User Reviews

The beginning of the series is totally captivating, with mysterious and interesting characters, good clothes and places, really portraits what women had to go through just because they were women. The opening and ending songs are great, unlike the music used in the series that is very out of context. (that's why an 8, it really bothered me) I loved the characters and although there are very hurried and slow parts it makes sense in the context of it. SPOILERS Ade falling in love so quickly and hopelessly is a bit weird, but maybe at that time it was like that as well as the excuse of getting married without knowing each other, it is obvious that time passed bweteen scenes but they should have shown it to us. The end was totally unexpected, I am very anxious to see what will become of Ade and this power, where will it take her, will she be left alone? will he return with the sisters? What will happen with Cesaria? Can't wait for Season 2.

This is an entertaining show for the most part, especially if you're into period dramas and fantasy. It has an interesting concept with a lot of potential, which I sadly thought was wasted.

First of all, the magic stuff. It is sort of established that each of them has her unique set of powers, but they also don't show what is the extent of their power. It's not explained what they can and cannot do. When it's fitting for the story they're powerful and when it's not, they suddenly seem to have no power. Persepolis is shown to have the power to move things around and break mirrors, but she only ever seems to use these powers at the witch house. One of the witches introduced later, Petra, was inprisoned by being buried in rocks, but later it's shown she has the power to transform rocks (and even her name means rock in Greek) which makes you wonder, why didn't she just will those rocks into releasing her?

Then, the romance between Pietro and Ade seems forced. They've only interacted twice, known each other for like 2 days and they're madly in love with each other. Now, that is something that kinda happens in courtly love stories, but still. I wasn't sold in their romance. Also, Pietro is kinda a dick. I don't remember which episode it was where he discovers the Perfect Way to put a stop to Ade being chased: them getting married. He gets all petty when she doesn't immediately say yes, telling her other women are lining up to marry him etc.

Another thing which didn't make much sense was how Pietro's father, the leader of the witch hunters, who is so adamantly against magic, suddenly has no issue with Marzio bewitching their weapons and telling him he can bring his wife from the death. It just didn't make any sense for me. When you establish a character to be a devout Christian who wants to chase down all witchcraft, you can't have him so easily trust someone who quite literally performs magic in front of him. If anything, that sword that Cesaria used to break the ground seemed more evil and satanic than any of the magic performed by the women in front of him.

The final episode was the silliest.

Valente, the little brother, turns out to be a girl and the Chosen One. I found it super corny and silly how the witches managed to do a complete dress up with themed outfits and gather around the lake by the time Ade and Leptis reach them. Ade's sudden turn to the dark side also didn't make any sense. It would be understandable for her to be all "wtf" about her brother actually being a sister and the Chosen One, but showing her being jealous and running away didn't. Ade didn't seem to be interested in being the chosen one up until this point and she loved her brother dearly, so it just didn't make sense. It would have made more sense for someone like Cesaria to be jealous.

Pietro turning evil also didn't make any sense. I would understand him hating Ade for killing his father, but she did it because he was choking her brother/sister to death. For the entirety of the show Pietro didn't agree with his father and especially him wanting to kill people for witchcraft. So it'd make sense for him to be sad about him dying, but not so quick to become a witch Hunter himself. It would have been better if his turn to the dark side was explored in the second season, but I suppose they thought it'd be more suspenseful this way.

Also, Spirto suddenly becoming loyal to the Benendanti didn't make any sense either. He seemed pretty Done with them when they beat him up and tied him at the town square, so it didn't make sense that he suddenly renounced Persepolis and joined them.

More often than not I am not a fan of shows dealing with magic and wizardry especially when it comes to magical battles because I never feel like it is explained very well how one magician defeats another. If one knows a spell that can cause instant death why use anything else during a battle? But the magic was used pretty effectively in this series so far. Could have used a few scenes showing more of a population, I think. The Benandanti was supposed to be protecting the city, their people, from these witches but the world seemed a little too small in numbers to me. I have found that I prefer watching a series in its original language and reading subtitles so I definitely recommend that here. Feels and sounds much better to me. I understand that this series is taking place during a time when women weren't treated with much equality, but I found it a little puzzling that the Benandanti were getting aid from a very powerful warlock to hunt down these witches and put them to death for witchcraft(?) and no one questioned it whatsoever. Not sure I really understood Pietro taking up his father's mantle the way that it happened either, but despite all of my complaints I didn't have a difficult time watching the six episodes of the first season in one sitting and am curious how the writers will proceed with the story.

Am I the only one who thinks is stupid that the ones who are condemning those women for being witches, practice magic too??? It just doesn't have any sense.

The plotline was okey after all with a nice twist in the end, but other than that nothing special about it. I thing that it lacks of energy. The love scenes has no emotion, the battle scenes were short and childlish. In the second half of the first season it felt like certain scenes were repeated to fill the 40-minutes episodes. They could use this time to make Ade's confusion and her anger to make scenes, or to give the opportunity to some secondary characters to grow.