A Discovery Of Witches | First Impression

Hello and welcome back to The nerd shelf!

Today's post is going to be on my first impression of the series premiere of the new Sky One show A discovery of witches.

If you don't know the show follows Diana Bishop (Teresa Palmer), a historian and reluctant witch who unexpectedly discovers a bewitched manuscript in Oxford's Bodleian Library. This discovery forces her back into the world of magic in order to unravel the secrets it holds about magical beings. She is offered help by mysterious geneticist and vampire, Matthew Clairmont (Matthew Goode). Despite a long-held mistrust between witches and vampires they form an alliance and set out to protect the book and solve the mysteries hidden within while dodging threats from the creature world.

The trailer for A discovery of witches:

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

So my first impression.

First off, this show is so unbelievably shot and edited. It's so fucking beautiful. There's like a warm filter throughout the show that makes it feel like summer and good times. It reminds me of 13 reasons why and how they in the first season used a warm filter on all of the flashbacks of Hannah, it made it feel like the world was a warmer better place when she was there.
But back to this show, Juan Carlos Medina was the one who directed the first episode and he did an amazing job. The skyline shots of Oxford was beautiful. I couldnt get over it, I was just mezmerized of how beautifully shot it was. The editors and director and the whole team should get a round of applause for this episode.

So onto Diana. The first thing I thought when I saw her was "holy shit her eyes are blue". They are so fucking blue and beautiful and I'm jealous cause that's how blue I want my eyes to be. Anyways, so she's back at Oxford and held a lecture about alchemy. When she's going to the lecture, she drops her papers and they start to blow away, but she says stop and they do. At this point I thought maybe she didn't know she was a witch because she looked so confused. Also her hands glowed and all I could think of was Iron fist...
  But we find out after the lecture that she knows she's a witch and she doesnt want to practice magic. Something happened to her parents, it's hinted that maybe they were killed by witch hunters, and after that she stopped using magic and because of that she can't really control her powers. I have such a hard time with storylines like these, cause all I've ever wanted is magical powers. If I was a witch I'd use that shit all the time. But I don't know the full story of how her parents died so I can't judge her until I do.
  Diana get's an offer to be a proffesor at Oxford but she has to finish a paper first so she goes to the library and she get's a couple of books out. One of them is a magical manuscript that apparently has been missing for centuries. When she reads it, weird things start to happen. The lights flicker, things on the page starts moving, text start to move on to her hand and when she presses her hand to the page in an effort to make it stop, she gets a weird burn on her hand. Matthew Clairmont, who's a vampire, and a lot of other vampires and witches can feel that something is going on. Everyone with magical blood is affected by it.
Diana puts the book back and runs off. She bumps into a man, and he looks exactly like her father, but when she realizes and turns around he's gone. Now, was that a real person? Was it her father? Is he actually not dead? Or was it just a random person that she imagined looking like her dad? Or was it just straight up an imagination? I have no clue, but I'm leaning towards the last one. I think the book did something and it's having a strange effect on her.
Dianas friend, Gillian Chamberlain (Louise Brealey), runs out after her and she asks what happened. Diana seems so confused, obviously, a book just branded her and she bumped into her father, so she's on edge. Meanwhile, Matthew has made it across the campus, following the book, and he's looking at Diana and Gillian's conversation. Listen he's attractive but it's pretty creepy, especially since it seems like he's watching her from before this happened. In the opening scene, he's just watching her row.

So we see these two guys who are getting off their shifts at a hospital. One of them, Marcus Whitmore (Edward Bluemel), is trying to convince his friend to go out that night, but the friend is too tired and decides to go home. When the friend asked Marcus why he never looks tired I knew he was a vampire. When they part ways the friend gets hit by a car. The car drives away but not before Marcus gets a look at the license plate. In an attempt to save his friend, Marcus tries to turn him. But something goes wrong and it doesn't work and the friend dies anyways.

Matthew is having a conversation with his friend, Miriam Shepard (Aiysha Hart), who also is a vampire. They talk about what happened at the library and Matthew has done some research on Diana. She's a direct ascendant from the first woman to be executed at the Salem witch trials. Miriam thinks he's crazy for thinking Diana just found the manuscript that he has been looking for over a hundred years. But Matthew has a theory that maybe it wasn't missing, it was just waiting for Diana.

Diana is having weird dreams so she calls her aunt, Sarah Bishop (Alex Kingston), and they get in an argument about the book and magic. Sarah gets angry with her for giving the book back, she says that every time she comes across something magical that she needs to try to understand it. Diana is so against magic at this point that she doesn't want anything to do with the book at all. They end up in an argument and Diana tells Alex that she called for advice, not a lecture and she hangs up. Alex seems to be pushier about magic with Diana than her partner, Emily Mather (Valarie Pettiford), is. And as much as I can understand Alex's frustration I probably would be more of an Emily. Sometimes you just want support in whatever you're going through, you don't want to be yelled at about what you should be doing.

Marcus is being questioned at the police station, and they seem suspicious of him but he gives them the license plate number and then he leaves. Matthew is there to pick him up, and in the car, they have an argument about what Marcus did. He admits that he messed up but he wants to know why it didn't work. This is where we find out that they don't know why, and that Matthew and Miriam are researching it. Miriam and Marcus seem to have some kind of past but I can't put my finger on what yet. Where they in a relationship? Who knows at this point. Well, maybe the people who read the book but I haven't so...
  We cut to a scene where the three of them are in a bar, Marcus is angry at Matthew for not telling him that there is a problem with turning (or sirening as they call it in the show) people, and Matthew is angry at Marcus for trying to turn people in the first place. Marcus feels guilty for taking his friends last moments away from him and he tells Matthew that if he knew it would fail he wouldn't have done it. Matthew explains that he didn't tell him because they are all in the dark here. There's a problem and they don't know why. They need the book and Matthew says that the witches can't have it. This is such a typical rivalry that happens in these kinds of fantasy shows, they are different magical creatures so they have to hate each other, and of course two of them are going to be the rebels and go against that. And it seems like it's going to be Diana and Matthew.

Diana is in the library all by herself trying to finish her paper. She needs to get another book so she gets up and goes to the shelves. The book is pretty high up and when she tries to get it her magic makes the book go flying. Matthew is there to catch it. He smells the book before giving it back to her. Now, why the fuck does he smell the book? I don't get it? Does he like the smell of old books? I started to laugh so hard when that happened cause it's such a weird thing to do. If a guy would do that before he gave me a book back I would think he was such a creep.
He sees the burn on Diana's hand, which can't be good. She can tell that he's a vampire and he gives her his card. He then continues with telling her he has read all her work, again fucking creepy. He asks her about her magic and if she's in control of it which is so fucking rude, I would have punched him. It's like asking a girl if she's on her period when she's angry. Okay, maybe not but that's what it felt like to me. She excuses herself and goes back to her work, when she turns around he's gone.

So Gillian is drinking what I think is booze out of a wine glass, it could be white wine but it's clear and white wine isn't so I think it's booze. She seems kind of disturbed. She goes to a woman who is apart of some coven. She tells her that she thinks she has some information about the disturbance they all felt.

So now Matthew is full on stalking Diana, he watches her walk through the campus and then he follows her into a coffee shop as she's trying to do her own research on him. Diana confronts him and asks what he wants. He asks her where the book is, she tells him that it's back at the library, and he warns her that people should know that she put it back and that she should be careful. She leaves which I don't blame her for.

Diana is working hard on her paper and she's at the library until it closes. She asks a guy, Sean (Dustin Demri-Burns), that works at the library if he wants to go for a drink. He obviously is interested in her. He asks about her life and her family. She tells him that she has no siblings and that she was raised by her aunt. And then she just tells him in this nonchalant way that her parents died. He asks if they died in a car crash or something and she tells him that they were murdered. He seems taken aback of course. Who wouldn't be?! If I asked someone about their family and they told me that they were murdered I would be horrified. He apologizes and says that she doesn't need to talk about it but she says it's okay. And then she tells him the story about how they were on a research trip and that they think that the villagers turned on them. She tells him that they thought that they were witches but the way she says it is so weird. It's like she's trying to flirt with him as she says it. She looks at him with these eyes that are so flirty. It made me feel weird. Sean says he's sorry and that people are so dumb to believe in witches. I mean he means it in a nice way, he thinks it's horrible that they killed her parents because they thought they were witches, but little does he know that they were right.

So all of a sudden we're in Finland. A man, Peter Knox (Owen Teale), and a hunter go into the woods to find a witch, Satu Järvinen (Malin Buska). They find her house and the hunter says she cant have gone far cause the bed is still warm. All of a sudden she's behind him and he freaks out. He tries to shoot her but she surrounded him in a circle of fire and basically sends him to hell. Peter just stands there watching and he looks pretty terrified. But as Satu comes towards him he smiles and tells her she has proven herself more than worthy and that he's going to take her to be sworn into the congregation. Now what the fuck is that? Is it like the coven that rules all covens? I want to know! But he tells her before he can do that they have work to do first and that there has been a disturbance.

Diana goes into the library to work on her paper and who is there at the same table that she is, Matthew. His stalker game is seriously on point. She's obviously irritated but when he asks she says no. He then points out that there are a lot of witches there today. Gillian sits behind her and when she sees Matthew you can tell on her face that she knows what he is. Matthew tells Diana that they are there to watch her. He says that he warned her about other creatures coming for the book. Diana thinks that they are looking at her because she's talking to him and that it has nothing to do with her. She gets up and leaves. As she's going back to her place Gillian runs after her. She asks what a vampire was doing in the library. Gillian tells Diana that vampires are very dangerous and that they hate witches as much as witches hate vampires. Diana tries to just brush it off as if it's not a big deal and goes to her place to work. When she leaves Gillian looks after her like she's disappointed. It feels like she is going to betray her or something.

Again, Matthew is just stalking Diana, as she's in the line for coffee and as she's running. When Diana takes her boat or whatever they are called, to row he breaks into her place to look for the book. Again this is so fucking creepy.

We see Knox and Satu meeting Gillian. They ask her what happened and she tells them about the book. When she tells him that Diana was the one who took it out he looks like he has seen a ghost. So this obviously has to have something to do with her family, maybe even why her parents died. But again I don't have enough information to go on yet.

Diana comes back from rowing and as she's carrying her boat into the boathouse she drops her jacket. When she's putting her boat away Matthew the creep is there. It's dark out at this point and he says that you shouldn't row alone. He asks what she did with the book but he gives it another name. When she tells him she doesn't know what that is he says that she must know since she's so powerfull. She tells him that she doesn't use magic. He accuses her of lying and tells her that he can feel her power. This makes me believe that she doesn't know how powerful she actually is. She tells him that he can go get the book himself since she gave it back and he doesn't believe her. Diana asks him if he's going to torture it out of her and he says that he could but that's not how he operates. She tells him one last time that she doesn't have it and tries to leave. He stops her by asking her if she isn't curious why she was able to call a book up that has been missing for centuries. He tells her that the book could be the key to their survival and that it's strange that the only creature that can call it up is a witch who can't control her magic. He walks by her and stops by her jacket and picks it up. And then he does it again, he fucking smells it. WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU SMELLING IT?? He locks eyes with her and he seems to go crazy. He tells her to walk past him slowly, and not to run. He looks insane. She walks for a bit and then she turns around and that's where the episode ends.

Okay, my overall thoughts on this pilot:
I thought it was beautifully shot and well made. The only thing I found a bit disappointing was some of the dialogue. It felt kind of forced in some scenes. And I would have liked to have seen more magic but I hope we will get more of that in the rest of the season. It was a solid pilot episode and I'm definitely going to continue watching!

/Johanna