Agatha All Along: Marvel’s Latest Show Targeted by Review Bombing on IMDb
Marvel Studios’ final 2024 release, Agatha All Along, has garnered a lot of attention—but not all of it positive. Despite receiving high praise from critics and maintaining a respectable 83% on Rotten Tomatoes, the WandaVision spin-off has become the latest victim of review bombing on IMDb. This practice, where a show or movie is deliberately targeted with negative reviews, has affected a number of Marvel’s recent projects, often for reasons that go beyond the quality of the show itself.
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Agatha All Along Faces Review Bombing on IMDb
After just three episodes, fans of Agatha All Along began noticing an unusual disparity in its IMDb ratings. While many reviews rated the show a perfect 10/10, a staggering 19% of reviewers gave it the lowest possible score of 1/10. As a result, Agatha All Along currently sits at a middling 6.7 on IMDb, with about 13,000 reviews in total. A quick scan through the 1-star reviews shows many complaints that do not relate to the story or performances. Instead, critiques often label the show as “woke,” “childish,” and “poorly written.”
The Root of the Review Bombing
Much of the backlash seems to stem from the show’s LGBTQIA+ representation. Agatha All Along has been described as “the gayest project” in Marvel’s history, particularly with Joe Locke’s character, who is openly queer in the series. This representation, combined with a prominent female-led cast, has made it a target for certain groups of viewers, much like other MCU projects that have featured diverse characters and themes. For instance, 2021’s Eternals experienced similar review bombing after news broke of its depiction of the MCU’s first gay kiss. The backlash has less to do with the show’s content and more with an apparent resistance to the inclusivity it promotes.
Why Review Bombing Hurts the MCU and Its Fans
While Agatha All Along has been generally well-received by critics and many fans, it’s clear that a portion of the viewership had made up their minds about the series before it even premiered. Unfortunately, this kind of reaction isn’t new to the MCU. Female-driven series like Ms. Marvel and projects focusing on diverse characters have often been subject to the same kind of negativity.
Review bombing does more than just distort a show’s ratings—it undermines the creative efforts and storytelling of diverse characters and communities. Fans should be free to critique any show based on its merits, but when review bombing becomes a practice aimed at pushing back against inclusion, it only damages the ability of future projects to tell meaningful, diverse stories.
With Agatha All Along continuing to unfold, fans and critics alike will have the chance to fairly assess the series based on its storytelling, acting, and impact, without letting bias dictate the conversation. Marvel has always been about representing a wide range of experiences and identities, and Agatha All Along is another step in ensuring all voices are heard.
