This is a show I've watched 4 and 1/3 episodes of. I stopped 20 minutes into the 5th episodes because I realized I just didn't really care. I often think about shows that seem to be hindered by their network. It's what makes the CW all but unwatchable to me. With Syfy, I feel like you can feel the "nerdgasm" someone has in getting to create their "Harry Potter BUT FOR ADULTS!" show, that seems like a shallow nerd conception of the word "adult." Maybe it will help to describe in context with other Syfy shows. You can watch "Dark Matter" and think, "it's not Firefly, but the creators clearly loved Firefly and even tried to recycle an outfit." You can look at "The Expanse" and feel like it's a less epic "Battlestar Galactica" with a story line feeling complicated and hurried more than *necessarily* progressing. Maybe the term I'm looking for is "overwrought."

When a show starts to feel gimmicky, even fairly adequate actors start to feel hokey. The drama is supposed to come from your investment in them, not the "fantastic magical scenario!" meant to invigorate you like it might a child. Different cliches take over instead of someone's portrayal naturally playing into a mystique. "The wise old crazy-looking mentor" or course comes in to train the pupil who doesn't want his help but can't control his powers. A story told a million times, but with better dialogue and camerawork. The brainiac who shoots too high and gets burned. The aloof sort of overseer/guide. The seemingly authoritarian and know-how principal, yet this one never seems to find his teeth.

It could develop into something cool. The hedge witches with this outlaw style and shitty behavior could do more than pop in and out stealing things and being a marginal nuisance, but I don't think the show will think that deeply about them. Relationships could exist for more than two 3 minutes shots of intimacy before blowing up as if we're really that invested already or understand some complex array of discussions had off screen. The main character who never seems to have a personality unless it's being directed or fucked with by someone else around him gets exhausting looking for opportunities to really root for him.

This feels like another attempt at "capitalize on the fervor." Adults are loud and proud about how they grew up with Harry Potter, so make a magic show! And if you're particularly or easily entertained by magic-looking effects and immerse yourself in superficial lore, you'll probably love this show. If you watch too much tv and are thinking about how to spend another 45 minutes of your time, all the biting, cringy, increasingly loud tv-esc problems that come with a 6-7/10 type show start to wear on you when you don't really care about magic-stuff in particular. If there's Harry vs Voldemort on one end and vampires vs wolves on the other, this lies somewhere between in how much you're going to care when one of the characters "get caught up in something SUPER DANGEROUS."

To its credit, it does try to layer in different character's problems on top of a general threat and it doesn't leave anyone too far behind. It's just...not all there for me.