Four reasons to add ‘A Discovery of Witches’ to your watchlist

A Discovery of Witches, the most watched series of 2018 on Sky One and the most successful title by far in the history of Sundance Now, is streaming first on Showmax in South Africa.

A Discovery of Witches is a modern-day love story, set in a world where witches, vampires and daemons secretly live and work alongside humans, hidden in plain sight.

Teresa Palmer (I Am Number Four, Warm Bodies) stars as academic and historian Diana Bishop, a witch denying her magical heritage until the discovery of an ancient manuscript in Oxford’s Bodleian Library throws her into the heart of a dangerous mystery – and into the path of enigmatic geneticist and vampire Matthew Clairmont (The Good Wife, Downton Abbey, The Crown).

Here are four reasons to add it to your watchlist:

1. It’s based on the best-selling novels by a historian descended from one of the Salem “witches”

Deborah Harkness.

When A Discovery of Witches was published in 2011, The New York Times labelled it as “Harry Potter for grown-ups”. The All Souls trilogy went on to sell over 3.5 million copies.

Deborah Harkness, the author, is descended from a woman hanged in Salem for witchcraft; runs an award-winning wine blog; has a doctorate in the history of magic and science in Europe; and teaches European history and the history of science at The University of Southern California.

“My career in fiction began in September 2008, when I started to wonder, ‘If there really are witches and vampires, what do they do for a living?’ “A Discovery of Witches was the unexpected answer to that question …”

2. This witch and vampire will have you swooning

A Discovery of Witches. Picture: Sky UK Limited

“A Discovery of Witches offers those longing for a new supernatural-romance an entertaining series to sink their teeth into,” says IGN. “Goode and Palmer’s onscreen chemistry is stellar…”

As The New York Times put it: “The idea of the vampire as perfect lover is pretty old by now, but really, lovers don’t get much more perfect than the vampire aristocrat Matthew Clairmont. He listens so well he can hear your heartbeat rise.”

3. It’s a timely story about ‘interracial romance’

A Discovery of Witches. Picture: Sky UK Limited

In the world of A Discovery of Witches, for a witch to fall in love with a vampire is akin to a white woman falling in love with a black man during apartheid: it’s not just frowned upon but illegal, thanks to a centuries-old law enforced by The Congregation, a shadowy institution that keeps the peace between vampires, witches and daemons.

4. The gorgeously shot locations are suitably magical

A Discovery of Witches. Picture: Sky UK Limited

Filming took place in South Wales, Oxford and Venice.

“A Discovery of Witches just looks expensive,” said The Atlantic. “It’s as gorgeously shot and cinematic as a Bond movie, sweeping over the spires and cobbled streets of Oxford, the azure canals of Venice, and the various stately homes and ancestral châteaus that Matthew calls home.”

As The Hollywood Reporter says: “Even if you aren’t interested in romance you might still enjoy a photogenic travelogue.”

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