JUST ADD MAGIC Season 3 Episodes 1-3

The third season of Prime Video’s JUST ADD MAGIC sees Kelly, Darbie, and Hannah dealing with the fallout from the previous season’s events. The girls use their magic to regrow their magic garden, which comes with strings attached. They must also deal with a mysterious thief who made off with some of their magic herbs — and has something more sinister planned.

In Episode 1, Kelly, Darbie, and Hannah are shocked when a young woman suddenly appears in Kelly’s kitchen. She introduces herself as Becky Quinn, Kelly’s grandmother, but from 1975. The girls tell her what life is like in the future, and Becky is dismayed to learn she, Mama P and Gina Silvers are no longer friends. She opts to change the past and thrusts Kelly, Darbie, and Hannah into an alternate timeline.

In this new timeline, Ms. Silvers has taken over the town, keeping everyone under a magic spell to prevent them from standing up to her, while Grandma Quinn mysteriously disappeared in the 1970s. The girls plan to go back to 1975 themselves and stop the younger version of Grandma Quinn from changing the future. Their plan succeeds, and everything returns to normal.

In the next episode, Kelly, Darbie, and Hannah are hard at work harvesting and cataloging the herbs from their magic garden. Things start to get weird when they notice some people in town treat others oddly — no one can stand near a select few. Meanwhile, strange events occur at Mama P’s Cafe. She suddenly sold her restaurant to a corporate chain and went on vacation without telling anyone. After some sleuthing, the girls realize everyone affected drank the same kind of smoothie from a cart in the park. After interrogating the man who makes the smoothies, Kelly, Darbie, and Hannah figure out he had accidentally used magic mint in the smoothies and put a spell on people who drank them.

They make new smoothies for those affected and reverse the curse but soon have more significant problems — magic plants are growing out of control all over town. They pick as much as they can and return it to Kelly’s house but must work another spell to freeze and destroy the fast-growing magical plants.

However, Kelly, Darbie, and Hannah soon have bigger problems—they notice someone is stealing some of the magic herbs they harvested. Elsewhere, Mama P is on vacation and speaking to the mysterious thief, who, it’s revealed, is Erin, the woman who bought Mama P’s Cafe. She restored Mama P’s memories of magic in exchange for her help in obtaining morbium, a powerful magical ingredient.

In Episode 3, Erin casts a spell that she hopes will help her find some morbium. The spell causes an earthquake, which reveals Charles “Chuck” Peizer’s secret cellar. The town’s historical society plans to catalog its contents, but Kelly, Darbie, and Hannah want to go in first and ensure nothing magical is inside.

The girls cast a spell that helps them break codes, but it backfires when they ruin a friend’s escape room party. They finally break the code of Chuck’s cellar — a secret passage leads to what was once his magical herb collection. The herbs are gone, but a mysterious pocket watch remains. Despite its age, it’s still ticking, containing some powerful magic.

The first three episodes of JUST ADD MAGIC have good production value. They are well-made, with interesting storylines that keep each episode’s plot moving forward. The three lead actresses, Olivia Sanabia, Abby Donnelly, and Aubrey Miller, give good performances.

Overall, JUST ADD MAGIC stresses the importance of friendship and community. Kelly, Darbie, and Hannah work together, encourage each other, and focus on helping others who might have been negatively affected by anything magical. No objectionable language or explicit content exists, but JUST ADD MAGIC centers on problematic fantasy/occult magic, including a spell book, magic spells and curses, and magic herbs. MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for older children.