The fascination with witches continues on the CW's newest show The Secret Circle.
The Secret Circle is based on a young adult fantasy romance series, which I've never read so there are no comparisons here. The Secret Circle is exactly what you might expect from the home of shows like The Vampire Diaries and Gossip Girl.
Brit Robertson (Dan in Real Life, Swingtown) plays Cassie, a teen whose life is turned upside down when her mother dies in a fire. While it's a mystery to her, we get to see exactly what happened to Cassie's mother during the show's first five minutes. She was killed in a Final Destination kind of way by a man in black using witchcraft. Cassie packs up and moves in with her grandmother in a harbor town in Washington that looks a little like Practical Magic, but feels more like Twilight.
Cassie meets some local teens who soon reveal to her that they're witches, that she is too, and she is the last one needed to complete their circle. If it sounds like The Craft, that's because it is a little. There's even the requisite Nancy-esque bad girl, Faye, who just wants to have fun with her power and use it however she likes. Not only are the teens witches, so are their parents, and these families, which are all connected, have secrets such as what happened years ago that left all these kids without one parent, and, in Cassie's case, lost her both her father and her mother.
The pilot of The Secret Circle wasn't boring, but I'm not sure there's anything here that we haven't seen before nor is an old concept revisioned in a new and original way. What I wanted the most is what I got the least of - the adults. I'm far more interested in the history of these families and the mythology of the town than the teens, but I'm the wrong demographic.
As for the represetation of Paganism, there isn't one. One thing I appreciate about shows like this is that they avoid religious language. These characters are not Wiccan; they're witches in a pop-culture way. There was no talk of gods or nature and they just have journals rather than Books of Shadows, which may function the same way, but as we know, words matter. The Secret Circle draws a line somewhere between good and evil, but it appears witches are both the heroes and villains of this story.
The Secret Circle is not a complicated show and the climactic end of the first episode was epically cheesy and unconvincing, but it has an attractive young cast, a pop soundtrack, magic, and small-town secrets. That's pretty much a winning formula and the show fits in nicely with the CW lineup.
Did you watch The Secret Circle? What did you think?
I watched it and since I'm in my early thirties I'm also the wrong demographic. I compare it to The Craft meets The Watcher in the Woods. I think the timing of the show is good because of the popularity of urban fantasy. The only thing that I see as a potential negative is that teens exploring Paganism and/or witch craft will possibly face a little bit of extra ridicule if they try to come out of the broom closet since the portrayal of witch craft isn't realistic. I don't know why I even hoped for realism, much less on the CW. I hope the show does explore the adults on a deeper level, too. I thought it was entertaining enough for what it is and I'll probably keep watching to see where it goes.
ReplyDeleteI agree. I'll watch another episode or two and see where it goes.
ReplyDeleteI honestly do not expect a realistic treatment of withcraft/Wicca/Paganism on tv. The magical fantasy element is precisely the draw of shows like this, but I don't worry too much about negative side effects. Similar things have been said about The Craft, but a lot of people got excited about Wicca in a good way because of that movie.
Thanks for your comments!