Hex

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
From left to right: Thelma, Ella, Azazeal and Cassie

Originally marketed as The British Buffy, which was true in much the same way that Coupling was the British Friends (which, again, was part of the early hype). Hex told the story of a blonde schoolgirl named Cassie who gets supernatural powers with which to fight demons, but has her style cramped by her falling in love with the leader of the aforesaid demons, Azazeal, discovering that her destiny is to give birth to his child, the Anti-Christ.

It had high production values, a pretty and talented cast, and an intriguing (if hardly original) premise. But the thing was... it wasn't as great as it could have been, running on twists and good dialogue and character emotion, but overflowing with plot holes.

And then the lead actress left, taking half the supporting cast with her as she did so.

It was then rapidly retooled into a show about a kickass red-headed immortal schoolgirl named Ella who has supernatural powers with which she fights demons. Unfortunately she was blind-sided by the Anti-Christ (Cassie's sprog Malachi)'s evil plans, the demons won, and the show's second (and final) season ended with the cast divided into the evil, the very dead, and the fleeing in terror. To call it a Downer Ending would be a gross understatement, especially as one of the three survivors was actually dead anyway.

In both seasons, Thelma the ghost was the heroine's sidekick and speaker of memorable quips.

Notable for characters who managed to be simultaneously Genre Savvy and Too Dumb to Live.

On the other hand, it had Colin Salmon and Michael Fassbender in it. And they're always awesome.

Tropes used in Hex include:

"Do you have any idea how frustrating it is being a lesbian ghost?"

"She's my fairy godmother! She's got something nice for me!"

  • Cold-Blooded Torture - Azazeal, Ramiel and Perie inflict this on Max.
  • Cool and Unusual Punishment - Raphael gives Ella boils for fancying the guy she’s supposed to be killing. Mephistopheles makes Malachi go blind, but this turns out to be a cunning plan to get him to sleep with her anyway despite her disfigurement.
  • Dating Catwoman
  • Dangerously Genre Savvy - Azazeal.
  • Deadpan Snarker - Cassie, usually bouncing off poor Thelma. Also Mephistopheles (played by the fantastically deadpan Ronan Vibert).
  • Decoy Protagonist - Cassie. Although this was more a case of Real Life Writes the Plot.
  • Defrosting Ice Queen - Ella's character arc.
  • Devil in Plain Sight - The demons are fond of this...and with no small sense of irony either, taking on pious disguises such as priests and witchhunters.
  • Dissonant Serenity - Perie is so good at this that it comes all the way round and becomes something akin to a Death Glare.
  • Dogged Nice Guy - Felix. He gets gutted by Baraquel for his trouble.
  • The Dragon - Ramiel, aka Jez
  • Driven to Suicide - Subverted: Ella makes it look like Jez was driven to suicide after she kills him.
  • Emotions vs. Stoicism - A major theme of the series.
  • Face Heel Turn - Quite a few...
    • Malachi (who despite being the Antichrist, starts off as more Chaotic Neutral) does this after he gets a taste of the power that mind-controlling people brings.
    • Jo and Cassie both succumb to their love for Azazeal, the former turning evil and the latter sacrificing herself to protect Malachi.
    • Basically one of the major themes of this show is that Love Makes You Crazy. And sometimes evil too.
  • The Fair Folk - Perie the Faerie is...disturbing as well as evil.
  • Fallen Princess - Ella is Type 1, Roxanne is Type 2
  • Fan Service
  • Fetus Terrible
  • Friendly Enemy - Azazeal towards Ella, but only to a point.
  • Glowing Eyes of Doom - Played with in the first season, where firelight causes demon eyes to appear bloodshot (as Thelma puts it, “manky eyed”). Played straight in the second season with Malachi and his succubi.
  • Good Is Not Nice - Archangel Raphael. As Leon comments, “he’s a lot darker in real life”.
  • Good Smoking, Evil Smoking - Virtually all of the demons smoke.
  • Great Big Book of Everything - The Revelations of Orokiah, which Ella frequently refers to.
  • Heel Face Turn - Mephistopheles after coming to admire Leon (presumably because of his undying devotion to Ella).
  • He's Back - Ella in You Lose, and she even namedrops it ("Didn't they tell you? I'm back!")
    • Immediately subverted when Sariel floors her, leading to Badass in Distress, but this serves to highlight the fact that she does need Leon after all.
  • Hot for Student - Roxanne and her art teacher in season 1, Roxanne and Jez in season 2.
  • Hulking Out - Ramiel snaps back to his daemonic form a couple of times, usually when something has pissed him off.
  • Idiot Ball - All the heroes, passing it back and forth, but especially Cassie and Leon.
    • Deeper Into Darkness is a particularly bad offender. Thelma tries to tell Cassie that Troy is possessed and Cassie...accuses her of being jealous.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice - Ella shoots Perie full of hypodermic needles. Which is suitably ironic, seeing as how Perie had been posing as a nurse and injecting Ella with massive doses of St John's Wort.
  • Informed Flaw - Thelma is said to be incapable of touching living things (though not inanimate objects, so she can eat and call a help line), but is never shown trying to do so.
  • In the Blood
  • Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain - Inverted with Raphael, who is ostensibly there to help the heroes but achieves precisely nothing (beyond a bit of snark) before pulling an inexplicable Attempted Rape on Ella and disappearing.
  • "It's Not Rape If You Enjoyed It" - Azazeal's attitude to sleeping with a possessed Cassie.
  • Kill It with Fire - Die, scary fairy, die!
  • Kryptonite Factor - Both demons and anointed ones lose their powers if exposed to St John’s Wort. This becomes a plot point of several episodes.
  • Large Ham - Jez, on occasion.
  • Lightning Can Do Anything - It can bring anointed ones back from the dead. Thus Magical Defibrillator is weirdly justified even though ultimately it is Thelma armed with Ella's volta that saves the day.
    • It also cures possessed people (resulting in a rather amusing episode where Thelma tries repeatedly to electrocute Cassie)
  • Love Makes You Crazy - Arguably the central tenet of the show. Both heroines end up falling for their respective enemies, and love for Cassie, and later Maya causes Thelma to betray Ella and help out the bad guys several times.
  • Love Makes You Evil - The Nephilim and the Faeries, who were originally angels and the human women who tempted them from heaven.
  • Magical Abortion - A double subversion: it's an actual abortion...and Cassie doesn't get it because Azazeal talks the doctor into safely removing Malachi instead.
  • Manipulative Bastard - Azazeal (mostly in season 1) and Malachi. Mephistopheles too on occasion, though he refers to it as "a touch of reverse psychology".
  • Meaningful Name - "I called him Malachi. It means messenger."
  • Mercy Kill - Malachi grants this to Max.
  • Mind Rape - Azazeal when he starts playing hardball. He did this offscreen to Cassie's mum causing her to become a Broken Bird, and onscreen to Jo, causing her to become evil. He also uses the Stone of Belial to inflict it on Ella.
  • More Than Mind Control - Malachi pulls this on the entire school.
  • Ms. Fanservice - Perie the fairy
  • New Transfer Student
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero - Thelma insisting that Cassie wears her mother's necklace because she thinks it will protect her, when actually it serves to blind her to the fact that Troy is possessed.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain - In an attempt to psychologically torture Thelma, Azazeal sends her back in time, allowing her to rescue Ella from being burned alive.
  • Noble Demon - Mephistopheles seems to see the war with God to be about giving humans free will rather than hurting them. As such he deliberately betrays Hell to save Leon.
  • Noodle Incident - Ella’s previous boyfriend. Azazeal also alludes to previous encounters with her.

Azazeal: "You remember that time in Egypt? You know I still can't stand the sight of sand."

"This is one party you're going to wish you'd missed!"




Of course, you might be thinking of a different Hex...