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.

One of the best TV series of horror genre I have ever seen. I watched all series there is and can't wait for more. The atmosphere is great, show it self is intense, not slow paced and I find it very realistic (I don't talk about historical accuracy - I don't care much about that.) Effects are really good - production quality is very high. I don't have anything bad to say about the cast and the acting. Of course, Salem is not for the younger or sensitive audience, but it is a must-see for those, who like a good horror/mystery show, not some candy-boy vampire teen love story. P.S. So far I find it way better than American Horror Story (Although I liked it too).

This is a great show! A great twist to one of the most tragic events in American history. We get to see some wonderful actors of past and present. I love the music open by Marylin Manson. They could not have picked a better musician. The character Mary Sibley is truly a scary one as is Mercy. I cannot wait to see what Lucy Lawless character will be bringing us all. We love Cotton, whom in real life was a very smart man. I am glad they are showing a different side of him in this show. This show is not slow and has been very fast-paced since it started. We hope they keep this on long enough for a great ending and thank you for airing an exciting super-natural show.

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 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...