Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina’ On Netflix, Where Kiernan Shipka Plays The Teenage Witch In Darker Times

If all you knew about Sabrina was the ABC sitcom with Melissa Joan Hart, then you’ll be surprised when you tune into Chilling Adventures of Sabrina on Netflix. It’s dark… Really dark. But the new Sabrina is played by Kiernan Shipka, who has been wowing audiences since she started on Mad Men 11 years ago. Read on to find out about a darker, more compelling Sabrina…

CHILLING ADVENTURES OF SABRINA: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A shot of the moon as we pan down to the marquee of a movie theater showing a horrorfest. As we close in on Sabrina Spellman (Kiernan Shipka) in the theater, the voice of Sabrina says, “In the town of Greendale, which always feels like Halloween, lived a half-witch and a half-mortal.”

The Gist: Sabrina has a great circle of friends, including her boyfriend Harvey Kinkle (Ross Lynch) and buddies Rosalind Walker (Jaz Sinclair) and Susie Putman (Lachlan Watson). But, as she approaches her 16th birthday, she starts to become more concerned that if she goes through her Dark Baptism, she’d become a full witch, and go to the Academy of Unseen Arts, leaving her friends behind.

Since Sabrina’s warlock dad and mortal mom were killed in a plane crash, she’s been living at Spellman Morturary with her aunts Hilda (Lucy Davis) and Zelda (Miranda Otto) and cousin Ambrose (Chance Perdomo). Hilda is the more forgiving of the two — Zelda completely chafes at the idea of Sabrina not going through with her Dark Baptism and giving herself over to Satan — they both think Sabrina should go through the same ceremony generations of Spellmans have done for hundreds of years.

But Sabrina starts to have other thoughts, especially after Susie gets bullied at school for not looking girly enough. She conspires with Ambrose to cast a spell on their misogynistic principal, George Hawthorne (Bronson Pinchot… yes, you read that correctly), so he calls in sick and Sabrina and Rosalind can ram through approval of a group where girls can meet and learn to protect each other, fittingly with acronym WICCA. She also wonders why she has to by default give herself over to Satan without being able to make that choice herself.

Someone is monitoring all of this: A rival witch has taken over the body of teacher Mary Wardell (Michelle Gomez) to make sure Sabrina crosses over to the dark side.

Our Take: Forget about what you know about Sabrina, be it her initial appearances in the Archie comics or the ABC sitcom with Melissa Joan Hart. This version is based on a darker comic series of the same name that debuted in 2014. That comic series took place firmly in the ’60s, but series creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa has mentioned that Netflix steered him to making it a stylized version of the present day, which works for the themes of the show, especially where Sabrina, Roz, and Susie step up to call for women to have choice and protect each other from harassment.

While there are fine performances throughout, especially Otto and Davis as Zelda and Hilda, Shipka predictably takes the emotional load of this show on her back and puts in a thoroughly engaging lead performance. We knew she had this in her back when she was eight and playing Sally Draper in Mad Men, but seeing the now adult Shipka taking what could have been a more over-the top character and adding shading and emotional subtlety. She grounds Sabrina in the real world, making you really want to see if she can make it as a witch among mortals.

The show’s visuals are pretty good, which makes sense given it’s from the Greg Berlanti comic-based series mill; he and his producers know how to make an elaborate effects-laden show on TV budgets (albeit a more generous budget than he’d likely get from The CW). Could we get less darkness and sepia-toned shots? At some point, that might make things a little fatiguing. But for now, the visuals, including highly vignetted backgrounds, the transformation of her “familiar”, Salem, from a demon to a cuddly black cat, and other effects, do the job.

Sex and Skin: Except for Sabrina kissing Harvey, it’s all pretty chaste.

Parting Shot: High Priest Father Blackwood (Richard Coyle) plays the Spellmans a visit to try to convince Sabrina to go through with her Dark Baptism. He’s only Satan’s representative on Earth, but whatever.

Sleeper Star: The cat who plays Salem is pretty cool, but among the human actors, we like watching Perdomo as Ambrose. And, of course, the more we see of Bronson Pinchot, the happier we’ll be.

Most Pilot-y Line: Not sure what the Wicked Girls, Prudence (Tati Gabrielle), Dorcas (Abigail F. Cowen) and Agatha (Adeline Rudolph) are going to be other than just monkey wrenches in Sabrina’s life. Calling her a “half-breed” doesn’t make us want to see them more.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Shipka is compelling as Sabrina, and she’s surrounded by fine performances and great visuals, plus a modern sensibility that will make the show relevant in 2018. Can’t get better than that.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.

Watch Chilling Adventures of Sabrina on Netflix