‘Marvel’s gayest offering yet’, Agatha All Along, becomes latest queer TV show to be review-bombed
Agatha All Along is a spin off of WandaVision. (Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel)
Marvel’s new show Agatha All Along is the latest TV project dominated by queer characters to be review-bombed by an obsessive and rabid anti-LGBTQ+ mob less-progressive viewers.
The show is a spin-off from WandaVision, and features Kathryn Hahn as Agatha Harkness, an antagonist who was originally introduced alongside Elisabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch. Critics have given largely it positive reviews, and it has an 83 per cent average score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Some viewers, however, have been less than supportive of a show that has been labelled “the gayest project” in Marvel history – and they haven’t been quiet about their opinions.
It has been subjected to review-bombing on various websites, but in particular on IMDB. According to The Direct, approximately one-fifth of the write-ups there have given the show just one out of 10 – the lowest score possible.
A large number of reviewers have awarded it 10 out of 10, but the negative reviews have begun to drag down its average rating, which currently stands at 6.7.
Some of the negative reviews include comments that have described the series as being too “woke”, “childish”, and “amateurish”, and have concluded that Agatha All Along could be one of the worst projects produced by Marvel.
The series follows Agatha, who has been freed from a spell by a character known only as Teen, played by Heartstopper‘s Joe Locke, and the pair then embark on an adventure to reclaim her powers.
Locke’s character is queer, and early on it is established that he has a boyfriend whom he is avoiding, while Agatha and Aubrey Plaza’s character, Rio Vidal, are exes. One argument between the pair is charged with an undercurrent of erotic tension.
There are also other witches who are described as queer.
It appears that by having so many canonically gay characters, and storylines involving queer relationships, Agatha All Along has angered Marvel fans, similar to the way the studio’s Eternals and Disney+’s The Acolyte, did. Both attracted negative reviews. Ms. Marvel was also review-bombed for focusing on a woman of colour.
There is to be no sequel to Eternals and The Acolyte was cancelled after just one season, which some people attribute to the backlash they faced and its impact on box office sales and streaming figures.
Rotten Tomatoes recently took steps to prevent review-bombing of shows and films that focused on LGBTQ+ and racially diverse characters and plot lines, by only accepting input from people who could prove they’d seen the film by buying a ticket through Fandango, which owns the review site.
The idea is that people would have to buy a ticket to review the movie, therefore helping its box office sales regardless. It is unclear how that would work for projects that appear directly on streaming services.
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