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| Scene from Chilling Adventures of Sabrina |
Now with a few seasons to its credit, it's hard to believe that there was a time when Archie Comics, and specifically Riverdale, was seen as... wimpy. It was a comic full of wacky characters that hearkened back to 1950's innocence. Even by the 90's with the hit series Sabrina the Teenage Witch, there was still this heartwarming attitude to everything. With Netflix's latest borrowing from the dark and sensual nature of The CW hit Riverdale, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina has created a modern take on the character that goes against what whole generations (who haven't read the comics, anyways) believed. She isn't cute and bubbly, dancing over wacky montages in the opening credits. Also, her black cat sidekick Salem DOES NOT talk. It's a small detail, but one of many reasons that the series helps to stand out as its own creation with a pitch perfect performance by Kiernan Shipka as Sabrina. Thanks to it being on Netflix, it's allowed to be more edgy than Riverdale, and it plays to the show's benefit. It's a great dark reinvention, even if it's not as personable as the Archie Comics adaptations of yesteryear.
In a lot of ways, it's initially hard to separate this show from Riverdale. There's a mention early on that helps to pit Sabrina's hometown of Greendale as an adjacent city, where similar mischief goes down. One could even argue that the aesthetic is almost verbatim, especially with dark colors clashing with warped neon lighting and a sense that every detail is a loving homage to some other movie. Even the show's use of dissecting John Carpenter's The Thing as a metaphor for body dysphoria is a construct reminiscent. This modern Archie Comics world leads the youth culture by making it as cinematic as possible while allowing itself to be a tad more scandalous. For Riverdale, it was corrupt family businesses - for Sabrina, it's a story about becoming a witch and trying to find solid ground between being a witch and the person she had been raised as: a fairly nice girl who has a flair for horror culture. Even the show's insistence on featuring Night of the Living Dead in the premiere episode feels like some metaphor about Sabrina's resurrection as she gets the news on her 16th birthday about what lies ahead.
The reason that the show works isn't solely because tone, which even has the radicalized soundtrack that mixes moody classics with sultry covers in ways that create an unease of cool for the viewer. It's more about the performance of Shipka at the center, who manages to embody a new kind of witch. This isn't one who is upbeat and happy. She is someone who is a bit more radical, having a rich inner life where half of her stories around Greendale High revolve around feminist issues and trying to raise justice for supporting trans characters. If anything, it's refreshing to see the series feel more 21st century in its ideals, always siding with a depiction that is progressive and reflects why it is necessary to use power wisely.
The introduction to this world starts off a bit slow, allowing the feeling of the witching world to settle in for the audience. By episode three, her identity is brought into question as it is discovered that her identity is mixed, featuring a scandalous marriage between a witch and a human. While it's a plot reminiscent of Hermione Granger, the show treats it more from a legal standpoint while trying to reflect the struggles of teen bullying. Sabrina is part of the outcasts, and thus spends the season trying to find her place in this new world. However, her old world is just as complicated, as late-in-season plots develop around loved ones, such as a demon that haunts her friends, and that a certain someone is a witch hunter out to get her.
At times the show can't help but be a tad ridiculous. Any show that features characters with names from the 50's can't help but clash just a little. Still, the show has yet to hit peak ridiculous to that of Riverdale and has taken its dark tone to excellent territory. With that said, the demon make-up is at times reminiscent of more limited designs from bygone series, such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It's not terrible, but the excessively supernatural elements of the show are at times a bit distracting and pull the audience away from the emotional core of a story that is essentially a coming-of-age story about identity. The world that Sabrina lives in may be fantastical, but there's also a general sense of awe about what she's entered. Everything about the series feel lived in. Even the "Aunties" Hilda and Zelda, who are the most tonally similar to the old series, add a sense of whimsy to this world that helps the series work.
As an introduction to the series, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is an effective piece of rebranding for a character often considered nice and innocent. While some will be a bit disappointed to see her participating in blood rituals and having more sensual moments, it is a show in tune with Riverdale's PG-13 mentality. In some ways, it's sad to see the innocent form likely unable to be taken seriously again. However, this new show at least does dark very well and forms the drama around a performance that is engaging and writing that is at times engrossing. While it may feel like a clone of Riverdale at times, there's still a lot to like about the series. It may meander at points, rarely warranting its hour-long running time, but it still is one of the better things that Netflix has released this year. As much as it could just be a gimmick, it's capable of being so much more. Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is destined to be an iconic witch for a modern era where identity isn't as clear as it was in the 50's. That is, if the rest of the seasons live up to this quality.
Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5
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