There’s Nothing Magical About Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
Photo: Courtesy of Netflix
When Kiernan Shipka was announced as the title character in the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, the casting could not have been more perfect.
In a sea of child actors who are, shall we say, less than talented (no, I’m not going to name names—that’s not nice), Shipka stood out as Don Draper’s wise-beyond-her-years daughter, Sally, on AMC’s Mad Men. She quickly became a fan favorite for her droll delivery and fashion choices.
Unfortunately, there’s nothing magical about her role here. Like the comic books and even Melissa Joan Hart’s long-running comedy, Shipka’s Sabrina is half witch, half mortal, and raised by her aunts—the sweet Hilda (Lucy Davis) and the more conniving Zelda (Miranda Otto). But that, as you have most likely heard, is where the similarities end.
This Sabrina is dark and foreboding. The town of Greendale is a creepy place, filled with murky woods that the characters always seem to be walking through, gloomy hallways and melancholy rooms. The series looks great and is aesthetically pleasing, particularly in scenes involving the Weird Sisters (Tati Gabrielle, Adeline Rudolph and Abigail Cowen). At first, I was excited because it seemed that perhaps the show could pick up the baton that Buffy the Vampire Slayer put down so long ago. We need a teen heroine poised to fight the Big Bad, save the world, kick ass, and deliver some well-placed quips while doing it.
But Sabrina is so earnest. And her relationship with her boyfriend, Harvey (Ross Lynch), is so sweet—and, yes, boring—it doesn’t seem genuine. “There’s nothing we can’t handle as long as we’re being honest with each other,” Harvey tells her. These two teenagers seem to have no sexual relationship at all. Harvey hasn’t even seen Sabrina’s bare shoulders. In the five episodes I watched, none of Sabrina’s friends know her true identity. I’m hoping that changes soon, because a girl needs her Scooby Gang.
The early episodes drag and have a circular repetitiveness. Showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa seems to be under the mistaken impression that because the 10 episodes drop all at once, there’s no need for urgency. The first three are devoted to Sabrina’s dark baptism and whether she will commit her devotion to the Dark Lord. “Free choice child, that’s the bedrock on which our church is built,” the Dark Lord’s emissary, Father Blackwood (Richard Coyle), tells her. And so we have three episodes going round and round and round about the struggle for Sabrina’s soul.