The Supernatural Series On Streaming That Forces Witches And Vampires To Work Together

By April Ryder | Published

A Discovery of Witches

If you’re hungry for a new series featuring vampires and witches, A Discovery of Witches is now streaming on Max. The supernatural series features a world where vampires, witches, and daemons exist and walk among humans undetected. 

A Discovery of Witches, streaming on Max, is a British fantasy series that takes witches and vampires in a new direction.

Now, you’ve probably grown a bit tired of the age-old forbidden relationships between species trope; after all, we already have a ton of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Vampire Diaries, and Twilight content to indulge in. However, A Discovery of Witches takes a different approach to the subject matter at hand. 

Produced by Bad Wolf and Sky Studios, A Discovery of Witches is a British fantasy series based on the All Souls book trilogy by Deborah Harkness. Starring Teresa Palmer (Warm Bodies) and Matthew Goode (Leap Year), the show may first have the appearance of your run-of-the-mill vampire/witch love story, but it is much more than what it seems. 

It is, in fact, a tale of otherness, community, the ebb and flow of politics, family conflict, the power of legacies, and the evolution of supernatural species. Of course, there is plenty of forbidden interspecies love to drive the plot as well. 

A Discovery of Witches

A Discovery of Witches is different from the fantasy stories of witches and vampires that came before it, as it takes a more refined approach to the subject matter. If you love a good romance, fantasy, or dark academia, this show has it all. 

The story of the show is centered around a witch named Diana Bishop. She is an unwilling witch, as she has denied and suppressed her powers from birth. Instead, she centered her life around learning. In A Discovery of Witches, Diana is a tenured professor of the history of science at Yale, and she is researching alchemy at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. 

A Discovery of Witches still has a forbidden love, but it mainly focuses on politics, legacies, and how a supernatural species can grow and change as the world evolves around them.

While in the midst of her research, Diana turns her research efforts towards Elias Ashmole, a bibliophile and historical student of alchemy. While studying manuscripts collected by Ashmole, Diana discovers the long-sought papers of Ashmole 782.

Her magic allows her to see that the manuscript is a palimpsest (a script hidden within a script), and the underlying writing has been hidden by magic. In A Discovery of Witches, Ashmole 782 is known by the rest of the supernatural community as “The Book of Life.” It chronicles the origins of all supernatural creatures and is coveted by vampires, witches, and daemons. 

Diana’s discovery of the “book” quickly stirs up conflict among the creatures of the world, spawning a dangerous frenzy to find out how she was able to connect with the evasive volume and to surface the papers to reveal long-hidden secrets of the past, present, and future for all species. 

A Discovery of Witches

Soon after discovering the manuscript, Diana is met by another astute Oxford regular, Matthew Clairmont. The other prominent character in A Discovery of Witches is Matthew, a very powerful vampire from a well-respected family, whom Diana can immediately identify as such. The chemistry between the two is evident from their very first meeting. 

Matthew offers support, security, and help to Diana, who is now on the suspect list for the heads of all the various species, as she is the only one who is able to locate the ancient “Book of Life” and the secrets that lie within the text. 

All three seasons of A Discovery of Witches have now been released on streaming, so it won’t be difficult to dive right into the drama of it all.

Despite the “covenant” stating that love affairs between the various species are distinctly forbidden, Matthew and Diana pair up and eventually fall deeply in love, making waves among the various communities. Now Diana will have to face the challenges that lie ahead and accept the power of her bloodline to navigate and make alliances with other creatures in order to survive. 

All three seasons of A Discovery of Witches have now been released on streaming, so it won’t be difficult to dive right into the drama of it all. You’ll have to watch all three seasons to get the full breadth of the story, and you’ll have to pay attention to really understand the intensity of the matter. 

The vampires in the realm are prominent name-droppers, so remembering who each character is and why they’re relevant is important. You’ll also enjoy watching other acting talents like Alex Kingston (ER and Treason) and Gregg Chillin (DaVinci’s Demons). 

Get started on the first season of A Discovery of Witches streaming now on Max with a subscription. There are 25 episodes in the series, so get comfortable and indulge yourself in an epic story of supernatural survival.