Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Pagan
Witches and Fall Television 2013

Witches and Fall Television 2013

Last updated on: October 25, 2013 at 9:32 am by Jason Mankey

Witches and Fall Television 2013 2013-10-25T09:32:50-06:00 Jason Mankey

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

For good (and probably) for ill, “witches”* are going to be a thing on television this Fall. The first shot was fired on Monday night with the premiere of Sleepy Hollow on the Fox Network. Surprisingly, Sleepy Hollow was not completely awful. It’s a buddy cop show featuring a time traveling Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison) up against a headless, horse-riding, Redcoat who is apparently one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Crane’s only only chance to stop the Headless One rests with the pistol of police officer Abbie Mills (Nicole Beharie) and George Washington’s Bible (I’m not making that last part up, swear!). It sounds ridiculous, and it pretty much was, but it looked cool and the actors were able to rise above the rather silly dialogue. Park your brain at the door and you might get up caught up in Sleepy Hollow.

I was completely digging the first thirty minutes or so, and then we got to the “witches.” I realize that the word witch has several different meanings, and that my usage of the word is not the most common one (I’m a Witch, a practioner of British Traditional Witchcraft), but why are television descriptions of witchcraft so wildly inaccurate? My ire began the moment time traveling Ichabod found the tombstone of his wife, with the grave marker pointing out that she was burnt at the stake for witchcraft in 1782. It’s a pet peeve, but no one was being executed in the United States for witchcraft after 1692, and alleged witches weren’t burned at the stake in the United States either. Yes, television shows have to take dramatic license with things, but to not care a whit about what actually happened back then trivializes the senseless deaths of those who were executed for witchcraft.

A little further into the episode, we get some backstory via a tape recorder (and the voice of Lex Luthor/Clancy Brown) and find out that there are two different groups of witches somehow involved with the Headless Horseman:

“One hundred witches were put to death in Sleepy Hollow between 1712 and 1816 . . . Town records suggest that members of two different covens integrated into the populace and changed their names to stay hidden, others spread out across the East Coast. Two covens representing good and evil . . . I found hundreds of unsolved cases that just seem to have been ignored; murders, disappearances, and it’s just not here, the cases track through Boston, DC, Manhattan I know they are all connected, I just don’t know how . . .”

I guess it’s cool that there’s at least one group of witches who are “good,” but I can already hear my wife’s relatives asking us if we are “good” or “bad” witches via Sleepy Hollow. Aren’t there other words lazy unimaginative TV writers can use? Why can’t they be warlocks or sorcerers? Just imagine that little bit of exposition above but with Baptists substituted for witches:

“One hundred Baptists were put to death in Sleepy Hollow between 1712 and 1816 . . . Town records suggest that members of two different congregations integrated into the populace and changed their names to stay hidden, others spread out across the East Coast. Two congregations representing good and evil . . . I found hundreds of unsolved cases that just seem to have been ignored; murders, disappearances, and it’s just not here, the cases track through Boston, DC, Manhattan I know they are all connected, I just don’t know how . . .”

Think of the outrage! The Fox Network would be feeding the beast that is Fox News! Talk about corporate synergy!

We get more witches in just a couple of weeks when American Horror Story: Coven premieres on FX. The witches here sound a little better, but I’m dismayed at the desire to link them with the Salem witch trials of the 1690’s. It’s not only intellectually dishonest, but it creates a perception that perhaps some of the senseless murders that occurred there were justified. (This summer’s The Conjuring did the same thing, pretty much turning me into a ball of rage for the last half of that movie.) I’m excited by creator Ryan Murphy’s comment that “The witches are really sort of a great allegory and metaphor for any minority group that has been persecuted and has had to go underground . . ” perhaps we’ll get a little sympathy here, mouth snakes be damned.

Here’s the official show synopsis from FX:

“American Horror Story: Coven” tells the secret history of witches and witchcraft in America. Over 300 years have passed since the turbulent days of the Salem witch trials and those who managed to escape are now facing extinction. Mysterious attacks have been escalating against their kind and young girls are being sent away to a special school in New Orleans to learn how to protect themselves. Wrapped up in the turmoil is new arrival, Zoe (Taissa Farmiga), who is harboring a terrifying secret of her own. Alarmed by the recent aggression, Fiona (Jessica Lange), the long-absent Supreme, sweeps back into town, determined to protect the Coven and hell-bent on decimating anyone who gets in her way.”

Several descriptions of the show that I’ve come across also make reference to conflicts between the show’s witches and practitioners of New Orleans style Voodoo. Apparently Lilith Dorsey and I are going to have to engage in some sort of magickal face-off to stay true to the spirit of this season’s American Horror Story. If there’s one thing that scares me about this show after seeing the early promotional material, it’s that poster over there on the right. It’s one thing to use the word “witch”; it’s another to mimic Modern Wiccan and Pagan practices. No one takes Methodism and grafts a fictional backstory and cosmology onto it. I’m going to reserve judgement, but I’m wary. On the plus side, the show does star Angela Bassett, Jessica Lange, and Kathy Bates; let’s just hope they don’t screw up Marie Laveau too much.

(Peg Aloi over on The Witching Hour wrote about American Horror Story: Coven last week. Check it out!)

*I generally capitalize the words Witch and Witchcraft when writing about individuals who have self-identified that way after 1950. I leave it in lower-case in all other instances.

For more on American Horror Story: COVEN from Patheos writers, check out the show’s topic page on the Patheos Entertainment channel.

News and Views

Pagan

Uncategorized

American Horror Story Coven

Previous Post

September 17, 2013

Wicca 202: A Next Level Book List

Next Post

September 19, 2013 A Mabon Ritual

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Editorializing Gateways to Paganism Guest Posts Holiday Histories Led Zeppelin News and Views Occult Pagan Pagan TV Club Paganism polytheism Ramble On Reviews Ritual Strange Days Uncategorized

Select a Month August 2026 March 2026 February 2026 November 2025 September 2025 August 2025 April 2025 August 2024 April 2024 February 2024 December 2023 October 2023 August 2023 June 2023 May 2023 January 2023 October 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 April 2012 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

How many apostles did Jesus have?

Select your answer to see how you score.

12 4 14 11