Spin-offs have been a staple of TV programming for decades. The first spin-off was The Adventures of Champion from the The Gene Autry Show in 1955.  Since, we have had the good (Better Call Saul), the bad (AfterMASH), and the ugly (The Lone Gunmen) spin-offs.

Consider then two recent spin-offs: The Penguin and Agatha All Along.  One is from a movie, the other from another TV show.  One is the DC universe, the other the Marvel universe.  One is awesome, the other sucks.

These two shows are still running, so maybe the bad one will redeem itself, or the good one will fall apart. Regardless, I watched the first two episodes of these shows and found they share a lot of elements, but deliver vastly different experiences.  Let’s take a look at what clunks and clicks with these two spin-offs.

Clunks: Agatha All Along

When WandaVision hit in 2021, it was the first big budget Marvel TV show to air on Disney.  It was also a direct continuation of fan favorite Wanda Maximov’s (Elizabeth Olsen) story from Avengers: Endgame.  WandaVision was wildly creative, with Olsen unpacking her trauma through the lens of different TV-show tropes.  WandaVision breathed life back into the MCU and opened doors for follow-on series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, and Secret Invasion.

Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) was a supporting character in WandaVision, who as you know from the song, was the mastermind behind everything…all along.  Hahn’s goofy, over-the-top performance was a fun contrast to Olsen’s brooding and Paul Bettany’s earnestness.  Admittedly, Agatha’s character was one of the stronger elements in WandaVision.

However, in Agatha All Along, Hahn is elevated to the main character and the result is pure cringe.  It only gets worse when Hahn plays against deadpan delivery queen Aubrey Plaza.  Hahn and Plaza have about as much chemistry as dirt and more dirt.  The talents of Hahn’s other co-stars, Joe Locke, Sasheer Zamata, Ali Ahn, and Debra Jo Rupp are equally wasted.

Hahn plays Agatha pretty much exactly as she did in WandaVision, with outrageously accentuated mannerisms, goofy facial contortions, and zany hand waving.  What was a funny diversion in WandaVision does not work as a main character. At times, I felt like I was watching a high school play cast with the most competitive ADHD students.

Where Agatha All Along really clunks is in how it rejects its source material.  Rather than continuing the genre-bending meta tone of WandaVision, Agatha All Along retreats to a conventional, procedural narrative.  It also generously borrows tropes from other witch tales, especially Hocus Pocus.

To make matters worse, we really have no idea what the plot is or where these characters are going other than travelling “the witches’ road,” whatever that is.  I do not think I am alone in watching Agatha All Along only so I can catch other MCU character cameos.

Clicks: The Penguin

The Penguin is a spin-off from The Batman, Matt Reeves‘ gritty reboot of the timeless DCU character.  The Batman was a surprise success.  It was also a genre-bending offshoot from its own mammoth franchise.  While most superhero movies stick to narratives about justice, revenge, and things that get toddlers excited, The Batman was an adult show about sticky topics such as political corruption, social justice, and entitlement.

The Penguin was a minor character in the movie, but it had a major name underneath all the latex: Colin Farrell.  Watching Farrell’s performance, it is hard to believe underneath all the makeup is a trim, steely-eyed Irishman with a thick accent.  Farrell plays the ruthless mobster-of-the-people with a pitch-perfect Jersey accent.  Moreover, he fully commits to the scowling, scarred, and deformed character with an ingenious combination of unrepentant ambition and big-hearted populism.  It is not the kind of nuanced performance you expect in superhero dreck.  Perhaps because The Penguin is more Heisenberg than Walter White.

Consequently, Farrell extends and adds to his performance in The Batman.  Part of this can be attributed to the spectacular writing and direction.  Each episode is well-crafted to keep you guessing as to where loyalties lie and how people will react.  I was genuinely on the edge of my seat for most of the second episode.

Furthermore, The Penguin fully embraces its source material, rather than rejecting it.  It retains the gritty, urban decay mood along with a biting social commentary.  New characters arrive as extensions of existing plot points, rather than magically appearing out of nowhere as they do in Agatha.

The Penguin does not need cameos from Robert Pattinson or Zoe Kravitz.  Farrell carries the story completely.  However, Farrell is not alone.  He is accompanied by some truly great character actors such as Clancy Brown, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Michael Kelly, Cristin Milioti, and Mark Strong. These actors also commit fully to their roles. Brown is on screen barely a few minutes, but he does not waste any of that time to deliver a pretty convincing mob-boss growl.

Clicks and Clunks

It is eerie how similar these two shows are.  Both shows revolve around a single character who is fighting their way to the top of their gang.  Agatha wants to regain her witch powers and be able to do evil again.  The Penguin wants to grab power from two warring mobs, and has no problem killing those who get in his way.

Both characters reside inside huge, sprawling franchises. Agatha lives among the massive MCU, yet aside from passing mentions of Wanda, it largely ignores its sprawling universe.  Conversely, the Penguin lives inside the recently rebooted DCU.  While The Batman established a new aesthetic for the DCU, The Penguin expands and augments this grimy and oppressive DCU.

Both shows are desperately attempting to add to their respective universes, however it remains to be seen if this will succeed as intended. 

Both shows have more episodes to unspool, so anything can happen.  However, if the recent MCU shows are any indication, Agatha All Along is going exactly where everything else in the MCU goes – to some epic showdown where our main character saves the day and yawn-inducing mysteries are unveiled. As for The Penguin, I have no idea where it is going, but I will gladly jump inside that plum colored Maserati Ghibli just to see what happens next.