This is the one Disney Plus show I'm watching this Pride Month — and it's a binge-worthy witchy adventure
Happy Pride Month! Over the past decade, streaming services have increasingly become home to many, many LGBTQ+ movies and TV shows. Whether they are romantic comedies or spy thrillers featuring queer characters in leading or supporting roles, I love the variety available.
But as a lifelong Marvel Cinematic Universe fan (I've got two MCU-specific tattoos), I've wanted a queer Marvel show for years now — and it finally came in the form of "Agatha All Along" last October. And I've been obsessed with it ever since. Not just because it's the sequel to "WandaVision," a show I absolutely adore, but because it's got fantastic storytelling and, best of all, solid queer representation that I find very relatable.
If you need a show to binge-watch and, like me, love a witchy adventure, then "Agatha All Along" should be right up your alley, and it's streaming on Disney Plus right now. Here are the reasons why I'm watching the show for the ninth time. Also, if you haven't watched the show yet, I'll be discussing minor spoilers in this article; you have been warned.
"Agatha All Along" takes place three years after the events of "WandaVision" when Agatha Harkness (played by the ridiculously talented Kathryn Hahn) breaks free from the Scarlett Witch's spell.
Along with Teen (played by Joe Locke, and whose real identity is a mystery until the season's midpoint), three other witches, and Rio Vidal (played by Aubrey Plaza), Agatha assembles a coven to take on the trials of the infamous Witches' Road.
Each episode focuses on a trial tailored to the coven's members, and the prize at the end of the Road is glory, power, anything the victor's heart desires. With beautiful set design and a banging ballad with several versions, "Agatha All Along" is a captivating adventure with twists and turns... and major reveals.
When I watched "Parks and Recreation" ages ago, I always wished Kathryn Hahn's and Aubrey Plaza's characters interacted more — and the universe works in funny ways. I knew "Agatha All Along" was going to be a hit (in my eyes anyway) when Plaza was cast opposite Hahn. And neither actress was a let-down.
As the coven walks the Witches' Road, the tension between Hahn's character Agatha and Plaza's character Rio is palpable. Rio's role in the story isn't fully revealed until the penultimate episode, so I'll leave that for you to uncover. But what we do know for the start is that Rio and Agatha have a past — and Hahn and Plaza play the part of exes extremely well.
So well, in fact, that their chemistry has seen the birth of many fan edits on TikTok and Instagram Reels. Before filming the show, Hahn and Plaza kept themselves apart from each other and they exchanged love poems and music over text to build the tension, and it clearly worked in their favor as I felt like I could cut the tension with a knife while watching.
Of course, Agatha and Rio aren't the only queer characters in "Agatha All Along." Joe Locke, well-known for playing the baby-gay Charlie in "Heartstopper," plays Teen, whose real identity is one of the biggest mysteries.
Teen is also canonically queer, sporting painted nails and heavy eyeliner, and gushing about his boyfriend and coming very close to saying the L word. It's all very, very cute.
Teen and Agatha make a formidable team, with both quipping as they make their way down the Road. There are a few dialogues that stuck with me since I first watched the show. I loved Agatha's "Hey, if you want straight answers, ask a straight lady" line so much that I got a jumper with the text printed on it.
Locke also improvised the fantastic "I don't want to go back into the closet" line that gets a chuckle out of me every time. When Lilia, the Divination Witch, asks who the querent is during one of the trials, Locke hits back with, "I guess I'm the queerant!" There are other subtle ones, and all of them stick with you in one way or another.
When "Agatha All Along" came out (pun intended), it opened to mixed reviews with critics and audiences disagreeing. Today, the show has an 84% critics score and 83% audience score — balance has been restored. For me, and this is a personal preference, "Agatha All Along" is one of the best MCU series. It's fun, quirky, beautifully produced and written, and it's unapologetically queer.
The last of those reasons is what has quickly made it one of my most-watched shows. Aside from our three protagonists being canonically queer, it's implied that others, like Jen and Alice, are too. But what's also great about "Agatha All Along" is that the story never focuses overtly on the characters' queerness. Queerness isn't over- or hypersexualized, and you can tell the show hasn't been written for the male gaze.
The characters are messy and often unhinged, and this is the queer representation I've always wanted to see in Marvel. As someone whose teenage years were heavily moulded by movies like "The Avengers" and predominantly straight characters, I can finally see a character like me on screen, and when you get that kind of accurate representation, you're left wondering, "Why hasn't this been the case all along?"
I can only thank the casting directors for bringing Aubrey Plaza and Joe Locke on board because both have added a vibrancy the MCU lacked. And Kathryn Hahn becoming known as a queer icon amongst the lesbian community wasn't on my bingo card, but we're all better for it.
"Agatha All Along" is available to stream on Disney Plus. For more Pride Month recommendations, check out the best drag movies.
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