Netflix’s Sabrina Series: How Will the Dark Drama Differ From the Sitcom?
Unless you’ve been living in the Other Realm for the past few months, you’ve probably heard that Netflix is conjuring up a new series about pop culture’s most iconic teenage witch. But this isn’t your mother’s Sabrina Spellman. Heck, it isn’t even your Sabrina Spellman.
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Based on Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Robert Hack’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina comics, Netflix’s yet-untitled series — which has already been picked up for two seasons — “imagines the origin and adventures of Sabrina the Teenage Witch as a dark coming-of-age story that traffics in horror, the occult and, of course, witchcraft.”
Described as being “tonally in the vein of Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist, this adaptation finds Sabrina wrestling to reconcile her dual nature — half-witch, half-mortal — while standing against the evil forces that threaten her, her family and the daylight world humans inhabit.”
Needless to say, fans of Sabrina the Teenage Witch — the sitcom which ran for four seasons in 1996 on ABC, then transferred to The WB for its final three — are in for a rude awakening if they tune in expecting the same bright colors and goofy shenanigans we got from the TGIF staple all those years ago. Sure, Hilda, Zelda, Salem and more of your favorites will appear… there’s just no guarantee you’ll recognize them.
Browse our gallery of character changes — you can click here for direct access — then drop a comment with your thoughts below: Will you follow Sabrina to Netflix?
Uh-oh!
Was anyone clamoring for a dark-and-angsty reboot of Sabrina? This literally just sounds like Buffy meets Riverdale, and not in a good way.
Well it’s based off a comic book so….
On paper and in principle, it sounds like a fantastic idea. I haven’t read the comic (I tried, but couldn’t really connect with the style), but the TV version sounds very promising.
Was anyone clamoring for a dark-and-angsty reboot of Archie? That turned out successful.
;)
Like Kevin Williamson’s The Secret Circle?
That wasn’t dark. It was so dragging and boring. You barely see any magic fights. These days you gotta show it. WIth a TVD budget, they couldn’t even use magic fights every week.
That wasn’t dark. Just boring and full of angst.
I wasn’t exactly clamoring but I sure will check it out when Netflix adds it. I wouldn’t be much interested if it was light and cheerful in a broadcast style.
Your gallery text has both Rosalind and Prudence being played by
“Jaz Sinclair, right”. That seems…unlikely.
Having noted that, I’m kinda with Catherine here; this does sound rather like ” Buffy meets Riverdale“, and I find myself wondering just how that’s going to play for viewers. (Okay, so the younger demographic probably hasn’t imprinted on Buffy the Vampire Slayer — but older viewers, organized fandom, and most of the trade writers covering the show probably have, and that’s going to color things.)
Buffy premiered the day after my first birthday and is one of my all-time favorite shows. I’ve also loved the sitcom Sabrina as long as I can remember (I used to watch over my parents’ shoulders). Both shows have certainly reached the younger demo and I think something that combines the world of one with the tone of the other is definitely something to be excited about (I certainly am!).
Kas Sinclair does not play both roles. Tatiana Gabrielle plays Prudence. Reading is FUNDAMENTAL!!!!!
It bears pointing out that the Netflix version of Sabrina is (to my knowledge) the third live-action adaptation of the comic book character, with the ABC sitcom being the second and the Showtime movie being the first. I’d be curious how a comparison of the Netflix version against the Showtime movie might look (in that one, Ryan Reynolds played Harvey).
Correction, Reynolds played the love interest. I’m not sure it was Harvey. He might have gone by some other name.
I think it was Seth. I’m pretty sure there was a Harvey too, but I think he was the “nerdy guy who gets the girl in the end”.
Sabrina was a track star. I remember that.
Yeah, confirmed on Wikipedia. Reynolds was Seth and there was a Harvey. I remember that version being considerably far more grounded than the sitcom. I don’t think I’d say it was dark, but it certainly wasn’t played for laughs.
I just can’t see Ross Lynch as Harvey.
Oh man. Please involve Melissa joan hart in some way.
I will watch anything with Michelle Gomez in it. The actress is bananas and she plays eccentric characters so dang well.
Will it ever crossover with Riverdale?!
God I hope so.
By definition, a multi-cam sitcom and an hour drama are very different beasts.
I don’t have high hopes as I adored Sabrina as a kid, I feel like this new version will be essentially Riverdale 2.0 with similar tone and twists and I don’t want that
Yes it is from the same directors but Riverdale is hindered by CW budget. Sabrina has a Netflix budget so it has every penny it could use to hire more writers for the show.
I’m just happy netflix is staying so true to its programming vision; reboot something that was mildly popular 25 years ago and mash it up with something stupid. Who was looking for more teenage angst on netflix? Cant wait to have to scroll past this one with a 98% recommendation in every other category.
Teenagers? Because Netflix doesn’t sell adds, they don’t have to concern themselves with demos. ,If a 12 year-old is watching, that family will probably keep their subscriptions.
What programming vision? Netflix has no vision. Here’s what it does: create every freaking thing imaginable (including a lot of stuff from other countries), throw it into the pot, and depend on us to train our taste-matching algorithms to route stuff to us because no more than 5-10% of the whole will be palatable to any given person.
Netflix has 117 million subscribers and that number will only grow (especially overseas). Envision the insane range of tastes Netflix needs to cater to. Their development is only going to get stranger and more niche-y going forward. That doesn’t matter, what matters is if any given subscriber can find enough content to watch to keep them happy and stop their itchy fingers from hitting the dreaded Pause Account button.
A dark and angsty Sabrina is the kind of thing that would appeal to me (specially since they cast the lead character so perfectly). But for 90% of subscribers, it probably won’t be interesting. That’s okay they get their stuff, I get mine, Netflix stays in business, everyone’s happy.
In the meantime, if you can’t find anything in that godawful mess, start rating stuff. Thumbs up, thumbs down, doesn’t matter as long as its true for you, you don’t even need to give something more than five minutes to impress you, just start feeding Netflix some data so they can start routing stuff to you that you’ll like. Netflix is an unusable disaster otherwise. If you’re getting nothing but 98% recommendations, you haven’t been down voting enough stuff you don’t like. I routinely see stuff in the 70s, 60s and even 50s recommendations. That’s invaluable. Now I know what to ignore (however it’s weird Fauda was 55% for me, I actually do like that one, oh well more fodder for the algorithm…)
Why do they have to make things way different then the original thing.Just like Riverdale,it has nothing to do based on the comics.After seeing part of the 1st episode I quickly changed channels
They included Mr. Pool but not Mrs. Quick?
Aw sweet, they’re adapting a comic book that no one reads into a show…. great…
I think it sounds cool but they kind of described it too dark like a horror movie. I WANNA SEE IT just to see the differencemail because I am a teen and I already saworking the Sabrina of the 90 and I like it. SO LET’S WAIT AND FIND OUT
Yeah they just talking money with all this dark and other realm stuff just trying to make sound “awesome”
But I still wanna see it to find out if it all talk or if itshe cooler like riverdale
Sooooo… “Charmed” then, pretty much.
The comic’s pretty solid so I have high hopes for the series.
Eh…..this doesn’t like fun. I like the supernatural sitcom idea. Between this and the Charmed reboot- not to mention Supernatural- we probably have enough dark magical dramas. Can the next one be goofy, campy fun?
No thanks. Hard pass.
Looking forward to it.