Motherland: Fort Salem: All of Season 3 (Final season)
August 29, 2022 6:24 AM - Season 3 (Full Season) - Subscribe
As America deals with the fallout of the events of the S2 finale , our witches make their way towards the Cession. The Camarilla continue to grow in power as they learn new ways to fight the witches. The mycelium brings adventures of its own, family bonds are tested and renewed, conspiracies are made and discovered, and there's even a wedding or two. And there is absolutely no scenery left un-chewed by Bob Frazer's portrayal of Alban Hearst.
Also, I must note that the episode title "Petra's Favorite Pen" is downright hilarious in retrospect.
posted by rmd1023 at 6:28 AM on August 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by rmd1023 at 6:28 AM on August 29, 2022 [1 favorite]
Well, they got an ending. This did not feel like a setup for a new season, but a wrapup.
The Spree continue to be incomprehensible to me. Nicta is conscripted and believes the Army propaganda and especially Alder's version of events. She is then horrified to discover that she and the other members of the army have been used to murder civilians and cover it up. Why -- no witch should be forced to so such a thing!!! So she founded a group to... go out and murder large groups of civilians? Also Alder is wrong for using dark magic so her group is going to use even darker magic, so there! Also the best way to make non-witches decide that forced conscription is bad is to make them even more scared of witches -- then they certainly won't want them concentrated in the one place the government has any control over them. It's like the writers knew they needed a red herring villain before the Inquisition shows up (Camarilla, whatever) so they just decided that there are witches, and they do bad things, because reasons, which we'll figure out later.
This season I really did enjoy getting to see the Cession, and more of what the Dodger network looks like. The internal politics of the Council were interesting and would be fascinated to find out more about how the various nations would up having their territory allocated. Did the tribes already from the Mississippi belt wind up having first pick? How does the existence of the Cession affect the First Nations people in Canada? Did the tribes from Alaska get moved to the Cession when it was a later addition to the US? How about the Pacific Islanders in Hawaii and territories? (Or actually... did we ever see Hawaii? Maybe the kingdom retained sovereignty.)
Also California! We got to see what civilian witch life is like farther from Fort Salem.
posted by Karmakaze at 9:30 AM on August 29, 2022
The Spree continue to be incomprehensible to me. Nicta is conscripted and believes the Army propaganda and especially Alder's version of events. She is then horrified to discover that she and the other members of the army have been used to murder civilians and cover it up. Why -- no witch should be forced to so such a thing!!! So she founded a group to... go out and murder large groups of civilians? Also Alder is wrong for using dark magic so her group is going to use even darker magic, so there! Also the best way to make non-witches decide that forced conscription is bad is to make them even more scared of witches -- then they certainly won't want them concentrated in the one place the government has any control over them. It's like the writers knew they needed a red herring villain before the Inquisition shows up (Camarilla, whatever) so they just decided that there are witches, and they do bad things, because reasons, which we'll figure out later.
This season I really did enjoy getting to see the Cession, and more of what the Dodger network looks like. The internal politics of the Council were interesting and would be fascinated to find out more about how the various nations would up having their territory allocated. Did the tribes already from the Mississippi belt wind up having first pick? How does the existence of the Cession affect the First Nations people in Canada? Did the tribes from Alaska get moved to the Cession when it was a later addition to the US? How about the Pacific Islanders in Hawaii and territories? (Or actually... did we ever see Hawaii? Maybe the kingdom retained sovereignty.)
Also California! We got to see what civilian witch life is like farther from Fort Salem.
posted by Karmakaze at 9:30 AM on August 29, 2022
I didn't want to lead with this comment so I held off a bit, but I have to say, that series finale episode was one of the more incoherent hours of television I've seen in a while. It all felt like a sequence of deus ex machina handwaving montages strung together.
Overall, the world-building is a bit sketchy and weird in places - definitely agree with you on the Spree. At any given time the population of Ft Salem and the army in general seem to oscillate between "there are like 10 people, total" and "there are huge numbers somewhere, offscreen." There are any number of things that just sort of fall apart under a bit of thought (much "fridge logic" as TVTropes calls it).
But ... so what? It's fun, and amusing, queer as hell, and I cannot think of another current/recent show where I can see *that many* women of color in high positions of power working together and arguing with each other on screen. For the most part, it seems to know what sort of show it is and works to have fun with it.
I hope this turns out to be one of those shows that's an AAA farm team for the folks involved to develop and go on to improve and go do more stuff.
posted by rmd1023 at 4:57 AM on August 30, 2022
Overall, the world-building is a bit sketchy and weird in places - definitely agree with you on the Spree. At any given time the population of Ft Salem and the army in general seem to oscillate between "there are like 10 people, total" and "there are huge numbers somewhere, offscreen." There are any number of things that just sort of fall apart under a bit of thought (much "fridge logic" as TVTropes calls it).
But ... so what? It's fun, and amusing, queer as hell, and I cannot think of another current/recent show where I can see *that many* women of color in high positions of power working together and arguing with each other on screen. For the most part, it seems to know what sort of show it is and works to have fun with it.
I hope this turns out to be one of those shows that's an AAA farm team for the folks involved to develop and go on to improve and go do more stuff.
posted by rmd1023 at 4:57 AM on August 30, 2022
So I loved all three seasons (though there were some more-amusing-than-they-should-probably-be moments) but I have to also agree that the logic of the Spree actions seemed to be ... well, *missing*. Killing lots of 'normal' people didn't seem to me to advance the position of witches at all, and Nicte didn't seem to excuse that either. Attacking the army during the wedding made sense (from their POV) but nothing else.
Although it was clear before S03 that it was going to be the final one I do wonder whether there could be a "Motherland: something else" ahead, ideally with Raelle and Scylla.
posted by Inanna at 10:56 AM on September 7, 2022
Although it was clear before S03 that it was going to be the final one I do wonder whether there could be a "Motherland: something else" ahead, ideally with Raelle and Scylla.
posted by Inanna at 10:56 AM on September 7, 2022
I think I saw someplace a mention of the showrunner's hopes to extend the story in some graphic novels.
Also: both in Motherland: Fort Salem and in Star Trek: Discovery we have mystical mycelial networks that help us transcend spacetime! Fungal magic is in the zeitgeist....
posted by brainwane at 11:55 AM on September 7, 2022
Also: both in Motherland: Fort Salem and in Star Trek: Discovery we have mystical mycelial networks that help us transcend spacetime! Fungal magic is in the zeitgeist....
posted by brainwane at 11:55 AM on September 7, 2022
I've a couple of the graphic novels that followed on for Firefly so I'll keep an eye out for anything post-season 3, ta brainwane!
posted by Inanna at 9:30 AM on September 8, 2022
posted by Inanna at 9:30 AM on September 8, 2022
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posted by rmd1023 at 6:24 AM on August 29, 2022