Sanctuary: A Witch's Tale

I just caught up in this show and I must say it is very well written and acted. The storyline is just the right amount of perfect but not to much fantasy to kill the show. I agree with another person on here that said it doesn't need a lot of effects. It's just the right amount of perfect in its on. In my opinion it touches on numerous topics that still plague today's society now. This show went from 0 to 100 real quick and to think the women were all like blood sisters and then BOOM betrayal. Hysteria on the show gave us a glimpse at how it was for the women in the Salem trials. Those women in the Salem trials never stood a chance back then. This show did a great job acting out those parts and showing us how it was during the witch trials.

Welcome to the enchanting and magical hamlet known as Sanctuary, a place supposedly dedicated to providing solace and haven for witches against persecution. Basking in the town's benevolence is the presence of a lone witch family, as the beacon of all magical prowess. Not just any ordinary witch family, mind you; the illustrious Fenn family is one where the manifestation of witch power appears to have escaped both the character's mother and daughter. Yes, you heard it right - leaving the protagonist, Sarah Fenn, as the sorcerous elite, and the official representative of witchforce and witchdom in a town, that has a grand total of one officially registered witch. Bravo, Sarah!

Of course, the makers decided to christen both the town and the series with the grandiose title "Sanctuary", because nothing says magical refuge like a place with just one witch, right? But wait, there's more! In this modern benevolent utopia, anyone can casually point fingers at anyone else, accusing them of witchcraft. It's like a community potluck, but instead of bringing casseroles, you bring accusations of spellcasting. How quaint!

And then there is the real star of the show - Abigail Whithall, the grieving mother, the narcissistic friend, the cheating wife, the blackmailing neighbour, what-have-you. Her performance is so stellar that it makes you want to enroll in an anger management class to cope with the desire to repeatedly punch her in the face. Ah, the wonders of brilliant acting - or as I like to call it, facial-punch-worthy theatrics.

Cheers to the magical-bewitching world of Sanctuary!

While there is a central fantasy element with the presence of witches and magic, those simply add complexity to the efforts of residents of a small town to solve a murder (or prove that it wasn't one), rather than being an end unto themselves.

The magical hand movements seem to have come straight out of The Magicians, but work in this series as well. Nothing about the fantasy element is particularly innovative, except perhaps combining it with a crime genre and setting it in a community where witches can live openly among their non-witch neighbors.

The acting is good and the script gets the job done without being unduly annoying. The teenage drama is fortunately kept to a minimum, and focused only on the central plot points thus far. Some misogynists may be upset about the plethora of strong female leads, but there's more than enough relevant guys in the story to satisfy a reverse-Bechdel test.

It's an easy and enjoyable watch.

If you make it past the first episode, which was kind of a clumsy setup, this does actually get pretty engaging with multiple elements. The major plot is the murder mystery, and it's laced with social injustice stuff surrounding bullying/rape/evil patriarchy/outcasting. Some of the characters become over the top to the point of absurdity towards the end, but all in all this was still an engaging watch. It felt rushed into it's conclusion and felt a little anticlimactic to me, but I'm guessing they wanted to end it as a miniseries, which is fine. Ultimately, I found this trails behind the more superb (until s3) A discovey of Witches, but a better watch (lead acting capability mostly) than Mayfair witch.

I enjoyed this quite a bit. The show starts with a death and a set of prejudicial and/or false conclusions. Yes, people behave irrationally, but they stay well within the confines of normal human ignorance and lack of critical thinking. The magic aspect of it is fine. The story would work just as well if you replaced the word "witch" with any other misunderstood group that's the target of bigotry and discrimination. With the magic theme we get some special effects and an enhanced feeling of uncertainty. It's a good choice.

Revelations are made at an optimal pace. Often in crime shows the "twists" elicit a yawn, an eye-roll and a complete lack of surprise. However, in this show i felt more of an: "Ohhh....interesting." They keep these coming throughout the series. For me, this is a win.

By the time you get to the last episode, the tension is remarkably high. The situation seems hopeless....

Let's pretend for a moment that the fit of utter stupidity didn't occur.

...Unexpected but totally plausible things happen and the show ends satisfactorily. In the denouement some additional revelations are made which totally add value to the story and tie up some loose ends that you didn't know were loose. Well done.

Let's go back to that fit of utter stupidity. Everything I wrote above is sincere. The ending is good. The shark-jump is irrelevant. But, at 39:45 into the last episode, it's there. I actually laughed out loud. I won't spoil it (because I want people to read the review), so here are some comparable things you might see in a sillier series:

1. A person gets a pillow held over their face for seven seconds and is suddenly dead.

2. A car drives over a sharp rock and explodes into a ball of fire.

3. A person drops a toothpick onto a table and it ricochets around the room to stab somebody fatally in the heart.

It's that bad. Anybody who knows anything about objects that might be on a stage would have called BS on this event. Is this a 1980's B-movie? Why did they include it? The rest of the show was great. Why do something completely unnecessary and ridiculous? It ranks in the top two of the most ludicrous things I've ever seen in a "serious" show.

Why?

That being said: despite the one jarringly obvious forehead-slapping error, I think it's a really good show -- neatly wrapped. There are no breadcrumbs for a second season. But, if there were one, I would totally watch it.