Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Review
By, Julia Keegan
This was the perfect show for Halloween, since Stranger Things did not release their third season in time for Halloween. Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is an adaption of the Sabrina Spellman comics that are a spin off from the Archie Series. This show is not connected to the CW’s Riverdale, but is run by the same executive producer, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. There was the 2000’s show, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, but that show is 100% not this one.
The plot lines and characters are what made this shows possible one of my favorites of the year.
It’s it the same as Riverdale season 1, as you immediately care for these people and what they are going through. Sabrina, a half witch and half mortal, has to choose just one of those lives to live out. Although she does not choose “the dark lord” without a fight in trying a avenge her late parents, support her mortal friends, and make her aunts happy. The Spellmans, Zelda, Hilda, and Ambrose, are much different than they were in the original show. At first, I was a bit skeptical because of that, but by the second episode I totally forgot about those versions of these characters. Each member of the family is very real, even though they are witches, and are each dealing with their own stuff.
The witches in this show also are characters that grow on you as their storyline grows as well. At first the Weird sisters seem like the villains of this story, but by the seventh episode you are rooting for Prudence Weird as much as you are for Sabrina. The actual villains of this story, Father Blackwell of the Church of Night, and maybe Ms. Wardwell are actually terrifying at times, but other times you are kind of just screaming at your TV at them. Ms. Wardwell is where the real interesting story comes in because you never know what her intentions are either to help or hurt Sabrina.
Her mortal friends, Havery, Roz, and Suzie, are going through equally as terrifying things as these witches are. Harvey is dealing with an abusive dad, Roz is losing her sight, and Suzie is being bullied at school for not dressing as feminine as other women may be. Harvey and Sabrina are still as cute a couple as they were in the original show, but not as perfect.
(SPOILERS) In episode eight, Sabrina resurrects Harvey’s brother, that’s when you start to question how much you love Sabrina. The consequence of her doing this were far to great, but she just ignored them. At that moment, I thought she was being incredibly selfish. But Sabrina is just trying to do the right thing as she is throughout the show, and sometimes the right thing for helping the ones you love isn’t the right thing to do. This plot point was the only one I had trouble with, but other than this, everything else was perfectly entertaining.
It reminds me of season 1 of Riverdale when I thought that was a perfect show, but that proved me wrong when the second season went very down hill in the plot and acting. I am hoping that is not the case for this show as well because now I care about these characters and what is going to happen to them too much.
I, also, would not be honest though if I didn’t say that I did miss Salem the talking cat in this version of Sabrina Spellman as it was in Sabrina the Teenage witch.