Warning: This review contains full spoilers for Yaga Season 1, Episodes 1-2. Both episodes are now streaming on AMC+ in the US and Crave in Canada.
For anyone familiar with the Eastern European folktale of Baba Yaga, you might have visions of a wicked old witch in the woods who lives in a hut made out of chicken feet. In reality, Baba Yaga is a complex character who can harness the role of both villain and mentor, depending on the story, and encompasses both good and evil.
Yaga, the new series from Kat Sandler, who wrote a stage play with the same title, is a modern retelling of the folktale of Baba Yaga itself. The first two episodes offer an alternate version of the traditional lore, as Yaga dives head first into seduction and horror, while sprinkling humor throughout amid many twists that make you question what’s real, what’s something else entirely, and what that “something else” even is. (Sounds weird, right? Good.)
The opening of Episode 1 sets the tone for where the show seems to be heading. It begins with narration from Baba Yaga herself, describing in detail how she has been perceived in tales “as wicked as the night and as wise and powerful as the sea” – a creature who eats children’s guts and bones and is too ugly to be desired by anyone. But there’s an underlying warning to her ramble.
” Cut to a man in a forest standing in the middle of a large bonfire, screaming while he’s being burned alive.
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