5 reasons to watch Salem on Amazon Prime
By Mads Lennon
5. You’ve never seen the Salem Witch Trials like this before.
The Salem Witch Trials are an essential and tragic part of our history. The entire era of history is shrouded in a veil of misogyny and mystery. Because of its impact on society and culture, the witch trials are a ripe opportunity for storytellers. People have made countless films, television shows, and books with Salem at the center, both fiction and non-fiction.
Never has a show tackled this fabled period with the same amount of ludicrous, violent, sexy darkness as WGN’s Salem. The series takes massive liberties with the truth, as one would expect. Don’t watch Salem hoping to get a valuable history lesson. Instead, view it expecting to see an orgy in Hell blood (appearance similar to black tar) with witches clad in bloody animal masks, all in the first episode alone!
Salem is the perfect series for anyone who loved the over-the-top camp and gore of HBO’s True Blood. I daresay, Salem might even push the envelope more than True Blood, and that’s saying something considering one aired on premium cable and the other aired on regular television. WGN wasn’t messing around when they entered the scripted drama game. This show does witches better than any other (except maybe Penny Dreadful Season 2).