I am always attracted to magical or witchy films because they are interesting to me and I enjoy watching them a lot. 'Mayfair Witches' is a series that is based on a novel trilogy 'Lives of the Mayfair Witches' by Anne Rice. I haven't read this book series before but I have read countless reviews on the book series and all the reviews are all positive. So when I heard that Hollywood wanted to make it into a TV show, I was optimistic about it but also at the back of my mind, I knew they would find a way to mess it up. Hollywood proved me right after I finished watching the TV show.
'Mayfair Witches' is a supernatural and thriller show that was created by Esta Spalding and Michelle Ashford. The story of this series is about a neurosurgeon who discovers that she is part of a prominent witch family in New Orleans and she is being haunted by a sinister presence that has been in her family for generations. The show stars Alexandra Daddario, Tongayi Chirisa, Jack Huston, Harry Hamlin, Hannah Alline, Annabeth Gish, Dennis Boutsikaris and Jen Richards.
Brief Synopsis.
Dr. Rowan Fielding, a dedicated pediatric neurosurgeon, in San Francisco receives sad news about her adoptive mother whose cancer has returned aggressively. Rowan began to look for assistance by trying to enroll her mother in a clinical trial but she was disappointed when the chief surgeon handling the trial rejected her proposal. Frustrated and desperate Rowan's emotions spiked up which triggered a mysterious incident involving her chief surgeon's death. Battling with the belief that she might be somehow responsible for the chief surgeon's death, Rowan spoke to her mother about it but her mother convinced her that she was not responsible for the death. Afterwards, Rowan's mother seeks help from the enigmatic Talamasca organization about the incident which changes everything.
On the other hand, Ciprien Grieve, an empathic agent of the Talamasca was assigned to Rowan's case to investigate and handle quietly. As he starts to investigate Rowan's case, another death incident happens with Rowan. Meanwhile in New Orleans, we were introduced to Rowan's birth mother Deirdre Mayfair who is in a non responsive state and is being treated by Dr. Vernon Lamb.
However, Dr Lamb finds her state alarming and decides to restrict Deirdre secretly from her treatment routine to see if she becomes responsive. Back to San Francisco, Rowan's adoptive mother does and Rowan for the very first time encounters an eerie entity known as Lasher who is bound to Rowan's family. What happens next? Will Rowan discover who she really is?
My Review And Rating.
Watching this show, I struggled to finish it because I didn't connect with any of the characters and the roles they performed. Not only that, the setting of this show wasn't created properly because it devoid of the appropriate mood and tone of the storyline except for the Mayfair house. It is the only thing I find that blends well with the storyline.
The casting was terrible for me, the main character Alexandra Daddario is a good actor but this show watered down her talents. The scene arrangements were not properly arranged to create suspense and mystery. All the scenes were arranged in a way that as a viewer, you could easily predict what happens next and what a character might do next. With this kind of storyline I expected intense twists and turns, good mystery that will keep the viewers of the show engaged, on the brink of their seat and hooked to the screen.
From all the reviews I have read about the book series, I was utterly disappointed with the TV show. A lot of things were missing during the filming of this show. Like the script, dialogues, characters build, cast, cinematography, CGI, visuals and the costumes. For me, I don't really blame the cast of this show for its failure to impress the audience but I think the blame falls on the producing crew, the writer, and the director. Did they actually read the book series properly before venturing into turning it into motion pictures? The answer is no, I don't think they did.
The director did a terrible job with this show, the scriptwriters, messed up the whole original story, major details about the setting of the story were taken out, some characters were re-written to suit their messy work, some the actors were not the perfect fit for their roles, the eerie tone and mood that comes with original story wasn't portrayed well and lastly the storyline of the show was slow and drawn out which made my experience with this series totally boring.
Rating this series, I will give it 3.5 out of 10 stars. To me, I feel, why buy the rights to a very good book series and ignore all the contents of the story only to create something else totally different. However, the second season is coming up soon. I don't think I will be watching it. I will be reading the book series so I can't actually enjoy the story properly. I wouldn't want to recommend this show to anyone because it was torture for me but if you love witchy and magical films then you can give it a try maybe your experience will be different from mine.
All images above are from the movie screenshots
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