SALEM / LEGENDS [WonderCon '14]: Losing My Religion… Or Just My Mind!

Hey to all ye Fanboys and Fangirls out there! This past weekend was another year of WonderCon in “mostly sunny” Anaheim, California. Yeah, we all know it’s secondary to its sister, SDCC, but surely still worth the trip until July rolls around. My first panel of #WC2014 — just as soon as I got my badge and ran upstairs — was for the new witch-seeking thriller Salem. Its panel screened a 25-minute preview of the pilot episode. A taste, uh-huh, but definitely not good enough for The Divine One, and surely not good enough for the readers of GHG! Rather, it’s time to give you the goods on this ever creepy and bizarre Sunday pilot, in addition to a few bits from the creators of the panel and that of Legends!

SALEM

Salem is the first scripted show from WGN America because what we all need is more TV! We’re in an age of DVRs, streaming, and downloading so the more the merrier. And who is WGN you ask…..?

It DOESN’T MATTER WHAT YOUR NETWORK IS!! (Hello, Ringside Apostles).

Created by Brannon Braga (24, Star Trek: Enterprise and Voyager) and Adam Simon (The Haunting of Connecticut), Salem sets in 17th Century Massachusetts and based on the actual witch trials that happened during this time period. Tired of the town’s hypocrisy over people being punished by authority figure, George Sibley (Michael Mulheren, Law & Order), John Alden (Shane West, fresh off Nikita) chooses to go off in fight in the French and Indian War. He promises to return in a year to his love, Mary (Janet Montgomery, Human Target), but while he’s gone — of course — she discovers she’s pregnant with his child. Thus, fearing what Sibley might do to the poor kid, Mary asks galpal Tituba (Ashley Madekwe, Revenge) to use her best spell to erase the child from existence.

Now, why does all that matter (besides setting off yet another horrific abortion debate)? Well, when the setting jumps ahead seven years later — with Alden returning to the town in complete Walking Dead style — he finds the Mary he once knew and loved is now…Mary Sibley: The most powerful woman/witch in town. Yup, damn. Most men would easily turn around, head to the next town and drink themself stupid. But of course, John stays and also learns that another person from his past, Cotton Mather (Seth Gabel, Fringe), returned to Salem to lead a good ol’ fashion Witch Hunt.

Hell.

While it’s impossible for your TV guru to not think of The Crucible as I watch Salem, there’s definitely enough here to separate itself from the rest of the broomsticks (despite the fact they literally steal one part from the film, which could be more a history commonality than anything). Salem has: Crazy demons, a possessed girl as a bloodhound, people ingesting frogs, and black oil-covered orgies (I swear!). The show suffers a little from pilot syndrome (i.e. loads of set-up), but otherwise does the trick of displaying all its supernatural insanity…

(Flip the page for our Bible score and bullet-points from the panel!)