Louis Le Clercq

Season 1 and 2: (5-Stars) Honestly some of the best horror in a tv show format that I've ever watched. The small town is picturesque and the idea of shared trauma and town secrets always makes for a nice stage. The back story of the previous killer and how the current killer might be motivated by that is well fleshed out. The bonds of friendship between the main group is very real and one does get the sense that they grew up together, know each other, and care about each other. The character development was well paced, so by the time main cast characters die we actually care and are invested. Overall the show does a great job at blending "Halloween" with "Scream" to give a slightly different but equally enjoyable tv adaptation with parts of it feeling a little bit like "13 Reasons Why" with all the shared secrets past and present. I did sort of have my suspicions regarding who the killer(s) might be and was actually right! Not sure if this was just well deduced on my part or if they may have "given it away" here and there. Absolutely worth the watch, I wish there were more seasons. PS: I also really loved the Halloween Special episodes which reminded me a bit of "I Still Know What You Did Last Summer", though this one was better. Season 3: (2-Stars) The main circle of hunted teens apparently didn't know each other but instead meet in detention. I never really got the sense that any of them liked, trusted, or otherwise cared about each other. The setting in a big city could have worked (Scream VI in New York) but failed to deliver. The motivations of the killer(s) are lukewarm at best and honestly not what I would consider strong enough to drive a killing spree. The character development in this was all over the place. Some characters seem to differ like night and day between episodes. Much of the dialogue was delivered on a per scene basis and I felt like the actors never really created fully formed realizations of who their characters are and how they would act/react/think/move. Honestly the only death that I cared about was the gay character. There are also a few inconsistencies... Like who is the real Fade?? The first episode established this to be Tyler's character but they later seem to recycle the idea for no reason. The last "big reveal" about Marcus is also utterly underwhelming and doesn't further the plot in any real way. This season also seems to have a lot of gratuitous killings of nameless characters that are only partially explained at the very end. While seasons 1 and 2 had a lot, sometimes too much, exposition - this season lacked that in spades. Many things happen before any logical reason as to why is given or without a sufficient build up for the events to actually matter to the audience or make any sense. I wanted to love it, but I didn't. PS: WOKE ALERT... even though this was back in 2019 there seems to be quite a bit of BLM propaganda and racial politics. Not enough to be completely off-putting but enough for anyone to notice. Also for anyone who complained about a lack of diversity in season one (despite Latino, Asian, and Lesbian characters), this season flipped the script by having a mainly black and BIPOC cast.

I absolutely loved the books by LJ Smith (and others) and the show, even though they were fairly different. The show combined the accurate depictions of traditional witchcraft that we get in 'The Craft' with the small town setting and deep family history we get in 'Practical Magic' while keeping with a lighter teen drama type format. The actors gave world class performances in every episode and, while other have commented on a slower character progression, I personally found that Cassie went from being a loner to a leader while Fay went from the resident 'bad girl' and wildcard to a coven member people can trust. I just wish they had kept some of the book characters as the books had a circle of 12 witches and some of them really fleshed out the group dynamics. I really hope someone decides to revive this show (as a part 2 or a complete reboot) as it really has all the magic that makes good TV... I much preferred 'The Secret Circle' to 'Legacies'... But I would settle for more books!

Great show, well paced, well portrayed interesting characters!