Eastwick

Eastwick was a Dramedy premiering on ABC for their 2009 fall line-up. The show is inspired both by the John Updike novel, The Witches of Eastwick, and the previous film version of the same name.

Roxie, Joanna, and Kat are all residents of Eastwick, but have never really interacted. Roxie lost her husband and now has a reputation of a man-eater, mostly because she is seeing a younger man. Joanna is a wannabe Lois Lane, a budding journalist with a hopeless crush on her co-worker, Will. Rounding out the group, Kat is a mother and a wife in a nearly-loveless marriage to her high school sweetheart. The three are drawn together during a harvest festival, when they all make a wish at the local fountain.

Afterward, strange things beginning happening in Eastwick. A mysterious millionare, Darryl Van Horne, arrives in a cloud of scandal and begins buying up the town. And the three women, soon becoming fast friends, discover they each possess powerful new gifts. Roxie is able to see the future, Joanna can hypnotize men with a look, and Kat has power over the elements.

The show has been compared to both Desperate Housewives and Sex and the City with magic. The series was canceled due to poor ratings, leaving several episodes unaired on the network (although in Britain the entire series was run by the Hallmark Channel... and again when they became the Universal Channel).

Tropes used in Eastwick include:

• Absentee Actor: Like Charmed and Heroes, Eastwick only lists the cast members actually appearing in that particular episode instead of having a standard cast list, and like Heroes (and Ashley Benson's^[1] next series Pretty Little Liars), they're listed in alphabetical order - with the exception of Paul Gross (Daryl) who due to his "and" billing is always listed last.
• Actor Allusion: Roxie claims she's never heard of Professor X ...as she is being played by the same actress as Mystique.
  • Rebecca Romijn's real-life husband Jerry O'Connell shows up towards the end as a love interest for Kat.
• Back from the Dead: Daryl, sort of, as well as Danny and Jamie in the last episode.
• Black Comedy Rape:
  • Joanna, in an attempt to prove that she's not interested in Max, flirts with another guy at a party. When the other guy starts to back off, she uses her mind control to get him to sleep with her. Turns out that not only is the guy gay, he's in a committed relationship. It's made 100% clear that the guy would never have had sex with Joanna voluntarily, yet it's played as 'oh, that silly Joanna and her bad luck with men!' moment.
  • Roxie makes a vague allusion to Prison Rape when she tells Jamie that he's "a little too pretty for prison":

Roxie: With those doe eyes and that accent, you'll be one sought-after cellmate.

• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead
• Body Horror: When Eleanor does acupuncture on Bun, millions of red ants come pouring out of her body. Holy shit.
• Buffy-Speak: Penny, occasionally: "And I want that...blood hair to be...DNA'd for--for stuff!"
• Buried Alive: The fate of Jamie.
• Creepy Child: Gene, Colin's son...except it's not really him, it's an evil presence of some sort controlling his body.
• Demonic Possession: Gene. Whatever's inside him wants to get into Kat because of her powers.
• Dramedy
• Dreaming of Things to Come: Roxie's gift.
• Elemental Powers: So far, Kat has electrocuted her husband with a lightning strike and frozen a swimming pool solid.
  • She then also almost kills her ex's date with a gust of wind.
• Evil Brit: Jamie, sort of.
• Expy: The main trio are inspired by the main characters of the books, but aren't carbon copies.
• Girl-On-Girl Is Hot: Penny kisses Joanna when affected by the crazy, horny moon phenomenon.
• Handsome Lech: Daryl, to the endth degree.
• Healing Hands: One of Kat's powers.
• Hey, It's That Guy!: The main love interests for Mystique and her daughter, Hanna, are Kyle XY and his brother, Harry Potter/Blaine Anderson. Also, Benton Fraser is Daryl.
  • And Richard Harrow is Roxie's neighbor and has an undamaged--and very attractive--face, but he might also be a murderer.
• Hot Librarian: Joanna.
• Hot Scoop: Joanna.
• Hypnotic Eyes: Joanna, but they only work on men.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Each title had two linked items, sometimes rhyming ("Mooning and Crooning," "Pampered and Tampered") and sometimes not ("Red Ants and Black Widows," "Magic Snow and Creepy Gene").
• Mind Over Matter: Another of Joanna's powers.
• Mysterious Past: Daryl, as Joanna quickly discovers.
• Never Found the Body: Roxie's husband Danny. He reappears in the last episode.
• Perfect Poison: Inverted when Eleanor tries to kill Max, Joanna and Kat--it takes hours and hours to work, slowly paralyzing its victims, and no one dies anyway.
• Please Wake Up: Joanna to Max when they've both been poisoned. He does.
• Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Daryl Van Horne.
  • And maybe Gene, although it's never explained.
• Rape as Drama: In an early episode, Roxie's daughter, Mia, is nearly raped by her boyfriend. Fortunately Roxie and Daryl arrive Just in Time to save her.
• Screwed by the Network: Not only was it canceled after thirteen episodes, to the chagrin of many fans, but the tenth episode was never aired, leading a number of continuity errors and confusion amongst viewers--how the girls dispatched Jamie, for one thing, was unclear.
• SoCalization: Investigations are done by the local Sheriff. In Rhode Island, as well as most New England counties, Sheriffs are ceremonial positions.
• Tall, Dark and Handsome: Daryl, Jamie
• Telepathy: One of Roxie's powers, including dreams
• Unfortunate Names: The local bar is called The Greasy Stool. That and the Rhode Island setting may well lead many to wonder if Seth MacFarlane is moonlighting for ABC.

1. ↑ she plays Rebecca Romijn's daughter