Why You Should Be Watching "Owl House"
The Owl House is back with season two. The GLAAD Media Award nominated and Peabody Awards nominated series will return on Saturday, June 12 at 10 AM EDT/PDT to Disney Channel. Along with this release date, season three was also confirmed too. It will be the final season, composed of three 44-minute specials.
If you’ve never seen The Owl House, you are missing out on one of the best animated series on television right now. It is about a human girl named Luz Noceda who accidentally stumbles into the demon world and finds herself on the Boiling Isles. She meets a witch named Eda the Owl Lady and her pet/sidekick/roommate named King, who is a small and adorable demon with a grandiose outlook on life. Despite having no magical abilities, Luz is so full of self-confidence that she decides to learn magic and become a witch like Eda.
The series was created by Dana Terrace, who had previously worked on Gravity Falls and DuckTales (2017). Wanting to bring a bit of horror back to Disney Channel, Terrace created the series based on her love of darker storytelling but balancing it with bright characters and emotional narratives. This is where The Owl House truly sings.
Those two elements work together so well showing a real depth to the story. Everything is a bit terrifying in the beginning for Luz. But as we discover more of the world around her, we see that the Boiling Isles and its inhabitants are no different from the human world she’s from. Sure, there’s magic, demons, and curses. Deep down though, the people of this world want freedom, love, and acceptance. Terrace also confirmed that season two will be darker, fitting her original intended tone.
Hanging above the entire show is the Emperor and his rule. Propaganda weighs heavily in the story to where even some of our protagonists are victims of it. The various witch covens are censored by his laws, with only his most loyal sorcerers allowed to use their full magical potential. People within his kingdom must fit within his conformity. The world of The Owl House is deceptively deep. Once the viewer starts really breaking down the details of the show, there’s a sinister underbelly in the world. That is never lost in the emotions being told in the story.
Also, this show loves to slander Harry Potter. It never shies away from a good magic school joke.
The supporting cast really adds so much to the overall story too. Amity Blight, Luz’s rival, might be the best written character on the show so far. She comes off as the stereotypical bully who is also the popular girl. She’s ambitious while having a respect for rules and order. The series does a fantastic job showing us why she is this way, a large part because of her family. When she realizes things are wrong, she does speak out. We discover she’s a foil for Luz, wanting acceptance too. Amity makes Luz a better person, and they have fantastic character development together.
That’s also because Amity is Luz’s love interest. They are a “rivals to lovers” trope as Amity is a lesbian and Luz made headlines being the first openly bisexual character on Disney Channel. Did I mention that the series is delightfully diverse and progressive? This female created series has a Dominican-American lead who is queer, with BIPOC and queer supporting characters, many of which are voiced by BIPOC voice actors, while pushing the boundaries of children’s horror storytelling on Disney Channel. It’s fantastic.
I haven’t even mentioned Lilith, Eda’s sister who is an antagonist working for the Emperor’s Coven. She’s a fantastically written female villain with her own goals, desires, and drive to get what she wants. Good female villains are a rarity in all media, so it is a delight to see her in an animated series.
The Owl House is complex, thoughtful, and moving. It is not afraid to pull its punches. The show respects their young audience knowing that children can handle a little bit of fear. I can’t recommend it enough.
If you want to check it out, season one is currently on Disney+.