Silent Night: Last Christmas, Ever

It is sort of like The Big Chill, but the suicide[s] haven’t happened yet. Unfortunately, the world is ending, so a group of old college friends decided to spend their last Christmas together before the inevitable. The government says we’re doomed, so it must be true, right? One of the kids is not so sure and he is willing to risk it in director-screenwriter Camille Griffin’s Silent Night, which releases in theaters and streams on AMC+ tomorrow.

Frankly, even if you had decades of holidays ahead of you, it is hard to imagine wanting to spend even one with some of these obnoxious people. The worst are Sandra, who clearly thinks she is Kim Cattrall’s Sex and the City character, her dopey husband Tony, and their massively spoiled daughter Kitty. The caustic Bella and her passive girlfriend Alex are not much fun either. Frankly, James and Sophie are far and away the most likable, but everyone is against her, because the younger woman is not part of their clique. Ordinarily, Nell and Simon are probably decent enough, in a British upper-crust kind of way, but they are on edge and trying way too hard. Their disgustingly precocious and sensitive son Art is not making things any easier.

For some strange reason Art is not ready to just give up and die. As in many end-of-the-world movies, Silent Night is cagey about the exact “science” of the apocalypse. Apparently, it involves a green cloud sweeping the planet. Regardless, it is surely our fault somehow. Fortunately, the British government has supplied all legal residents with a handy no-more-mornings-after pill. Yet, Sophie is reluctant to take it, because she is pregnant.

There is something in Silent Night to rub everyone the wrong way. Not bothered by the vacuous characters or a gratuitous swipe at the UK Conservatives? Well, maybe you will be put off by its invitation to doubt the pronouncements of governments and so-called “science” authorities (like, I don’t know, Fauci maybe?). As a result, you really have to respect Griffin for staking out some a-plague-on-both-your-houses territory. However, the people are still horrifyingly cringy.

A Discovery of Witches, Season 2

You remember from Ghostbusters how bad it is when cats and dogs are living together? It is even worse for vampires and witches. Nevertheless, vampire Matthew de Clairmont and Diana Bishop, an American witch, have fallen in love, but it is a romance forbidden by the terms of the uneasy truce governing vampires, witches, and demons, the weird kind. Yet, fate and a missing book of alchemy seemed to have conspired to bring them together. However, to stay together and escape their enemies, the two lovers had to jaunt back in time at the conclusion of season one. Getting back will take some doing in season two of A Discovery of Witches, which premieres tomorrow on Shudder and Sundance Now.

It is a bit awkward to hide out in during an era of literal witch hunts for a witch like Bishop. It just so happens, her beloved de Clairmont was one of the most ruthless witch-hunters. He was also a faithful French Catholic, but he loyally served Queen Elizabeth, doggedly persecuting his co-religionists. Such is vampire politics.

At least she is impressed to learn he is also known as the poet Matthew Roydon during this era. One of his great friends is Christopher Marlowe, a demon with a serious case of bro-jealousy. Understandably, it is a bit tricky for de Clairmont to remember what he exactly was doing four hundred years ago, but he will fake it as best he can, while Bishop seeks out the training to spellcast their way back to their proper time. After years of being “spellbound,” her powers have only just resurfaced, so she does not yet understand their full extent or how to properly control them.

This review is only based on the first four episodes of season two (out of seven), because time is limited for us mortals. Still, we feel safe in saying the general quality is consistent with the first season. Particularly notable are the depictions of historical figures, which are much more fully developed than mere gimmicks. Barbara Marten is a kick chewing the scenery as the Machiavellian Queen Elizabeth and Tom Hughes does some of the best work we have ever seen from him as the temperamental Marlowe. However, it seems rather a shame to have the great Lindsay Duncan sidelined for so long, as de Clairmont’s regal mother, Ysabeau.

Harkness’s A Discovery of Witches

All registered users of Oxford’s Bodleian Library must take an oath promising they will never remove any volumes (or set any fires therein). Nothing in the collection should ever be lost, but an extraordinarily rare alchemical manuscript has been mysteriously missing for centuries, Yet, somehow, a visiting American scholar is able to call it up from the stacks one fine day. She happens to be a witch, but she is not adept at wielding her powers. The uncanny appearance attracts the attention of some very dangerous witches and vampires in the first season of A Discovery of Witches (trailer here), which premieres this Thursday on Sundance Now and Shudder.

Diana Bishop never thought she had much power—and what she had she struggled to contain. Nevertheless, she casually summons thee infamous “Ashmole 782” via a regular materials request. However, when she opens it, all the creatures in the vicinity of Oxford experience a major disturbance in The Force. Rather hastily, she sends it back where it came from, but it is too late. She is now on the radar of some very powerful creatures, who have been engaged in a long-running power struggle.

The two most formidable players are Matthew [de] Clairmont, an Oxford geneticist and 500-year-old vampire, and Peter Knox a sinister witch clan leader, who we quickly learn was most likely responsible for the death of Bishop’s parents. Despite Clairmont’s brooding arrogance and their “cross-species” status, romantic attraction quickly percolates between the witch and the vampire. Clairmont shifts his interest from the manuscript to protecting Bishop, but their taboo relationship raises the consternation of “The Congregation,” the shadowy group regulating the hidden world of vampires and witches (as well as the second-class demons).

Adapted from Deborah Harkness’s All Souls trilogy, Discovery is like the Underworld franchise reconceived for fans of Inspector Lewis and Inspector Morse. The first season fully exploits the Oxford locales, definitely including the cinematic Bodleian, notwithstanding its side trips to France and upstate New York. There is plenty of magic (rendered quite nicely in some quality visual effects), but the narrative is driven by ancient secrets and nefarious intrigues.

Matthew Goode is terrific as Clairmont, fluidly segueing between the aristocratic and animalistic sides of the vampire’s persona. It is some of the busy thesp’s best work since Stoker and Dancing on the Edge. Teresa Palmer develops some potent chemistry with Goode, but the passive nature of Bishop (at least at this stage in the series) might frustrate some viewers. However, there is nothing passive about the great Lindsay Duncan, upstaging everyone as the regal Yasbeau de Clermont, Clairmont’s vampire mother. Unfortunately, the villains are a bit of a mixed bag. Game of Thrones’ Owen Teale probably fares the best as the scheming Knox, but Trevor Eve (who portrayed Jonathan Harker in the Frank Langella Dracula) never looks comfortable as the ruthless vampire clan leader, Gerbert d’Aurillac.

Miami-born Juan Carlos Medina shows he has quite affinity for British supernatural-related material, following up the criminally under-rated Limehouse Golem by helming the pilot and sophomore episodes of Discovery. Veteran genre television directors Alice Troughton and Sarah Walker maintain a consistent vibe of mystery and forbidden romance. The biggest frustration is the ending, which does not feel like a logical breaking point.

Regardless, Discovery is an addictive, binge-friendly series that does not even feel like a guilty pleasure, thanks to the classy sheen (that Oxford tweed makes anything respectable). Great fun for fans of the fantastical (even if they are not familiar with Harkness’s source novels), A Discovery of Witches starts streaming this Thursday (1/17) on both Shudder and Sundance Now.