OK let me start off by saying that I love to look at different shows, movies, stories, etc. from different time periods in history. Now going into the review of the show. It is not historically accurate, and never claimed to be. It does however have SOME characters that were historically present at the time of the Salem Witch Trials. It is dark toned because let's face it if you lived out in those times the only lighting you had was fire in candles or fire pits. I have read a lot of other reviews and some I agree with and some I don't. It is a dark show with a lot of different mature elements: blood, gore, sex, dark magic, and horror elements. Now I will say that this show plays on the Puritan beliefs at the time of what witches were. It also played the "what if" game that "what if the Puritan beliefs were real?" And made a very interesting and complex TV series that isn't for the faint of heart but definitely ​makes for an interesting view. Everything from the cast, set up and outcome is very well thought out and planned. Now I don't particularly agree of perpetuating the stereotype of witches and making them all followers of Satan, but it was still an awesome show if you can get past that and the lack of historical accuracy. Worth the watch if you love horror and darker shows and movies.

I really don't get the high-rating of this show. Someone here even dared to say that it shows exactly what happened. What...? Let me summarize the show: all witches are bad, they wish to kill everybody and take the town for themselves and for that, they sold their soul to Satan and gained superpowers. Oh, and there is a brothel. In a puritan town. In the 17th century. Now, I didn't live in the 17th century in Salem, but I'm pretty sure that's not what happened. I am sick of every movie, book and TV show that depicts witches as nymphomaniacs worshiping the devil and having dark, supernatural powers. But that is just my case. The acting, the CGI and the rest is not that bad. If you are looking for pure entertainment and can get past all the ridiculous scenes, you might actually enjoy it.

Excerpt from Cinematic Codes Review: Spring 2016 Issue: for visuals see: https://anaphoraliterary.com/journals/ccr/film-reviews-spring-2016While many primetime series about witches, focus on the seductive bosoms of the athletic maidens that work to rid the world of evil on a daily basis, this show really focuses on the devilish evil that possesses witches. The authors of this series were clearly more Christian than Pagan. The preachers are hardly free of sin too, and they as well as the majority of the townsmen are damned and tortured by the plagues the witches dig up in Salem. When I saw the name, "Salem," I was conflicting on if I should start watching it. I must have seen a dozen different films and series, and documentaries about Salem, and that's not counting a few versions of Arthur Miller's play. I was hoping that it would be an argument in support of the innocent girls that died in Salem, arguing that they and their accusers had partaken in drugs that made them see hallucinations, as this version is currently missing from fictitious depictions of this tragic time. But, once I started watching the first episode, I could not think of leaving the series unfinished. The energy is very negative and horrific, with strained, sinister, Gothic music and imagery, including the disturbing titles song, "Down the witch goes, the witch goes down, better pray forever, now, Halleluiah!" Many characters are burned, deformed, and look monstrous for long stretches of film, rather than having a monster engage in a battle and then die allowing viewers to only see him for a few fleeting moments. Even the beautiful witches are deeply psychotic and are constantly trying to kill each other and all of humanity. They start a plague by infecting one townsman that spreads and kills a great portion of the non-witch people in the town, as part of a ritual of the coming of the Devil. The Devil is personified in the body of the illegitimate child of the leading witch of the town, John. John is angelic-looking, but even at his age, he does a great job of acting possessed by an older demonic spirit. The screeching horrors are a bit more tolerable because of the beautiful, elegantly crafted costumes, unique and varied locations, and extremely passionate actors that really work to keep the viewers entertained. There are a few disturbing story lines that push this film closer to a fetish porn fantasy than an average pop film, but these tend to push on the viewer's emotions, and this draws one in. For example Mary Sibley controls her fat and old husband, George Sibley, by placing a frog into his mouth, which makes it so that he cannot move or say anything unless she allows him to. She keeps teasing him with her naked or near-naked body, as in the scene above, and later uses this seduction to attempt to control the town by telling him what to say at a town meeting. This storyline is empowering in the sense that the man is bewitched and does whatever she tells him to do, instead of the woman being a victim of a more powerful, older husband that could have sex with her and abuse her according to the laws of this period.Women are also humiliated in this film. In the scene above, Cotton Mather, a preacher, leads Mercy Lewis by a muzzle, trying to find witches with her help because she is possessed by witches that want to divert attention away from them and onto her. Power-plays and enslavement of people is a major component in this series, and this is what adds an emotional horror. People are constantly tortured by being burned, possessed, poisoned, and otherwise hurt either near or to death. This level of pain, sexual fetishisms and violence makes the series highly addictive, but it is also disturbingly grotesque. It is sad that modern filmmakers have to insert this much pain and suffering to get top ratings from viewers. Perhaps it is more interesting because there is more action than moralizing, and the moralizing is supported with passages from the Bible, rather than with clichés. In the still above, Increase Mather, a preacher that has killed many powerful witches in his day is hanging a suspected witch. Before stringing her up by the noose, he carries her up to the platform as he is delivering a sermon: "Let them no more say, God must do all, and so encourage them so to live in a careless neglect of God and of their own souls and salvation. The Devil has made the gentle knot of witches in the country, and with the help of witches has dreadfully increased that knot. Your children's children be afraid and go not prayer-less to your bed lest the Devil be your bedfellow." Then he snaps her neck in the knot of the noose, though she is bluish and long-dead before this as he's carrying her out. There are great details in this shot: the misty smoke and dust, the people watching in period dress, the carefully designed outfits the witch and Mather are wearing all put the viewer into the period, and give a sense of honest retelling. This is probably another reason this film is disturbing, as historical accuracy is combined with fantasies about witches and devils.Elise Eberle somehow also adds to the horror of the series. Her acting is always over the top, and her character is constantly on the edge of madness. She has her finger bitten off by the little Devil. She is burned by Mary. She later consumes the blood of children under the direction of Countess Marburg, who has experience with this as she uses it to stay alive and young after centuries or millenniums...

What an interesting topic and series on a paper at least! However, after a couple of first episodes the show gets quickly all more boring and tedious every single minute. Someone wrote on IMDb that the dialogue is spoken with colloquial words all the time. That is true! The same problem was with the Deadwood series. It was so boring and dull with the long dialogues and tedious characters that I fell asleep too often.Another annoying thing with Salem is the poor actors and dull atmosphere. Most of the scenes are full with black and brown shades or are filmed in the dark. *Yawn* One of the most annoying things was also the use of special fx, namely, nearly every scene is full of CGI and other plastic crap. Why is it so hard to create a good series with a lesser use of CGI? Luckily, there are other series and movies to watch than this. I'm disappointed.In my opinion, if a new series is not able to get my full attention and interest in the, let's say, 1-3 first episodes, then it's definitely not a good sign, there has to be some kind of drive in the very beginning. If there's not, well, I just move on to something more interesting, it's so easy. Why wait if it gets better? It won't. I have seen that all too many times.