The Nice Girls Guide to A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES

Once the world was full of wonders, but it belongs to humans now.
We creatures have all but disappeared. Daemons, vampires, and witches,
Hiding in plain sight, fearful of discovery, ill at ease, even with themselves.

The intriguing narration from Matthew Goode opens nearly every episode of A Discovery of Witches, the Sky TV series that premieres in the U.S. on AMC and BBC America Sunday, April 7.

The series, based on the books by Deborah Harkness, promises a magical world existing alongside our own, among our own, delicately balanced among witches, vampires, and daemons in an uneasy covenant meant to keep everyone safe.

Months before we learned the show was coming to American TV, I decided to hunt down A Discovery of Witches on the Sundance Now streaming service. I had been bombarded with ads on Facebook about a series that was a cross between Twilight and Outlander.

If that description puts you off, not to worry. The series, and the books that inspired it (which I subsequently devoured), is so much better than that.

What’s it about?

Diana Bishop (Teresa Palmer) is an American historian in Oxford to study the history of alchemy. She has no interest in what makes her so obviously different – her descent from a long line of distinguished witches, including the first witch executed in the Salem Witch Trials. Diana completely disavows magic, partially because she has little to no control over her abilities, and partially from fear of persecution – a perfectly rational fear, considering her parents were killed when she was young because they were witches.

But her magical ability is precisely why she is able to unwittingly call up Ashmole 782, an alchemical manuscript that’s been missing for hundreds of years. And now that creatures know it’s been found, they want it. That attracts a bevy of benign and malevolent witches, vampires, and daemons to Diana, including a mysterious and ancient vampire named Matthew Clairmont (Matthew Goode at his most darkly delicious).

But who among them could be Diana’s enemies, and who could be her friends? The answers turn the world of creatures upside down, and send Diana spiraling into a magical life she never wanted.

Why do you say the show is better than “Outlander meets Twilight?”

Let me preface this by saying I’ve never read the books for either Outlander or Twilight. I only saw the movies and the TV series (which I do enjoy).

A Discovery of Witches is about creatures and creature politics and vampires play a major role in all of this. A witch who tries to pass as human gets close to a vampire. There are even moments of distrust and despair (spoiler alert!) as their relationship forms. That’s about as mercifully close as Matthew and Diana get to Edward Cullen and Bella Swan.

Diana is definitely more like Claire Fraser than she is Bella. She’s strong, smart, and though naïve, she’s nobody’s fool. She has courage to burn.

Also like Outlander, A Discovery of Witches hints at the rich history at the heart of the books, and will eventually involve time traveling and political conspiracy.

But it doesn’t have Outlander’s annoying endless partings between the main lovers, which drive me to distraction. The progression of A Discovery of Witches is straight forward and moves fast – sometimes too fast.

How close is it to the books?

The first series encompasses the first book and for the most part, is incredibly faithful. It helps that the author is an executive producer on the series.

The biggest change between the book and the TV series is definitely the show’s pacing. When I told a friend of mine about the show, she told me she had read the first book and became quickly bored by the fact that she was reading about someone else reading a book.

The show attempts to solve this by condensing several chapters into each episode. This has two effects, one pro and one con:

PRO: It changes the danger in the story. In the book, it seems to be always under the surface, occasionally bursting forth and propelling the story. But the minute Diana opens the book on the show, the danger is very real and never really goes away.

CON: I feel like you lose the richness of Deborah Harkness’ original story, especially when it comes to the courtship of Diana and Matthew, which is actually already pretty rushed.

See for yourself when A Discovery of Witches begins its 8-episode run on AMC and BBC America on Sunday, April 7 at 9/8c.