This drama series follows in excitement the daily activity of a trio of courageous witches, who join the American military, where they use their superpowers in tracking down criminals and other outlaws to save the country.
It squanders precious opportunities to develop compelling antagonists-and that lack of complexity is even more unfortunate given that the three leads are so charismatic and well-cast.
As a light-hearted Freeform teen drama, Motherland takes itself much too seriously, but as an expansive piece of supernatural alt-history, it falls far short of its ambitions.
The acting is fine, and even if the characters feel a little trope-y, the chemistry between all the leads in there and the visuals and world-building are top-notch.
A matriarchal society, the power of women's voices, and militarized witches -- in an alternate history America that's cold-blooded...it's a wholly imaginative new universe.
The types are all pretty obvious and plot turns are telegraphed well in advance, yet the show fails to clearly explain what is going on in this alternate America.
Those more pertinent narratives are nearly crushed inside the margins by shoehorned subplots such as a mishandled suicide storyline, necromancy, and pretty much anything regarding the elder witches in their command station.
Motherland combines too many ideas in order to make one wildly confusing show that, despite its insistence otherwise, struggles to understand what "empowerment" actually means.
