As someone who grew up watching the TGIF staple Sabrina the Teenage Witch, I will admit I was pretty intrigued when I heard everyone’s favorite teenage half witch-half mortal would be returning to television, albeit in a much darker capacity than the version from my childhood. I was even more interested in the project when I heard about its stellar cast: Kiernan Shipka (who regularly stole scenes from actors twice her age on Mad Men) in the titular role, Miranda Otto (The Lord of the Rings) as the strict Aunt Zelda, and Lucy Davis (Wonder Woman) as the fun Aunt Hilda. And, after a slow start bogged down by too much exposition, I’m happy to say that The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is definitely worth a look.
Now, to point out the obvious. The only thing The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina shares with Sabrina the Teenage Witch is the characters within it. They are vastly different shows and one shouldn’t go into Chilling Adventures expecting hi-jinks and a talking cat (although, I wouldn’t say no to Salem talking in season two . . .). Thanks to airing on Netflix, and the source material, Chilling Adventures is willing and able to delve into some pretty intense topics (although, not any more intense than your average episode of a CW drama). That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed season one of this interesting, if a bit slow, new drama.
As with most shows centered around a titular protagonist, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina lives and dies on the strength of Shipka as Sabrina. Luckily, the series has one of the finest young actresses inhabiting the complicated role (Shipka is given a lot to juggle throughout the first season, from your typical teenage relationship angst and growing pains to dealing with the actual Devil, yet handles it flawlessly). Never once did I doubt the sincerity of the performance and Shipka manages to draw the audience into even the most supernatural of plotlines with her deeply expressive eyes (seriously, she has the ability to cry at the drop of a hat).
And, while the arcs may be dramatic, the show never tries to take itself too seriously (which can be the kiss of death for a genre series). There are stakes, people’s lives hang in the balance and are lost, and relationships of all types buckle and break during the course of the season. But it’s still a show about magic and the pull between good and evil. There’s humor (often from Davis’s spot-on work as Hilda) and subtle winks to the audience when storylines verge just a tad into the ridiculous. It’s all grounded in deeply satisfying emotional beats, making this one of the best genre shows on television.
While I recommend the series, I still have a few quibbles. First up, why does Hilda have an English accent and Zelda a shockingly bad American accent (outside of the choice of actors for the parts, of course)? How is Ambrose (the delightful Chance Perdomo) related to everyone in the Spellman family? How, exactly, does the Academy of the Unseen Arts work (which, I assume, is something the show will delve into in season two, but it was pretty haphazardly thrown into season one)? The season’s emotional and character beats outweighed the less clear elements of the show, but there remain some confusing and unanswered questions that I hope get addressed in the already filmed second season.
-
Performances
-
Writing
-
Season Arc
