A Discovery of Witches

A tedious slog, humourless and plodding, going by the first series, which is all i could take. There was a junior vampire with a bit of life about him, but otherwise dismal. The vamps and witches are generic to the utmost and the third supernatural group daemons (basically fairies) were supposed to be brilliant and zany to the point of madness, but the author was completely incapable of creating such a character,, so they were the worst of all. A good cast wasted.

I loved it, but then I'm really interested in history and the writer Deborah Harkness is a history professor and both the books and the TV series were well informed historically speaking, so that really added to the dynamic for me. I'm so fed up with watching things like The Tudors where they just completely ignore basic historical events. I know there aren't really vampires etc (I hope) but to have something that actually paid close attention to the historical setting, especially in season 2 where they recreate Elizabethan London was phenomenally well done. Throughout history there has been a lot of interest in alchemy and it formed the basis to modern medicine and physics and having a series that really delved into that and some of the more interesting figures such as Doctor Dee and Mary Sidney really stimulated my brain, but then my brain likes that stuff. I found the main relationship between Diana and Matthew a bit sickly sweet though.

I'm wholly with r1, couldn't make it beyond four or five episodes of the first season. And I was so looking forward to it as well.

But yes, there were many, many handsome guys like Gregg Chilingirian featured on the show, even in the little of it I saw. Whichever homo was on the casting team obviously has great taste.

OP, you MUST be a female, right? We tried to watch this mess and gave up after the first season. It’s so lovey-dovey and Hallmark’ish, clearly designed for teenage girls and lonely heart fraus. Which is fine if you like that sort of thing. But it is nothing fun or mysterious or scary. It’s a soap opera for ladies who watch unconventional nighttime cable television.

I am OP and I'm only barely making it through Season 1. It's maudlin and yes, Hallmarky, and rather camp, but probably not sufficiently so. I'm an eldergay with high/low tastes so I like trash, but I'm not sure I will continue because this isn't quite trashy enough. Though I get a kick out of how awful Teresa Palmer is. Brenda Dickson level.

Your assumptions are so pedestrian.

I'm also appalled on behalf of Matthew Goode for being stuck in such D List material. It's a paycheck!

Well exCUSE me R5/OP..... you're right, my assumptions were pedestrian. I'm always up for watching good bad-camp with a fellow 'elder' gay so, pour a cocktail, come sit by me and let's see who can throw more shades on this delightfully horrible programme.

r6 Oh please, what else has Goode going on that he would refuse such a show? Bills need paying!

Well you're correct, but I thought Goode was a B (C+) list movie actor. I haven't been keeping up.

[quote]but I thought Goode was a B (C+) list movie actor

Closer to C than B, and more TV than film recently. So this show was the perfect fit for him. It wasn't that small and it had lots of buzz when it first started.

I liked the book a lot but the series was a letdown. If I recall correctly, I semi-enjoyed season 1 but season 2 was a no go.

He wasn’t even in the last Downton Abbey movie

Matthew dresses to the right and you can see his bulge in his jeans in season 1 when he visits the witches in America.

Another vote for how bad Teresa Palmer is. I can only imagine the bitchy remarks Goode made about her behind her back.

Saw part of the first season. Yeah, the actress is bad, the romance reminds me of the supernatural romance Harlequin type novels my niece reads. Very Twilight inspired. Matthew Goode is okay I guess but he never expresses much emotion. Even in DA he was kind of expressionless. I much preferred the actors who played Gillingham and Blake though Goode is handsome. Is he gay, straight?

Goode is married to an glamazon fashion stylist and has 3 kids.

I stopped somewhere in the second season and the historical stuff is neat indeed, and I do genuinely like these types of semihard/semisoft magic systems, but the Twilight melodrama is just too much. I love mom Isabelle to be fair. The demons are completely pointless this far. And WHY IS THE HOT YOUNG VAMP NOT JUST GAY!? Like that’s the least they could’ve done to keep us interested. 😩

*thus far

Tom Hughes as Christopher Marlowe is beautiful. But who is the "hot young vamp"?

R19, I meant Edward Bluemel as Marcus. Fair enough that he doesn’t photograph well IRL, but I remember him being cute and charming as fuck on the show. And fair enough, I had forgotten about the messy Kit storyline, which I remember somewhat enjoying. If he’s still in the narrative after France, maybe I should pick it back up…

Been sort of watching this since AMC is running a marathon. I never read the books, but are Matthew and Diana as insufferable in them as they are on the show? Or maybe they can’t interpret the material? Palmer especially is horrible. And the daemons? Whatever.

I saw it - it was meh.

Teresa Palmer reminded me of a knock-off Maggie Lawson from Psych who in turn was a knock off Alicia Silverstone.

I liked the first season but not enough to return to it.

I have no intention of watching this show, but please put me down for one Gregg Chilingirian.

I lusted after Gregg on DL when the show was originally airing, but got no response. Always tragically ahead of time...

r20 I also find Bluemel cute – he was in Sex Education as well – and have had this screenshot of his meaty thighs on my computer since 2019, I just can't bring myself to delete it. He's the lead in Prime's new My Lady Jane show (out June 27th) so you can see a lot more of him there.

[quote]Gregg Chilingirian

Had no idea he dropped his stage name. I first saw him in the original UK version of "Being Human" where he went by Gregg Chillin.

This is on Netflix now, by the way. I enjoyed the books. I love Matthew Goode, but he's not what was described in the books.

yes, I saw it a long time ago...not bad

AMC has been running a marathon of the series and I thought I would give it another try. Were the two leads meant to be utterly unlikable? I started cheering for their enemies.

I recorded it and have been dutifully watching 3 episodes a day for the past 5 days. I'm just towards the end of season 2 . The female lead starts to get slightly better in season 2, and it's nice to see a least some glimpses of magic witch powers after many episodes talking about it , but actors speaking words that indicate intense passion, lust and love without any actual chemistry between the characters is like being force-fed sawdust. I think Matthew Goode is decent in the role, and wears his Elizabethan clothes quite nicely (mostly leather pants), but his voice is unevenly caught on mic, and he tends to speak rather softly a lot of the time, so I find that I have to turn the sound up to hear all of his words clearly. I will slog through to the end in the next few days and report back. According to the episode guides I have looked at, the action accelerates a bit towards the end. Spoiler alert: in the most recent episode I watched, Kit (Christopher Marlowe). more or less confesses his love for Matthew to Matthew's vampire sister, Louisa. According to the episode guide, upcoming in season 3, a dead brother of Matthew is revealed to have had a male mate, who has a role in the series.