A Discovery Of Witches (Season 3)

Season three of A Discovery of Witches is the season that diverges most dramatically from the source material, sometimes in tiny ways and sometimes in much bigger ways. Some of that, I’m fairly sure, is due to the the restrictions due to filming during Covid but mostly I don’t mind the changes, they’re either non-substantive or, when they’re hefty, they don’t alter the impact of the show as far as I’m concerned, although YMMV. Sadly, the same can’t be said of the closing scenes, which I understand why but they still landed with a whimper instead of a bang.

It was nice seeing the villains get their comeuppance, which was suitably wrapped up before the end, although I can’t help feeling all of them, even the ones that had been interesting rather than just moustache twirling pantomime bad guys, were rather reduced to that as Diana evolved from an academic who was basically denying she was a witch to a spell weaver and time walker to a full on Mary-Sue. (It should be noted that she doesn’t really do that in the books, the Mary-Sue is offset into her kids, who remain children within the scope of the books.) There is a difference between having a woman growing up, and becoming confident in herself and her power, which the book achieves, and flipping over into Mary-Sue territory which the TV show doesn’t manage to resist. It’s not terrible, because this doesn’t really manifest until the last episode, but it’s pretty noticeable there. She takes all these people along to help in the big showdown because they’re better at various things than her, then just excludes them… smart scriptwriting there but possibly forgivable as a one off because it’s kind of spectacular and fun. Then she has a different sort of confrontation and beats a centuries old vampire at his own game and so on…. It just gets sloppy.

Overall, though, this was a satisfying conclusion to a good series that did a decent job of adapting the books. I’m pleased I watched it, and although I had some initial doubts about some of the casting choices, I think they were all really well done. The quibbles about the writing - and in the overall scheme of things they are quibbles - aside, this was a solid transfer from book to screen. Diana’s transformation in particular was always going to be hard, from an introverted, nervous, academic, to a cerebral, confident witch. They so nearly pulled it off, I’ll forgive them for overstepping in their eagerness to show how far she’d come. Well worth the time and effort.

Bechdel Test: As usual, we have a plethora of interactions between named female characters in every episode. Some of those conversations are about men, mostly Matthew, but not all of them. Easy pass on multiple occasions in every episode.

Ko Test: Following the death of [spoiler] at the end of season 2, we’re left with Miriam and Phoebe doing most of the heavy lifting for WOC here. In some episodes a new character from New Orleans, Geraldine is also a WOC with a lot of speaking scenes.

Russo test: Sarah is still a lesbian of course, We also meet Fernando this season, mate of the late Hugh de Clermont and I think the first openly gay male vampire we’ve met in this show. Matthew remains bisexual, it was made canon in season two, and although he’s firmly with Diana throughout this season, that doesn’t mean he’s not going to have a male partner after she dies, in 50 years or so, as Baldwin so kindly reminds him.