The series stars Joy Bryant, Noah Cottrell, Lyon Daniels, Mychala Lee, Jack Dylan Grazer and Christian Slater, and follows the Grace family, who move into their ancestral home and unravel a dark mystery about their great-uncle, who discovered the parallel and secret world of fairies.

The only one to believe him is his great-aunt Lucinda who implores Jared to find the pages of her father's field guide to magical creatures and protect them from the murderous Ogre, Mulgarath.

[13] For the television adaptation, Coilete, DiTerlizzi and Black gave the antagonistic Mulgarath a greater role in the story by having him manipulate the Grace family in the guise of Jared's therapist.

Regarding the novels' original plot of the protagonists guarding Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide from Mulgarath as tiresome, the producers came up with the idea of Jared, Simon and their friends embarking on a quest to recover the missing pages of the book across the first season's eight episodes.

[3] It was previously set to release on Disney+ consisting of six episodes,[14] however in August 2023, Deadline reported that the series was no longer moving forward at Disney+ due to cost-cutting reasons, despite having been already completed, and would be shopped to other networks.

She praised the showrunners' decision to do away with the episodic format of the source material in favour of serialized storytelling, which made it easier for viewers unfamiliar with the original novels.

Siede observed the lack of fantasy adventure elements such as fairies and goblins, which she attributed to budgetary restrictions rather than artistic choice.

[22] Aramide Tinubu of Variety gave a predominantly critical review, stating that it "lacks the excitement and adventure" of the source material.

While she praised the TV series adaptation for highlighting teenage issues such as dark thoughts, ostracization and perfectionism, she criticized its stalled story spacing, humdrum tone and the "unimaginative and lackluster" fantasy elements.

[23] Emma Stefansky of IGN gave a critical review, stating that "this updated version of the beloved book series only captures traces of the magic."