from Chris Snelgrove
| Published
For a long time, most of the Marvel content on Disney+ was a disappointment, varying between amusing and redundant (like Werewolf by night) and failed attempts to recreate the MCU film formula (like Secret invasion). Recently though Agatha All together reversed this trend by increasing its viewership over time. While the show’s 4.6 million viewers for the finale doesn’t make it a huge streaming hit, the fact that its premiere only had 3.1 million viewers speaks volumes for how much people loved the show.
Those who watched, both critics and fans, loved it. Results like this have us debating what has made this show work where other recent Marvel fare has crashed and burned. The answer to that, though, is simple: Marvel aired the first truly episodic show since then WandaVision (on our list of the best one-season superhero series) to create something nice and accessible for complete beginners.
Why Marvel’s streaming shows failed: Mixed intentions
For better understanding Agatha All togetherThe success of is important to understand why other shows are either unsuccessful or worse. In most cases, the problem (shared by most of the Star Wars content on Disney+) is that the execs ordered what could have been a solid two-hour movie into a bloated and largely unmanageable TV show. Like, even the show’s biggest fans have a hard time arguing with that Secret invasion and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier they would have been better off as big-budget blockbusters rather than six-episode, mid-budget slogs.
Even shows that aren’t necessarily better than the movies lose much of their potential for making future movies. Loki it would have been even better if he didn’t spend the whole show trying to Kang happened and Ms. Marvel could have improved with the ending not being a big set up The miraclesa historic box office failure for Disney.
Going into its premiere, I was worried that Agatha All together would repeat these mistakes by trading on his WandaVision bond to create the inevitable Scarlet Witch standalone film. In this case, I have never been so happy to be so wrong.
Why Agatha works all the time: Zigging where others zag
Agatha All together succeeded in large part by zygote where other Disney+ MCU shows with a sharpened image. For example, although this show is direct WandaVision sequel, was pretty easy to watch and entertaining even for those who haven’t bought into the Scarlet Witch’s latest round of reality-bending TV adventures. That accessibility ensured an influx of casual viewers, and the show’s unabashed focus on a mostly female cast may have helped attract more women, a powerful TV demographic that most previous Marvel shows (at least those without Elizabeth Olsen or Tom Hiddleston as leading) failed to attract.
Part of this accessibility comes from the fact that Agatha All together does not explicitly define any future Marvel project and this allows it to succeed on its own merits. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was setting up Captain America 4, Ms. Marvel was setting up The miraclesLoki was creating the already non-existent The Avengers: Kang’s Warand so on. These endless settings rob these shows of their own dramatic power while making the very act of watching them feel like homework; vice versa AgathaIts commitment to focusing on its own narrative helped us enjoy the show on its (many, many) merits.
In addition, Agatha All together is arguably the first Disney+ MCU show since then WandaVision to actually embrace the episodic format. Too many other shows felt like planned movies forced into a TV format, leading to serious pacing issues. Agatha took the time to make each episode a miniature adventure and that made it exciting to tune in every week.
There is much more to it than that Agatha All together I got it right, from the killer music (“The Ballad of the Witch’s Road” is a real bop) to the perfect casting (Aubrey Plaza’s true magic is to chew every scene she has in the funniest way). However, the real strength of the series’ success is that it threw away the old, failed formula in favor of doing something new, and audiences rewarded Disney for it.
