A cute blond teenage girl with special powers wages war against demons of the underworld. Sound familiar? No, I’m not referring to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but rather Britain’s answer to Joss Whedon’s classic girl-power series. Hex lasted two short seasons from 2004-2005 and currently doesn’t air on BBC America. However, the first season is available on DVD.
I’ve reviewed a lot of shows here at the Babble, but Hex is my personal favorite. It helped extract me from my year-long Buffy withdrawal after Buffy closed out its magical run in 2003. The parallels between the two series are difficult to ignore, although Hex can’t hold a candle to Buffy Summers and her gang of monster-fighting chums. I’d call Hex a poor woman’s Buffy. It’s still worth checking out if you’ve never seen it. Allow me to explain.
Hex is set in Medenham Hall, a pastoral English school that resides on the same grounds where suspected witches were executed during the 18th century. Cassie Hughes, a shy social misfit, enrolls at Medenham but finds the going a little tough. Her mom is crazy, so the student body assumes Cassie is wacko too. Her only friend is roomie Thelma, a goth lesbian who digs Cassie in a big, big way. Turns out young Cassie is a witch and possesses clairvoyant and telekinetic abilities.
There’s even an “Angel.” Well, he’s a fallen angel named Azazeal, but he’s got a serious hankering for Cassie. The spawn of Azazeal and Cassie would be bad for humanity, so Azazeal sets his sights on knocking up the apple of his eye. In other news: Thelma becomes a ghost, a baby devil is born, demons start crashing the party on earth and an ancient “slayer” named Ella arrives to clean up the mess.
The show only ran 19 episodes. I could have used one more season, but it does come to a neat (and bloody) conclusion. A mix of witchcraft and Christian mythology is interwoven throughout the series. Medenham Hall is chock full of secretive artifacts that prove integral to the plots. There’s also a glut of sex, drugs, murder, enslavement and human sacrifice, which keeps matters very interesting. Thelma (Jemima Rooper) is largely comic relief as a nosy, scatterbrained ghost, but she saves the day on more than one occasion.
Overall, Hex is a pretty creepy series what with all the ghosts and ghouls floating around. The Buffy-esque themes of adolescent alienation and forbidden love are at the core, as is the never-ending battle between good and evil. Death and destruction dominate most of the installments. I applaud the creators for not being afraid to kill off major characters once they are no longer needed. It makes for some fine WTF moments. I miss Hex, but not as much as I miss Buffy. Where have all the sexy, sarcastic slayers gone? Television isn’t the same without them.
Clacked by Scott Tunstall 
on May 06, 2009 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
The show already ran on BBCAmerica.
“Hex lasted two short seasons from 2004-2005 and currently doesn’t air on BBC America.”
Thanks for pointing out what I wrote in the opening paragraph.
Hey, I recently rented the DVD series of Hex Season 1 a couple months ago, so I’m glad to see you cover it here. I picked it up as I thought it would combine my interests – British accents and Buffy (although technically Buffy does that, as well). However, I wouldn’t call it a poor man’s Buffy, as it’s a totally different series altogether. It’s lush, well-filmed, well-acted, and well-written. However, whereas Buffy incorporated snark and familial bonding to offset the darkness, Hex kept upping the creepiness. After 6 episodes of increasing gore and sex with demon angels, I eventually had to pull back.
However, it does a great job with adolescent isolation (although the ‘unpopular’ girl is, of course, way more attractive than the ‘popular’ ones) and female sexuality (although the lesbian roommate’s undying crush seemed to pigeonhole her). At the same time, because Buffy had parents, homework, and 2 leads that initially looked like geeky high schoolers, I kept having to remind myself that Hex wasn’t about college kids. Overall, it was a good series and I hope other people have watched it as well.
An – If you think season one was gory and sex-filled, wait until season two ;)
I love the show! I wish someone would release the second season on DVD already!