Aubrey Plaza, Hollywood’s most ironic star, delivers one-two punch
If you’re an Aubrey Plaza fan, this might just be the best time to be alive. Plaza, whose role in the hit series “Parks and Recreation” catapulted her to fame, graduated to highly regarded indie film roles into a career trajectory that includes an award-winning turn on the second season of HBO’s “White Lotus.” She’s currently placing her edgy stamp on two of the buzziest entertainment options of the season, and in each case her very specific gifts as an actor not only shine through, but add a dimension that both fits and enhances the material – and we’re a hundred percent on board for both of them.
The most high-profile of these is unquestionably a blockbuster event. It’s the anxiously awaited “Agatha All Along,” a spin-off that picks up the story of its witchy title character (Katherine Hahn, in a virtuoso star turn) from the Marvel and Disney Plus limited series “WandaVision” after having been trapped in a “twisted spell” by Emmy-winner Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff – aka the Scarlet Witch – during that show’s finale.
In this case, it’s hard to say much about Plaza’s performance yet – she only appears in one of the two episodes released to date, and her character, while provocative, is still very much an unknown quantity within the larger structure of the show – but it’s clear from her electrifying subtext with co-star Hahn that their relationship will likely be a key to the show’s still-unfolding mysteries, and the presence of “Heartstopper” star Joe Locke (as a gay teen acolyte) only amps up the LGBTQ factor.
That’s pretty groundbreaking, considering that both Marvel and Disney have long been accused of pulling their punches when it comes to queer representation in their screen content; and such considerations aside, how can anyone resist a comedically spooky fall show about a coven of questing witches that includes Patti LuPone?
