Season 2 – Salem

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Ricardo d 10/30/2023 A segunda temporada é bem melhor que a primeira em grande parte. Primeiro podemos ter arcos mais definidos das personagens Mary, Anne e Mercy. Os personagens masculinos ficam todos como coadjuvantes, e perdem um pouco o sentido considerando a trama por completo. Temos ótimas cenas de terror e suspense, bem como, ótimas falas de personagens em momentos cruciais. A trama fica lenta e travada em alguns episódios, mas nada que prejudique toda sua essência. Ainda temos ótimos trabalhos com figurino e maquiagem, mas os efeitos visuais nem sempre são bons. Podemos talvez considerar que as 3 bruxas dessas temporada remetam as luas da wicca, sendo a condessa a anciã, Anne a jovem e Mary a grávida. See more 09/17/2019 Really got into it this season! Great storylines. See more 11/18/2016 It's an excellent show. If they market it better, they can increase the viewership substantially. I hope it lasts ten seasons. See more 09/01/2016 I love this show. Binge watched the first 2 seasons on Netflix in 2 days time, and I am awaiting season 3 in November. See more 06/25/2016 I haven't seen the whole season yet but almost. Again, as with the last season I think it's good but I wish the lead female role was more dynamic. More animated and more diverse. I would imagine a witch should be fairly insane in her witchly state so make her crazy! Like when she tricked the tticked Cotton's father. She finally became more dynamic but I felt like she was still holding back. Get more crazy! Also, this show is rated M for mature right? So why isn't the main character using her sexuality more? She gorgeous. Can she be more sexual??? Arnt witches suppose to be sexual and dynamic people. Anyways good show but could be better this way. See more 05/13/2016 Excerpt from Cinematic Codes Review: Spring 2016 Issue: for visuals see: https://anaphoraliterary.com/journals/ccr/film-reviews-spring-2016/ Salem: A Horrifying Retelling of the Salem Myth While many primetime series about witches, focus on the seductive bosoms of the athletic maidens that work to rid the world of evil on a daily basis, this show really focuses on the devilish evil that possesses witches. The authors of this series were clearly more Christian than Pagan. The preachers are hardly free of sin too, and they as well as the majority of the townsmen are damned and tortured by the plagues the witches dig up in Salem. When I saw the name, “Salem,” I was conflicting on if I should start watching it. I must have seen a dozen different films and series, and documentaries about Salem, and that’s not counting a few versions of Arthur Miller’s play. I was hoping that it would be an argument in support of the innocent girls that died in Salem, arguing that they and their accusers had partaken in drugs that made them see hallucinations, as this version is currently missing from fictitious depictions of this tragic time. But, once I started watching the first episode, I could not think of leaving the series unfinished. The energy is very negative and horrific, with strained, sinister, gothic music and imagery, including the disturbing titles song, “Down the witch goes, the witch goes down, better pray forever, now, Halleluiah!” Many characters are burned, deformed, and look monstrous for long stretches of film, rather than having a monster engage in a battle and then die allowing viewers to only see him for a few fleeting moments. Even the beautiful witches are deeply psychotic and are constantly trying to kill each other and all of humanity. They start a plague by infecting one townsman that spreads and kills a great portion of the non-witch people in the town, as part of a ritual of the coming of the Devil. The Devil is personified in the body of the illegitimate child of the leading witch of the town, John. John is angelic-looking, but even at his age, he does a great job of acting possessed by an older demonic spirit. The screeching horrors are a bit more tolerable because of the beautiful, elegantly crafted costumes, unique and varied locations, and extremely passionate actors that really work to keep the viewers entertained. Fig. 39. Michael Mulheren (George Sibley), left, being tortured by his wife, Janet Montgomery (Mary Sibley). Season 1, Episode 1. There are a few disturbing storylines that push this film closer to a fetish porn fantasy than an average pop film, but these tend to push on the viewer’s emotions, and this draws one in. For example Mary Sibley controls her fat and old husband, George Sibley, by placing a frog into his mouth, which makes it so that he cannot move or say anything unless she allows him to. She keeps teasing him with her naked or near-naked body, as in the scene above, and later uses this seduction to attempt to control the town by telling him what to say at a town meeting. This storyline is empowering in the sense that the man is bewitched and does whatever she tells him to do, instead of the woman being a victim of a more powerful, older husband that could have sex with her and abuse her according to the laws of this period. Fig. 40. Seth Gabel (Cotton Mather), left, being led by the possessed Elise Eberle (Mercy Lewis). Season 1, Episode 1. Women are also humiliated in this film. In the scene above, Cotton Mather, a preacher, leads Mercy Lewis by a muzzle, trying to find witches with her help because she is possessed by witches that want to divert attention away from them and onto her. Power-plays and enslavement of people is a major component in this series, and this is what adds an emotional horror. People are constantly tortured by being burned, possessed, poisoned, and otherwise hurt either near or to death. This level of pain, sexual fetishisms and violence makes the series highly addictive, but it is also disturbingly grotesque. It is sad that modern filmmakers have to insert this much pain and suffering to get top ratings from viewers. Perhaps it is more interesting because there is more action than moralizing, and the moralizing is supported with passages from the Bible, rather than with clichés. Fig. 41. Stephen Lang (Increase Mather), left, hanging an accused witch. Season 1, Episode 9. In the still above, Increase Mather, a preacher that has killed many powerful witches in his day is hanging a suspected witch. Before stringing her up by the noose, he carries her up to the platform as he is delivering a sermon: “Let them no more say, God must do all, and so encourage them so to live in a careless neglect of God and of their own souls and salvation. The Devil has made the gentle knot of witches in the country, and with the help of witches has dreadfully increased that knot. Your children’s children be afraid and go not prayer-less to your bed lest the Devil be your bedfellow.” Then he snaps her neck in the knot of the noose, though she is bluish and long-dead before this as he’s carrying her out. There are great details in this shot: the misty smoke and dust, the people watching in period dress, the carefully designed outfits the witch and Mather are wearing all put the viewer into the period, and give a sense of honest retelling. This is probably another reason this film is disturbing, as historical accuracy is combined with fantasies about witches and devils. Fig. 42. Sammi Hanratty (Dollie Trask), left, and the deformed from burning Elise Eberle (Mercy Lewis). Season 2, Episode 3. Elise Eberle somehow also adds to the horror of the series. Her acting is always over the top, and her character is constantly on the edge of madness. She has her finger bitten off by the little Devil. She is burned by Mary. She later consumes the blood of children under the direction of Countess Marburg, who has experience with this as she uses it to stay alive and young after centuries or millenniums. These horrific witchcrafts are probably more in line with the demons portrayed in Medieval and Renaissance times, all powerful, monstrous, and extremely murderous, so perhaps it would be dishonest to portray them as any less monstrous. Fig. 43. Lucy Lawless (Countess Marburg), left, kissing her son, Joe Doyle (Baron Sebastian Marburg). Season 2, Episode 5. When Lucy Lawless made an appearance in Season 2, the series suddenly started to remind me of the fake-looking monsters in Xena, which I adored because they were so absurd. She can make just about any horror into a comedy. Her most heart-felt performance to-date was probably in Spartacus, where her love scenes with a woman and her engagement with the gladiators were raw and realistic. I naturally adore her in anything she does simply because Xena was the first cinematic event in which I saw a woman heroically fighting with stronger and bigger men. This is probably she was asked to perform the role of Countess Marburg in Salem. Who else could pull off kissing her on-screen son, Baron Marburg, in the scene above, or being fed by a child, who she is trying to seduce into marrying her and spending a satanic eternity together? All these strange love and hate triangles make for a very dramatically tense show. Fig. 44. Lucy Lawless (Countess Marburg), being fed by Oliver Bell (John), Mary’s illegitimate son and the Devil incarnate. Season 2, Episode 13. In the finale of Season 2, Countess Marburg says, “No matter what happens to this body, you know I will survive to live again.” Mary replies, as she’s working to kill her, “But, how long will that resurrection take? And what about your plans? Do you remember how it felt the last time you burned?” Marry then attempts to burn the Countess, but they were moving a bit too quickly in these shots for me to grab a still. Perhaps, the special effects and body doubles had to be moved around quickly to avoid a freeze-frame showing the artistry behind the magic. Mary is close to burning the Countess to death, but then her protégé witch, Anne Hale, played by Tamzin Merchant, intervenes and pours rain down on their parade, stemming out the fires in the church. Lying on the floor of the church, Mary exclaims, “Let me die.” Her protégé lectures, “I cannot for the same reason that you couldn’t let me. There is no easy way out Mary… for any of us.” This is of course a cliché that follows a melodramatic and illogical request for suicide-by-frenemy. But, perhaps it is better to hit a high note in drama than to wallow in casual observations. Is it better to be murderously Shakespearean with dire exclamations of extreme emotions, or to insert researched witch-related dialogue in moments like this? I would naturally opt for research and authenticity, but that’s why I’m not writing for TV. Fig. 45. Lucy Lawless (Countess Marburg) close to death. Season 2, Episode 13. The scene above of Lawless dying, as she’s drenched in blood reminds me of a review I did early of Weeds, where there was a near-identical shot of the female protagonist pot-dealer, who’s laying on a gurney with her eyes wide opened as blood is also dripping down her face, looking fantastic all-the-while. Overall, I would recommend this series only to those who are of sound mind and aware that witches, gods and devils are all fictions concocted by lunatics, signifying nothing. I’m afraid that if somebody who’s too young watches it, they’ll develop nightmares and might see demons under their bed. If somebody who’s too religious watches it, they might see witches in their female neighbors. The best audience for this film are special effects and costume designers who could appreciate the artistry behind individual elements without viewing the power struggles and tortures as anything more than moving paintings of hell and heaven. Title: Salem Created by: Adam Simon, Brannon Braga Stars: Janet Montgomery (Mary Sibley), Shane West (John Alden), Seth Gabel (Cotton Mather), Elise Eberle (Mercy Lewis) Genre: TV-Series, Drama, Fantasy, Thriller Rating: TV-MA Running Time: 60 min per episode Release: 2014—Present See more Read all reviews

Salem — Season 2

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