This season is about witches and what do witches do? Magic. So when we heard that each of our favourite actors and actresses would possess such powers we expected them to be used. We weren't expecting the Harry Potter kind of magic - people blasting each other with wands - we expected voodoo, spells and potions. Coven has this, it just doesn't have enough of it. There's not a lot of magic going on to satisfy. The season seems to focus more on the murder of the characters, the constant betrayals, the battle to be the most powerful. The question of power seems to fall flat on its face. These women are fighting to be the next supreme - the Queen of the Witches - and yet they don't seem to being doing very much magic. There's one random episode where Fiona mentions putting a sleeping spell on another character and it jars. We're suddenly reminded that this is the world of magic. The beginning of the season - which seems to be the common theme with this season - there was a lot of magic. We have to call into question whether they did this to hook us and if they did it worked. The magic now, however, has gone to the extent of doors swinging shut behind people, nothing glamorous or exciting at all. If we look at the previous seasons, Murder House offered us murder and ghosts as they said they would. Asylum offered us copious amounts of madness. Coven seems to have offered us a lack of magic.
Thomas Stewart is a graduate from the University of Glamorgan and currently a student on the MA in Writing course at the University of Warwick. He is a Freelance Writer for Mens Fashion Magazine, Make and Believe, Smashpipe and more. As well as writing, he loves horror films, folk music, Raymond Carver, patterned jumpers, Richard Yates, curry, Scarlett Thomas, editing, chick-flicks, watches and biscuits.
