I was a huge fan of Sabrina The Teenage Witch, which aired in the 90s and early 2000s and was a highlight of my childhood. I also read a lot of Archie Comics as a kid, so was well aware of Sabrina in the comics realm as well. However, apart from having the same characters, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is way darker than its predecessors lead you to expect. As evidenced by the fact that Netflix and Warner Brothers are currently being sued by Satanists who are objecting to how the show makes them look bad. Seriously. This show is bonkers and brilliant.
Kiernan Shipka plays Sabrina, a teenage half-mortal, half-witch (her mother was mortal, while her father was a progressive High Priest of the Church of Night), who has been living a mostly mortal existence in the outside world, with mortal friends and a boyfriend in her high school, but plenty of magic spells and incantations at home with her aunts Hilda (Lucy Davis) and Zelda (Miranda Otto) and cousin Ambrose (Chance Perdomo). However, upon the eve of her sixteenth birthday, things come to a head, and the Church of Night insist that she must fully embrace the witchy half of her nature after her dark baptism. At this point, Sabrina is too fond of her mortal friends, and what follows is the quest to find all the loopholes so she can have her cake and eat it too. And also combat the Dark Lord who is hell-bent on bringing Sabrina into the Church of Night, which gets up to all manner of bloody shenanigans.
This show is packed to the gills with jump scares, and a number of my friends have complained they got way too scared to wander around their houses at night after watching this show. I wouldn't go that far, because as freaky as it is, there's still a kitschy and fun element to it that helps release the tension. I was particularly delighted to discover that Richard Coyle (who I adore from Coupling) and Michelle Gomez (who I adore from Green Wing) are series regulars, playing terrifically devilish characters in vast contrast to the bumbling British comedy roles I've always seen them in. The entire cast of this show is fantastic; Lucy Davis and Miranda Otto are an excellent double-act as the indulgent and kind Hilda and strict and overzealous Zelda; Michelle Gomez is mysterious and bewitching (pun intended) while Richard Coyle as Father Blackwood is a deliciously unholy and horrifying villain. And Kiernan Shipka binds the whole thing together with the dazzling confidence and backbone we all knew she possessed as we watched Sally Draper grow up on Mad Men.
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina may be about a Greendale coven and a teenager struggling with her mortal and witch identities, but it cleverly manages to incorporate real-world issues like bullying, homophobia, and the need to overturn stereotypical gender roles. The production design is impeccable with eerie sets that creep you out even if the actors are doing nothing out of the ordinary. And the costumes are gorgeous, with Sabrina often kitted out in a blood red coat that seems to lend her both the innocence of Little Red Riding Hood but also the worldliness of a witchy woman. Everything is heightened and crazy in this show, but the underlying storylines are magnificent and watching how everything culminates in an explosive conclusion will certainly whet your appetite for the second season.
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