I’m on season three of “Good Witch” and I’m still musing over why I’m watching it in the first place.
I know how it started. The word “Witch” was in the title and I’m attracted to the supernatural. I put it in my list and about a month ago, I started watching it.
My Tendency
My tendency is to go toward shows that have one or more of the following aspects to them: supernatural, action, and religion.
I did graduate from the University of Nebraska at Omaha with a Religious Studies degree. I’m fascinated!
And I love it the most when you put all three together. Like “Supernatural.” They put all three together and added in some drama and comedy to end up with a show that asks very serious questions without taking too seriously. That’s talent!
Primal Questions
Most of the shows I like the best have great primal questions.
“Supernatural” has a multitude of primal questions with the main one around the brothers Sam and Dean. It seems to me the main primal question is “How can we remain loyal and true to our family in the face of all this bullshit.” These are characters who have both been to heaven and hell. Who have met both God and the Devil. Who have betrayed each other and saved each other. Who have had to make the hard choice and who have made those choices without kidding themselves that they are somehow good, moral, or righteous.
I wouldn’t want to be either one of them, but I respect them, and I wish them well.
I watch both “Z Nation” and “The Walking Dead”, and have enjoyed them both. But their main difference is the questions they are trying to answer. “Z Nation” is fun, and I have a lot of fun seeing people I know pop up on the screen. Brandon as Elvis in a mental institution. What a hoot! But the question they seem to be trying to answer is “How do we cure Zombieism?”
“The Walking Dead” is in a whole other category.
For one thing, it’s not really about Zombies. Zombies are just the thing that gets in their way as the characters try to survive. Even the name, “The Walking Dead,” is not referencing Zombies. There was an episode where they were around a campfire and someone asked Rick how he could go into battle when he was in the military, knowing he could die. He told them that every time they went into battle, it was with the knowledge that they were already dead. They were “The Walking Dead.”
I never hear anyone reference that episode and where the name came from. Even “The Psychology of the Walking Dead” didn’t bring it up. Yet, that is the one thing that frees Rick to act, or really, any of them to act. It is them, not the Zombies, who are “The Walking Dead”. The show isn’t about Zombies, it’s about humanity. The primal question is not “will they lose their humanity” so much as “how will they lose their humanity”. The answer to that question is infinite.
Side note: September 11, 2001, four commercial airliners were taken over by terrorists. Three hit their mark. But it was Flight 93 who fought back. They brought that plane down. Do you think that any of them thought they would survive that? If they thought about it at all? It seems to me that the only way they could have taken that kind of action is if they decided that they were already dead. At least on a subconscious level.
Hope is a funny thing. It’ll keep you in a bad marriage. It’ll make you refuse to leave your property when a hurricane comes. And it can keep you in your seat when terrorists take over. “Surely this can’t be happening.” “Surely this is a mistake.” “Surely someone will save us.” It’s natural. We all feel hope. But sometimes it’s the absence of hope that allows us to move forward.
But we’re talking about TV shows here. Maybe I should get back to “Good Witch”.
The Good Witch
I have no idea what the primal question is for “Good Witch”. None. I’m not sure there is a primal question. This lack of a primal question is part of the reason it disturbs me that I like it so much.
“Good Witch” is a Hallmark show. It’s sweet, and lovely, and completely unrealistic.
The town of Middleton is full of relatively sane, positive, and kind people. No one’s getting killed, or turned into a vampire, or being chased by the FBI. The characters are not running around looking for a machete, stealing cars, or insanely waving around a scary bat named “Priscilla”. There are no life and death decisions.
It’s more like “How are we going to help our kids get along?” or “If you use this tonic, you’ll feel better.” Or “Do I have to be like my cousin? Or can I just be me?”
It’s more like “I trust my child to make good decisions.” Or “I know that you can figure out what to do on your own (especially if you just happen to go over that bridge at exactly the right moment).” Or “Meddling too much in someone’s life can derail their path.”
Why the hell do I love this show?
Where’s the car chases? The kidnappings? The final punishment of a violent offender?
Too Real
I love action movies, violent movies. Something about them helps me let loose some of my own angst and anger. I get to live vicariously through them.
But if they’re too real, I don’t like them. I like it when my subconscious, my inner child, is very aware that this is a story. A made-up story. If it’s too real, I am injured.
Side note: Volkswagen had an ad I saw one day. It was a woman and a baby getting into a car. She put the baby in the car seat, got in the car, started it and pulled out. Then the car was hit by another car, from the perspective of the back seat, where the baby was. It was just too much for me. I sent Volkswagen a message about it and how it made me feel. I don’t think I was the only one since they finally took it down. Allstate tried the same thing and got the same reaction. It’s not just me. Some things are too real.
It’s been over a year since I’ve watched “The Walking Dead”. They got to the episode where we met the bat named “Priscilla” and the editors did entirely too good a job. Once I figured out what was going on, I fast forwarded through most of it, but the damage was already done. They edited it for maximum emotional effect. NOT GOOD! I’d like to introduce “Priscilla” to those editors.
Back to “Good Witch”.
Normally, I don’t watch such sweet shows. I feel weird. Maybe embarrassed, just a little. There’s just something about them that makes me feel a little judged, a little damaged. I don’t like that.
But “Good Witch” is just not realistic, at all! People aren’t like the people in Middleton. They want to be like them, they like to think they’re like them, but most people are so self-deluded they have no idea the damage they cause. The people of Middleton tend to be more self-aware than us normal folks.
I think that, like action movies, I handle this show better because it’s not realistic. I can think about the questions that are asked, and think about how they are handled, in a distant way. I’m not being judged because that’s just not a part of the show.
I’m getting something out of the show.
Gimme, Gimme
I come from a bad background, and a lot of bad things have happened to me over my 56 years. Part of my path in life is to find a way to be the best me that I can be.
I went the community, teacher, guru path and was disappointed. I learned that everyone is damaged, to some extent. I can’t just attach myself to something and think that it’s going solve my problem for me. I need to think independently about it.
I watch “Good Witch” because it inspires me to think about very basic questions. How to deal with family, friends, community, men, and the Mayor. And it doesn’t tell me what to do, it just shows me what they did. I can think about what I would do on my own.
Sure, I would love nothing better than to go to Middleton, walk into Cassie’s shop, have her look at me and tell me I should amble by the flower shop at exactly 3pm and somehow, through a series of magical coincidences and epiphanies, my problem would be solved. Or at least inspire me to know what to do next to solve my problem.
But the real world doesn’t work like that. There is no guru or teacher I can completely depend upon. I can only take what I need, the rest is up to me.
Some of the things that have passed through my mind while watching “Good Witch”:
- I wish I could have had a mom like Cassie
- I wish I’d had someone to encourage me
- I would love to get a job in Cassie’s store
- I am worth more than I give myself credit for
- It’s important to stay true to myself, strong in my integrity
- People are on their own path
- Just because someone’s a slightly sociopath, egocentric, flower shop owner, doesn’t mean they don’t do good
- Meddling with things to ensure you get your own way doesn’t usually work well
- Maybe there’s a doctor out there that I can trust – I want Sam as my doctor
“Good Witch” is an ideal, not reality. I watch it so that I can think about my own issues from a different perspective, and a perspective that’s not shoved down my throat. A perspective that is far beyond the one I grew up in.
I watch “Good Witch” because I hope that it can help me become a better person.
