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Hi, so first I should probably explain exactly what Every Witch Way is lol. It had 4 seasons but aired within the span of a couple years or something, so a lot of people may not know about it.
Every Witch Way was a Nickelodeon telenovela-style show based on an actual Nickelodeon telenovela (and apparently, the most successful live-action Nick show to date?), Grachi. The premise is the same as Grachi -- I think the two of them differ more past the first season. Basically, EWW (terrible acronym but let's roll with it) is about a teenage girl named Emma Alonso, who just moved to some town in Miami and discovers she has magical powers. With her new best friend, Andi Cruz, and her witch guardian, Lily, by her side, she learns how to navigate being a witch. Also, she's the Chosen One. Honestly, that might not be enough info to understand what I'm about to say, but whatever.
I'm sure there are plenty of Grachi fans who hate Every Witch Way lol. I still haven't seen Grachi (I plan on watching the italian dub sometime since the english dub of the first two seasons is lost media), but listen, I'm sure it actually is superior. Every Witch Way is so wonky in its first season, and it ends up making some interesting changes. However, I still love Every Witch Way for what it is. It ended up not just being a localization, from what I gather, but a completely different show.
Why season 1 is so different
I watched the show in bits and pieces as a kid, but only rewatched all 4 seasons a few months ago. 4 seasons sounds like a lot, but the show is actually quite short. I don't think any of the seasons after the first even cross 24 episodes. Unfitting for a telenovela, right?
Fun fact, the first season was apparently SUPPOSED to be 40 episodes, but was cut in half in post-production (according to a post on the Lost Media Wiki forums). I couldn't find any record of international dubs of the cut episodes like they mentioned, but I don't doubt they exist, because this actually explains so much. The first season is paced so awkwardly and so slowly in the first half. Also, there's this whole plot point about Maddie (the mean girl) being made to believe that the principal (the villain of season 1) killed Emma, but she inexplicably goes from fully believing it and feeling guilty/anxious to being skeptical or just not believing it at all in between episodes. I'm sure stuff like that was actually explained in the longer version of season 1.
I don't know why Nickelodeon ended up shortening the season. We will never know why, probably. Especially because when they aired Talia in the Kitchen (similar to EWW, the American adaptation of "Toni, la Chef", though I think these two actually aired simultaneously in their respective regions), another telenovela-style show made by the same creators (and apparently taking place in the same universe), they aired a full 40-episode season! Now, that was the only season of Talia in the Kitchen, but I think that was mostly due to poor marketing and other reasons. I was watching Nick at the time and even when the inevitable EWW/TITK crossover double feature happened (by the way, yes, if you're binge-watching the show, you do have to buy or rent the TITK episode from the crossover, because that show is not on Paramount+), I did not understand what the show was about. Seems interesting though. For what it's worth, Toni la Chef also ended up only having the one season.
Anyway, whatever the reason was, I guess it had something to do with the vision for the series as a whole, because I don't think the following seasons were cut short like that. The episode order was just smaller. As the forum poster on Lost Media Wiki said, this is evident from the production timeline, but it's also evident from the actual content in the seasons, in my opinion. Season 1 carried a couple characters over from Grachi -- Mac and Tony -- who aren't actually important or interesting. They simply cause more problems or filler episode ideas for the main characters. These types of characters are well-suited for a 40-episode season type of show, where you need that. So, it makes sense that, in the season 2 premiere of EWW, they immediately explained away them being written out. I personally found myself missing them though. They're not that interesting at all, but they're not meant to be. They're like Jason and Martha in HSM -- charming enough side characters that make the setting feel more real. Unfortunately, from season 2 and onwards, Every Witch Way ends up having this small problem where the high school setting isn't quite as immersive as it was, because now it's just the main characters and a bunch of extras (I think this is especially true in season 4).
Lack of content/missed opportunities
With season 2-4 being intentionally shorter, the show becomes much more plot-focused, and much, much easier to binge-watch. So, you know. It does have some positives there. But it also leaves me wanting more Every Witch Way content, which we will never get. And I don't mean Grachi. Like I said, I think these are completely different shows by the end. Every Witch Way's identity post-season 1 is heavily dependent on a new character -- Jax Novoa -- who I'm pretty sure does not actually exist in Grachi (I only skimmed the Wikipedia page, but I think EWW ended up splitting Mia into two characters here -- Jax and... well, Mia -- which makes sense with the similar structures of seasons 2 and 3).
Now, don't get me wrong: there is other Every Witch Way content. I mentioned Talia in the Kitchen earlier, which isn't a spinoff but takes place in the same universe in a similar way to how iCarly and Victorious are in the same universe (if I had to guess). But there's also a legit spinoff: WITS Academy. I've only seen a few episodes, so I still have to finish it, but this is basically our "Bunk'd" -- your typical sitcom spinoff type of deal where one of the characters is surrounded by children. In this case, it's Andi training to be a guardian by training a bunch of young witches (including, SPOILERS FOR SEASON 4: Jax's younger sister). I love Andi a lot, but this show already doesn't seem very interesting lol. There are other guardians-in-training for her to compete with (and eventually fall in love with, I think), but they all seem like such flat characters so far.
And the thing is, in the series finale of EWW, there were two very open invitations for spinoffs. The first being, of course, Andi training to become a guardian (which, by the way, the beginning of the WITS Academy pilot is at the end of the finale, it's super awkward), and the second is Diego and Maddie going to search for other Kanays.
Skip past the next bit if you already have seen the show and don't need things explained to you lol
If you don't know/remember it, click this to get caught up.
To catch you up to speed, I'm not sure if Kanays were a thing in Grachi, but they're basically like the Avatar. They can control elements. But ALSO, apparently when they are powerful enough, they can shapeshift as well and create portals and stuff. Diego is on the swim team with Daniel, Jax, and Andi, and he discovers his powers at around the same time as Emma and Maddie do. Diego believes he's the last Kanay in existence, because the Kanays were genocided by the witches (there's an ongoing conflict between them), but this is proven wrong in season 3, with the introduction of Mia, who is a far more experienced and jaded Kanay. Here's where it gets confusing, EXTREME SPOILERS FOR SEASON 4:
So basically, when Emma rejected Daniel and chose Jax at the end of season 3, it ended up causing a continuum break, which is only something that Chosen Ones can do. Essentially what it means is that they are in a different timeline now, and in this timeline, Daniel never went to their school. He always lived in the Everglades and rescued animals with his family and childhood friend/girlfriend, Mia. In the normal timeline, Mia's parents were killed by witches, but in this altered timeline, her parents are still alive, and there's evidence of Kanay culture in their animal sanctuary. When Emma discovers the continuum break, she is distraught, because she still cares about Daniel. So she does everything she can to restore the timeline back to normal, which is risky, but it works. Plot twist, Daniel is miserable in his regular life, because he retains all the memories of the altered timeline of his life that doesn't exist anymore, and he also got rejected by Emma. Obviously, Mia's also back to having no purpose in life in the normal timeline. In the end, Emma decides to undo the continuum break reversal and let Daniel go. But before Daniel leaves, he gives Diego the rock from the animal sanctuary with the Kanay markings on it (iirc. Look the important thing is that Diego gets that rock SOMEHOW), and Diego still has it after everything is undone, although he doesn't know who gave it to him. If you haven't seen season 4 before, I'm sure you can see how controversial it probably is lol. It was interesting, but it left me feeling very conflicted. Anyway.
Done with the recap now, back to the rant.
So in the season finale, he and Maddie figure out from the rock that there are other Kanays out there, so they decide to go and search for them. I cannot BELIEVE that there wasn't a spinoff about this instead! Or at least a book series or something! The Kanay lore is so underdeveloped in the series, I'm actually interested in that! ALSO, Diego could have met Mia again in a completely different way! Instead, we got WITS Academy??? Like, maybe the actors were too busy or something, idk, but I feel so disappointed about this.
Also, since I'm reading the HSM books now, I would have loved an EWW book series. Even if it's just little filler stories like that. I guess I just want more filler lol. Webisodes could have been cool too, even if the animation was awful. Unfortunately, we don't get any of that, because Nickelodeon barely released any other media for the show. Like, they had bonus behind the scenes content and edits on the site, and a few quizzes, but the only merch they ever released was DVDs for seasons 1 and 2 and "Team Daniel"/"Team Jax" t-shirts when the whole love triangle thing was going on. And get this: those were exclusively sold on the online Nickelodeon store. Which means that those DVDs don't go for less then $50 nowadays, and those t-shirts are so rare that I've barely seen any photos of them so far. Did anyone actually buy those? I feel like I'd buy one if I could. I don't care which team it is (even though I personally lean more towards Daniel, the writers did him dirty), I just think it's funny to own that lol.
I think the show just aired so quickly that they didn't really feel the need to release a lot of merch, but that sucks. Even just "novelty books", like a yearbook or maybe a diary for one of the characters, those could have been so fun. But you know, shows on Nick that aren't really that popular get nothing. Especially in that era, coming off the highs of iCarly and Victorious.
Conclusion
I love these characters and the way their actors portrayed them, and I'm honestly so upset that we only have this short little show to see that. This is also not helped by how weird the fourth season is lol; unfortunately, I think it's the weakest season of the whole show. That's not to say that it doesn't have some good elements in it, but the way it progresses is kind of jarring and the character arcs don't feel totally natural. I'm not just saying that because I actually like Daniel lol, I promise. I think the whole direction of season 4 (minus the Jax's mom thing, that was just annoying to me ngl -- I'm mainly talking about the continuum break stuff) is actually very interesting and super creative, but the way it's written is kind of like "well, of COURSE un-reversing the break is the right thing to do", which just made me sad lol. Though maybe that's the point? I just don't see why getting rejected had to cause all this. And then once the altered timeline is introduced, it's undoubtedly better for everyone except Emma, who is forced to grieve her friendship with Daniel (WHO IS STILL ALIVE) and nobody else (except Andi, because Emma permitted it) is aware of what happened. It's kinda like Madoka Magica if it was dumber.
I don't even hate Emma and Jax together btw, they're fine and even kind of cute by the end. I actually like Jax. But I won't lie, sometimes I listen to "It's Always You" (the song Daniel wrote for Emma), or even "Wildest Dreams" (yes, by Taylor Swift) because it reminds me of Emma and Daniel in season 4, and I LEGIT ALMOST TEAR UP. I also ugly cried at the finale lol. And I set my status on discord to "you can't fight the rain when it's already falling" for some time after I finished the show lmao
I shouldn't care this much, it's so dumb, but for some reason, I love this show. Hopefully Grachi affects me this much when I watch that, but I swear, the aesthetic is totally different!
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So yeah, if you watched the show, what are your thoughts on it? Team Daniel or Team Jax? (Either way, the OTP of the show is definitely Maddie and Diego, without question lol)
Also if you've seen both EWW and Grachi, which is better and why?
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