"Bound" -- Shelley Hennig as Diana in The Secret Circle on The CW. Photo: Sergei Bachlakov/CBS ©2011 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved
The CW is launching a new TV series, The Secret Circle, based on teenaged witches in Washington. The first episode will air tonight. From CW Publicity:
Cassie Blake’s world is turned upside down after her mother dies in a mysterious accident, forcing Cassie to move in with her loving grandmother Jane in the small town of Chance Harbor, Washington. While trying to adjust to her new life, Cassie is quickly befriended by Diana Meade, a sweet-natured classmate who offers to show her around and introduces her to mean-girl Faye, her sidekick Melissa and Cassie’s next door neighbor Nick. Things get complicated when she meets Adam, Diana’s boyfriend, with whom she feels an instant and powerful connection. Upon meeting one of her mother’s childhood friends, Dawn Chamberlain, the school principal and Faye’s mother, Cassie begins to wonder why her mother never spoke of her hometown. When strange and dangerous things begin to happen, Cassie’s new friends are forced to tell her their secret – they are all witches and her arrival will complete the Circle…
Sounds intriguing so far, right? Well, now I’ve read this article on Entertainment Weekly on five reasons to “love” about this new series and I’m having second thoughts about the whole thing. Once again, witches are being misrepresented as power-hungry, vicious and evil people (beings?) and not as followers of an earth-loving path that enriches so many of our lives. What tipped me off? Uh, how about this entire paragraph:
“We’re using the elements, but we’re trying to use them in a very dangerous way so you can see how the spell interacts with the elements around them and how they can create violent situations,” [producer Kevin] Williamson says. “These witches will pray [sic] on your weaknesses. They’ll find out what’s the easiest way to get at you, and they will do it. They’ll use your fears, your physical limitations. They’ll use anything they can to attack you and also cover their tracks. It’s really kind of eerie. We’re creating a very sort of devilish view of witchcraft. But we also have the aspirational [sic] wish-fulfillment aspect of it as well, which is what the kids ultimately want to do. They bind the circle, because who wouldn’t want to have superpowers, and then, of course, it gets dangerous.”
The writer of the show apparently doesn’t even know what it means to bind something. Egads! But how nice of the writers and producers to create a devilish view of witchcraft. Hate to tell them this, but I think that Kramer and Sprenger beat them to the punch on that one five hundred years ago!
Are you planning to watch anyway? Let me know how it goes and any reactions you have here in the comments! And if you just want to waste some time, try taking the CW’s quiz: which type of witch are you? Snicker.
I was not impressed, much too negative for witches for my taste.
Aargh! I just watched this with my teenaged daughter. Since we’re both real, practicing witches we thought it would be a cool, fantasy series we can get into. I read the original books by LJ Smith as a young teenager & truthfully, they represented so many of the factual aspects of Witchcraft I went on a hunt & found the very real spiritual practice. I expected a bit of Hollywood treatment as a way to keep it exciting but it seems like they’re selling the Craft as nothing but playing with power for your own devices. The plot & characters are such a far stretch from the beautiful books I saved as a teenager & passed on to my own daughter that I’m extremely disappointed with the author for selling out her work like that. For anyone expecting any connection with real Witchcraft so far it seems you will be highly disappointed. Change the name, change the character names & don’t make any mention of the original series & I can forgive them for making pure Hollywood fluff. I cannot forgive them for trying to pass this off as related to the actual books.
Liked Secret Circle…was great to watch and enjoy something with my 13y/o ..hard to find middle ground these days!! Reminded me of the Craft….very teens though…If you want it the pilot is a FREE download on ITunes right now!!!!!! xx
I’m not surprised. Witchcraft has never, ever been portrayed as anything other than ‘devilish’ since the Burning Times. They are not over. Thanks to the Church and the media’s fearmongering, witchcraft will always be something evil. THe only shows I have ever seen portray witchcraft as positive were the movie The Mists of Avalon and Practical Magic. It seems the other directors were asleep when these movies were made. I have sympathy for the Christian Church. They may want to control the minds of the people by making other religions appear evil but they don’t see that their dangers. They created the devil and such an unforgiving god.
But that is why there are writers and artists and teachers who can strive to work to bring witchcraft into the light. It may take time and effort but we can hope for a world of harmony.
I’m so tired of the whole whiny “they’re not portraying witches accurately” thing. It’s not a documentary, it’s escapist television for teens.
In spite of what the EW interview said, witchcraft isn’t simply evil (or “devilish”) in the show, nor in the books on which the show is based. It’s presented as a force of nature that can be used for good or ill, and it looks like they’re going to explore the challenges and consequences of both.
I didn’t much like a little clip they aired before the show, of the producer talking about how his staff spends so much time researching witchcraft, and how their show was going to reveal the “evil underbelly”…just imagine this was Christians, Muslims, Jews, or any other religious group portrayed this way. This sort of sensationalizing propaganda is dangerous and a slap in the face to everyone who has worked so hard over the decades to disperse such negative and false stereotypes. Sigh. But we know the truth! 🙂
i am a big fan of the show supernatural and they have a very negative stereotype of witches. they’re all devil worshiping, hex-casting, cat-killing, blood drinking psychos. we all know this isn’t true but sometimes we watch things just for the entertainment purpose. it isn’t great to show us in that light, but everyone is entitled to an opinion, even if it is wrong and hurtful. but i’m sure not going to endorse a show for something i don’t like. if you don’t like it, simply don’t watch it or be an adult and ignore anything that doesn’t jibe. maybe someone out there needs to write a great story to get our side put out to the masses.
While I wasn’t really interested in ANOTHER hollywood teenager television show I couldn’t resist the posting.
I think:
It’s TV.
I think we all need to accept that Magick (Majick, etc) is what it is and the user is the creator or breaker of the current moral codes and values. In short, some people do bad things and I think it’s fine to tell fictional stories that portray all sides of an idea.
I’ll say it again, it’s fiction.
Would help if they could separate witchcraft from the religious aspects of pagans, druids, etc.. or did they muddle that up?
I have seen the pilot and have decided to hold my opion for a few more episodes. I’m an optimist, please Goddess let it just be teenage/ high school /new witch learning curve and not a free-for-all negative use of the Earths power.
My mother asked me if I would like to watch the show–knowing my feelings on witchcraft and how it is portrayed by the media. It was one of those, “if they don’t drag it through the mud, then it may be alright,” however, I have to say that it was not to my taste at all. Not that it was even remotely violent, the climactic moments including water floating, a thirty second session of pouring rain and an “almost” forbidden kiss (oh my!). It was too much of a Mary Sue clique (just like it’s sister series VD) where the protagonist is the super special and powerful witch that just happens to be the missing link to making the circle complete.
If I didn’t read up on the series I would have thought it was a G rated version of “The Craft”. Once again the image of witchcraft is stomped on, the generic “all witches are evil, power-hungry supernatural beings.” Real original. As long as they don’t try to pretend these witches are affiliated to ANY religion, Pagan or otherwise it probably won’t do any more damage than everything else they have out there already.
I have to echo the sentiments of others here: It’s just a TV show. I’ve never seen a TV show or a movie that showed an ‘accurate portrayal’ of any pagan religion. Even in documentaries I always find something I don’t like in the way that something is explained.
Will this be something like Charmed?.