Salem TV Series (2/10)

 

    Oh boy. This show made me sooo angry when it ended. When I was thinking of reviews to put on this blog, reviews that would have obvious joy and/or rage behind them to be interesting reads, this show stood clearly out from the sea of media I've consumed over the years. I recently rewatched it so that I could make sure to recollect my thoughts, refresh my memory, and get this long-time thorn out of my side. Lord knows I can't rest if I have something to say and I'm not taking the time to say it. 

    "Salem" is an American supernatural horror series that aired on WGN America from 2014 to 2017. It's available at the time of this review on Hulu where I watched it after all these years, but it's also apparently available on Disney+ and Amazon Prime. WGN America doesn't even exist anymore as a TV channel and instead has been rebranded into something called "NewsNation" media company or whatever. 

    "Salem" consisted of 3 seasons, two of which I have on DVD. I loved this show so much, I wanted to possess a physical copy - and then the third season came along, and everything was awful. So I just have this hilariously unfinished DVD series in my collection, which is very unlike me. 

    The 2/10 I've given this show was because I felt the need to give it a point for the first two seasons, seeing as they were good and I loved them so much. But the rest is more of a net negative and basically just mars the entertainment value of the first two seasons entirely. The funny part is - it was literally the last episode of the show. The very last episode could've been so different, so much more enjoyable and satisfying, and instead - it lit the whole show on fire and watched it burn. 

    Apparently there was a season 4 potentially in the works but the viewership started to decline severely enough that they wrapped it up early??? Which is strange to hear because the show got so much better as it went (aside from the literal ending.) I don't know how someone could go from season 1 to 2 to 3 and THEN lose their interest, but what do I know? Not everyone sticks things out to the bitter end like I do.

    As far as trigger warnings, there's quite a few. 

    This show was basically like the "Game of Thrones" of 2015 to me as far as how vulgar and gory it was. (I know GoT came out in like, 2011 but I wasn't watching it then so "Salem" was one of the more extreme R-rated shows I had seen at that point in my life.) We've got excessive blood and gore, swearing, alcoholism, lots of sex and nudity, incest, pedocide (aka the killing of children), graphic depictions of torture including burning, hanging, boiling, and cutting/slicing of all types. Flesh trauma. Suicide. Suffocating. Animal death. Loss of a pregnancy. Exorcisms. Drowning. The occult, Satanic worship, etc. 

    I'll update if I can think of more. 

    The show is like, -inspired- by the Salem Witch Trials of the 17th Century in Salem, Massachusetts, but is by no means historically accurate. Some names and scenes are obviously pulled from historical records but witches are definitely REAL and not just normal human women who were a threat to the patriarchal social order like in reality.

    There's a good quote I've heard that is simply thus: 

    "They didn't burn witches, they burned women."

    Women who were widows and had valuable property left to them by their husbands, property the government wanted for itself. Women who knew more about herbs and remedies than the men were comfortable with. Women who dared not to fall in line with a pious, puritanical society that feared anything that was different or new. 

    "Salem" the show just straight up says "No, there are witches in this universe and they worship Satan and this is a fictional tale of how the Salem witch trials could've gone" and Marylin Manson sings the theme song. Haha

SPOILER ALERT

REVIEW CONTINUES SOON

    

Leaving notes for myself

Janet Montgomery was great all the way through
I love Cotton's growth and his friendship with John
Mercy's actress went hard. 
LUCY LAWLESS my queen
Mary v Marburg rivalry was so good
I see what they were trying to do with Anne as an unmarried young woman in puritan society but I don't think her character direction would've gone the way that it ended up going. 
I can't believe she thought killing an innocent young boy was the right move, that Cotton would forgive her and understand.
Cotton literally risked his life to exorcise the demon from the boy and then Anne hands him over anyway to drown in black tar. 
Anne has the gall to say "I had no choice" 17 million times and it just - doesn't work.
She could've fucking warped away to Boston or chosen another suitor or literally anything.
She let a little boy die because she was trying to save Cotton and Cotton OBVIOUSLY would have rather died than be allowed to live in a fucking Witch World with a new Satan incarnate.
Anne just - killing everyone at the end was so forced. They would've literally just given her everything that she wanted but no, she had to make sure they suffered just the same.
Just fucking stupid. 

Cotton just walking into Hell??? And for what?? 

I think I remember the creator or creators saying something in an interview like "The finale is special because everyone has completely changed from where they were at the start of the show. Mary was head witch, now she's just a normal woman again. Anne was just a little villager of Salem, now she's the head witch ruling the whole town. Everything changed from how we thought it was going to go." 
But like, just because something is unexpected and drastic compared to the start of the show doesn't mean it's good.
It was unexpected to the viewers because it was a bad idea. Like, I don't know who 'wanted' Anne to be the most powerful woman in Salem. Who 'wanted' Tituba to be silenced on a slaving ship? Who 'wanted' Mercy to rise up, heal, and then just die with her husband? The plot twists weren't twists in that they were GOOD twists, they were just twists for the sake of twists. It felt like they were just trying to do whatever you did NOT expect to happen, for better or for worse. And for me, it was worse.