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The Bastard Son and the Devil Himself is the latest Netflix YA (Young Adult) series on the platform.
I’ll avoid spoilers, but will just set out the main premise, since we see the police going to arrest a strange man and a woman going into a particular house, who in turn, rather persuade the police to leave them to it. After gaining entry, they find a never-ending stench, along with a baby left on their own.
This is the time of the laws of the Council of Fairborn Witches. The baby, named Nathan (Jay Lycurgo), can stay with a lady in a caravan – who he later called his Gran, “until he becomes a problem“. There are Blood Witches and Fairborn Witches, as well as the Fains, the latter having no magic in them.
Additionally, if you’re a witch, then blood-illiciting wounds heal quickly when they’re cut, with our lead healing up in 35 seconds. However, like everyone, we have to keep our health in check, and he wants to make sure he doesn’t go down the same bad road as his father…, so it’s a bit like Luke and Darth Vader in Star Wars, turning to the Dark Side, etc.
Once he turns 17, he’ll be given three gifts, and have to perform in another crazy ritual. Plus, he fancies a girl at school, Annalise (Nadia Parkes), who’s the sister of a lad in his year who’s a complete youknowwhat. But then a lot of kids were like that at school.
The Bastard Son and the Devil Himself also has scenes where people talk quite coherently, but with the most astounding amount of gibberish I’ve ever heard, generally when giving plot exposition. I do wonder if they even understand it themselves.
And like I said, naturally, no spoilers from me, but to do that would assume I understood it anyway.
Thanks to our friends at Netflix for the screener prior to release.
The Bastard Son and the Devil Himself is not available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but is on Netflix from Friday October 28th.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 60 minutes per episode (8 episodes)
Release date: October 28th 2022
Studio: Netflix
Format: 2.00:1
Series Directors: Colm McCarthy, Debs Paterson, Rachna Suri
Producers: Steve Clark Hall, Adrian Sturges
Writers: Joe Barton, Ryan J Brown, Emer Kenny, Helen Kingston
Cast:
Nathan: Jay Lycurgo
Annalise: Nadia Parkes
Soul: Paul Ready
Jessica: Isobel Jesper Jones
Ceelia: Karen Connell
Gill: Jeska Pike
Kieran: Hector Hewer
Gabriel: Emilien Vekemanss
Bjorn: Fehinti Balogun
Esmie: Kerry Fox
Teemu: Luke Polie
Reutger: Franc Ashman
Mercury: RóisÃn Murphy
Nicky: Emilie Largier
Niall: Misia Butler
Maeve: Alice Hewkin
Aoife: Shereen Martin
Nolan: Lawrence Walker
Bernard: David Isiguzo
Alex: Emiko Ishii
Marcus: David Gyasi
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.