A Discovery of Witches: Season 1

 

Based on: All Souls book trilogy by Deborah Harkness

Written by: Kate Brooke, Tom Farrelly, Charlene James, Sarah Dollard

Directed by: Juan Carlos Medina, Alice Troughton, Sarah Walker

Produced by: Deborah Harkness, Jane Tranter, Ashley Pharoah, Julie Gardner, Edoardo Ferretti

Starring: Teresa Palmer (Diana Bishop), Matthew Goode (Matthew Clairmont), Edward Bluemel (Marcus Whitmore), Louise Brealey (Gillian Chamberlain), Malin Buska (Satu Järvinen), Aiysha Hart (Miriam Shephard), Owen Teale (Peter Knox), Alex Kingston (Sarah Bishop), Valarie Pettiford (Emily Mather)

I've been waiting to watch this show for years! I'm not subscribed to Shudder or Sundance, which has been the only way to watch this show. So I was thrilled to see it come (temporarily) available on Amazon Prime!! 

At the moment I've only seen enough to review the premiere, as usual. It's had a couple slightly cheesy moments (like the first instance of Diana's magic, which felt very forced), but those moments have been the exception. Otherwise, the VFX and acting alike have completely sold me. 

We meet Diana as she's entering the historic and prestigious Oxford University, where she's received by the other faculty with honor to give a lecture on the history of alchemy. The montage fast-forwards through her lecture, giving us enough snippets to see that she knows what she's talking about, and her lecture is very respected. 

Later she goes to the Bodleian Library, which I had never heard of before and had to Google. I was fascinated to read that it's one of the oldest libraries in Europe and that its documents (generally) may not be removed! As something of a bibliophile, myself, I found this to be a fascinating setting 😁 and the events at Bodleian were just as fascinating. Diana requests "Ashmole 782" and begins to study this text within the library, recording notes about in on her laptop. As she looks through its opening pages, the pictures seem to move, electricity in the room falters, and she sees what appears to be watermarked or invisible text hidden as she turns a page and the light strikes it correctly. But most intriguingly, the words seem to crawl up her hand as she handles the pages and one of the pictures burns itself onto her palm. Every one of these effects just felt so... real to me. I can't explain it, but these magical charms seem appropriate for an exceptionally powerful spellbook. They all seem like things that would happen if someone handled a spellbook incorrectly or didn't know what they were doing with it. More than that, the visual effects and her reactions were on point. None of it seemed hoaky or forced or fake. This combination of effects and acting drew me in considerably and made me just as curious and excited to learn more about "Ashmole 782" as all the other characters in the series! 

Diana studying Ashmole 782 at the Bodleian Library

Then there are the characters, all of whom I feel very entranced by. Diana herself feels a bit like Rey from Star Wars (which is a positive comparison to me); she has strong power and a lineage that she isn't quite aware of and doesn't yet know how to control. I love both these sides of her: the studious and respected Yale historian who's focused on publishing and academia, and the powerful and unbiased witch who's trying to navigate a lot of unwelcome attention and do what she feels is right. The witches surrounding Diana, even her friends, seem more interested in using Diana or telling her what to do than being a friend or family. 

Her initial confidante Gillian appears to support Diana on a deeper level, but in the first two eps she's still easily swayed by Peter (a high-ranking witch) to do his bidding and betray her trust. 

Then there's her aunt, Sarah, who seems to try to be supportive, but her own feelings easily take the wheel, and she pushes too hard to get Diana to accept her powers. I've also gotta add here that Sarah is played by Alex Kingston, who plays River Song, one of my favorite characters in Doctor Who and this is definitely one of the biggest reasons I wanted to watch Discovery in the first place!! I hope her role of Sarah gets bigger in future episodes. 

Gillian checking on Diana in the Bodleian

Finally, the last major player is Matthew, a vampire who's invested in Ashmore 782 because it purportedly tells the origins of the three species (vampires, witches, and demons). Diana has been the only person in his lifetime (which apparently has spanned centuries) able to summon 782, and Matthew is very keen to know why. I'll not be ashamed to admit that I feel drawn to Matthew for probably the same reason as Diana: he has that dark, tall, and handsome vibe, the somewhat 'bad boy' and very tantalizing demeanor of someone who might not be good for you, but you definitely want to find out! I found his first couple interactions with Diana extremely intriguing. At the same time as he felt critical and pointed, it also felt like it was in a direction of self-improvement. His words stated that Diana was not in control and questioning why she was there, but the words implied a message of "So get better and find out who you are!" And it's for this ultimate reason that I understand Diana's choice of going back to him when she felt she had no one else. 

Matthew returning a book to Diana that she had accidently threw from a balcony with magic. "Did you drop this?"

Wow, this has already been a long review for a premiere, but I had a lot of feelings coming out of the first two episodes! I'm excited to devour this series while it's very temporarily available to me. I'm really excited to see Diana learn more about herself, her lineage, her powers, and check out 782 once again to dive into its mysteries!! 

As usual, I'll be reviewing the rest of the season once I finish it. I'll share that on my Facebook page when its ready!