| Genre: |
|
| Developer: | Joanna Lewis Kristine Songco |
| Starring: |
|
| Composer: | Deborah Lurie Zack Ryan |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Num Seasons: | 3 (not including Mystery City) |
| Num Episodes: | 51 (61 if Mystery City is included) |
| List Episodes: | List of Just Add Magic episodes |
| Executive Producer: | Joe Nussbaum Andrew Orenstein |
| Producer: | Pixie Wespiser |
| Cinematography: | Mark Doering-Powell |
| Runtime: | 23–27 minutes |
| Company: | Amazon Studios Picrow Grasshopper Lane Entertainment |
| Related: | Just Add Magic: Mystery City |
Just Add Magic is an American live-action family television series, loosely based on the 2010 book of the same name by Cindy Callaghan.[1] It was produced by Amazon Studios. A pilot was produced in 2015 and the series commissioned for a full season the following year.[2] Amazon renewed the series for a second season in June 2016 after it "set a record as the most successful Amazon Original Kids premiere weekend in terms of U.S. Prime Video streams and hours."[3]
A follow-up series, Just Add Magic: Mystery City, was released on January 17, 2020.[4]
In the quaint town of Saffron Falls, three teenage best friends—Kelly, Hannah, and Darbie—share a passion for baking. Their lives take a magical turn when they stumble upon an ancient, enigmatic cookbook filled with whimsical recipes and mystical ingredients.
Intrigued by the cookbook's secrets, the girls embark on a thrilling adventure, visiting Mama P's shop to procure peculiar ingredients like "Cedronian vanilla" and "Taurian thyme." As they experiment with the cookbook's magical recipes, they discover their role as protectors of this extraordinary culinary treasure, a responsibility that has been passed down through generations.
Kelly is driven by a heartfelt mission: to find a magical recipe that can lift her grandmother's curse. Meanwhile, Mama P is bound by a curse that confines her to Saffron Falls, and Ms. Silvers is unable to play the piano in public due to her own curse.
As Kelly seeks a cure for her grandmother, she forms an unlikely alliance with Mama P, who is also eager to break free from her curse. However, their efforts are met with resistance from Hannah, who fears the consequences of their magical endeavors.
In a surprising twist, Mama P successfully breaks her curse but inadvertently places the entire town under a new curse. Everybody was frozen. To undo this, the trio must concoct a special recipe, they decide to make a three magical layered cake which manages to break all curses in the city. But also brings back Chuck, a resident who was cursed unintentionally by magical mishaps.
After breaking every curse, they realised that they had brought back Chuck Hankins, a teenage boy from the ’60s who had suddenly disappeared because of the OCs (Original Cooks) who were all once the protectors of the cookbook. Chuck casts an invisibility spell on a trailer but, the girls are able to see and enter the invisible trailer. There they discover that Chuck has another cookbook that is copying recipes from their cookbook, so they steal it. Later the original cooks put a spell on Chuck, and he retaliates with spells of his own. Eventually, they break Chuck's Immortality Spell, also breaking Rose's and frees her from the book. Chuck and Rose go back in time and live out their lives.
The book and spices are stolen from Kelly's backpack. Kelly, Hannah, and Darbie meet a previous protector from the '90s named RJ. With Jake's help, they are able to get the book back. The girls become suspicious of Mr. Morris, Hannah's teacher at Fox Canyon for erasing everyone's memories of magic but it wasn't him, it was Caroline, a former protector of the cookbook, who was also disguised as Jill, Mrs. Quinn's campaign manager. The trio take precautionary measures to stop Caroline from casting spells on them and destroying their spices,despite the consequences Cedronian vanilla could bring them.
Mama P's has been bought by a coffee chain called Springtown Coffee. Kelly, Hannah, and Darbie become suspicious of the manager Erin Chua. They soon notice clues of someone who knows that magic is real, even after all memories of magic have been erased. This, someone, steals their newly harvested Night Blooming spices, and is therefore dubbed the "Night Bandit." The girls meet Darbie's friend, Piper, and they introduce her to magic. The four of them work together to find the Night Bandit. It turns out that Kelly is actually the Night Bandit and she was poisoned by the spell that brought back the garden in the previous season, Come Back Kombucha Tea. In the final episode, the spell on her is broken, but the girls needed to save Grandma Becky after she disappears. They go forward in time and save her, thus also creating a new spice named "Parquinnien" which is a blend of their last names (Hannah Parker-Kent, Kelly Quinn, Darbie O’Brien). The cookbook moves on to Zoe, Erin's daughter and one of the new protectors.
The cookbook has moved on to the new protectors: Zoe (Erin's daughter), Ish (Zoe's neighbor) and Leo (Zoe's stepbrother). With the help of Kelly, Darbie, and Hannah, the new trio are convinced that magic exists and able to go through troubling times together.
In the spinoff series, new protectors Zoe, Ish, and Leo are set to solve their first mystery. Zoe, wanting to learn more about her father who had died when she was two years old, uncovers a book at the library that had been associated with him. The book tells a story from the late 1800s, narrated from the point of view of Ian Maddox, who was then a protector along with brothers Clint and Folsom Wesson. The Wesson brothers grew power-hungry and created a magical sourdough starter that would help them get large quantities of gold, but the downside of the spell was that it caused mass destruction. With Charles Peizer's assistance, Ian Maddox traveled to the future to hide the starter from the Wesson brothers. Zoe, Ish, and Leo find themselves in a race against the Wessons' descendants to find the sourdough starter. Their goal is to find three coins that will help them discover where the starter is and then destroy it once and for all—if the Wessons don't get to it first. Towards the end, with the help of Kelly, Darbie, and Hannah, the trio is successful in saving the world by using the sourdough starter to distribute the magic from the book throughout the globe.
On January 4, 2018, a trailer was released announcing more episodes,[5] which premiered on Amazon on January 19, 2018, as an extension of the second season.[6]
On January 11, 2019, a trailer was released announcing the third season, which premiered on February 1.[7]
The series aired on Universal Kids from June 9, 2019, to November 22, 2019.
On September 20, 2019, an announcement was made that a Just Add Magic special would come out on October 25.[8]
Angela Arsenault of Decider.com positively reviewed the first season of the series, calling it "A More Than Worthy Addition To The Teenage Witch Sub-Genre[.]"[9] Jessica Jernigan also gave the second season a positive review, saying that "[d]arkness and danger is leavened with humor. And the supernatural elements are amplifications of real-life situations and experiences. By the season finale, it’s not just magic that saves the day—it’s also humanity."[10] Giving the first season 4/5 stars, Emily Ashby of Common Sense Media noted that