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At the turn of the century, television media experienced a glorious upswing in content for all ages. There were a plethora of channels dedicated to strange, curious, and fantasy-centered minds. Teens and young adults dominated the supernatural landscape with countless shows taking center-stage for the masses.

 

A good chunk of them also included witches.

 

Two of the most beloved series of the early 2000s were Charmed and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

 

Charmed, as most of you know, gave viewers the Halliwell sisters and their numerous escapades navigating life with magic and dealing with villains determined to destroy who and what they were. These sisters gave a new generation of women a voice to navigate trauma, pain, joy, sisterhood, loss, and the power that rests within each of us. Even if there were lovers who came and went, the sisters consistently put their family first. Prue, Piper, Phoebe, and Paige became the new meaning of girl power and how we, as women, can overcome anything when we support and love one another (1).

 

While the Buffy series mostly focused on vampire-slaying, where there are vampires, witches often follow. How can we have the dark and macabre without a witch? It’s probably impossible, as we will discuss other shows that introduced witches that came, saw, and mostly conquered. For Buffy, her powerful witch ally was Willow. Now, please keep in mind that I didn’t watch Buffy. But like all teenagers of the time, I noticed that this show was everywhere, and those of us who enjoyed dark fantasy and drama knew about it even if we didn’t watch it (I didn’t have cable!). 

 

 

Willow had an incredible arc starting out as Buffy’s nerdy friend who was good with electronics  she became the magical powerhouse that cemented her status as a badass witch. She went through tragedy and fell into darkness, though in the end she found her way back to herself and transformed into a witch who not only controlled her power but wielded it with strength and determination. Willow was not controlled or frightened of her magic;  she embraced and accepted it as part of herself. That’s what made her a badass (2).

 

Vampires:

Speaking of the vampire world, the late 2000s and into the late twentyteens were a special time for romance and magic. For the adults, there was True Blood.For those who were not able or not ready for the naked, gruesome glory HBO gave us with Sookie, Bill, Lafayette, and Eric Northman, there was The Vampire Diaries.

 

While the main attraction of True Blood was supposed to be Bill and Sookie, the moment the blonde Viking  that is Alexander Skarsgård’s  Eric Northman appeared, he stole the show! But he was a bit hard to handle, considering he didn’t want to acknowledge his feelings and preferred to stake his claim on what he wanted. Asking was apparently out of his realm of control— until he ran into a group of witches who made him forget who he was. A thousand years of vampire lethality were quickly reduced to a curious, vulnerable creature that didn’t understand his reality and needed Sookie’s help to stay alive.

 

Alright, I realize this is about witches, so bear with me, my darling monsters. Season four was chock full of witches, from a coven turning themselves over to the vengeful spirit of Antonia who was destroyed in the 16th century by vampires to Lafayette and his boyfriend, Jesus. The coven leader, Marnie, arrived in Bon Temps to wreak havoc on the sleepy parish—and definitely succeeded. From being possessed by a 1600s necromancer out for revenge, the vampires had to fight for their unlives to not meet the true death when Marnie was able to take control of their bodies and lead them out into the sunlight. Season four was also a wonderful season for Lafayette (to an extent—no spoilers!). We saw him fight his way back from the brink of ruin when he was taken hostage by vampires, find love, and take a deep dive into his medium powers with Jesus. Jesus was a self-proclaimed ‘brujo’ and was a driving force in helping Lafayette find his way with magic and the dangers that accompanied it. The witches provided character growth and put some hot sauce on the dwindling vampire stories (3,4).

 

For the young folk, True Blood was on a station that meant if you were under a certain age, that show was not for you! Instead there was The Vampire Diaries. Once more, the main focus of the show is a vampire//human love story. Just like Buffy and True Blood, the witches are  main players in TVD, and have a powerful presence. The Bennett line is ancient, with magical abilities that have been passed down from generation to generation. One of the first in their line, Qetsiyah, was the witch who created the very first immortality spell. Vampires may be the focus of this television series, but they wouldn’t have even existed without a witch’s love (5). So who was the show really about? Or who should it have been about? The lore of witch families and covens could provide hours worth of media to enjoy!

 

So many more:

 

For twenty-six years witches have been a mainstay in television. Ryan Murphy’s disturbingly beloved American Horror Story celebrated the witch with a full season, aptly calledCoven. Anne Rice recently had another of her written series turned into a television show (no, not Interview with the Vampire) with The Mayfair Witches. Charmed was actually rebooted in the last eight years with a new cast and crew. Witches of East End, A Discovery of Witches, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, three new Halloweentown films, Hocus Pocus 2, Wandavision, and Agatha All Along to name a few are rich stories about witches that have been created for a wide range of ages. (7)

 

Witchcraft has not been kept in the shadows as it once was. It has burst out of the confines that society deemed it should fit into, and become a powerhouse of storytelling for all ages.

 

Children are witches, teaching others that magic makes a person strong. Teenagers come into their powers as they come into adulthood and meet their future with guile and cunning. The adults continue to grow and learn, creating deep links with viewers who need a little guidance for what is to come.

 

Witches do not dabble in the occult for entertainment; they are present to teach life lessons and to remind us all that we have what it takes to succeed, even when life is hard.

Time to share some of the comments from individuals your Monster Mama knows. I asked people I knew to share about their favorite witches from the media that came about in the past twenty-six years. Here is what some of them had to say:

The witch is a symbol of power and strength. Even when they do bad things, the viewer can empathize because a witch is nothing if not a survivor. All of us can relate to that. What’s more, we can also see the good in these witches, in how they use their magic to do good in the world. Villains, heroes, misunderstood and wayward souls—all of these things can be true. They are true.

 

Whether they play a side character, the main character, an antagonist, or a variety of these roles and many more, witches are a part of the fabric that has questioned right and wrong in modern day society. 

 

I, for one, cannot wait to see what other stories will be told through these characters. Can you, my little monsters? 

 

Thank you for joining me once more through this little jaunt into witchy content. Stay well and warm as the Halloween season settles in around us. As always, keep your minds open and keep asking questions!

 

Until next time, darling ones.

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1. https://charmed.fandom.com/wiki/Main_Page
2. https://buffy.fandom.com/wiki/Buffy_the_Vampire_Slayer_and_Angel
3. https://trueblood.fandom.com/wiki/Eric_Northman/Season_4
4. True Blood. Created by Alan Ball, HBO, 2008–2014 
5. https://vampirediaries.fandom.com/wiki/Bennett_Family
6. https://www.imdb.com/list/ls098668807/