'Chilling Adventures of Sabrina' Is Lukewarm

At the height of my love for Riverdale (for the record, it’s a show I still enjoy, but not as much now as I did with its first season), I was excited of the possibility of Sabrina Spellman joining the show in the future.  Riverdale had such delightfully gritty-and-bonkers, “anything goes” vibes that it would have no problem introducing the supernatural through Sabrina’s arrival.  I imagined that she would be part of Riverdale for a while before she gets her own spin-off series.  And for a while, per information from reports, I thought that that was exactly what was developing in The CW.  However, in due course, it became a Netflix production.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is the title that the series took, and it stars baby-faced Kiernan Shipka as Sabrina Spellman – the half-human, half-witch teenager who hopes to get the best out of both worlds she belongs in.

I put off watching this show for the following reasons:

1. I have a lot of stuff to watch already.
2. The showrunners haven’t made it official how – and, most importantly, IF – it would connect to Riverdale.  A crossover between the two shows is always a possibility, yes, but with one show in The CW and the other in Netflix, it’s seemingly unlikely to happen.  And if the two aren’t connected, then a part of me feels that a Sabrina show is pointless.
3. It’s based on the comic book series of the same name – which is the darkest take on Sabrina the Teenage Witch ever – and I’m not a big fan (I dropped it only after two issues).  I don’t mind for Sabrina to do dark, but not too dark, which I thought the comics was.  It’s probably because I got used to the property’s more light-hearted incarnations in the comics and TV.

But, eventually, I found the time to watch Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and after I was done with all ten episodes, I thought it was a mixed bag.

First of all, I liked that it takes plenty of opportunities to pay homage to old horror films.  Look, I’m not necessarily a big fan of horror as a genre.  Hence, I don’t watch many modern horror movies.  However, a majority of horror films I got to watch – and like – are pre-1990’s.  Therefore, I recognized the references being made in the show, and I found it thrilling that I did.

I also liked its aesthetics.  Aside from the related production elements, I think the key factor for this is the ambiguity of its setting, which feels like a pleasing fusion of modern and vintage.  It’s implied to be set in the present, but since this is heavily inspired by the comic book – which is set in the 1960’s – there are also a significant amount of conveniences, fashion, and equipment from that past era.

I actually thought the pilot was strong, but after that, the season felt inconsistent.  There were a couple of tedious episodes, which – when binging – only made the entire season feel obnoxiously bloated.  On the other hand, there are also plenty of scenes and plot developments that I did genuinely enjoy.  However, they don’t really add up into a terrific whole, especially when they are mixed along with the ample stretches and subplots that bored or frustrated me.

By the way, you know what’s the thing that frustrated me the most about this show?  Salem the Cat doesn’t talk!  He could telepathically communicate with Sabrina, but – come on! – gab is an essential characteristic of this fictional cat.  And it’s not like familiars can’t talk in this universe – one was actually shown doing so!  Hence, there’s no  justifiable reason for Salem not to talk in this show.

Lastly, again, I’m not a fan of the specific source material for this show, so there are radically dark re-imaginations about the characters and mythology that turned me off.  However, there are also moments in which its darkness truly entertained me.  But it came in two ways.  First, its darkness yielded something legitimately riveting, and thus, was entertaining.  And second – which was the more common kind – is that its darkness yielded something so ridiculous or stupid that it was hilarious, and thus, was entertaining (on top of my head, I remember laughing so hard during the courtroom scenes, and when Father Blackwood and Aunt Zelda talked about “flagellation” – easily the most hilarious dialogue in the entire show).

To sum it up, to me, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina isn’t a worthwhile binge.  There are certainly things to like, but there is also an equal amount – at the very least – of things to dislike.  Thus, outside of a possible crossover with Riverdale, I can’t find any real motivation to check out the next season.