Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself’ On Netflix, About A Teenager Who Fights Against His Evil Witch Heritage

Which supernatural being do you like seeing shows about? Vampires or witches? They all seem to have their own “rules of the road”, but it does seem that witches can be more varied and give writers more story possibilities than vampires (after all, that pesky “sunlight burns us” thing is a problem for the bloodsuckers). A new Netflix series features a young witch who has to fight the dark side of his DNA, while fending off enemies he didn’t even know he had.

THE BASTARD SON & THE DEVIL HIMSELF: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Two people driving in a car. One says to the other, “Is it true? What they say about him? That he’s the wolf’s child?”

The Gist: Ceelia (Karen Connell) and Bjorn (Fehinti Balogun) aren’t law enforcement; they’re representatives of the Council of Fairborn Witches. They go into the house where the reported “wolf’s child” is; they see a woman’s body, a young girl and a baby. The kids are brought over to their grandmother Esmie (Kerry Fox); she raises them, but the Nathan, the boy, is a ward of the council

As Nathan Byrn (Jay Lycurgo) grows up, he and his sister Jessica (Isobel Jesper Jones) learn about the difference between Fairborn Witches and mortals, and the existence of “blood witches.” Ceelia arrives every month to quiz Nathan on urges and feelings that might indicate that his father’s side is coming out. His father isn’t just any evil witch though; he’s Marcus Edge (David Gyasi), who slaughtered dozens Fairborn witches in an attack. Despite being his half-sister, Jessica pretty much hates Nathan, mainly because of the dark side of his DNA and his potential to turn on Fairborn witches like her.

He’s about ten months away from his 17th birthday, when a witch’s full power becomes apparent — Jessica finds that her power is being a shape shifter, for instance. As the day approaches, Nathan tries to resist the side of him that would indicate he was a Blood witch. He meets a new classmate, Annalise O’Brien (Nadia Parkes), a Fairborn witch who knows Nathan’s past but still takes a liking to him, and they bond during a Halloween house party, but runs afoul of her brother Niall (Misia Butler), who tries to get Nathan to tap into the side of him that hates Fairborn witches.

When he attacks a goading Niall with Niall’s bike, Ceelia takes Nathan to see Niall’s father Soul (Paul Ready) and Reutger (Franc Ashman), both members of the council. They cast a spell that shows Nathan a glimpse of what his father, Marcus Edge (David Gyasi) is capable of, and what he did during the massacre he perpetrated. Nathan doesn’t think he’ll be violent, but as he gets closer to Annalise, signs are showing otherwise.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself, based on Sally Green’s novel trilogy Half Bad, reminds us of another dark show about teen witches, Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina.

Our Take: The first half of the first episode of The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself tries to be a little too clever, showing us glimpses of Nathan’s time as a baby then as a kid before settling in on him when he is 16. The reason we think the show, written by Joe Barton and Ryan J. Brown, is being too clever is because it doesn’t come out and define just what Nathan is. There are allusions to Fairborn witches and Blood witches, and of course, the people who think that Nathan will become a Blood witch are wary of his presence.

But until Nathan is shown what his father is capable of and the fact that his potential dark nature is about to come out when he turns 17, all we see is more or less a typical teen drama. He’s tired of the constant questioning by Ceelia. He and Jessica don’t get along. He goes to a house party and meets an intriguing girl who’s also into him. It’s hard to latch onto the story because we’re not quite sure what the story is.

Then he’s brought to London and shown an attack perpetrated by his father, just without the physical bodies present. That sets the show down a much clearer road, and his developing relationship with Annalise enhances it. When they’re making out for the first time and he can hear her heartbeat — a Blood witch can hear another witch’s heartbeat — it scares him, as does how he reacts after Jessica and Niall lure him to the woods, capture him, and start cutting him to prove he’s a fast healer, another sign of being a Blood.

His grandmother tries to help, channeling a witch named Mercury (Róisín Murphy) who will help him avoid the Bloods coming after him. But it does seem like this is going to be Nathan’s journey; he wants to be fundamentally good, and the conflict between his nature and the fact that his Blood DNA will fight against that makes for an intriguing story. We just hope that the story doesn’t become as jumbled as it was during the first 20 or so minutes of the first episode.

Sex and Skin: Nothing in the first episode.

Parting Shot: As Mercury talks to Nathan — a little too intimately, given she’s in the body of Nathan’s grandmother — he’s called out of his grandmother’s trailer by gun-toting members of the Council of Fairborn Witches.

Sleeper Star: Nadia Parkes is one of the show’s stars, but we do like her as Annalise, because her character is so resistant to the biases her fellow Fairbornes have towards Nathan.

Most Pilot-y Line: When Reutger asks Nathan if he’s studied the history of witches, he jokes that “I know Harry shags Hermione at the end.” Then doubles down by saying, “Ron. She ends up shagging Ron. That was going to annoy me.”

Our Call: STREAM IT. We’re not completely sure that the story in The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself won’t get muddled again like it was at the beginning of the first episode. But we have faith that it will keep things focused on Nathan and his attempt to keep evil at bay.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.