Netflix continues to give new life to forgotten films, underseen series, and flat-out flops. This year we’ve observed the Netflix effect multiple times, with Mexican comedy thriller “Non Negotiable” shooting to the top of the streamer’s charts worldwide back in August. The month prior saw Italian thriller “Vanished into the Night” dominate Netflix, and in April Netflix breathed new life into Renny Harlin’s forgotten action movie “The Bricklayer.”
Now, it’s time for British series “A Discovery of Witches” to benefit from the streamer’s remarkable powers of resuscitation. An adaptation of Deborah Harkness’ “All Souls” book trilogy, the show stars Teresa Palmer as Diana Bishop, a reluctant witch who is forced to embrace her magical abilities after discovering a highly sought-after manuscript which makes her a target for the various fantastical creatures secretly living among humankind. Matthew Goode co-stars as Matthew Clairmont, a vampire who aids Diana on her journey.
The series initially aired on Sky in the United Kingdom back in 2018, but came to the U.S. in 2019 by way of the AMC network and BBC America. None of this led to all that much fanfare, however, despite the three-season series receiving a positive critical response. Well, now that Netflix has stepped in, US audiences have a much better opportunity to discover these particular witches — which, it seems, is exactly what they’ve done.
Netflixers discover A Discovery of Witches
“A Discovery of Witches” hit Netflix on August 19 as part of the AMC Series Collection, which also included “Preacher” seasons one to four, season one of “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon,” and a host of other AMC shows. As it stands, “A Discovery of Witches” is proving to be one of the more popular from this group. At the time of writing, the show sits at number six in the US most-watched TV charts and, according to streaming data aggregator FlixPatrol, has been in that spot since August 24. Prior to that, the series climbed to number four and five on August 21 and 22 respectively, before dipping to number seven on August 23 and rallying to take the sixth spot the following day, where it has since remained.
But “A Discovery of Witches” is facing some friendly fire on its ascent up the Netflix charts. “Dark Winds,” another AMC series is currently in the number three spot on the US most-watched TV charts. What’s more, “A Discovery of Witches” faces competition in the form of yet another AMC series, “Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches,” which is at number seven at the time of writing. But none of these series seem to possess the magical powers needed to dethrone the chilling docuseries that’s been dominating Netflix’s most-watched charts for more than a week: “American Murder: Laci Peterson.”
It will be interesting to see which of these AMC shows rises to the top when Netflix’s latest real-life tale of murder relinquishes its hold. For now, the full-on fantasy battle for streaming supremacy rages.
