Best of 2024: Rose Matafeo on Agatha All Along (and Challengers)

The Kiwi comic, whose new special Rose Matafeo: On and On an On is streaming now on Max, on her viewing highlights from the past year.

I was in the shower today and thought, What the hell have I watched in the past year? I feel like ever since the Covid lockdowns, I don’t know when a year starts and ends. So I genuinely had to Google what movies and television shows came out in 2024. I feel like it’s not been an interesting year for movies – when I was actually looking back on all the things that have come out, I’m like, “It was sequels …” I’m gonna be honest, I’ve never seen Dune or Dune 2, and that means that I’m out of the loop in terms of big box-office movies this year.

I don’t actually watch that much TV, which is really ridiculous for someone who has made TV. I tend to watch old shows, because I feel like I need to catch up on stuff, but the one new show I did watch on a weekly basis, from the start to the end, was Agatha All Along. I’m 32, so obviously I’m deeply indoctrinated into the Marvel Industrial Complex. I really loved WandaVision, so I thought, “I’ll give Agatha All Along a go.” For me, shows that come out week to week will always get me; it’s weird that it feels like a gimmick now, but this is how TV used to be. And as a very unstructured person, to have routine and structure imposed on me is very good. To be clear, my review of this television show is not about how it was released, but I thought it was great.

I’ve loved Kathryn Hahn ever since I saw her in Anchorman, where she’s just perfect. She only has a very small role in that film, but she’s still so funny. I also loved her in Mrs. Fletcher, which was so good. I will basically watch anything she’s in. And she is so, so good and funny in Agatha All Along. As it’s a spin-off, I was a little skeptical as to how well it would work, because she was such a villain in WandaVision, but they managed to do it. And each episode is so much fun! It was really witchy, and it was also just fun to watch a show where the entire cast is women (plus Joe Locke). The episode about Patti LuPone’s character was particularly good; the structure of it was really cool. It’s weird to describe Agatha All Along as “easy to watch,” because I don’t want to suggest that it lacks the depth or magnitude of something like The Sopranos, but I mean it in the best possible way. I loved it. Also, I like purple, and it was a very purple show. I loved the aesthetic.

I think I was born to sit at a computer with a headset in a Marvel film and do a slightly janky American accent and have, say, three lines. I’m pretty sure I have spoken about this before in interviews, so I’m truly shocked I’ve not been contacted by Marvel yet! But they clearly don’t want me. All I want is just for my character to walk on, and then walk off again. I could just be handing someone a folder in the background. Or I could be someone who gets killed by Ultron. Obviously, there are a lot of actors out there, and there’s a lot of good actors. I think sometimes with comedic actors, there is an assumption that they can’t act. Because that is quite often true, and it has been very well documented in many films and television series. But there are a ton of them that can act. I’m not necessarily saying I am one of them, but if the call came from Marvel, I would 100 percent be there.

In terms of movies from 2024, the last one I enjoyed in the cinema was Challengers. I watched that halfway through the Melbourne Comedy Festival, and I happened to go with two of my male friends, who were sitting on either side of me in the cinema. It was just the weirdest, funniest thing to be watching Challengers and going, “Oh God, oh God …” I had a box of popcorn and they were both eating the popcorn too, which was so weird. It was a very enjoyable (and slightly uncomfortable) experience, watching that horny film, though fortunately there were absolutely no romantic vibes going on between us all. But it was very funny that me and my friends were a weird, freaky (and very virginal!) mirroring of the movie.

Rose Matafeo is a BAFTA nominated comedian, writer and actor from New Zealand whose new HBO Max original comedy special, Rose Matafeo: On and On and On, debuts on December 19. Rose is best known for creating, writing, directing, and starring in the HBO Max and BBC rom-com Starstruck. Soon after launching in the UK, the show’s three critically acclaimed seasons became BBC’s best-performing new comedy of the year. Her comedy special On and On and On recently received a nomination for “Best Show” at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Her previous comedy special, Horndog, won the award for Best Show at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival and was also nominated for Best Show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival before being released on HBO Max in 2020. She can currently be heard as the voice of Loto in Disney’s Moana 2.