A Discovery of Witches

Both better and worse than Harkness' book. ... If making Diana even more of a Mary Sue than she was on the page is a bad adaptive choice--don't get me started on Diana as a character only being activated by the sexual ritual known blushingly as "bundling"--Brooke smartly recognizes the dramatic structural flaws of Harkness' book. ... A Discovery of Witches picks up as it goes along through eight episodes.

The series lays out its world and characters briskly and intelligibly, and the early episodes invest the fantasy clichés with some elegance and picturesqueness. (Shooting in Oxford and Venice, where the creatures’ HQ occupies a hidden island in the lagoon, helps.) As the action, physical and supernatural, picks up in midseason, the writing and direction start to lose some of that restraint, taking a turn into pulpy, B-movie territory.

If Twilight is your jam, this is going to be right up your alley. If you’re curious but indifferent to the Twilight comparison, then still give A Discovery of Witches a chance, because there are some intriguing threads started in the first couple of episodes.

It takes A Discovery Of Witches a long time to show any signs of a pulse, mostly because Palmer is cute as a kitten but also about as threatening. Her frequent exchange of mean looks with the vampires is significantly less scary than her producers seem to believe.