I always look forward to the newest Doctor Who Christmas special—and this episode, “Joy to the World” was no exception. It has already been too long since that last episode. Already too long since I got to see some adventure with the Doctor.
The Church on Ruby Road marks the beginning of Ncuti Gatwa’s tenure as the Doctor, and while the episode was a mixed bag, Ncuti did such a good job.
“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.
“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.
Dark Matter takes a premise I’ve certainly covered before. Everything Everywhere All at Once dealt with relationships across multiple dimensions, and what it means to want a different life than you already have. But, while I will not claim Dark Matter is a better show than All at Once is a movie, I will say that this series presents a fascinating alternative to multiverse fiction—both in the story and in its storytelling.
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.
Rebuild The Galaxy was an absolute treat. A series that has no business being as good, as dramatic, and as funny as it is. Though it was already clear from several Lego movies that the “medium” of those bricks could result in good storytelling, this once again blew me away.
