A Discovery of Witches [Drama, Fantasy, Romance]

I find the romantic bits always detract from the story. Here I can give them a pass because it essentially wrote itself up as a romance story, it's just that stuff always feels superfluous to me. I can only hope they don't have children in this show, because then it all becomes about how cute the child is. Please don't have any kids show!

Legacies is a product of an "how cute the child is" show that used to be mildly okay ish in a bored I guess I'll watch this kind of way (Originals). Legacies is everything I hate about TV!

The few episodes I watched so far were ok. Not "awesome", but nothing to hate IMHO

Hmm... so far I agree more with the pretty good IMDb rating:

A Discovery of Witches
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2177461/
8.3/10 (11,098 votes)

No time wasted

I read the books (the trilogy) first.
The writer is a professor of history, of course some historical facts are discussed.
but this does not detract from the story on the contrary it reinforces the whole time travel story
i loved the series and the chemistry between the characters
very well done, looking forward to the next seasons of the series

p.s .: I have started her new book (book 4 in the all souls series: Time's Convert)

I really, really enjoyed 2x7!

Not sure what it was exactly, but I wouldn't mind the rest of the show being on the same level.

it will only consist of 7 episodes so very short

(lighton: MOVED THIS POST AND THE NEXT ONE FROM https://forum.next-episode.net/viewtopic.php?id=10929 into this thread)

I stopped watching Discovery of Witches half way through the first season, now that was a bad show.

I have to say it, I'm with merc here.

This is such a good show. Still holds a 8.0/10 IMDb rating with 41K votes.

Well, if IMDb says it's good, then it must be! 

This is a terrible show but I love it... I should say I love the books sooo much that I don't care that this adaptation is a pale shadow of the source material, which is actually very rich and nuanced. Which is partially because the author, Deborah Harkness, is a university professor of European history and the history of science in Southern California who has studied at Mount Holyoke College, Northwestern University, UC Davis and Oxford University.

So until Harkness releases the 5th book in the All Souls Universe I'll have this redic show to remind me that though I might not have time to re-read the books at least I can catch the general outline of the series on the small screen

Wasn't book 4 "Time's Convert" released in 2018?

Hahaha... what you read, doesn't sound all that much like what I read... but that's the thing about art, it's subjective.

And there's nothing wrong with the same piece provoking different reactions, for instance I find this show to be an exploitative, hackney and truncated adaptation of a nuanced fun nerd story... I can, of course, rebut your criticism that the use of the Congregation in the series brings a focus to the threat to our main characters with my own opinion because in my reading I felt the book actually spent too much time on the non-threat of the Congregation.

I could've done with a third less of the Congregation in the book as it seems to truncate more substantial aspects of the story, so I was chagrined to see it beefing up in the tv series, especially since it come off to me as hokey.

That being as it is, I most definitely cannot defend the characters of a books series that barely scraped the 3 stars, out of 5, I gave it in my Goodreads library. Sure it's a fun book series but it's not great by any means... what it is, is a nip for history nerds! One of the things I particularly loved about these tales were all the historical and real-world elements woven into them. Elements which I didn't feel were given the appropriate focus in this translation to the small screen. Still, the characters do have a bit more going on in the books whether or not they feel like each has the kind of voice an actor can provide.

In the end these interpretations depend partly on what aspect of a story the reader/viewer can deal with just being serviceable and to what ends those elements serve. Is Star Wars level dialogue in service to an epic tale about the magics of generations lost and if so does the base level of that dialogue diminish the story so very much?! For me, what is lost in the translation here is some of the best stuff from the books and what is gained feels minimal or even at times reductive.

As a big fan of nerds who write I want more of what brought me to the books in the tele or movie adaptations... I want an Alastair Reynolds adaptation which focuses on the science he, as a former ESA scientist, has woven into his story. I want a Connie Willis adaptation focused on whatever the nerds in her book are all about whether it the history of popular trends or the Black Death. As a result, when Deb's books are adapted I want the universe building and history lectures I loved while reading.

Anyway, I finished the series and am re-reading the 4th book