Just Add Magic (TV series)

Just Add Magic
Genre	Kids & Family Fantasy
Based on	Just Add Magic by Cindy Callaghan
Developed by	Joanna Lewis Kristine Songco
Starring	Olivia Sanabia Abby Donnelly Aubrey Miller Judah Bellamy Catia Ojeda Andrew Burlinson Dee Wallace Amy Hill
Composers	Deborah Lurie Zack Ryan
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	26
Production
Executive producers	Joe Nussbaum Andrew Orenstein Co-executive producers: Luisa Leschin Joanna Lewis Kristine Songco
Producer	Pixie Wespiser
Cinematography	Mark Doering-Powell
Running time	23–27 minutes
Production companies	Amazon Studios Pictures in a Row Grasshopper Lane Entertainment
Original release
Network	Amazon Video
Release	January 15, 2015 (2015-01-15) – present

Just Add Magic is an American live-action family television series, loosely based on the book of the same name by Cindy Callaghan. It was produced by Amazon Studios. A pilot was produced in 2015 and the series commissioned for a full season the following year. Amazon renewed the series for a second season in June 2016 after it "set a record as the most successful Amazon Original Kids premiere weekend in terms of U.S. Prime Video streams and hours."

Premise

Amateur preteen chefs Kelly, Darbie, and Hannah, discover an ancient recipe book while searching for Kelly's brother in the attic. The recipes they find inside have strange names like "Shut'em Up Shortcake" and "Healing Hazelnut Tart" and require unusual ingredients, such as "Cedronian vanilla" and "Taurian thyme". When Kelly's brother eats a bite of the shortcake and can no longer talk, the three friends realize they are dealing with magic spells. After Darbie cannot stop talking, they also realize the spells come with a consequence.

Kelly, Darbie, and Hannah investigate how the magical recipes work and face the temptations of using magic to help overcome the everyday challenges of being middle school girls. But Kelly has one overriding goal: Find the magical recipe that will fix her grandmother's mysterious illness, even if it means crossing creepy Mamma P or scary Ms. Silvers.

Cast and characters

• Olivia Sanabia as Kelly Quinn
• Abby Donnelly as Darbie O'Brien
• Aubrey Miller as Hannah Parker-Kent
• Judah Bellamy as Jake Williams
• Catia Ojeda as Terri Quinn
• Andrew Burlinson as Scott Quinn
• Dee Wallace as Grandma Becky Quinn
• Amy Hill as Ida "Mama P" Perez
• Ellen Karsten as Ms. Gina Silvers

Guest starring

• Mira Furlan as The Traveler
• Zach Callison as Chuck Hankins

Series overview

Season	Episodes		Originally released
			First released	Last released
1	13		January 15, 2015 (2015-01-15)	January 14, 2016 (2016-01-14)
2	13		October 14, 2016 (2016-10-14)	January 12, 2017 (2017-01-12)

Episodes

Season 1 (2015–16)

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date
1	1	"Pilot"	Joe Nussbaum	Nancy Cohen, Joanna Lewis & Kristine Songco	January 15, 2015 (2015-01-15)
Three friends, Kelly, Darbie, and Hannah discover a cookbook in the attic, whose recipes have magical effects. Kelly's grandmother is seemingly confused; she rarely speaks or does anything active, but no one seems to know why.
2	2	"Just Add Brains"	Joe Menendez	Andrew Orenstein	January 14, 2016 (2016-01-14)
The girls make Brain Boosting Bolognese to help with school and to understand the cookbook. But being know-it-alls has an unfortunate downside. The girls learn that the cookbook is seemingly infinite: trying to read through it they never seem to get any nearer to the last page. Also, three pages are torn out and missing, and the cookbook sometimes flips to a page on its own when the girls express their wish to accomplish a specific purpose. The girls learn that Kelly's grandmother, Mama P, and Ms. Silvers were once young friends just like Kelly, Hannah, and Darbie, and that a strange woman named The Traveler gave them the cookbook.
3	3	"Just Add Dogs"	Joe Nussbaum	Unknown	January 14, 2016 (2016-01-14)
To find a lost dog, the three friends cook up Lost and Found-ue, but end up attracting everything that has been lost in the neighborhood. The three missing pages from the cookbook float into Kelly's bedroom. One of the items they return is a silver charm bracelet to Ms. Silvers, who says that it has been missing for many years. Later, she opens one of the charms and plants a seed from within it.
4	4	"Just Add Mom"	Unknown	John-Paul Nickel	January 14, 2016 (2016-01-14)
Wanting more information from Mama P, the girls make Bitter Truth Truffle. However, Kelly's mom eats one first. Kelly goes out with her mom to keep her from causing problems with her truth-telling. Hannah and Darbie both eat a truffle and find that telling the truth to each other isn't so bad, although they agree that without Kelly, they probably wouldn't be friends. Jake comes over, and unable to lie, they tell him all about the book and magic. They make him promise not to tell anyone. They get Mama P to eat a truffle, but before they can ask her anything, she eats a second one, which ends the spell's effect on her. Mama P cooks a spell and tries to leave town, but a mysterious wind prevents her from crossing the town border.
5	5	"Just Add Jake"	Joe Menendez	Lauren Thompson	January 14, 2016 (2016-01-14)
Not believing in magic, Jake mentions the cookbook to Mama P, and she steals it. But when she tries to look through it, all the pages go blank. The girls try to convince Jake that magic is real by trying out three random magical recipes on him, so that he'll help them get the cookbook back.
6	6	"Just Add Birthdays"	Elodie Keene	Sarah Carbiener & Erica Rosbe	January 14, 2016 (2016-01-14)
Kelly and Hannah make a cake for Darbie when they forget her birthday. They also make cookies with carob chips Mama P gave them several episodes earlier. Those who eat the cookies start acting much younger than normal.
7	7	"Just Add Mama P"	Elodie Keene	Andrew Orenstein	January 14, 2016 (2016-01-14)
Convinced Mama P knows more than she's letting on, the girls whip up some Mind Peering Peppermints. They hear nothing suspicious in her thoughts, which leads them to trust her. They try to read Ms. Silvers's mind, and she immediately turns to them and tells them not to try it.
8	8	"Just Add Besties"	Joe Nussbaum	Luisa Leschin	January 14, 2016 (2016-01-14)
Mama P mentors Kelly's magic cooking skills, while Darbie and Hannah try to get a reclusive author's autograph by cooking a spell that makes her their BFF. Mama P makes Kelly organize all the ingredients in her secret room, and then curses her and challenges her to overcome it without resorting to the cookbook. After a false start in which she invents a new spell, she does overcome the curse. The BFF spell works too well, and Darbie and Hannah's attempt to end the spell fails. When they describe what they did, Kelly intuitively knows how to end the spell, and does. Mama P tells Ms. Silvers that Kelly has "the gift" just like her grandmother did, and Ms. Silvers warns Mama P not to make her curse Kelly the way she cursed Mama P.
9	9	"Just Add Do-Overs"	Keith Samples	John-Paul Nickel	January 14, 2016 (2016-01-14)
The girls learn that long ago The Traveler gave Mama P, Ms. Silvers, and grandma each a morbium root seed; morbium makes any recipe a thousand times more powerful. Mama P says hers is long gone, but the girls realize that Ms. Silvers's was in the charm bracelet they returned to her. Hannah takes a piano lesson from Ms. Silvers to try to recover the seed, but things go wrong: Kelly's brother breaks a lamp while under Kelly's care, Darbie's school project goes wrong, and Ms. Silvers catches Hannah and kicks her out. So the three girls cook up a "do-over" spell that resets time so they can try again. On the third try Darbie's school project is a great success, Kelly realizes that her brother is acting out because he wants to spend time with her, and Hannah finds that Ms. Silvers's charm bracelet is empty, but also finds a scrapbook filled with newspaper clippings about bad things that have happened around town. Mama P tells the girls that it is a listing of the curses Ms. Silvers has enacted.
10	10	"Just Add Memories"	Vanessa Parise	Lauren Thompson	January 14, 2016 (2016-01-14)
Grandma, Mama P, and Ms. Silvers all have photos of Chuck Hankins, a boy from when they were young. The girls find that he went missing a long time ago. Kelly cooks a Pho-get Me Not spell to examine her memories of the day her grandmother got sick, hoping to find some clue as to what caused it, but eating the Pho-get Me Not makes her lose time and memories. She sees that her grandmother wanted to talk to her that day, but that she was too busy to talk to her grandmother. She sees that when her grandmother was driving her to a basketball tryout, Ms. Silvers walked up holding a box of ingredients that the girls later found in the attic. Willie Thompson, a man the girls helped previously, tells Hannah that Chuck disappeared from a Ferris Wheel, and that Chuck was dating Ms. Silvers, but that he went out with Grandma. The girls trade notes, and learn that on her last good day, Kelly's grandmother went to the Cedros Forest.
11	11	"Just Add Camping"	Keith Samples	Sarah Carbiener & Erica Rosbe	January 14, 2016 (2016-01-14)
Suspecting a clue to Kelly's grandmother's malady hides deep in the forest, the girls set up a Father/Daughter camping trip. While there they face their fears, and then meet The Traveler, who tells them that magic can heal Kelly's grandmother if they are willing to pay the price. Later, the book flips open to a recipe that can break any curse, but the negative consequences will make things much worse.
12	12	"Just Add Pluots Part 1"	Joe Nussbaum	Luisa Leschin	January 14, 2016 (2016-01-14)
The girls consult with Mama P about the recipe that will break the curse. At first she says it's too dangerous, but then she suggests that making more and having many people eat the results will dilute the negative consequences over all of them. Hannah gets Kelly grounded by her parents, worried that the magical price will be too high. Kelly escapes grounding by cooking a spell to make Darbie look like her. Hannah and Kelly argue at Mama P's, and Hannah realizes that all the things in the scrapbook would benefit Mama P, not Ms. Silvers. She meets Ms. Silvers and they discuss Mama P's plans. Ms. Silvers reveals that she too is cursed: outside her house, no one can hear her play music. Darbie tries to stop Mama P, but Mama P locks Darbie in her secret ingredient room and eats the first bite of the magic recipe, so her curse will be broken, rather than Kelly's grandmother's. Kelly goes home and gets yelled at by her mother, but manages to give her grandmother what she thinks is the first bite.
13	13	"Just Add Pluots Part 2"	Joe Nussbaum	Andrew Orenstein	January 14, 2016 (2016-01-14)
In 1965, Rebecca Quinn (Kelly's grandmother) is on the Ferris Wheel with Chuck. He takes a bite of a candy apple, and disappears. The three girls argue. Gina Silvers says the spell was just supposed to keep Chuck away from magic. Ida Perez (Mama P) asks if Rebecca got the Morbium seed back, saying that Chuck stole it. Rebecca promises Gina that they'll get Chuck back. In the present, Kelly's dad lets Kelly go to the Pluot Festival because they are sending his mother away to New York for treatment and he wants the family to be together. Ms. Silvers shows up at the Pluot festival, but won't get involved and advises Hannah to abandon her friends and run away to avoid the consequences. Jake and Hannah free Darbie, and mix a magic protection protein shake. At the Pluot Festival, Kelly refuses to drink the shake and pours it out. She gives her grandmother what she thinks is the last bite of the recipe, but it does nothing. Mama P goes on stage and tells off the town. Jake gives Kelly his shake, so she can be protected. Mama P eats the actual last bite, and the entire town freezes in place except for the girls and Mama P – and Ms. Silvers. The two old women bicker about who is to blame. Mama P and Ms. Silvers tell the girls that Kelly's grandmother isn't innocent either – that after they cursed each other, she threw the book over a waterfall to get rid of it, in effect making their curses permanent. Mama P steals Jake's bike to ride out of town, and Ms. Silvers leaves. The girls consult the book, which opens itself to a blank page, which the girls take to mean they need to create their own spell to break the curse. They go to Mama P's ingredient room and realize that they need the properties of three different ingredient families, but mixing them would modify those properties, so they make a layer cake, with each layer producing its own effect. As they bake, the recipe magically appears in the book, in their handwriting. They name it Last Ditch Layer Cake. As the girls are about to serve the cake, Ms. Silvers shows up with ground Morbium root and tells the girls she was going to use it to break her own curse, but they need it to strengthen the spell. They express confidence in their work and say they don't need it. They eat the cake, and the town starts up. In addition, Grandma is back to normal and Ms. Silvers plays piano on stage and everyone can hear her. Grandma tells them that she didn't want Kelly and the girls to be endangered by the book, but The Traveler said that the cookbook was no longer hers to give back, because it belonged to the girls. She tried to get rid of the book, tearing out the three pages, but the spell she cast backfired, and in effect she cursed herself. Grandma and Ms. Silvers realize that if their curses are broken, Chuck's might be as well, and if he's back, no one is safe. The Ferris Wheel stops, and a young man in a leather jacket with rolled up jeans steps off and walks away through the crowd, unnoticed.

Season 2 (2016–17)

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date
14	1	"Just Add Halloween"	Joe Nussbaum	Andrew Orenstein	October 14, 2016 (2016-10-14)
15	2	"Just Add Summer"	Joe Nussbaum	Luisa Leschin	January 12, 2017 (2017-01-12)
The Miso Soup spell has no effect, so instead Kelly cooks a "Settle The Beef" spell in an effort to get Chuck to get to them so he can settle his beef with Grandma. However, the spell warns that if the beef is not settled, a bigger problem will arise. Kelly gives the spell to Grandma but after she asks Kelly not to do magic, Kelly does not tell her that the sandwich containing the Settle the Beef was magical. Immediately after eating the sandwich, their neighbor Willie comes over and expresses his anger at Grandma for not inviting her to her wedding. They settle their disagreement. At home, Kelly's mom expresses her anger about Grandma getting the "first ice cream" with Kelly, Darbie asks Grandma not to cheer so much at her basketball games, and Buddy is angry Grandma washed his lucky jersey and claims that is why they lost their most recent game. Later, Grandma is visited by Ms. Silvers who claims she will never forgive Grandma for how she used her Morbium, the magical seed the traveler gave each of them. Then Mama P comes all the way back from her job in Paris and expresses her anger at Grandma as well. She says the only one she regrets her behavior towards is Jake. Kelly realizes the bigger problem in question is the three of them, who just can't seem to be happy. There is a knock on the door, and it opens to reveal Chuck.
16	3	"Just Add Chuck"	Joe Nussbaum	John-Paul Nickel	January 12, 2017 (2017-01-12)
Chuck seems not to remember anything, although the OC's (Original Cooks) refuse to believe anything he says. While they confer, Chuck runs away. Kelly, Darbie, and Hannah cook a trust spell to get Chuck to trust them, but the riddle warns to be sure their "friend needs it more." They help Chuck adjust to modern life, but Kelly loses all of her trust and is suspicious of everything, including Darbie's father's new friend Amy, and Hannah herself. Without her trust she confronts Grandma about how Ms. Silvers claimed she misused her Morbium. The girls manage to restore Kelly's trust, but in doing so bring back some of Chuck's memories. They explain to Grandma that Kelly was under a spell. Grandma claims Chuck stole her Morbium, but the girls realized she was lying.
17	4	"Just Add 1965"	Keith Samples	Lauren Thompson	January 12, 2017 (2017-01-12)
Darbie suspects her parents may be getting back together. The girls use a "What If These Walls Could Talk" spell to watch what happened the day the OC's prepared the Can't Recall Caramel and try to figure out why Chuck disappeared. However, everything appears to be normal. The OCs make plans to meet up at a restaurant after the Pluot festival. The girls go there and see them confer about Chuck disappearing. They begin to argue, but bring up nothing suspicious. Later, Darbie uses the spell to see if her parents are truly getting back together but she discovers that they think she's "getting the wrong idea" and that her father is dating Amy, the woman at the park. Darbie is furious and upset. Meanwhile, Chuck saves Buddy from a car, earning Kelly's parents gratitude.
18	5	"Just Add Saphron"	Keith Samples	Aminta Goyel	January 12, 2017 (2017-01-12)
19	6	"Just Add Fixings"	Joe Nussbaum	Marque Franklin-Williams	January 12, 2017 (2017-01-12)
20	7	"Just Add 8529"	Gregory Guzik	Zachary Panozzo	January 12, 2017 (2017-01-12)
21	8	"Just Add Muscles"	Aprill Winney	Taylor Cox & Jacquie Walters	January 12, 2017 (2017-01-12)
22	9	"Just Add Fire"	Aprill Winney	Matt Goldman	January 12, 2017 (2017-01-12)
23	10	"Just Add Meddling"	Lily Mariye	John-Paul Nickel	January 12, 2017 (2017-01-12)
24	11	"Just Add Secrets"	Joe Nussbaum	Luisa Leschin	January 12, 2017 (2017-01-12)
25	12	"Just Add History"	Joe Nussbaum	Lauren Thompson	January 12, 2017 (2017-01-12)
26	13	"Just Add Rose"	Joe Nussbaum	Andrew Orenstein	January 12, 2017 (2017-01-12)

External links

• Just Add Magic at IMDb
• Just Add Magic on Amazon Video