If you like American Horror Story Coven, check out this new witch drama on Netflix

Magic, death and witch hunts are brewing in New Orleans. Mayfair Witches. The AMC drama is a spooky pastime with a stylish sense of drama and magic. Alexandra Daddario plays a blossoming witch who discovers her powers and embraces her own independence. The series is based on the Anne Rice Book series Lives of the Mayfair Witchesexudes the same haunting Southern charm that Rice brings to all her work.

Mayfair Witches is one of many AMC series that debuted on Netflix this week. For those who love the stylish and mega-popular American Horror Story: Coventhis new series is the perfect next watch. Both shows, in addition to adopt a similar aesthetic of Southern Gothic HorrorSet in New Orleans, the story follows a coven of witches on the lookout for potential threats to their magic as open war looms.

Mayfair Witches

An intuitive young neurosurgeon discovers she is the unexpected heir to a family of witches. As she wrestles with her newfound powers, she must confront a sinister presence that has haunted her family for generations.

Release date

January 8, 2023

Main genre

drama

Seasons

2

What is Mayfair Witches about?

Alexandra Daddario plays Rowan Fielding, a successful pediatric neurosurgeon whose skills strangely allow her to save almost every patient she operates on. When she gets angry and strange things start happening, Rowan accidentally injures one man and kills another. Then she discovers that She may have powers she never knew she hadAdopted as a baby, Rowan ventures to New Orleans to track down her birth mother and find answers about her true Mayfair origins.

Harry Hamlin plays Rowan’s mischievous uncle Cortland Mayfair, who lives in an extravagant home in New Orleans and threw wild parties when Rowan’s mother was young. Jack Huston plays the powerful spirit Lasher, who has been associated with generations of Mayfair women since the days of the witch trials. Lasher supports the witches in their powers and is controlling and jealous, which complicates things after he introduces himself to Rowan. When the empath and undercover agent of Talamasca, Ciprien Grieve (Tongayi Chirisa) also enters Rowan’s life and Lasher plays dangerous games with the two, while anti-witch sentiment grows in New Orleans.

Alexandra Daddario reveals her true power in “Mayfair Witches”

An untrained witch is dangerous, something Daddario’s character Rowan realizes in a frightening way. American Horror Story: Coven, Taissa FarmigaZoe, the show’s character, discovers the extent of her power in the worst possible way. While being sexually intimate with her boyfriend for the first time, she kills him with her powers and learns in the process that she comes from a long line of witches. The death scene is shocking and opens the iconic season with a bang. Mayfair Witches also has a shocking triggering incidentwhen Rowan freaks out after being belittled by a chief surgeon at work and accidentally uses her powers to give him an aneurysm.

Thanks to close-ups that travel through the brain, blood and vessels break increases the horror of the show. Combined with Daddario’s striking blue eyes, it makes for an addictive kick to start the series. Rowan is unlike any other role the actress has played before, and her blue eyes are a crucial aspect of her character – especially since her birth mother, played by Annabeth Gishhas the same striking blue eyes. As Rowan’s powers grow, she intentionally kills another sexist man with an aneurysm after he disrespects her. Rowan’s anger is fiery, showing a darker, harder side of Daddario’s acting that she has seen in series such as The White Lotus And True Detective.

Mayfair Witches offers this clever juxtaposition between Rowan’s profession as a healer who heals people on a daily basis and her uncontrollable power that causes death. Daddario plays her character’s inner conflict and unrest with ease, Rowan fights against what she is capable of, but cannot deny her true nature. Eventually, the series turns to a message of female empowerment, as the women and fellow witches she meets in New Orleans teach her not to be afraid of her gifts, but to embrace them.

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Alexandra Daddario talks about “Mayfair Witches” and her entry into the Anne Rice Immortal Universe

She also talks about the fun of exploring human nature through a magical lens.

“Mayfair Witches” has a dangerous love triangle between magical beings

Daddario has no shortage of hot scenes in Mayfair Witchesbecause she plays a sexually liberated woman who knows what she wants. When Rowan learns of her powers, Lasher becomes an important force in her life, mixing lust with love and security with danger. Huston animates the series as an immortal spirit who has haunted and helped the Mayfair women for centuries. In the beginning, Lasher is practically Rowan’s power, and it all comes through a magical necklace passed down since the first witch in the Mayfair family. The chemistry between Daddario and Huston is palpable from the first time the characters meet at a festival, with Huston’s playfulness the perfect contrast to Daddario’s seriousness. Their meeting has a mystical quality, and the scene includes beautiful neon lighting hues that enhance the enchanting Southern Gothic aesthetic.

Lasher is also dangerous, especially in love after Rowan forms a similarly strong bond with a Talamasca agent sent to monitor her. Ciprien and Rowan’s connection turns into love, resulting in one of the most exciting episodes of the first season. Episode 5, “The Thrall,” is like a wild fever dream, and the series lives up to its fantasy-oriented nature with stunning imagery, time travel, and gore all at once. When Rowan’s crazy, controlling aunt Carlotta Mayfair (Beth Grant), tries to kill Rowan upon her arrival in New Orleans, and all hell literally breaks loose when she starts a fire in the house in Mayfair. Ciprien comes to her aid, which increases Lasher’s jealousy, and the powerful being transforms your home into a horror show.

The result will be a standalone haunted house horror partwith changing rooms, tormented ghosts trapped in the house, and creepy jump scares. Rowan and an injured Ciprien get stuck in the house in an alternate timeline, repeating their day over and over as the wounds he sustained get worse. Rowan bargains with Lasher to let Ciprien go, and then they set off on their own adventure dressed in 1920s clothing. Mayfair WitchesThe costume department does a great job here, with Daddario wearing a beautiful white flapper dress and Lasher slipping into an old elegant suit, creating a nostalgic aesthetic in the villa, which provides a similar backdrop to the equally beautiful villa in American Horror Story: CovenThe episode makes the love triangle between Rowan, Lasher, and Ciprien all the more torturous, and showcases the bad boy/good guy arc that is common in love stories.

New Orleans is a character in its own right in “Mayfair Witches”

As Rowan travels from San Francisco to New Orleans, she is accepted into a thriving witch coven and discovers that she is its only true leader. In the third episode Mayfair Witches offers a particularly swirling, electrifying aesthetic that makes his style his own, New Orleans nightlife is showcased in all its glory. With sparkling lights, masks and the residents of New Orleans dressed in skeleton costumes, it is a bold visual spectacle when Rowan meets Lasher for the first time. The series’ cinematography is reminiscent of Witches’ Circle The film plays with angles, filming from a bird’s eye view or even turning the camera upside down to symbolize the hell Rowan finds himself in on the Mayfair property.

While the first episodes of Mayfair Witches may feel a little slow, as there is quite a lot of exposition to set up the new world Rowan is entering, but the second half of the first season really gets going with a better plot. As the women in Rowan’s coven form a bond with each other, a group of witch-hating Southerners grows up, meeting in remote areas and doing dirty business in abandoned buildings. The muggy, sweltering heat of the South adds to the growing tension between the two groups as they plot to bring each other down. Alongside eerie flashbacks to witch trials centuries ago involving an important Mayfair ancestor, Suzanne (Hannah Alline), the series creates an intriguing full-circle moment, hinting that the past will repeat itself. Now that the series has been renewed for another installment, the second season adds more star power with Thora Birch And Ted Levine. In the meantime, spooky season is upon us and it’s the perfect time to get in the mood with Mayfair Witches.

Mayfair Witches can be streamed on Netflix in the US

WATCH ON NETFLIX