Review of 'Luna Nera'

This show isn't even good—there is no good reason for me to love it as much as I do, or for me to have rewatched the six episodes released on Netflix THREE TIMES THROUGH.

To give you the gist, this is a Netflix Original in Italian (with English subtitles—and English music, which is a bit cringe-y in my opinion) about a teenage girl, Ade, who is a midwife with her grandmother in the 17th century. While they're helping a woman give birth Ade feels something she's never felt before, as she can suddenly know that the baby is dying and will not survive the birth. Her grandmother rushes them out of there while the woman in birth yells after them about Ade being a witch.

The witch hunters will be on their way soon, so Ade's grandmother prepares. They return to their home and give more medicine to Ade's sick younger brother. Then the grandmother starts saying all kinds of stuff about nature and powerful women, and then she shows Ade how to hide a book in the dirt beneath some floorboards by reciting a spell to make the roots curl around the book so nobody else could remove it. Before her grandmother runs out to give herself up to the witch hunters, she tells Ade to go to the viper's nest in the forest to find the lost cities, and then she's like "au revoir" and the witch hunters take her away.

Ade has this fling with the son of the head of the benandanti (Italian word for witch hunters) throughout the show, and he defends her in the time between her grandmother being taken away and her running away. Her grandmother is nearly burned at the stake, but some old friends of her grandmother show up and encourage the grandmother from afar to recite a specific spell to make it rain so she at least doesn't burn to death. When the fire is out the grandmother is stabbed, and Ade's like "ya know, I'm out." She grabs her little brother, steals a horse, and heads into the forest.

When she finds the viper's nest and gains entry, she stumbles to these ruins. Five women step out to meet them, et voila! Ade has found the lost cities.

What ensues in the following episodes between the witches and the benandanti is exactly what you would expect—but what was so striking was the relationships between the women who have to hideout away from the villagers.

I think what I'm drawn towards is the little family they've created, how they protect one another and encourage and care for each other when the villagers have tried to cut them down and tear them to pieces. Each of these women has a story about how everything was taken from them, but in the lost cities that story doesn't mean anything anymore—in the lost cities they can be whatever they want to be.

Also! Two of the witches are in love with each other! We love that for them! We love LGBTQ representation!

Most reviews I've seen so far have been like, mmmm nice try, but not great. And honestly, I agree. There are times when the show starts to delve into deeper/more interesting ideas and tensions about gender or nature/magic vs. science, etc. but it's like the show plops the idea in the scene and then all the characters mic drop and walk away and you're left like, "you didn't finish your sentence though?"

I think it also helps that I'm an English speaker watching this in Italian, so when the witches are like "we must return to our ancient dwelling," I'm not like, "that's some bad acting," I'm like "oooo ancient dwelling."

Anyways, I still love this show. I will probably watch it a fourth time, but I do hope that season two can actually build the show into something even better.