AMC+’s Sanctuary: A Witch’s Tale Is Unfortunately Devoid of Magic

Genre television is becoming more prevalent and acclaimed as time goes on, with shows like Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead taking the world by storm in the 2010s. From zombies to cursed forests, the last few years have seen an uptick in shows billing themselves with the “prestige tv” label, while not quite succeeding at living up to the expectations that come with it. However, AMC+ seems to have a knack for perfecting the crossover between genre and prestige, with the sprawling adaptations of Interview with the Vampire and Dark Winds succeeding beyond what fans and critics originally thought. There seems to be no better streaming service to craft these shows. 

Amongst genre television, the subject of witches has been tried for ages, but has never really taken off. While there’s classics like Charmed and newer ventures like A Discovery of Witches, it feels as if modern creators can never truly get witches right. They’re a bigger feat to take on than zombies, for example, as their lore spans centuries and so do the stories surrounding them. When Sanctuary: A Witch’s Tale was announced, I knew that AMC+ would try their best to craft a solid story around witchcraft, and try their best they did. Unfortunately, this new series never quite rises to the heights the streamer’s other ventures do. 

Sanctuary follows Sarah Fenn (Elaine Cassidy), a registered witch who lives in the idyllic English town of Sanctuary. As a witch, Sarah is revered by the community, many of its members seeking her out to solve physical ailments and personal troubles. She is supported by her “coven,” a group of friends who are eventually revealed to rely on her powers, though they never fully understand (or except) them. Her and the town’s sweetheart Abigail Whithall (Amy De Bhrún), are especially close, as are their children Harper (Hazel Doupe) and Dan (Max Lohan), who grew up together and eventually dated.

But the picturesque charm of the town comes to a halt when Dan is killed in a fire that ignites at a warehouse party. Despite being deemed an accident at first, witchcraft is rumored to have been used at the scene, and all fingers are pointed at Harper. The problem, however, is that Harper didn’t inherit magic from her mother—but to a community on the rocks, that fact is irrelevant. As their positions as valued members of society come into question, Sarah and her daughter must fight to preserve not only their innocence, but their lives as well.

What begins as a genre show slowly unravels into a standard domestic drama, and the series suffers from never weaving these aspects into each other fully. At times, the magic present within the lives of these characters doesn’t hold the weight it should, and for a supernatural show, this is incredibly unfortunate. From its first few episodes, it feels as if the town drama was fleshed out before the infinitely more interesting fantastical elements, and they only continue to get more sparse as the series rolls along. Magic is a way for women to connect in this small town, but it’s a shame that the show never expands on this idea. 

Harper, despite being one of the series’ main protagonists, is given the shortest end of the stick. Her arc is a culmination of themes surrounding slut shaming, sexual assault, and female empowerment, but she is the victim of a bloated show that ultimately leaves these themes feeling hollow. There have been an array of shows and films post #MeToo that have attempted to tackle these themes, but Sanctuary: A Witch’s Tale unfortunately buckles under the weight of the threads it’s trying to pull from through its underserved storylines. 

Whether it’s the town’s beloved Abigail who is grieving her son, or Sarah, whose position as a witch begins to put her life at risk, every woman in this series is pushed beyond their limits. But with multiple plotlines happening at once, these women are seldom given enough time to connect beyond the first few episodes. By the time we reach the mid-way point, the relationships we were shown at the beginning of the series are seemingly forgotten and left to collect dust upon the shelves embedded within the world these characters inhabit. 

It’s not just the characters that are lacking, but the magic as well—which, for a show with the word “witch” in the title, should be fundamental to the story. Instead of getting to the root of how Sanctuary remains a magical haven for witches, the series glances over these ideas at a breakneck pace. The world building is almost nonexistent, with mentions of dark magic and magical laws never expanded upon. Because of this, the magical aspects are bafflingly the weakest elements of the show. It’s disappointingly unlike AMC+’s other genre ventures, where the vast and expansive worlds are opened up to audiences in magnificent fashion. 

Sanctuary: A Witch’s Tale is lacking on almost all fronts. Despite an enthralling performance from De Bhrún, who bridges the gap between good and evil whilst playing Abigail, there is almost nothing to grasp on to. Where the show begins to soar is in its core mystery, unfolding like a middling version of something akin to HBO’s Big Little Lies, but because of the haphazard way these events unfold, the show never really finds its wings. In the end, the series becomes an unfortunately run-of-the-mill genre show that is thankfully a miniseries, leaving no pressures of an unlikely Season 2 on the table. 

The first two episodes of Sanctuary: A Witch’s Tale premiere Thursday, January 4th on AMC+ and Sundance Now

Kaiya Shunyata is a freelance pop culture writer and academic based in Toronto. They have written for Rogerebert.com, Xtra, The Daily Dot, and more. You can follow them on Twitter, where they gab about film, queer subtext, and television.

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