Salem

When you get any show with supernatural overtones you generally get a bunch of girly romance twilight / vampire diaries-esque bullshit, a rather heavy tax you have to pay in order to get to the actual story.

This starts out fairly slow, and very cliché. Perfectly normal people being oppressed by the zealously religious authority, needlessly tortured for silly ideals. Then we skip forward 7 years and the story develops a new angle.

I didn't have to sit through any overtly poor acting, the storyline is very dark and adult which is an extremely refreshing change from the usual CW light and fluffy nonsense, and the effects in the woods were pretty believable.

There's a love story, an unrequited love story in fact but its interesting, even IF the leads get together romantically which you have to assume is somewhat inevitable, there's also the feeling that the 2 lovebirds will each captain, or champion if you will, the respective sides of good / evil. I even thought that had some room for exploration, the main witch isn't outright "evil" in a black and white sense, but at the same time she's torturing and corrupting people, literally devouring souls.

The only negative thing i could say that i picked up on, was that one of the effects at least of the devils / witches / occult was quite disappointing. Its brief, but the reflection when the beautiful and enjoyably naked primary witch blows out her candle after succouring her familiar on her thigh teat. It was almost identical to pretty standard effects that have been used in B grade horror films for years, Roald Dahl's "the witches" comes to mind, but its probably been used almost identically in a hundred films.

All in all really promising, strong pilot. The production values, costumes and effects were all good and the story had a refreshing take on what is often an unoriginal genre. This is only the first episode but i'm actually quite excited for a slightly more adult, supernatural tale with more robust, complex subject matter. There were no huge errors that took me out of the story which led to it looking and feeling authentic. The witches themselves were both seductive and disgusting, and i can't wait to see more.

I was on the fence about starting this show, until I came here and read the ridiculous 1 star reviews that actually made me give it a go. I just finished episode 1 and thought I would leave my opinion because a lot of people seem to be confused between this show and actually historical events.

For anyone who wants a 100% accurate retelling of real events from that period. This show is not for you. It doesn't claim to be accurate and doesn't try to be. Try the history channel for nice documentary.

Although a dark time in US history. There were no real witches. If this show was accurate it would be a simple small town that randomly kills innocent people for religious reasons. Perhaps that is what some of you expected from this show, but I would find that boring and repetitive. I'm happy the writers included witches and obscured some facts to make it entertaining.

This show is an entertaining twist on a dark time in US history. I don't think that means its insulting or aimed towards idiots (as some have said). I believe its what it is: a supernatural show loosely based on historical events.

Now for the show itself. The plot so far has been fast paced with some slightly strange aspects (no spoilers). The acting is so-so and the sfx were a lot better than I expected.

The only bad thing I can say is.. The brothel doesn't make sense. I'm not talking about historical accuracy. The writers have clearly setup a town ruled by religion. It seems anyone who disagrees with the religious order ends up beaten or killed. Yet they allow a brothel. I believe in this aspect the writers have tried to use sex scenes to keep people entertained and I don't think it is needed as I found it entertaining enough without those scenes.

Overall a good show and I will keep watching.

I watched this a while ago and unlike most tv shows that revolve around or involve witches, this one isn't afraid of getting dark which is why I love it so much. No cute spells or prismatic visuals, everything about the show is medieval and eery, animal sacrifices and casting diseases to entire villages and towns, all that. It's not trying to show you witches can be human too, instead it's reminding you of why you tell children witch stories to scare them. Reminds you why witch trials were such a big thing and society thought hanging women and girls was justifiable back in the 1600's.

Yet despite all that, its not really a horror in the sense of something that's trying to scare and make you jump off the couch. It gets a little political, gets a little romantic, there's family feuds, church hysteria...it actually has a story behind all the gloomy stuff so you're not just watching nugatory witch trials. And the fact that Salem witch trials actually used to happen and the place is famed for it, makes it more exciting. Though it's not historically accurate, it's fictional; if you mind mind go watch the history channel or something.

I don't think it's a 10/10 like other reviews say, the acting sometimes questionable and you can tell it didn't have a huge production budget hence the special effects; but it's definitely worth a watch if you're a fan of the genre. And if you already enjoyed this, I think you should watch the original "Penny Dreadful", that's a gem, not the City Of Angels spineoff though.

This show didn't get nearly enough publicity. I find it really eerie. The lead does a great job. Worth a binge watch

This is quite a ride. Bingeable on Netflix, whereas the original run was less available, and not well advertised, on WGN. Strong characters, acting and writing, and a consistent, dark look. I think it just gets better as it goes along. Too bad we didn't get a fourth season, but WGN stopped all original programming...