Agatha all Along

Grade: B+

In Disney+'s limited series follow-up to Wandavision, amoral witch Agatha Harkness (played by Kathryn Hahn), is back. On a quest to restore her lost powers, she travels on the Witches' Road, which grants the desires of whichever witches complete its challenges, alongside the mysterious young warlock Teen (Hearstopper's Joe Locke) and her new coven.

The showrunner is Jac Schaeffer, who also helmed Wandavision, and this really feels like one of the most seamless transitions from one MCU product to another. Some may be annoyed that the majority of the episodes is just one trial after another without any big story threats, but this still makes for an entertaining piece. Characters are strong, the show is imaginative, and it excels at plot payoff and timing on info dissemination.

However, pacing may bug people. It feels like certain moments and other elements appear haphazardly and aren't done as effectively as they could.

Also, know how what was happening in Wandavision was rather dark? This is a lot more. I can't say this is as dark as that "one" plot point of Moon Knight, but this feels like the most nihilistic of the MCU Disney+ shows (yes, even more than Secret Wars). One can't help but ask "What happened to you Schaeffer? What made you like this?"

This includes a certain team from the comic. If you don't like it when comic movies/shows simplify characters, make them more grounded, and take away some of the over-the-top aspects of them, you won't like what they did here (. Honestly, why even use the characters if you have no love for them. (Admittedly, Disney is trying to make its MCU shows more cost effective and some of the appearances of said characters would've cost dough. Also, this is a team that not everyone knows, so a lot of you probably won't care).

If you feel that Agatha may be too much like Loki, don't worry. Whereas there is part of Loki that wants to be the hero, and he puts up a face to hide his security, Agatha remains a confident, me-first sociopath who's always thinking of a quick way to come out on top. Not that the show doesn't show that she has a human side, but it doesn't try to glide over what she has been or done or suddenly soften her. 

Hahn (who I'm guessing is one of the major reasons this show got made) continues to have this presence about her. Agatha may be awful but Hahn makes her very entertaining as she wisecracks and proves she's the cleverest one in the room.

The cast all around is pretty good. Aubrey Plaza is on the same level as Hahn as Rio Vidal, a mysterious witch that has a past with Agatha. Plaza is the queen of being weird and wild, but she really proves her acting job as she can show her more human side with just a look. Patti Lupone who is a theater star, but doesn't get a lot of high profile show/movie roles these days, is lively as a fortune seeing witch, and Debra Jo Rupp returns as the neighbor from Wandavision, and retains her trademark buoyant personality. SNL's Sasheer Zamata is a witch and high priestess in this. Honestly, I wasn't a fan of hers back on the sketch show. She really wasn't working for me. (Though to be honest, it could be the show may not have been using her properly. Wouldn't be the first time). But she was killing it here as a person with a confident personality and the one who likes Agatha the least. Honestly, I felt Zamata was underutilized here.

Recommended. I don't have quite as high opinion of this as many others online, but it does make for a solid watch that doesn't get boring, and definitely feels more confident and stronger than the recent likes of Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, and Secret Invasion.

100 Years of Warner

8/10

This new documentary mini-series on Max (formerly HBO Max), traces the history of Warner Bros. through four episodes that divvy up the time periods. 

I felt this was a well put-together mini-series. It flows well with solid choices in film and interview clips. 100 Years really serves as an ode to film-making itself. It's interesting to see how the film-making process changes over these episodes.

Of course, they don't have time to go over everything, and they don't cover everything one would want to see. Though, they do plug in a ton of clips, even ever so brief, from the Warners catalog.

100 Years does well in covering the change in racial and gender coverage over the years, including firsts in representation. The mini-series doesn't hide from less savory parts of Warner's earlier years. (Jack Warner, not a great guy.) However, it's clear that Warner isn't in the mood to discuss more recent issues, such as the fallout of the DC Snyderverse or AT&T's acquisition of the company and then letting it go after it realized HBO Max wasn't working out. Current Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav is one of the interviewees, so 100 years definitely doesn't discuss the controversy of his shelving completed films. For all the mini-series' talk about the times Warner took chances, it doesn't want to address its more recent focus on the bottom line.

Recommended. If you're a film buff, I think you'll be pleased with this.

Hawkeye

8.5/10

In this new MCU show on Disney+, the retired-from-superheroing Clint Barton/Hawkeye (played by Jeremy Renner), on a trip to New York, has to go back into action when a shadow from his past resurfaces and ends up having to work with wannabe superhero Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), who's his biggest fan.

Of all the the MCU shows, this is the one that's just trying the most to just have fun (not to say there aren't serious parts, especially with Clint). This is a bit of a madcap program as Clint and Kate run into one big personality or out-of-control situation after the next as they keep sinking deeper and deeper into trouble. This takes place on Christmas, and the festive feel adds to the show.  Also, action's pretty good with some occasional memorable moments, though expect more street level hand-to-hand style combat than the other shows.

Admittedly Hawkeye is no one's favorite Avenger, but I'm glad he finally got a solo project. Clint's more of an every guy. What's interesting about him is he didn't go through a major life-changing event to cause him to want to become a hero. He's a soldier who sort of fell into it. Unlike a lot of the other Marvel superheroes, you really don't go into his back story and have to fill in the gaps, which I like. A lot is said about guy through actions and attitude alone. Renner does a great playing a job playing a man who's burned out and just tired of the costs of supeheroing. Plus, he's shouldering his own guilt not in a brooding Batman way, but in a more realistic manner.

The core of this show is definitely the relationship between the jaded, grumpy Clint and the optimistic, but unprepared Kate. Hailee does a great job selling the character. Though there have been plenty of Marvel superheroes who have to learn to be a hero really quickly, Kate feels a little different as she's clearly always wanted to be a hero and already has her skill set, she's just a bit vague on the details on how to do it. Also, I love the explanation of why out of all the Avengers, Hawkeye's her favorite. Excellent exposition scene.

Thing is, they do spend a little too much time on Clint and Kate. There are a lot of interesting characters in this, but most of them don't feel like they were fleshed out or given enough to do. The show suffers the same kind of issue Loki did in that it feels like they posed most of the mysteries early on and just dropped all the answers on us in the last couple episodes. What made Wandavision and Falcon and the Winter Soldier work was that they doled out plot points carefully throughout the shows. Here we get a LOT of Kate and Clint shenanigans that start to run together, and there could've been more variety in the plotting.

Overall, highly recommended. I'd say this is the weakest of the four live-action Marvel shows, but that's just compared to the others. This is definitely a fun romp with some good Clint beats and more entertaining than a lot of other shows out there.

High Score

 

7/10

This six-part documentary series on YouTube looks at the the history of the video game industry. It was an interesting watch. You get to learn about such things as programmers dealing with technical restraints for early games and stuff that happened when the industry was still new and the rules were being built.

Visually, High Score makes good use of 8-bit video game-inspired interstitials.

The composition of this can be kinda sloppy. Each episode has a general theme, but the material connections can sometimes be tenuous. The show picks and chooses what it goes with and doesn't necessarily feel substantive. It feels like the creators couldn't decide on a tone either. The third episode is joke heavy, while the others aren't. 

The show focuses on whoever they could get to interview. If you're expecting focus on big name video game creators or producers, they're not mentioned much if the show couldn't get them. A lot of video games are made in Japan, so if you're not a big subtitle fan then be forewarned.

I recommend this. It has a lot of interesting info., just be forewarned that this isn't as comprehensive as you'd think.