"An impressive Kiwi TV adaptation of beloved Pony Club Secrets books"
James Croot reviews Mystic on Stuff.co.nz, 26 August 2020:
“an entertaining and engrossing watch”
There was a time when New Zealand ruled the world when it came to “kidult” television. Along with Canada and its myriad Lucy Maude Montgomery adaptations and the addictive juggernaut that was The Littlest Hobo, we developed a reputation for making televisual stories children around the world wanted to see. The animated work of Muckpuddy and Pukeko Pictures aside, we haven’t done that for some time.
Enter Mystic (airing on weekdays on TVNZ2 at 3.35pm from Wednesday, August 26 with each episode available on TVNZ OnDemand that evening), an adaptation of New Zealand author Stacy Gregg’s beloved noughties Pony Club Secrets series. A collaboration between TVNZ, the CBBC and Australia’s Seven Network, it was filmed in Auckland this past summer (completing eight of the proposed 13 episodes before lockdown).
It’s the story of British girl Issie Brown (Holby City’s Macey Chipping) who hasn’t exactly warmed to the charms of her new home in Kauri Point. “I’m not staying in this hellhole, there’s nothing to do here,” she opines as, bag packed and passport in hand, she makes a bid to escape back to the UK, determined to spend the anniversary of her father’s death at the spot they always loved going to together. However, with no buses on a Sunday, Issie doesn’t get far.
While cursing her life (and her mother) at being stuck in such a one-horse town, she notices a roaming, unattended white equine, before accepting a lift back home from fellow teen Natasha (Antonia Robinson) and her father, who also invite her to visit their local stables.
Showing up the next day, Issie recounts her sighting to Natasha and her friends, before they spot another horse “that isn’t from around here”. “Horses are strong currency in these parts,” stable hand Tom (Kirk Torrance) says, sure that it must belong to someone.
Keen to investigate further, this new gang of six, including twins Caleb (Joshua Tan) and Caroline (Jacqueline Joe), hearing impaired Stella (Harriet Walton) and the dishy Dan (Max Crean), head towards the old battery chicken farm. While jokingly warned that they might encounter a zombie chicken, Issie and her newfound quintet instead spy the horse being roughly shoved into a transport. However, while she is keen to intervene, Natasha is more reticent. “You’ve been here five minutes and you’re already taking over,” she steams as she departs, leaving Issie to continue her investigation alone.
But when a mistimed cellphone video play alerts the potential ne’er do well to her presence, Issie decides to use his distractedness to make her move and free the horse. Although noticing that it is clearly injured, she isn’t prepared for what she sees next.
Despite its fantastical elements, it’s Mystic’s groundedness that makes it an entertaining and engrossing watch. Series creators Amy Shindler and Beth Chalmers (Threesome, Horrible Histories) have done a great job of creating a cadre of complex, likeable characters and giving them believable dialogue to spout.
They also get the tone right. What could have come across as overly preachy or po-faced, is instead a much more relaxed delight. Think of it as like a teen/tween version of 800 Words or Mercy Peak, a drama where a water bottling plant up to the no good shares screen time with a pig “doing something unspeakable in a gumboot”.
from stuff.co.nz