I love time travel stories, so I was drawn to The Way Home (2025-) on Netflix: "three generations of women have a time travel adventure." Besides, the cover icon depicted a cute guy who turned out to be Al Mukadam, Neel on Ghosts. If he takes his shirt off, I'm in.
Scene 1: Port Haven, Nova Scotia, 1816. A woman runs through the woods at night, chased by villagers with torches yelling "Get the witch!" There were no witchcraft trials in Canada. She comes to the lake and jumps in.
Scene 2: Minneapolis, present day. At an assembly, a high school student is singing "Crazy," by Patsy Cline (1961).
Crazy for feeling so blue
What high schooler has even heard of that song? Why not something contemporary, unless it's relevant to the story?
Alice waits backstage, anxiously peering out at men in suits milling through the crowd. No doubt government agents wanting to weaponize her witchcraft powers.
When it's her turn, she goes onto the stage, but sees the men in suits and runs away, pulling a fire alarm to throw them off the trail.
Left: Eventually we'll meet Dad as a teenager, played by Siddharth Sharma.
More back story: the parents are divorced (no doubt so they can get back together). and Mom just lost her job as a reporter.
Dad offers to pay the fine for setting off the fire alarm, and make "another generous donation" to the school, but it's too late: Alice is constantly causing trouble, and this is the last straw. She's expelled. Get out.
Scene 4: Mom and Dad call all of Alice's friends, but they don't know where she is. She's been "running with a different crowd," no doubt a witchcraft coven.
Turns out that Alice is at home, having a pizza party with the perfectly respectful looking "different crowd."
Plot hole: She just ran out of the assembly ten minutes ago, in the middle of a school day. How did she have time to invite a dozen people to a pizza party? How could they make it?
Alice is hanging out with a hipster dude, whom Mom voices strong disapproval of. He seems perfectly nice. What's your problem?
Scene 5: Having cleared out the house, Dad returns to work, and Mom lays into Alice: "Why did you duck out on the talent show? You are so talented! You have such a gift!"
She explains that she doesn't want to sing anymore, and "you're never there for me," yada yada yada. When does the witchcraft show up?
Mom checks her mail: A letter from Del Landry in Port Haven, Nova Scotia (where the witchcraft chase in Scene 1). No doubt something sinister, like "The Reckoning has begun! Bring the Chosen One and three chickens for the sacrifice!"
Darn, it's just her mother, asking her to come for a visit. Why am I writing a more interesting story in my head?
Scene 6: Establishing shots of nowhere, Nova Scotia. They're not just visiting, they're moving back home. Back story: Mom lost her little brother, Jacob, at a young age. That's why she left. I'll bet he was just sucked into a time vortex.
Left: I was right. Young Jacob is played by Remy Smith, and Grown-up Jacob by Spencer Macpherson, who shows us his butt here and his dick after the break.
They arrive at the huge picket-fence farmhouse. A very scary lady with a flat face and Medusa-hair meets them. They don't hug, but she is impressed by Alice. Inherited your witchcraft powers?
Scary Lady is played by Andie MacDowell, best known for another time-slip movie, Groundhog Day (1993). She's almost unrecognizable under the scary makeup.
Scene 7: While Grandma gives Alice a tour, Mom goes inside and hears her little brother laughing as his feet rush upstairs. A ghost or just a memory? She also sees his toys and such.
Scene 8: As Alice leaves the house, she sees the gardeners working on a flower bed. One of them (Kataem O'Connor) glares at her. He is overwhelmed by hatred, either because he actually hates her, or because he realizes that they were meant to be together, and the relationship will be very difficult. It's sometimes hard for actors to distinguish.
He says hello. She flashes a look of utter disgust, and rushes back inside. Why are you so disgusted by the thought of dating him, girl? Because he's a mortal, and the other witches will disapprove?
Inside, Grandma is laughing. "You did that on purpose!" Alice exclaims. Did what, hired a cute guy? I don't get why Alice is so upset.
More after the break. Caution: Explicit.