Agatha All Along (TV Program)

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    Aubrey Plaza Goes for Broke in ‘Megalopolis’ and ‘Agatha All Along’

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    “I bleed for movies,” Aubrey Plaza told me on an August morning, just seconds before the ground began to tremble.We had met for brunch at Little Dom’s, a hip Italian restaurant in Los Angeles that was unusually quiet until that low rumble began. Frozen, we stared at each other as the windows rattled — bum-bum-BAM — and then quieted. It was quick and violent, as though someone had seized the place and given it a brisk, get-yourself-together shake.Plaza’s eyes, already open and avid, got even wider. “I think that was an earthquake,” she said. A Google search revealed it to have been a 4.7 temblor out of nearby Pasadena, which prompted us to wonder: If something more severe were to occur, would we know what to do instead of just sitting there blankly?“What if it’s the small one before the big one?” she asked.These days, only a natural disaster could force Plaza to pause. She has spent the last decade working at a nearly nonstop pace, determined to show there’s more to her than April Ludgate, the disaffected intern she played on six seasons of the NBC sitcom “Parks and Recreation.” Though Plaza’s point has by now been proved — in particular, the 2022 double-header of “The White Lotus” and “Emily the Criminal” amply demonstrated her range — that drive has not yet abated.In fact, Plaza has stayed so prolific that her three newest projects have all come out within days of each other. The first was the charming time-travel comedy “My Old Ass” on Sept. 13, followed by the Marvel series “Agatha All Along,” in which she plays the romantic antagonist to Kathryn Hahn’s “WandaVision” witch. Friday saw the long-awaited release of “Megalopolis,” from the 85-year-old director Francis Ford Coppola (“The Godfather”), which features Plaza in a grabby role unlike anything she’s played before.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘Agatha All Along’ Review: Toil and Trouble

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      Marvel’s “WandaVision” spinoff has more witchcraft but less magic.This review contains spoilers for the first episode of “Agatha All Along.”Jac Schaeffer, who created the first of the Disney+ Marvel series, “WandaVision,” and has now created the 11th, its spinoff “Agatha All Along,” is not one to let an idea go to waste.In Schaeffer’s first series, a grieving superheroine used her magical powers to create a world for herself based on classic American sitcoms. It was entertaining to watch how the show reimagined those familiar comedies within a dark fantasy-science fiction framework. (At least until “WandaVision” went off the rails toward convoluted Marvel business as usual in its last few episodes.)Now she starts “Agatha All Along,” which premiered Wednesday night on Disney+, with another detailed sendup. This time she puts her new main character — Agatha Harkness, a dangerous witch with a half-century history in Marvel comic books — inside a parody of the grim HBO crime drama “Mare of Easttown.” Still stuck where she was at the end of “WandaVision,” under a spell that strips her powers and any memory of who she really is, the fallen sorceress is now a cynical, violence-prone small-town police officer.You may ask yourself how, in the three years that have elapsed between the two shows, Agatha has undergone a complete personality shift, from chirpy neighborhood noodge to hardened cop. You should be more concerned, though, with why the cop-show pastiche is so disappointing — so dull and aimless that talented comic actresses like Kathryn Hahn (who stars as Agatha) and Aubrey Plaza seem at a loss.It is a relief when that show-within-a-show ends during the first episode, apparently a quick diversion rather than an integral element like the sitcom burlesques in “WandaVision.” (Four of the nine episodes of “Agatha All Along” were available for review.)It has set a bad precedent, though. Even when the series shifts into its actual format — a jokey, jaggedly comic fantasy quest in which a group of unfulfilled women hit the road in search of their powers — the results are mostly perfunctory. Spells are cast, but not on the audience.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      In ‘Agatha All Along,’ Joe Locke Works Like a Charm

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      A star of the Netflix hit “Heartstopper,” this actor is now joining the Marvel universe.Joe Locke nailed his first audition. He was 6 and up for a part in an amateur production of “The Wizard of Oz,” and he easily secured a callback. But when he was told he would have to return for another audition, the thought of trying out again reduced him to tears. He declined the callback. The role went to a different child. “It did traumatize me a bit,” Locke said.“And,” he added, ducking his chin toward the neck of his cream-colored hoodie, “I was always a crier.”Locke got older. He got bolder. He threw himself into school plays, Christmas pantomimes, community theater in his home on the Isle of Man. “I come from a very small place where individuality is less embraced,” he said. Onstage, playing pretend, he could express more.He planned to apply to drama school. Then a family friend alerted him to an open call for a new TV show, “Heartstopper,” a drama about queer English teens adapted from Alice Oseman’s emotion-heavy comics.At 17, after multiple callbacks, he beat out thousands of other young men to play 14-year-old Charlie Spring, the only openly gay student at an English preparatory school. “Heartstopper,” which became one of Netflix’s most watched shows when it debuted in 2022, was a showcase for Locke’s boyish, beetle-browed charm and uncanny ability to wear his heart on the sleeve of his rugby shirts.Locke and Kit Connor in “Heartstopper,” which became one of Netflix’s most watched shows when it debuted.NetflixWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Sasheer Zamata Is OK With Being the Practical B.F.F.

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      The “Saturday Night Live” alumna plays a sorceress in the new “WandaVision” spinoff “Agatha All Along.”As someone who once walked on stilts in Mickey’s Jammin’ Jungle Parade and operated a Sebastian the Crab puppet, the comedian and actress Sasheer Zamata is no stranger to the world of Disney.In August, she was in Anaheim, Calif., for D23 Expo, a weekend event for Disney fans where she promoted the new Marvel series “Agatha All Along,” a “WandaVision” spinoff in which she co-stars with Kathryn Hahn, Aubrey Plaza and Patti LuPone.Zamata, a “Saturday Night Live” cast member for four seasons, has worked on a Marvel project before, voicing one of the characters in the animated series “Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur.” In “Agatha,” she plays a sorceress.At D23, she said, “We sang our witch’s chant, we were in these hooded cloaks, there was fog, and it felt very epic. We were singing to a stadium of 12,000 people, full Taylor Swift-style.”Zamata went on to talk about the kid’s movie she rewatches every few years, the friend she talks to every day and the album she listens to before going onstage. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.1Black Girl SunscreenI run through it so fast. I slather it all over because it’s so moisturizing. Even if I’m not going to be outside all day, I still use it because it feels good. When I was younger, I fell into the idea that Black people can’t get sunburned. Now, I can’t even imagine walking outside without sunscreen.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      The Best Movies and TV Shows Coming to Disney+, Max, Hulu and More in September

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      “Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist,” “A Very Royal Scandal,” a “Walking Dead” spinoff and “Agatha All Along” arrive.Every month, streaming services add movies and TV shows to their libraries. Here are our picks for some of September’s most promising new titles. (Note: Streaming services occasionally change schedules without giving notice. For more recommendations on what to stream, sign up for our Watching newsletter here.)New to Amazon Prime Video‘A Very Royal Scandal’Starts streaming: Sept. 19Earlier this year, Netflix debuted a movie called “Scoop,” about the complicated negotiations that led to Prince Andrew’s headline-making 2019 interview with BBC Two’s “Newsnight,” covering his relationship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The three-part mini-series “A Very Royal Scandal” tells the same story in a little more detail, with a screenplay from Jeremy Brock (the co-writer of “The Last King of Scotland”). Michael Sheen plays Prince Andrew, while Ruth Wilson plays Emily Maitlis, the interviewer, who kept pressuring the prince with follow-up questions, asking him to account for all the time he had spent with Epstein over the years.Also arriving:Sept. 10“The Money Game”Sept. 24“Evolution of the Black Quarterback”Melissa McBride as Carol Peletier in “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon — The Book of Carol.”Emmanuel Guimier/AMCNew to AMC+‘The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon – The Book of Carol’ Season 2Starts streaming: Sept. 29When this spinoff of “The Walking Dead” was first announced, it was supposed to be the story of the soulful hunter Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) and his hard-edge pal Carol Peletier (Melissa McBride) venturing into new territories together in a zombie-ravaged world. But when that territory turned out to be Europe, McBride had to drop out for what was described as logistical reasons. Her Carol made a cameo at the end of Season 1 though; and she is now on board for Season 2 (as well as an already announced Season 3). This new season will find Carol searching for her friend in France, while Daryl reluctantly gets more involved with the twisted political situation overseas, trying to help some good people make things better.Also arriving:Sept. 6“The Demon Disorder”Sept. 7“All You Need Is Death”Sept. 12“The Tailor of Sin City”Sept. 13“In a Violent Nature”Sept. 16“Candice Renoir” Season 10Sept. 20“Dandelion”Sept. 26“Wisting” Season 5Sept. 27“Oddity”Sept. 30“The Bench” Seasons 1-2We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More