Opinion: if you're after some TV shows based around witchcraft and magical boarding schools, this list is for you
The Harry Potter film series was a true blockbuster phenomenon that altered how people from different walks of life approach fantasy literature and fiction in general. It was among the works which created a cultural hunger for magic, mythical creatures, and witchcraft. However, with the vast amount of media available online, it is difficult to find a movie or a show that is quite similar to the ever-loved Harry Potter.
With that in mind, here are five TV series about magic and witchcraft that can produce the same vibes. All of them are set in magical boarding schools and all are quite special.
American Horror Story: Coven
Starting with the darkest of the five, American Horror Show is a popular horror TV show. Each season is completely unrelated to the one before with different themes and characters, so you can watch them separately. The theme of the third season Coven is witchcraft. Set in New Orleans, Coven tells the story of a group of four young girls, descendants of Salem witches, who join an all-girls magical academy for their own protection. Under the guidance of Fiona the Witch Supreme and her daughter Cordelia, they discover the limits of their powers (and fight for some more).
The series is certainly gruesome and bloody. It has a gothic vibe to it with eerie places, disturbing disembodied parts, and disfigured creatures, and it ticks all the boxes of magical abilities, voodoo dolls, curses, potions, and rituals. Think of it as Mean Girls with black instead of pink and satanic magic (Yes… it's chaos everywhere!)
The Magicians
In The Magicians, our protagonist Quentin Coldwater joins Brakebills University for Magical Pedagogy to become a magician. He suffers from mental illness and is diagnosed with clinical depression, and he is trying to find meaning in his life. His love for the children’s fantasy book series Fillory and Further leads him to obsess about magical worlds.
When Quentin joins the academy, he is ecstatic, until he learns that the magical world is under threat, and Fillory is not what it seems. He and his friends join forces, traveling between realms, exploring their innate abilities, and trying to save magic.
As you can probably tell from the name of the university, this is a quite nerdy show. Its magical system is intricate and complex. It feels scientific sometimes, but it provides a dose of challenge to the traditional perception of magic. Plus, it has a thriller aspect to it, so the entire show is built like a puzzle that the viewer attempts to piece together with the characters.
Although people describe it as "depressed Harry Potter" on the internet, it can probably be more accurately seen as Dark Academia Harry Potter.
Legacies
Fans of The Vampire Diaries and The Originals have most likely heard about Legacies. The show follows Hope Mikaelson, daughter of Niklaus Mikaelson, who is a tribrid (equal parts witch, werewolf, and vampire), as she enrols in the Salvatore School for the Young and Gifted. The school hosts all three species of supernatural creatures and is considered a safe haven for them and a place where they learn to control their powers and abilities.
You don't have to watch TVD or The Originals to enjoy Legacies, but it would certainly help if you knew the basics about them. Watching it alone is enough though, as it is generally set in "monster of the week" format, where in each episode the students fight a different evil magical creature while simultaneously navigating their personal lives. It is kind of like Buffy the Vampire Slayer where the school is in need of protection from the outside world, just that all students are supernatural beings.
The Order
The Order is a series about Jack Morton who joins Belgrave University in order to get into its secret society The Hermetic Order of the Blue Rose and avenge his mother’s death. The society is a cult-like gathering of practitioners of magic who dabble with supernatural forces.
While being part of the Order, Jack discovers another secret society called The Knights of Saint Christopher, which is made up of werewolves. The Knights’ sole purpose is to annihilate dark magic practitioners. As the two societies are pitted against each other, Jack is caught in the middle.
The Order is perfect for folks who love tropes of secret societies, initiation rituals, and witty supernatural creatures.
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
An adaptation of the Archie comics, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina revolves around a special teenage witch Sabrina Spellman as she navigates the two parts of her life: the human and the magical. The boarding school aspect comes in the Church of Night, which is basically a Satanic coven of witches who worship the Dark Lord.
On the approach of her 16th birthday, Sabrina is asked to sign her soul to the Devil, committing her life to his servitude and abandoning her normal life in her non-supernatural school. Full of biblical and mythical references, as well as common tropes, this is probably the closest you can get to Harry Potter, albeit with a dark Satanic twist.
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
