{"id":8493,"date":"2019-05-07T12:55:20","date_gmt":"2019-05-07T10:55:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/?p=8493"},"modified":"2019-05-07T12:56:35","modified_gmt":"2019-05-07T10:56:35","slug":"fall-under-the-spell-of-a-discovery-of-witches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/blog\/2019\/05\/07\/fall-under-the-spell-of-a-discovery-of-witches\/","title":{"rendered":"Fall Under The Spell Of ‘A Discovery Of Witches’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

A Discovery of Witches, the most watched series of 2018 on Sky One and the most successful title by far in the history of Sundance Now, is now streaming first on Showmax in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Discovery of Witches is a modern-day love story, set in a world where witches, vampires and daemons secretly live and work alongside humans, hidden in plain sight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teresa Palmer (I Am Number Four, Warm Bodies) stars as academic and historian Diana Bishop, a witch denying her magical heritage until the discovery of an ancient manuscript in Oxford\u2019s Bodleian Library throws her into the heart of a dangerous mystery \u2013 and into the path of enigmatic geneticist and vampire Matthew Clairmont (Emmy nominee Matthew Goode from The Good Wife, Downton Abbey and The Crown).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are four reasons to add it to your watchlist immediately:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s based on the bestselling novels by a historian descended from one of the Salem \u2018witches\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When A Discovery of Witches was published in 2011, The New York Times labeled it as \u201cHarry Potter for grown-ups,\u201d while NPR praised the follow-up, Shadow of Night, as \u201cTwilight for the intellectually restless.\u201d The All Souls trilogy went on to sell over 3.5m copies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deborah Harkness, the author, is descended from a woman hanged in Salem for witchcraft; runs an award-winning wine blog; has a doctorate in the history of magic and science in Europe; and currently teaches European history and the history of science at The University of Southern California. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy career in fiction began in September 2008, when I started to wonder, \u2018If there really are witches and vampires, what do they do for a living?\u2019 A Discovery of Witches was the unexpected answer to that question\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This witch and vampire \u2018will have you swooning\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the absence of True Blood and Twilight, A Discovery of Witches offers those longing for a new supernatural-romance an entertaining series to sink their teeth into,\u201d says IGN. \u201cGoode and Palmer’s on-screen chemistry is stellar\u2026 They’re both so darn charming that it’s difficult to not get sucked into their whirlwind romance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As The New York Times put it, \u201cThe idea of the vampire as perfect lover is pretty old by now, but really, lovers don\u2019t get much more perfect than the vampire aristocrat Matthew Clairmont in A Discovery of Witches. He listens so well he can hear your heartbeat rise, he\u2019s so sensitive he can feel your heat, and he\u2019s so passionate he can just barely stop himself from ripping into your throat. That he\u2019s played by that tall drink of plasma Matthew Goode is just overkill\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As The Alantic writes, \u201cAs Matthew, Goode is clearly here to have a good time, scowling and sniffing and shooting Palmer\u2019s Diana so many hot looks that you worry her hair might catch fire\u2026\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The AVClub adds, \u201cMost important, their relationship is an equitable one, one that\u2019s built on trust, which is far more romantic than a certain sparkly vision that came before it\u2026 Diana and Matthew will have you swooning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a timely story about \u2018tribalism\u2019 and \u2018interracial romance\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the world of A Discovery of Witches, for a witch to fall in love with a vampire is akin to a white woman falling in love with a black man during Apartheid: it\u2019s not just frowned upon but illegal, thanks to a centuries-old law enforced by The Congregation, a shadowy institution that keeps the peace between vampires, witches and daemons. But the heart wants what it wants\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As The Los Angeles Times says, A Discovery Of Witches is ultimately about \u201cthe ill effects of tribalism \u2014 a timely and timeless issue \u2014 and how love, or at least cooperation across lines, might improve things for all sides\u2026 At the heart of it all is I guess what you’d call a slow-blooming interracial romance. Will love be the key to a less bigoted supernatural future for all?\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u2018gorgeously shot\u2019 locations are suitably magical<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Filming took place in South Wales, Oxford and Venice. \u201cThe location budget seems to have been approximately $10 trillion,\u201d wrote The Atantic. \u201cA Discovery of Witches just looks expensive. It\u2019s as gorgeously shot and cinematic as a Bond movie, sweeping over the spires and cobbled streets of Oxford, the azure canals of Venice, and the various stately homes and ancestral ch\u00e2teaus that Matthew calls home (when you\u2019ve been alive for more than a thousand years, the series hints, you acquire an extreme amount of real estate).\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As The Hollywood Reporter says, \u201cEven if you aren’t at all interested in forbidden supernatural romance\u201d you might \u201cstill enjoy the series as a photogenic travelogue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fall under its spell here: www.showmax.com\/eng\/tvseries\/vmgd3irz-a-discovery-of-witches<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n