It's Magic!
September 6, 2014 3:26 PM   Subscribe

So, while waiting, impatiently, for Once Upon a Time and also MLP to start up again, what else magical series can I watch?

I like the really cheesy happy magic part of both series and don't need much of the dark magic stuff. I'm not interested in Grimm for example although I'm happy it's being made as it seems really cool, but too dark for me. I loved Harry Potter the books and the first couple movies, and the lighter parts of the latter movies, but the suspense and darker/sad parts were actually a lot for me in HP! As in I still loved the series but it could have focused on just them having fun doing neat magic and solving rather mundane not too suspenseful problems and I would been equally or more excited about it. Harry Potter without the Voldemort or multiple deaths would have worked fine to me!

I liked Charmed, and I liked Buffy with the campiness, and the cheesy not very believable bad characters and I loved Xena.

So, I also like waiting for a new release, so I like series that are out currently. What are the best current or upcoming magical series that feature fun nice things like good witches and nice magic fairies, gods/goddesses or other "good magic" kinds of stuff? I know there was a spin off about wonderland, but I'm hoping there are more series like this being made or in production. Because YAY MAGIC!
posted by xarnop to Media & Arts (23 answers total) 15 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: Legend of the Seeker, definitely! Also, Hercules with Kevin Sorbo.

On preview, oops sorry missed the part about "current." But still, they're good shows.
posted by DeltaForce at 3:38 PM on September 6, 2014 [2 favorites]


Response by poster: (It doesn't have to be current, I know there may be limited magical series going on currently!!) :) Just definitely want to make sure if there's other good current ones I know about them!
posted by xarnop at 3:46 PM on September 6, 2014


Witches of East End -- about a family of witches, where the daughters are cursed to die before they're 30, and the mom is cursed to immediately become pregnant with them the day after they die, raise them again to adulthood and then they die again. In this newest life, they've only just discovered they're witches, and it's fun to watch nerdy ABD Ingrid and vivacious freewheeling Freya explore their new powers.

Teen Wolf
Scott McCall is a True Alpha, which means unlike other alpha werewolves, he doesn't need to assert his leadership of his chosen pack through violence or forcing others to submit. If you were wondering what werewolf politics would be like when the pack is led by a Latino teen sorted so hard into Hufflepuff that Helga Hufflepuff calls HIM for advice? Teen Wolf is the show for you.
posted by spunweb at 3:49 PM on September 6, 2014 [2 favorites]


Best answer: The 10th Kingdom miniseries is fantastic and pretty magical (it came out in 2000 but I watch it at least once a year).
posted by littlesq at 3:50 PM on September 6, 2014 [8 favorites]


I enjoyed Eastwick, but it only lasted one season.

I was also going to say Witches of East End, but it has a darker feel to me than say, Charmed.
posted by ktkt at 3:54 PM on September 6, 2014


There's a new reality series called "The Quest" which is clearly not what you're looking for, but it's been wonderful to see the participants (most of them) be so supportive of each other and generally thrilled to be there. Also, there are non-participant actors who play major roles, which is kind of cool to watch, and one of the participants has been WRITING SONGS which have been utterly charming. One sequence features her singing (a cappella, since hey, they're "training" to be "warriors" in a castle and there aren't a lot of extra musical instruments around), and another sequence features her + all the other participants singing and beating a table together in a song honoring one of the characters. Some of it is cheesy, for sure, but watching them all do their thing makes me feel gladder to be human.
posted by amtho at 4:06 PM on September 6, 2014 [1 favorite]


All episodes of The Quest so far on Hulu.
posted by amtho at 4:07 PM on September 6, 2014 [1 favorite]


Have you checked out the rebooted Sailor Moon series (or, for that matter, the original?)
posted by kagredon at 4:13 PM on September 6, 2014 [2 favorites]


Teen Wolf is really charming, I think. Some of the closeness between characters is similar to Once, I think. And people change, or evolve, like Regina.
posted by Lesser Shrew at 4:32 PM on September 6, 2014


Do you like Adventure Time? There is sort of a current of melancholy, but maybe not what you'd call "dark."
posted by grobstein at 4:54 PM on September 6, 2014 [1 favorite]


I watch Once Upon a Time, Witches of East End, and the first few seasons of Teen Wolf - I'm going to agree with littlesq that you must watch 10th Kingdom if you haven't already. As for Witches of East End, I think that while the relationships between the two sets of sisters has some of what you're looking for, the body count may be too high for you. And Teen Wolf started out fun, but the writing gets worse & worse as the series goes on, and if Grimm is too dark for you Teen Wolf will be too.

If you haven't seen the OUaT in Wonderland spin-off, you should try to watch it before the new OUaT seasons starts, at least one character from the spin-off is going to be recurring in the main series this year.

Not magic exactly, but, what about Warehouse 13? It's technically sci-fi, but it's steampunk/fantasy sci-fi not hard-science & spaceships sci-fi.
posted by oh yeah! at 4:58 PM on September 6, 2014 [1 favorite]


I'm a big Teen Wolf fan, but I wouldn't say it's lighthearted or happy. It's got more in common with the final Harry Potter movies these days, than with the early ones.

First season, some of second season was fairly fun/lighthearted. After that it got bleak.
posted by kythuen at 5:19 PM on September 6, 2014


I have recently watched BBC's Merlin. It's a family-friendly TV series, very much in the same vein as Hercules or Xena: not-great production values, sometimes goofy and/or campy, etc. Characters do die, and the main conflict is between "good" magic and "dark" magic, but overall it's a happy and uplifting show. I especially enjoyed the last three seasons, and found it was worth getting through the first two seasons (which I thought were sorta meh, but remember these are short British seasons) to get there. The full series is available on Netflix streaming.
posted by zebra at 5:20 PM on September 6, 2014 [3 favorites]


Best answer: Warehouse 13 and then Eureka will hit the spot for you so hard. The tech in both is more magical than scifi and the series wrapped up relatively well. Wizards of Waverly Place is a goofy Disney sitcom that was actually sweet. Teen Wolf has a lot of death and heartbreak after season one.

Lost Girl is more goofy than scary and sexy romps. Kenzie is wonderful as the human sidekick and it's an interesting world of magic and fae politics.
posted by viggorlijah at 6:59 PM on September 6, 2014 [1 favorite]


The 10th Kingdom is so wonderful...
posted by Jubey at 9:56 PM on September 6, 2014


Best answer: I like most magical series, though I found Buffy a bit too campy. On the other end of the spectrum, The X-Files was just too much for me. But I loved Charmed. I've enjoyed the following series.

The Secret Circle only lasted one season, but it's all streaming on Netflix (you might have to be logged in for that link to work). I liked it.

• The U.S. run of Being Human was also excellent—a ghost, a werewolf, and a vampire all move in together. The first three seasons are streaming on Netflix. I cried when it ended.

Ghost Whisperer was awesome, and it has lots of "talking to ghosts to solve mysteries" stuff. It's also streaming on Netflix. I wish there were more episodes!

• Along the same lines, only with psychic powers instead of ghost-seeing powers, Medium was pretty good, and it's also streaming on Netflix.

• Another to consider might be Twin Peaks—it's got weird supernatural stuff and campy stuff, and there are only two seasons, both of which are streaming on Netflix. It is fabulous.

• The animated Mushi-Shi was excellent—it's about "mushi masters" who solve mysteries having to do with mysterious ghostly creatures. It's not streaming, but it is available on DVD from Netflix.
posted by limeonaire at 10:28 PM on September 6, 2014 [1 favorite]


Oh right, and I know this question is about TV series, but a good magical two-movie series streaming on Netflix is Night Watch and Day Watch, a pair of Russian movies about vampires and witches and others with magical powers. Both of these involve a battle between "good" and "evil," but they're still pretty great and might work.

Oh, and Dead Like Me is an amazing series about deceased people who are given a second chance at life as a group of grim reapers. It's only available on DVD from Netflix, but I highly recommend it! It's incredibly funny and weird and definitely not overly gruesome.
posted by limeonaire at 10:43 PM on September 6, 2014


Best answer: The Worst Witch is Potter without Voldemort. (The tv series, I'm not familiar with the movie.)
posted by Ik ben afgesneden at 11:56 PM on September 6, 2014 [1 favorite]


Pushing Daisies isn't exactly the kind of magic you're looking for, but I think it would hit the same kind of charming tv spot as some of the shows you mentioned.
posted by snaw at 9:15 AM on September 7, 2014 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: I'm really excited about all of these, thanks everyone! I also remembered I'm behind on legends of Korra. Yay! :-)
posted by xarnop at 12:33 PM on September 7, 2014


Outlander on STARZ. If you haven't read the book series by Diana Gabaldon, I highly recommend it!
posted by jenniheise at 9:42 PM on September 8, 2014 [1 favorite]


I really adored The Elephant Princess, and it's currently on Netflix!
posted by Zarya at 4:26 AM on September 12, 2014


Oh! This is still open. Well...Witches of East End was pretty good, though over too soon.
posted by limeonaire at 12:10 PM on March 29, 2015


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