Domino (Siena Kelly) is on an awful first date — one of many bad first dates, in fact. After swiping right on her next conquest on a dating app, her date for the evening is a braggadocious, tech-bro type who orders her a drink without asking what she wants. They go back to his place. What could have been a casual one-night stand becomes something sinister and criminal. His hands end up in her head of curls and he refers to her “caramel skin” in a way that makes your skin crawl. He gets rough. But Domino is a witch. And this date ends with her sucking his soul.
BBC Three’s brand new series Domino Day is a British supernatural thriller that tackles the dark side of modern dating, through witchcraft, ancestral magic and a young woman’s all-consuming need for connection. Created and written by Lauren Sequeira and directed by Eva Sigurdardottir and Nadira Amrani, Domino Day has been compared to Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Vampire Diaries for its sexy supernatural themes (I mean… it stars Percelle Ascott, respectfully) and Michaela Coel’s acclaimed I May Destroy You for its comment on sexual assault and consent. But Domino Day isn’t necessarily comparable to anything else in its genre. For one, it’s very Black. A Black star. A coven of Black witches. Black ancestral magic. A Black woman writer. It all results in a fast-paced supernatural drama where ‘Black Girl Magic’ isn’t just a well-known phrase, it’s very real. And just like in real life, everyone in Domino’s world is either afraid of it or wants it for themselves.
“The character of Domino I just found so interesting and so compelling,” explains Siena Kelly to Unbothered. The BAFTA-nominated actor is from South London, and cut her teeth in TV and film with standout performances in the British series Hit & Run and Adult Material. For Kelly, her role in Domino Day was an entire change of pace; both physically demanding and emotionally high stakes with no off button.
“It’s the fact that [Domino] was so dangerous and violent, and powerful, but also so vulnerable and confused and insecure and lost,” the actor continues. “I just really felt for her, I empathise with her and that feeling of just being just feeling totally out of control and like trying to take control of yourself, but just not knowing how as an actor, I was just so interested in her and her path and that conflict, so that’s what drew me to it.”
“Most of my spiritual friends are Black women and Black gender non-conforming people who practice the oldest types of witchcraft… It was nice to like be in a show where it was Black women [practising magic].”
Siena kelly
Throughout the series, we witness Domino’s need to feed on the energy of others intensify, raising alarm bells in the undercover witching world. It becomes a literal power struggle between the witches who wish to save Domino from herself and those who want to use her power for their gain (or stamp it out entirely). Domino finds herself trapped between her want for normality, love and romance and learning to control her unyielding powers (a common trope of supernatural dramas). It leads to a seriously attractive love triangle between her dubious ex-boyfriend and fellow witch, Silus (Sam Howard-Sneyd) and sensitive bartender, Leon (Percelle Ascott), who she fears she will consume too. Instead, she uses dating apps to hunt unsuspecting men and leaves destruction in her wake as she lures them to club bathrooms to inhale the energy she needs.
As supernatural characters go, Domino is complex and doesn’t sit comfortably on either side of good or evil. Siena Kelly would not go as far as to call Domino a “villain”, despite her character’s decisions conjuring up very real and necessary conversations about consent. “Well, [what makes] a villain? Because we’re all humans,” says Kelly. “If you look at everyone you can see why they’ve made those decisions and where their trauma comes from. And your job as an actor is to empathise with everyone. And that means everyone. And it doesn’t always fit the mould and it doesn’t always fit what you want life to be. Life is complicated, and really messy and scary and lonely.”
And Domino is messy, vulnerable, scared, and powerful in a way Black women aren’t always given space to be off-screen or otherwise. In the best possible way, I could tell a woman wrote this script and was at the helm of this series.
“I have been incredibly lucky. The year I started in the acting industry was 2017, which was the year of the Me Too movement. So I entered the industry when there were very significant changes being made,” shares Kelly. “For example, I have never had to do an intimacy scene without an intimacy coordinator, ever. And I know that, for a lot of people, is not their experience. It also meant that I have worked with lots of female directors, and lots of female writers… And I’ve led things in theatre and TV, where it’s a female lead and it’s a female-heavy cast. So [Domino Day], luckily, isn’t out of the ordinary for me at all. And I’m so appreciative of that. And I’m so grateful and thankful for all of the people, all of the women who didn’t have a lot of shit and stood up and raised their voice and caused a commotion and probably got labelled difficult and fought for that.”
In Domino Day, it’s a racially diverse coven of witches (Alisha Bailey, babirye bukilwa, Molly Harris, Poppy Lee Friar) who work to help Domino control her powers and understand who she is. Alisha Bailey plays Kat, the leader of the said coven, forced to abandon African and Caribbean ancestral magic and rituals to take up the coveted position. However, Kat practices her magic in secret, regularly summoning her ancestors for advice. It’s a fitting tribute to a so-called “witchcraft generation” and an increasing number of young Black and brown people said to be attempting to reclaim ancestral magic and decolonise their spiritual practices.
“Most of my spiritual friends are Black women and Black gender non-conforming people who practice the oldest types of witchcraft,” says Kelly, who admits that while she never really watched supernatural TV shows before, believes in magic in real life. In fact, the actor’s circle is full of tarot card readers, witches, friends who “meditate with the moon and recharge their crystals” and her partner has “an alter”. “It was nice to like be in a show where it was Black women [practising magic] because I also know with our history of colonisation, with Christianity being made to be the main kind of religion, our original ancestry, which is witchcraft, was demonised within the Black community.”
“Witchcraft is a very divisive thing. And like, I’ve even got very Christian Black friends who do tarot cards secretly,” she adds. “It’s nice being in a show where it’s Black people doing it. It’s significant because of our history of colonisation and that it was taken from us.”
There have been various portrayals of young Black witches, voodoo, ancestral spirituality and more in Hollywood (Rochelle Zimmerman in The Craft, 1996 to The Covington Witches, 2019) — they are always messing with the occult for new material. Yet Domino Day feels modern, fun and, well, distinctly British.
Having grown up on a heavy dose of sexy fantasy horror full of hot, tortured otherwordly beings (and currently re-watching Vampire Diaries as a 30-something), Domino Day quenched a thirst for a new series about modern witches — especially with a Black woman front and centre. It’s set in Manchester UK, where I live, and was filmed on the streets and in the bars where I frequent and have had many a good and bad first date — so I know full well the kind of magic that can occur in this city. The series is frenetic, wild, horrible, sexy, silly and, well, great binge-able viewing. It’s also another great example of what happens when women — especially Black women — take control of the story in front of and behind the camera. A whole lotta of magic.
Domino Day is available to watch on BBC iPlayer
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