AMC

5 Things I Love About A Discovery of Witches

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A Discovery of Witches finally premieres on U.S. cable tonight! Earlier this week I posted a preview with comparisons to the source material, the novels by Deborah Harkness. Just to add to the hype, today I’m giving you a listicle of the things I loved about the TV adaptation.

5 Things I Love (And You Will Love Too!)

  1. Matthew Goode. Oh my God, Matthew Goode. Every curve of his lips and twinkle in his eyes will make you swoon. And when he goes dark he is terrifying. He could be my favorite modern vampire yet.
  2. History and science Easter eggs. The show hints at the richness of the background information in the books. It alludes to events like The Crusades, and the Salem Witch Trials. Darwin is a trigger for Matthew’s work on creature evolution and genetics. And it’s not just idle name dropping like it is in other shows. Every piece fits into the world perfectly.
  3. The supporting characters and the cast behind them. Matthew and Diana are solid, but it’s all the

    Matthew Goode as Matthew Clairmont
    Photo: Robert Viglasky
    SundanceNow/Shudder/Bad Wolf

    other characters that really make you love the series:  Marcus and Miriam, Sarah and Emily, Ysabeau and Marthe, and Hamish are my favorites overall. And the actors that play them all are stellar. I adore Alex Kingston (Sarah) and Lindsay Duncan (Ysabeau) already and they, as usual, are powerful in their roles.

  4. The Congregation scenes. The books are largely written in Diana’s first-person point of view. So the Congregation, the creatures’ shadowy governing body, and its members are rarely seen in the books. In the show, this is a separate storyline that is woven through the show. I enjoy these political machinations, and I also like that it gives richer insight to these characters, especially the “bad guys.”
  5. Locations! Oxford and Venice and upstate New York and the south of France! It adds to the otherworldly and ancient sense of the show.  And it’s even more impressive that some of these sets, which are beautiful, were created inside a Cardiff studio, and not on location. Some location shooting was done though, particularly in Oxford and Venice.

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

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Christie Zizo is never far from a computer or her phone anyway, so she decided to put that addiction to use and became a journalist. Usually while she bangs away at a keyboard, she's got Turner Classic Movies, a British sitcom, or something Scifi/Fantasy on TV (Doctor Who, Star Wars, Star Trek, American Gods, and many, many others). Her new obsession is "A Discovery of Witches," and all the history and science that goes into this fantasy series.