If You’re A Harry Potter Fan, You Absolutely Need To Watch The 10th Kingdom Miniseries

Sometimes, life is just hard. And in today’s political landscape, it can feel downright impossible. Which is why it’s nice to be able to escape from it all, even for just a few hours, and immerse ourselves into a fictional world — a place where happy endings aren’t just possible, but probable. For many, this undoubtedly calls to mind the wonderful world of Harry Potter with its talking portraits, flying cars, invisibility cloaks, and butterbeer. However, it isn’t the only fantasy franchise out there worthy of your time. Before The Boy Who Lived ever became a huge box office success, there was a lesser-known NBC miniseries called The 10th Kingdom that I would argue proved to be just as magically entertaining.

The series debuted in 2000 and follows the story of Virginia Lewis (Kimberly Williams-Paisley), a young woman who finds herself transported to a magical parallel world, where beloved fairy tales are real and in desperate need of rescuing from the Evil Queen’s wrath. To use my best Stefon voice: This project has everything — magic mirrors, trolls, a handsome half-wolf, enchanted hair, attempted monarch genocide, and more fairytale storylines than you can count. When it comes to magic-related adventures, it doesn’t get much better than this.

So, if Harry Potter left you spellbound, it’s high time you considered checking out this underrated fantasy gem.

It has some serious star power

Everywhere you turn in this series, you’ll spot a familiar face. Williams-Paisley serves as the central character, Virginia, whom many of you will recognize as Annie Banks from Father of the Bride. But she’s just the tip of the proverbial Hollywood iceberg.

Scott Cohen (aka Max Medina from Gilmore Girls) plays the charmingly handsome Wolf; Dianne Wiest serves as the Evil Queen; Modern Family’s Ed O’Neill is Relish the Troll King; John Larroquette is Virginia’s dad, Tony; Lucy Punch shines as a fairytale mean girl, Sally Peep; Camryn Manheim plays Snow White; and Ann-Margret portrays Cinderella. It’s seriously a who’s who of entertainment greats, which makes the whole thing all the more enjoyable to watch.

It includes an epic love story

If you enjoy a good slow-burn and will-they-won’t-they romantic subplot, you won’t be disappointed with what Wolf and Virginia have to offer. The chemistry between Williams-Paisley and Cohen is palpable and includes a great blend of yearning and lightheartedness. You won’t be able to stop yourself from rooting for them, even despite Wolf’s… uh… complicated appetite. I’m just going to say it — Harry and Ginny have nothing on these two. (Sorry, not sorry.)

There’s a surprise twist

I’m obviously not going to divulge what it is for those who have yet to see the series firsthand, but every good adventure story needs a game-changing twist to shake up the characters and this one delivers a doozy. Seriously, it will shock you to your core and make you question everything you thought you knew about each character. Are you intrigued yet? I hope so! Am I potentially hyping this whole thing up a little too much? Nope.

This series may not have a huge cult following like Hocus Pocus or Beetlejuice, but trust me when I say that it is deserving of both your time and attention. Not to mention, it’ll remind you why you loved fairy tales so much in the first place.