THE BAS TARD SON & THE DEVIL HIMSELF
Not Half Bad
★★★★☆
UK/US Netflix, streaming now
► Showrunner Joe Barton
► Cast Jay Lycurgo, Nadia Parkes, Emilien Vekemans, Paul Ready
EPISODES 1.01-1.08 Lumbered with a clumsy name for its Netflix debut, this adaptation of Half Bad – Sally Green’s somewhat more daintily titled YA novel – is a bit of a revelation. Ostensibly it’s nothing more than a tale of witches fighting witches featuring all the classic genre tropes: teenagers about to come into their powers; school bullies; young love; even a blood-soaked prophecy. But The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself is different, because by heck, it’s violent. One witch’s spell in particular, that debuts in episode three, is so unapologetically gory it turns the entire show on its head from then onwards.