Circle Sewn with Fate/Unlock Thy Hidden Gate

Episode one felt like a prequel, setting up the plot of the series while mostly covering things we already knew. This is the real start of the series. It was so interesting seeing the group come together. It did feel a little bit rushed, mostly because of how short the episodes are, but I have no doubt that these characters will be expanded as the series continues. I also did not expect it to be as funny as it is, but when you have the amount of comedic talent in the main cast that this show has, it's hard not to take advantage of it. The ending is very ambiguous, which works in the context of this show, but I don't know if what's coming next is going to be as fun to watch as this was. Still, I'm choosing to stay optimistic. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing the next few episodes.

The second episode starts straight from where the first one ends. Agatha and her Toto set about putting together their coven for their journey down the road.

This episode showcases Agatha's history with other witches and finishes the set up and starting the journey down the road.

As with all Marvel shows that have come before we are left with more questions than answers, but it's a strong start.

We've had Disney+ shows before where the first two episodes show promise and then the rest of the season is dragged out, with a 9 episode run, here's hoping that this won't be the same and that the pace can continue.

An improvement on episode 1 for sure.

This episode Agatha has more of her wits about her as she is on a mission, she needs to reclaim power as she no longer has the dark hold. She is joined by a teen that for some reason we don't know who they are, on their way to collect a coven of witches so they can get to the witch's road which gives the person what they need the most.

A better episode due to a very good supporting cast introduced. Agatha is good, my favourite was Mrs Hart and the witch from the fortune tellers shop.

I must say enough goes on in the episodes that it has a fresher feeling than past Disney Plus shows. As of now each episode has progression on the path, besides Loki everything else was so slow and this is picking things up ! Happy with that, 6/10.

If "WandaVision" showed us anything, it is that Jac Schaeffer is not someone who likes to give us all the cards up front. For that show, she waited a long time before peeling back the layers for the show and revealing its true identity to the audience. The first episode felt very familiar to that show, but Schaeffer quickly decided to switch that out with a more straightforward narrative, which is probably the right idea. And now we're seeing what that does for the show. This is another quite good installment of the show, although it's still a little unclear where we're actually going here.

This was pretty much this show's take on your big team-up sequence, which filled a lot of the episode as Agatha is trying to collect her coven. It gave room for a lot of fun and lighthearted moments between Agatha and the character aptly named "Teen," and it provided some nice introductions to new characters, including one played by acting royalty Patti LuPone. All of these are very nice additions to this wacky band of characters and they provided some of the episode's most memorable moments in their interactions with each other. They are also all part of a very exciting finale that may not have been all that surprising, but adds a very interesting visual sequence to the episode. They do attempt to set up a lot of mystery, and when it comes to the identity of the "Teen," it's not really as interesting as the show wants it to be. The same with the whole idea of the Witches' Road, which could easily become such a mystery that audiences lose interest rather quickly. There's still a lack of direction and whether the show will actually lead to anything significant, which is starting to become a problem with most of these Disney+ shows. It's why people are losing interest, and this show isn't really giving any good reasons to why people should start caring again. This is only the second episode, so there's plenty of opportunity for that, but it may want to start think about adding some real depth and direction to it soon.

"Circle Sewn with Fate / Unlock Thy Hidden Gate" is another entertaining episode that adds a whole bunch of interesting additions to this wacky group. It has more impressive visual components than the first episode, but there's still a lack of clear direction which could potentially become a huge issue for the show going forward.

First things first, I'm happy to see they're NOT going with a WandaVision-like gimmick of doing each episode like a different genre of TV, but seem to be sticking with the one flavour after last episode's "reveal". That's a great start to fixing things already.

Second things second, I'm also happy to see that, in ditching that gimmick, they've (mostly) ditched the cringe dialogue and are giving the cast some actual decent material to work with.

Third things third, I knew the moment I saw Patti LuPone turn up that we'd be getting some kind of musical twist (like Idina Menzel, you DON'T cast Ms LuPone unless you plan to give her something to sing at some point) but I'm ALSO glad to see it wasn't a cheese-fest of a musical number. It was actually an incredibly well done musical number!

This episode went a LONG way to restoring my faith in what we can expect here.