Motherland: Fort Salem is an alternate reality show that postulates a woman-dominated world that has resulted from the Salem Accords, a historic peace agreement between witches and the United States government. Fast forward to the modern day, and witches are routinely conscripted as soldiers. It turns out that they’re much more powerful than their male counterparts.
The series follows three young witches with basic training in combat magic as they prepare to defend the country against looming terrorist threats by using supernatural tactics and weapons. One is the scion of a powerful line of witches, one is a bright-eyed volunteer, and the last is angry because her mother died in a military operation.
The world-building is interesting, though I feel they could do a better job of explaining some aspects of the background. I can’t help but feel like they’re making some of it up as they go along.
I also think that they miss some aspects of the military lifestyle, e.g. – questioning orders, skipping out on training exercises for personal issues, etc. On the other hand, scenes of witches dropping out of helicopters sans parachutes are just riveting.
Despite these flaws, the characters are excellent and the 10-episode first season is a lot of fun. Check it out on Hulu!
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