Sanctuary: A Witch's Tale

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 think the intrigue is there - it's not Broadchurch by any means but it's an okay crime show. All in all, this is a solid six or seven, in my opinion, as in it would get a passing grade for decent British crime/mystery TV with or without witchcraft. It treats witchcraft as mundane and commonplace, which is interesting in itself. The characters are pretty interesting, and there is enough world-building. It doesn't need all the special effects to be a decent show, and it doesn't need to be groundbreaking. Exaggerated 1 and 2/10 star reviews do this site a disservice and make it unusable over time.

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.

So supposedly this entire town is a dedicated sanctuary for witches, has been for generations, and only... one witch lives there? Huh?

In this alternate reality witchcraft is an accepted fact, yet it's not clear how exactly this town is any kind of "sanctuary" when there's plenty of witches living outside it who seem to be doing just fine, better than the one inside it actually. Plus, theres a disturbing number of townsfolk ready to start up the bonfires and dig out their dunking stools the first time someone whispers that witchcraft is to blame for any sort of tragedy.

I'm guessing that there's some kind of "bad" witchcraft at play making everyone behave this way, otherwise just about the entire town deserves whatever horrors come their way.

Sarah, the main witch, has no real moral backbone. She performs various spells to "help" friends, but lacking consent and with questionable outcomes. Some real "Harry Potter" love spell vibes here that we're supposed to be OK with. She keeps engaging in behaviors that are foolish at best, and life threatening at worst.

Her primary nemesis is delightfully evil in regard to their machinations and how they manipulate people. Best character on the show.

One episode left, that will determine how worthwhile the series is overall. Just slightly better than average so far.

It's not awful; a bit heavy on the "Harper Valley" small-town drama and teen angst (..especially for what looks to be a British-produced series), but it's still developing characters and story. It doesn't kick straight in like a "Penny Dreadful" but it held my interest.

For only one episode the acting is very passable, writing as well, and I like that they don't give up the whole season in the first ep. Post-episode previews are flashy, but this first one is subtle on the special and practical effects so not a whole lot of "eye-candy" on the way in. It may be that they're going out of the way a bit in terms of suspending disbelief, but it's still a fun watch so far.