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Promoted from the diaries by streiff. Promotion does not imply endorsement.
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Forget What You Thought You Know About This Franchise And Think Aleister Crowley Does Television

And That’s putting it mildly. If you think of this character as the lighthearted character from the comic books or maybe some sort of teenage version of Samantha from Bewitched, think again. Netflix took the name to get it past anyone that wasn’t looking too closely and or was expecting a talking cat and the usual surreal comedy that Thorn Smith popularized think again. This show is not that. It’s a dark show, that attacks values and sows discord.

This show is particularly egregious, because it takes a character aimed at and beloved by young children and weaponizes it (putting things mildly). Imagine if you saw your children reading a Donald Duck comic and when you looked at it found it contained porn and cannibalism.  That’s how bad this show is in terms of content. It wouldn’t be so bad but it also is very well produced and acted.

Warning Spoilers Ahead Themes That Need To Be Explained

Could It Be Satan ?

Get ready to talk to the kids about Satan and Satanism. Both are glamorized and promoted. We aren’t talking about  a cartoonish or easily dismissed Satan we are talking about the goat hooved personification of evil in the universe. He is portrayed as a power in his own right, and a co-equal to God. Their practices are presented in detail from the casting of spells to the summoning of demons. This is done in a very “realistic/matter of fact” fashion, from the details in the process to the matter of fact way they refer to God as the false god, the church as the false church, and on and on.

The Devil Can Quote Scripture

The Satanists in the show are all rather fond of taking passages from the bible and twisting them or abusing them. Nothing is off limits, be it the commandments, the garden of eden, or Cain and Abel. Having to explain the correct passages and their meaning is a must.

It’s The Return Of Pat

Saturday Night Live used to have a running character called Pat who had ambiguous sex. This show decided that Pat was overdue for a return. Their character though is inserted into the story line as a target of attacks from “regular” people on the show. She is attacked by the football team several times throughout the show. What’s more she has a sexually ambiguous uncle who is possessed, when her father considers placing him in an asylum it’s portrayed as persecuting him for wearing a dress, not the fact he is doing a great impression of Linda Blair in the exorcist.  Difficult at best to explain to a child that yes crazy people need help, and that people can be crazy in many ways.

Adults and Parents Are Clueless And Evil

Common enough these days, but still not something that can be just let pass. With few exceptions the adult characters are evil in the series. The high school principal doesn’t care about violence in his school. He is OK with censorship as well. Her aunt is there to manipulate her. You have her love interest sent to the mines by his father(yes that’s literal). There are notable passes given though. Her gay cousin who tried to blow up the Vatican gets a very sympathetic portrayal. Go figure. Parent’s get a booster on this one. Early in we find out her father sold her soul to the devil when she was three days old.  I can’t imagine the fun of explaining to a child no daddy did not sell you to the devil so we could take a vacation last year.

Men Are Evil And It’s Good For Women To Hate them.

This is a bit beyond the adults are evil theme. Men are portrayed as uniquely evil in the series. It ranges from a father finding out one of his children ate the other in their mother’s womb and proclaiming “As it should be, the strong survive”, to the previously mentioned football team beating up on girls. To the love interest’s family that makes sport of hunting people. If just showing men in a bad light wasn’t enough many of the characters make proclamations “That men fear women and will not let them have power and freedom”. The few male characters that aren’t shown in a bad light are either homosexual, or ineffectual and insignificant.

Overly Realistic Violence , Sexuality And Other Odds And Ends

The violence in the show is very realistic. There’s a  scene where Zelda bashes in Hilda’s skull with a hammer that comes to mind. Have fun explaining that to siblings. While the amount of flesh shown is hardly excessive it’s usually coupled to some kind of erotic activity, or with scenes of group sex.

It’s Really Not For Kids Not Much For Adults Either.

From a review standpoint even if you can get past the offensive nature of the show, it’s preachy and boring. While it may have all the big budget hallmarks, good camerawork, quality special effects, and good acting, it’s preachy, boring, and annoying. I’d imagine it’s what campfire stories with the Handmaids and Wicca would be like.