Series Tip: The Secret Circle

Usually when we decide to go to a convention, I try to do some "homework" beforehand. By "homework" I mean that I read a lot about the guests of a convention and I try to watch some of the movies/series that star the particular guests. As you may know we are going to Bloody Night Con this upcoming weekend, so I decided to watch some of Phoebe Tonkin's earlier work. When I was browsing her filmography on ImdB, I stumbled on a series called "The Secret Circle". I decided to watch this, because the whole atmosphere of the show reminded me of "Charmed" and I love that kind of shows.

The story revolves around Cassie Blake (Britt Robertson). When Cassie gets a flat tyre on her way home, she calls her mom to let her know she will be late because of it. Her mom insists on helping her, but before she can leave the house, it catches fire and Cassie's mom dies. Following the death of her mom Cassie moves to Chance Harbour (her mother's birth town), where her grandma still lives. Cassie is kind of a loner and she just wants to adjust to her new life, without standing out. This turns out to be impossible, because the whole town seems to be in turmoil about the new girl. When Cassie arrives at school for her first day, five of her classmates seem to take a special interest in her. Meet: Diana (Shelley Hennig), Adam (Thomas Dekker), Faye (Phoebe Tonkin), Nick (Louis Hunter) and Melissa (Jessica Parker Kennedy). Diana leads Cassie to a rundown house in the woods and the others are waiting there. When Cassie arrives, they tell her that they are witches and they form a secret circle. Cassie turns out to be a witch to and she is the one to make the circle complete.

At first Cassie refuses to believe that she is a witch and that magic exists. Even when Adam follows her and helps her use her magic (which leads up to a 'magical' moment in more ways), Cassie refuses to be a part of the Secret Circle. She just wants to live a normal life. Meanwhile people keep telling her that she looks just like her mother and it turns out that the town has a lot of secrets to hide. Cassie soon finds out that something terrible happened years ago. This terrible thing killed her dad and one (or two) parents of each member of the Circle. Within the Circle there is a lot of arguing going on and it is basically divided into two camps. One the one side there are Diana and Adam (they are a couple). Diana is the only one to have found her family's "Book of Shadows" (book of spells), which makes her feel like she is the leader of the group. She thinks that, now that they are complete, the circle should be bound, or terrible things will happen. This binding of the circle strips every one of their individual powers, which means they can only do magic when two or more of them are together. Faye, on the other hand, wants to keep her powers. Now that the circle is complete she can finally use her magic for her own benefit. Melissa agrees with everything that Faye says and Nick couldn't care less. He only wants to have fun. When someone almost dies, because of Faye's actions, Cassie agrees to be a part of the binding ceremony. Bit by bit, they learn that the village they live in has a lot of secrets to keep...

First of all, there is only one season to watch. Unfortunately, the show was cancelled after the first season. The network encountered a lot of heavy resistance following this. The show was very popular and well received. All of this led to a fan-based campaign, called "Save the Circle", but unfortunately this did not lead to a second season. Having said that: I have watched 8 episodes so far and I really like the show and especially Phoebe Tonkin's performance. She is great as the free-spirited and self-centered witch Faye. The show's atmosphere reminds me of "Charmed" and "The Vampire Diaries". It's also nice to see Natasha Henstridge in the role of Dawn Chamberlain, Faye's mother and the principal of the school. Besides this she is also a part of the former Secret circle. Dawn however isn't as sweet as she seems to be. I don't want to spoil anything, so I will just say that this show is really worth a watch and I'd like to close this article off, with the words: "Dear CW, BRING BACK "THE SECRET CIRCLE"!!!!!