appeal to them, which is not an easy task. The hidden clues around Billy Maximoff, the incredible performances of Kathryn Hahn and Patti LuPone, while introducing new lore and new amazing characters, connecting it to WandaVision in a similar tone but on a different lane, exploring the past of Agatha, makes this show as rich and mysterious as the best Marvel content. It sure is one of the best LGBTQ+ organic representations on the Disney+ platform. Jac Schaeffer left so much of the story with open questions that made the audience swirl like a tornado of theories in excitement—Disney needed that. Rewatching the series with the knowledge of what is going to happen allows me to further explore the cleverness of the script and the actors' performances. I feel like I have Lilia's powers. The difficult mapping of the plot allowed the multilevel performances to be unhinged and original as a witchy-queer show we have never seen before. I would like to put it up there with the best, or even better, because of the unbelievable hard work with the smallest budget of them all.

Charmed, Buffy, Sabrina—they all seem to have bigger budgets, and they were also incredibly successful, just like Agatha, same claw. But what about other shows like Secret Invasion, Echo, The Acolyte? Some of them are way more expensive, aiming for a mass audience, missing every target, and not able to stick anything to the wall. Is the future of Marvel actually pointing to niche audiences, creating armies of loyal fandoms in different spaces, without the dip in quality that gives predators a chance to take a bite and spit out the brand? That way, when there is a crossover, the fandoms can come together and rejoice.

What about the musical success of the series and the character? First exploding in WandaVision with the small but catchy "Agatha All Along," and this extremely good Drum & Bass version that came out 2 months ago. Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez came back to finish the job by creating multiple versions of "The Ballad of The Witch's Road," a song I still listen to daily—at least three versions of it. The sacred chant, or Lorna Wu's version, and the cover the cast sings in Episode 4, but also the incredible version "Agatha Through Time," where the incredible reveal that it was Agatha All Along happened. Sometimes I even play the songs in German or Japanese; it is so much fun.

You can go on YouTube and watch the making of the series, which is also fascinating right now.

Iliya Badev

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