User reviews

Siempre Bruja is more of a teen telenovela than anything else. It's beautifully filmed in Cartagena, Colombia. I did enjoy the colorful landscapes and old Spanish fortress city. But teen dramas aren't really my thing. But I can see how many young people would liking this film a lot. I was hoping it had more of a comedic edge like Bewitch or a darker comedy instead of a Beverly Hills 90210 melodrama feel to it. It certainly makes me want to travel and visit this old city, its newer modern cityscape and experience the music, dance, colonial history and the street food vendors!

One of the reasons why I really love Netflix so much is that they bringing more international programming like this to the United States and to the rest of the world. I love their originals, but I also love this culture sharing that Netflix provides that Over-The-Air television has always failed to provide in the past. Hopefully this streaming company might do more than just entertain us, but break the American bubble of isolation and make our country a more internationally and culturally aware people.

It's not bad! I really recomend to watching in Spanish with english subtext! Don't watch it bubbad! Estoy the culture and the beautiful Cartagena!! And the story too!

Pretty good series. I was able to binge it in a whole night. Series is great for teenager/young adult audience. The main actress was good. The character came out clueless sometimes but she is playing a young teenager. The actor who plays Esteban is so dreamy. He is my new tv character crush. I actually can't wait to watch some of his other work. If another season came up, I would love it just because of him.

Gosh this looked like it would be magical. A black witch in 1600s Columbia (mind blown) casts a spell to avoid being burned at the stake and ends up in 2019 Columbia with the promise that if she gets an emerald to a witch there, that witch will end her back in time to before her love was killed in the 1600s. So Carmen does so and ends up in 2019. All is well but for the fact that soon after arriving and finding the witch to send her back, that witch disappears and is presumed dead. How does she get back now?

There are several problems with this series that might not bug you but bugged me. (1) for some reason, everyone on the show has the dialog dubbed. This makes everyone sound ridiculous. You will have an obviously latino man speaking like a white car commercial from the 1970s. It is horrible; (2) There is way too much talking about the baddie. They must say his name a zillion times but a lot of the story doesn't seem to advance the ball toward finding him; (3) there is just a modern day problem with this show... Carmen is a slave in 1600 and is in *love* with the slave master's son. It is hard for anyone in modern day to root for them to get together in the 1600s. You kind of want Carmen to stay where she is.

I do want to give them credit for doing a good job with someone from the 1600s coming to 2019. Carmen has problems adjusting but they are not over done. She learns fast and makes friends. I would put this in the watch for later queue.

While the acting isn't stellar, it's not a bad show, but the voice-overs are kind of annoying. It is set in Cartegena for crying out loud. The actors shouldn't have American accents.Carmen slid into modern speak too easily--not with technological stuff, thank God, but the way she speaks is not from her era. I feel she should have struggled more with that.

This Colombian series opens in seventeenth century Cartagena where slave Carmen Eguiluz is about to be burnt at the stake for witchcraft. This is largely inspired by the fact that she is in a forbidden relationship with the son of wealthy Spanish family. The execution appears to take place but then she walks out of the sea... in the twenty-first century. We later learn she has made a deal with immortal wizard Aldemar... if she can save somebody for Aldemar she will be able to return to her own time and have her relationship. He warned her that there is a dangerous wizard who will try to stop her and somebody is murdering women accused of witchcraft. Once in the present she quickly makes friends and learns about freedoms she couldn't dream of before. Most of her problems seem to be sorted as the first season ends but more appear in the second season... Carman's friend Johnny Ki manages to use a time portal and returns with a seventeenth century pirate and a would-be witch is threatening Carmen's safety through her actions.

It must be said that while this series is quite fun it is also rather lightweight. Its cast are mostly good looking young people and even when major characters appear to be in dangerous situations nobody is likely to think they won't get out of it; the only question is how. The acting might not be the greatest but it is decent enough. The stories, which are season long rather than episodic, are fun. I think I preferred the second series slightly more; it is just as light weight but Kobo the pirate is a fun addition to the cast of characters. The city of Cartagena is a fine setting; modern but with a real sense of history. Overall a fun watch; it might not be a must see show but it passes the time nicely. The conclusion of the second season leaves an opening for further stories; if we get another season I'll watch it.

These comments are based on watching the series in Spanish with English subtitles so I can't comment on the quality of the English dubbing.

Solid production values for this first ever Columbian TV series I've watched. Initial episode was totally entertaining from the stake 'burning' to Carmen's arrival at a carnival atmosphere beach side celebration. characters and story held my interest. Look forward to further episodes with this charming, Colombian witch!

I needed to watch something while I was down with a bad cold. I love a show with a black girl lead anyway, so I checked it out. It's a supernatural teen drama, but with an interesting connection to the past, as our heroine, Carmen, is a witch from 1649. She's a slave and in love with the son of the master. I cannot roll my eyes hard enough at this nonsense. I stuck with it and it's a fun show, it reminds me of BuffyTVS what with all the magic and friendship. I hope the second season has better writing around her slave past because right now, it's infuriating. The thing that kept me going was taking the advice to turn off the overdubbing and watch in Spanish with subtitles; OMG it's so much better. And Carmen has amazing hair,js.

Great show, the soundtrack is amazing, characters that you can get connected to, its just a good show overall. The plot is centered around love and loss with an exciting twist of magic and time travel. The first season only has 10 episodes at around 30 minutes each, I wish it was longer but it has a solid ending which leaves you satisfied while also leaving you wanting for more. I would recommend this show to everyone because of the mix of romance, action, mystery, a bit of drama and fantasy elements.

I actually felt disrespected enough by the lame acting, lazy direction and laughable story to create an IMDB account and warn everyone . Do not waste your time in this. Through the episode 1 you feel the Complete lack of interest in making a quality show.

I did enjoy this series... at first it seemed really promising, but it did go downhill a bit for me. A lot of things happened that didn't really make sense to me, but hey, I definitely liked it more than the new Netflix Sabrina series.

It's so magical and educational at the same time. I didn't know that Colombians are this good in creating a tv series.

Interesting story, good production and the whole series is entertaining. It could use better writing though. Some scenes look ridiculous. Overall, the result is good. It's entertaining enough and touches the issues of slavery and women's rights in a way that makes you think instead of making you feel guilty. Please prefer to watch this in Spanish. The original language is always better.

Uh. I can't find ANY good Sci Fi or fantasy lately. This wasn't good at all. Firstly, it has to be translated into English. The people doing the voice overs did a terrible job. The production on the show was ok, but badly edited. Then, you have to listen to the bad acting on the voice overs which makes this unwatchable. I made it through 20 minutes, then went to find something else to watch.

Love the setting of the beautiful old city, the everlasting summer, the skimpy tops and the rum, the silly and cute acting, the predictable story, time traveling and catchy music. Perfect entertainment in the semi background a gray winter afternoon. The story telling must be right somehow and I do find the characters likable. Want to see more. Gib me season 3 right away plz? It's not the best thing ever but I could easily watch some more.

A black witch goes to modern times and falls in love with her slave master. The writers couldn't be more ignorant if they tried.

I enjoy fantasy, especially stories of witches. This perfectly blends two worlds, past and present, to make an entralling story you'll want to watch to the end. Took one star away because it was dubbed in English. Would have liked to hear the actors real voices and read the captions along with it.

In terms of actual production and effects, this probably deserves a 4 or 5, but this was just too damn fun. Just the phrase "story about a time-traveling Afro-Caribbean witch" is enough fun to say that you want to know where it's going. Also, the relationship between Carmen and Cristobal gives me life. It's beautiful and managed to avoid the typical love triangle script (despite my major fears after episode 7 that it was heading in that direction). It's my first time watching a show in Spanish let alone a show set in South America, so I can't compare it to other, similar shows. For me, seeing a show in this setting for the first time was intriguing. The minor characters did annoy me on occasion, aside from Johnny, but I don't know if their personalities are weirdly acted or just a cultural thing so it's hard to judge it properly. If the show continues, I'll likely watch the second season.

I am sure that Colombia has very competent movie directors that would love to work with Netflix. Unfortunately they were not part of this work. First, although the idea has potential, the script is substandard. Second, the characters are poorly designed. Third, there is no connection between the scenes. One second a video is uploaded, the next second a crime is being reported. What crime? Who found it? Who uploaded the video? Nothing makes sense.

As a big Japanese anime fan, I always promote and prefer watching shows in their original intended language and not the english dubbed version. I even started watching old kung fu movies in their original language and then use subtitles. This makes a big difference on how you experience the show.

The first time around, I watched "always a witch" in english. The show felt very basic, the voice overs did not carry the emotion and tone of the show, it felt like i was just watching a spanish soap opera dubbed in english. The second time around, I experienced a completely different show because I watched it in spanish.

This is a very interesting and addictive series. I like how they played with time travel, but was disappointed that they did not go as deep as making the actions of the past impact the future. Some items where sent to the past but had zero impact. I feel like that was a lost opportunity. Also, The final episode felt rushed, there could have been more.