Monday, January 24, 2022

Supernatural Academy - Parallel Lives

Adapted from the "sexy urban fantasy" series by Jaymin Eve, the new animated Peacock series introduces us to a world of magic hidden from the regular world feeling quite reminiscent of Harry Potter and Legacies, giving us a cloaked school whose students include were-creatures (wolves, dragons, etc.), or shifters as they are called here, vampires, fairies, magic users, and more. It turns out students in the school are nearly as oblivious about the outside world (learning about it through old movies) as the outside world is of the Supernatural Academy. Although the books are for older readers, the plot, characters, tropes, and setting for the show is all typical Young Adult Fantasy.

The first episode, "Parallel Lives A," introduces us to our dual protagonists, twin sisters who had no idea the other exist.  The popular Jessa (Larissa Dias) has lived all her life with the supernatural, growing up in the school with her father and a number of close friends. The outsider Mischa (Gigi Saul Guerrero) was raised by her mother in New York, completely unaware of her family, often moving leading to a lonely life. Given an attack, and signs Mischa may be coming into here were-shifter powers, her mother decides to return them home.

"Parallel Lives B" throws the two halves of the family together, explaining the dark secret while they separated in the first place (something about birthmarks, a dark curse, and a dragon king). Most of the episode involves Mischa struggling with her new surroundings and the sisters butting heads. There's also something sinister happening at the school involving the headmaster that the twins and Jessa's friends decide to investigate setting up a villain for our students to fight and a mystery to be solved.

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