Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget is inescapably a nostalgia grab of a movie, relying on people like me and our fond memories of the original film. If it weren’t for that history, I’m not sure it would’ve been that big of a deal for there to be a new kid’s movie about chickens attempting to escape being eaten.
Let’s make something clear about my reviewing Transformers One: I have no horses in this race. Transformers is not my fandom. I have no notable history with it. I am aware of it through other people talking about it, but that’s about it. So, I can speak on it without nostalgia, without a sense of fan betrayal for whatever aspect they changed. I am not objective—this is a critical media review—but I’m judging it as a standalone movie.
“Maiden Mother Crone” finally, fully, completely confirms the name of this show. While I’d argue Billy did a lot of it, it was Agatha’s actions that kicked off everything. The song she and her son sang, the schemes she managed to pull off: everything comes back to her, her relationships, and her mistakes. It lends cohesion to the series. It makes this twisty story more than the sum of its parts.
“Follow Me My Friend/To Glory at the End” is an episode almost defined by its last few minutes. But the rest of the episode is also really good. It’s a chance for several very good actors to flex their dramatic muscles, delivering impassioned, desperate, and emotionally resonant performances.
“Death’s Hand in Mine” confirmed what I had suspected: that this story was going to progress by standard story rules. And, also, seemingly my main plot theories were correct. Despite the wholly unnecessary death fake-outs that ruin some of Agatha All Along’s rewatch value, each witch will get their trial, and through each trial, they are given “back” their powers.
“Familiar by Thy Side” is an episode from a totally different show. It has a much more standard plot structure and progresses at a different pace. In any other context, “Familiar by Thy Side” plays out as a standard superhero opening journey, albeit with a more macabre tone to the whole thing.
Werewolf by Night is a fun, campy Marvel show that disappointed me because of its marketing and presentation. If you wanted to see a horror movie done in the Marvel universe with a Deadpool level of R-rated gore, then you’re in for an unpleasant surprise.
“Darkest Hour/Wake Thy Power” made me give up. Not on watching Agatha All Along, but on understanding the rules of the trials. This episode starts with rules. There’s a clear set of them. But then they get broken, and stuff goes out of control, and Teen kind of just runs over to the Ouija board at some point and handles it.
“If I Can’t Reach You/Let My Song Teach You” tries to carry a good chunk of the trial on the back of “The Ballad of The Witch’s Road” being a good song. And, yes, it is a good song. No complaints there.
If you’re like me, then you enjoy the idea of Timeless on MTGA—but would rather not constantly lose. And, if you’re really like me, then you especially hate losing to Show and Tell combos.
“Through Many Miles/Of Tricks and Trials” answered the question that I posed in my initial article for Agatha All Along. And that is: what is The Road like? And the answer given was so good that we’re doing episodic reviews like we did for the last season of Doctor Who. I want to see how The Road’s death traps play out.
Agatha All Along has two episodes to watch at the time of writing, with a third on the way—and I must say, I’m excited for that third episode. I was shaky on this series, unsure of what to expect, but now I see the vision. Now I see what this show actually is.
