The Wild Robot is, simply put, almost as perfect an animated movie as there could be. I am in awe of it. The writing, the character work, the multiple incredible scenes. If you have not yet experienced this movie—even if you’ve been spoiled on the plot—you should seek it out immediately.
I fear repetition in my review of Rouge Protocol. At this point, it’s clear that the series is a continuous stream of one-off adventures. SecUnit goes to a place—usually to find out the answer to something—and meets some humans and is then pushed into an action scenario where SecUnit has to save those humans.
I Found a Circus Tent in the Woods Behind My House is a stark contrast to the first book in the “I Found Horror” series. It’s technically the second book, but was published first. I’m unsure of why it’s set up that way, except perhaps to give a better starting impression.
“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.
“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.
I’m simply calling this episode “Epilogue” for the sack of clarity—and this isn’t going to be a long review. All told the actual episode’s content is around six minutes. And, in those six minutes, it feels like we didn’t get an epilogue at all.
