Hidden coven
The Secret Circle follows two generations of witches and warlocks.
FANS tuned in to watch L. J. Smith’s vampires, so now the CW Network hopes her witches will create more ratings magic.
The new The Secret Circle, a series that follows two generations of witches and warlocks who live in a sleepy little town, is based on Smith’s novels. It follows the adaptation of Smith’s The Vampire Diaries, a Cwseries that became a network hit.
Kevin Williamson, the executive producer who first put teen angst into a series with Dawson’s Creek and is an executive producer of The Vampire Diaries, has had the task of transforming Smith’s complex witches’ trilogy into the new TV programme.
“What I love so much about L.J. Smith’s world is that she taps into the stuff that I love. She taps into my happy place, which is sort of a lot of growing up, the coming of age, the teen angst,” Williamson says. “Then she mixes it with the genre, which I love, and spins it all around. The betrayal, the deceit, the friendship, the loyalty, the love, the murder, the mayhem, all of that stuff is my happy place.”
Britt Robertson, who wowed critics with her work in Life Unexpected, takes on the central character of Cassie Blake. She shows up in Chance Harbor, Washington, after a family tragedy with no knowledge of her bewitching abilities. The town’s group of young hunks and hunkettes – they include Thomas Dekker, Phoebe Tonkin and Shelley Hennig – help her find her magical ways, a knowledge that will make this circle even stronger. They’ll use their power to find out what happened 16 years ago to break up their parents circle.
“I think what I love about this show is that it’s multi-generational. It’s not just a teen show,” Williamson says. “It is sort of very much an adult show, and I think the themes and the ideas that are running through it, while they are young characters, it’s going to get very adult very fast. I think it’s just going to go more that way than the high school teen way.”
Viewers should expect tons of sexual tension. Executive producer Andrew Miller describes the heavy dose of sexuality as simply a matter of trying to explore magic in all its forms.
“It’s an empowerment story and because of the age of these characters – they’re not 140 years old – and they’re experiencing these things for the first time: first love, first betrayal, first these friendships that will hopefully last forever. And I think sexuality is a part of that, but it’s not the whole picture,” Miller says. “We’re just trying to use the witchcraft as a backdrop to explore otherwise relatable issues that these kids are going through as they transition into adulthood and as they define themselves.” – The Fresno Bee/mcclatchy-tribune Information Services
Don’t miss the premiere of The Secret Circle on 8TV tomorrow at 9.30pm.