The difficulty in reviewing television is, often, critics only receive a fraction of the season’s episodes. As a result, one sometimes has to offer a full review on a partial product. Frequently, that’s fine. Shows often tell you who they are, if you will, fairly early on. A character or a twist that changes things might show up in an episode down the road. Even then, though, such things often don’t change the bedrock quality of the endeavor. Sharing all of this is by way of a disclaimer because, after the first two episodes of Agatha All Along, it remains unclear what kind of show it will be.

Some aspects of the tone are clear from the start. It’s obviously playing with a healthy dose of irreverence. It’s clever. Kathryn Hahn slips back into Agnes/Agatha Harkness like a second skin, quickly giving her depth without erasing the villainousness of her turn in WandaVision. The supporting characters, including Teen (Joe Locke), Jennifer Kale (Sasheer Zamata), and Lilia Calderu (Patti LuPone?!), can hold the screen despite Hahn’s charisma bombardment. Aubrey Plaza’s Rio Vidal even gives Agatha a run for her money in the charm department with a frighteningly sexual/sexually frightening turn. She carries the conclusion of episode 1 with three or four sentences that are…very intense.

But is the show a drama? A comedy? A horror-drama? Horror-comedy? Horror-dramedy? One’s guess is as good as another. Episode 1, “Seekest Thou the Road,” is almost entirely a parody/homage episode, taking WandaVision’s sitcom-trappings storytelling approach and applying it to the crime-thriller limited series genre, specifically Mare of Easttown with a dollop of The Killing thrown in via the opening credits. It’s an interesting idea, a nod to the Agatha All Along’s parent series with a parallel storytelling technique. More importantly, it gives the series room enough to be more than just a reinvention of the wheel. And the show seemingly ditches it by the episode’s end.

The second episode, on the other hand, feels more like what the rest of the series will be. Agatha, fully herself again, goes about collecting a coven to travel the Witch’s Road. For her, it is a quest to regain her powers and dodge a cadre of creepy ebony-ensconced witches. The rest of the coven, including Teen, Kale, Calderu, and Alice Wu-Gulliver (Ali Ahn), have their own agendas for going. The one exception might be Mrs. Hart (Debra Jo Rupp), who might be less a Green Witch and more just an extremely talented gardener.

However, by episode’s end, the show seems to have moved to another new location. It’s one decidedly different from episode 1’s grey-blue world of Agnes the cop or episode 2’s trauma suburb’s overly sunny exteriors and always light with yellow light shadowy interiors. So there are no guarantees that episode 3 won’t also offer a decidedly different viewing experience. And that’s what I mean when I say we still don’t truly know what show Agatha All Along is or will be.

What is clear is that with its disparate episodes, it offers more than enough to bring back audiences for a third look. There’s enough promise here that even if Agatha All Along offers another new direction, it is worth seeing where that one goes, too. The score, high enough for Rotten Tomatoes freshness, not high enough for our “Best New Series” label, represents that space between the little we know and the good things to come the potential promises.

As this is an MCU offering, many people will inevitably be either excited for or concerned about continuity and Easter eggs. While it is impossible to know where one puts the line regarding too much v. too little v. just right on these things, Agatha All Along does feel pretty Goldilocks. It has connections, but almost entirely to WandaVision with a touch of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Honestly, the text offers everything one needs. If it somehow falls short for you, a quick glance at Wikipedia would clarify any confusion. The Easter eggs are minor enough to reward comics fans without affecting the plot. In other words, there’s no real homework here unless you decide to make something homework.

Agatha All Along also feels different than other entries in the MCU. While not as disenchanted with the supposed “MCU House Style” as some, the series boasting a distinctive tone is appreciated. The Disney+ series have been at their best—with Loki, WandaVision, She-Hulk, or Ms. Marvel—when they’ve sought new ground. In its first two episodes, Agatha All Along seems to be doing that as well.

Agatha All Along is traipsing down the Witches’ Road On Disney+ now.

Agatha All Along Trailer: