Who's Afraid of the Dark?

Who's Afraid Of The Dark? is an American teen drama television series. The series premiered on The CW on 04 September 2012.

The series revolves around several students at a fictional Beverly Hills High School, who solve mysteries involving supposedly supernatural creatures through a series of antics and missteps. Eight students are focused on, Louis Winters, Amy Turner, Jack Hunter, Mandy Colsen, Eva Tindale, Gemma Taylor, Thomas Topcan and Martin Buries as strange events occur in their school and neighbourhood. The group begin to recieve press attention later in the series due to their success at capturing the villains.

In August 2016, it was confirmed that the series will be ending with Season 5 in 2017.

Development
A detailed breakdown of the pilot written, and released in February 2012, containing information on the plot and characters which would be in the series.

Casting
Casting for the show began in late 2011, with unknown actors being the producer's chosen choice, so that the show would appear more believable. Four lead females and four lead males were wanted, as well as reccuring and supporting cast. Aaron Smith was the first member cast, with producers claiming his character "was the eighth main charcater, out of the eight - and an easy choice." Amelia Clark was cast next, being slightly well known for her modelling and acting in four of Chase Elite's music videos. Emma Beers and Rachel Goal were cast not long after, followed by Kristian Snakes. With five of the eight main characters cast, producers felt none of the other applicants suited the remaining four roles, and thus they approached people instead. About 12 people were asked to audition for each character, leading to Robert Meiji being instantly cast. Next cast was singer and model Chase Elite. Despite being a household name in the UK, producers believed this would be a selling point, as he was relatively unknown in the US. Chase's past on-screen chemistry on his music videos with actress Amelia Clark had gained him his audition, eventually giving him the lead role. However for the final role, the twelve people that auditioned for the final role were unsuccesful, and it wasn't until auditions went to Texas that Charlee Wilson was discovered, two months later.

Season One: 2012–2013
Season One aired in the United States beginning September 04, 2012, and is due to end in May 2013. The episodes air on Tuesdays at 9:00 pm, with 24 episodes in the first season.

After her mother's death in a suspicious fire that burns down their house, Mandy Colsen moves to a new area with her father and boyfriend Jack Hunter. Mandy and Jack attend the new High School, where they meet several students. However on their first day, another fire takes place that kills Mandy's new teacher. Jack confides in his new friend Louis Winter about the reason he and Mandy moved to the new area, and Louis reveals that they might want to move back, as suscpicious things often occur in the new area. Another student, Eva Tindale tells Mandy that her mother also died in a fire exactly a year ago that day, and she moved into the area with her father too. However her father had later went missing on a fishing trip. The girls get the feeling that history is about to repeat itself and hurry home with Jack, Louis and Louis' girlfriend Amy Turner to find a note from Mandy's father saying he's "off fishing". The group decide that some evil force in their village drags families here to destroy them. The group rush to the local lake to find Mandy's father, however they are only able to locate his boot. That night, Louis' father tells him that the village isn't all it appears to be, and for centuries people have gone missing and reported strange sightings. The group, along with other students Thomas Topcan, Eva Tindale and Gemma Taylor decide to form a team, ready to fight this demon-power. Along the way, the group manage to save innocent people, fight creatures and ghosts, and collect clues to Mandy's father's whereabouts. Mandy and Jack begin to mysteriously develop psychic abilities and visions as they travel. Along this journey, the teenagers also have to struggle to adjust to their new lives as undercover hunters, as well as balancing romance, friendships and identities. A new boy, Martin Buries joins the student's class, and reveals his mother was killed in a fire earlier that day. The group inform Martin his father is in danger, and they arrive at Martin's new home just as his father drives away for a fishing trip. The group manage to get to the lake before the creature gets him, however when they fight it head on, they are only able to weaken it, as it splits it's soul into eight different creatures named "the shifters" and they dissapear off into the wild. Martin then joins the group. Mandy starts to have nightmares, telling her that one of the six shifters has discovered her and Jack's psychic powers, and plan to kill them in order to stop their powers helping the group. In the season finale, the fifth shifter comes for Mandy, who manages (with the help of Louis and Amy) to destory it. However the eighth shifter comes for Jack, and just before the monster kills him, he manages to escape into his car and drive away. However just when it appears he is safe, the shifter appears in the backseat behind him. The season ends showing only the car driving from a distance, as Jack's screams are heard, and the car suddenly crashes into a tree.

Season Two: 2013–2014
Season Two began with the funeral of Jack, shocking the public who assumed he would have survived the crash. The series finale saw Eva Tindale become consumed by a fallen angel, and murder her lover Martin, before setting off to find the rest of the team to kill them too, setting the plot for the next season.

Season Three: 2014–2015
Season Three saw newcomer Ryan Curtain join the group, as they battle the demon inside of Eva. Halfway through the season they discover the only way to stop the demon is too kill both it and Eva in the process. They successfully stop the demon halfway through the series, with Eva regaining consciousness briefly before passing away. The rest of the season sees the group attempt to stop the demons brothers and sisters from entering Earth.

Season Four: 2015-2016
Season four saw no cast changes. The group finally destroy the demon brothers and sisters and believe they have finally brought peace to the world, unaware the demons had bred and given birth before their death.

Season Five: 2016-2017
Season Five began to air in September 2016. The week before the series began, The CW confirmed that season 5 would be the final ever season of the show. Newcomer Jay Jones joined the cast for the final season, as the group attempt to find the lord of all demons, in the hopes of destroying every demon once and for all.

Broadcast
Who's Afraid of the Dark? first airs in the United States on The CW, Tuesdays at 8:00 pm.

In the UK, the series airs on E4, after beating off competition from Channel 5, ITV2 and Living for the rights to broadcast the show. In Australia it aired on Network Ten. The show airs in the Republic of Ireland on RTE Two, initially the show aired in a prime-time slot of Fridays before moving to Tuesdays. By the second season the show was moved to early mornings airing after midnight.

Ratings
Seasonal rankings (based on average total viewers per episode) of Who's Afraid of the Dark? on The CW.

The series premiere was seen by 4.65 million U.S. viewers. The UK premiere was seen by 768,000 viewers on E4.

Critical response
The show has yet to premiere, so no reviews have taken place. However through cast photoshoots and interviews, it has been noted they all seem to gel well together.