4 reasons to fall under the spell of A Discovery of Witches

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.

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’s Bodleian Library throws her into the heart of a dangerous mystery – and into the path of enigmatic geneticist and vampire Matthew Clairmont (Emmy nominee Matthew Goode from The Good Wife, Downton Abbey and The Crown).

Here are four reasons to add it to your watchlist immediately:

1. It’s based on the bestselling novels by a historian descended from one of the Salem “witches”

When A Discovery of Witches was published in 2011, The New York Times labelled it as “Harry Potter for grown-ups,” while NPR praised the follow-up, Shadow of Night, as “Twilight for the intellectually restless.” The All Souls trilogy went on to sell over 3.5m copies.

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.

“My career in fiction began in September 2008, when I started to wonder, ‘If there really are witches and vampires, what do they do for a living?’ A Discovery of Witches was the unexpected answer to that question…”

2. This witch and vampire “will have you swooning”

“In 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,” says IGN. “Goode and Palmer’s on-screen chemistry is stellar… They’re both so darn charming that it’s difficult to not get sucked into their whirlwind romance.”

As The New York Times put it, “The idea of the vampire as perfect lover is pretty old by now, but really, lovers don’t 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’s so sensitive he can feel your heat, and he’s so passionate he can just barely stop himself from ripping into your throat. That he’s played by that tall drink of plasma Matthew Goode is just overkill…”

As The Atlantic writes, “As Matthew, Goode is clearly here to have a good time, scowling and sniffing and shooting Palmer’s Diana so many hot looks that you worry her hair might catch fire…”

The AVClub adds, “Most important, their relationship is an equitable one, one that’s built on trust, which is far more romantic than a certain sparkly vision that came before it… Diana and Matthew will have you swooning.”

3. It’s a timely story about “tribalism” and “interracial romance”

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’s 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…

As The Los Angeles Times says, A Discovery of Witches is ultimately about “the ill effects of tribalism — a timely and timeless issue — and how love, or at least cooperation across lines, might improve things for all sides… 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?“

4. The “gorgeously shot” locations are suitably magical

Filming took place in South Wales, Oxford and Venice. “The location budget seems to have been approximately $10 trillion,” wrote The Atlantic. “A Discovery of Witches just looks expensive. It’s 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 châteaux that Matthew calls home (when you’ve been alive for more than a thousand years, the series hints, you acquire an extreme amount of real estate).”

As The Hollywood Reporter says, “Even if you aren’t at all interested in forbidden supernatural romance” you might “still enjoy the series as a photogenic travelogue”.

A Discovery of Witches has a rare 100% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, an 8.2/10 rating on IMDB, and was nominated for Best New Drama at the UK’s National Television Awards this year.