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Small Screen Reviews: The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
With special guest star: The Lord of Lies!
One well that TV execs like to go to frequently is the “gritty reboot.” They’ve dipped into that well so much in the past decades it’s running dry, but until they get nothing from it, they’re going to keep lowering the bucket to get all they can. In this case, we take an Archie Comics title, Sabrina the Teenaged Witch, which given from its publisher it would be noted this title would typically be lighthearted fun much like most incarnations of it on television of which are a surprising amount. A couple of cartoons and a live-action show that involve wacky adventures of a talented half-witch half-normal girl raised by kooky witch aunts. Netflix takes this and, building off The CW’s Riverdale (the gritty Archie and Friends reboot) and gives us The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.
The background of the show actually takes a lot of material from the original source material. Some of the side characterizations are very similar to the comics. Sabrina’s parentage is explained and it’s a major factor of the original material and this show. Much of the background material remains true to source. It just adds a very large dose of Satan in the mix. I’m not even kidding about that last part. Not even a smidgeon. It’s the major conflict of the show.
In the very first episode, it’s shown that Sabrina has been living your average teen girl’s life. She goes to a normal school, has relatively normal friends (in context of this show at least), and has a relatively normal (again, context) doting boyfriend. But she’s expected to set it aside and join the local witch academy, abandon her mortal life, and sign over allegiance to Satan. I seriously warned you people, but did you listen? Oh no! Oh, the witches-slash-Satan worshippers use flowery language to make it seem as if it’s a great thing, “do what thou wilt” and all that, but Sabrina is at least smart enough to figure out that it’s a complete lie. She refuses, which opens up infernal retribution until through talented legal work she manages to get “dual citizenship.” The show plays off this dichotomy that completes against each other. And at least it manages to show those allied with Satan as being capable of terrible and horrifying depravity.
There is, unfortunately, a problem with this running theme of, “No man can serve two masters”. The evil is clearly defined: Satan and all his works. The longer the show goes the nastier, the more horrifying this wicked anti-church proves itself to be. The other side has … modern secularism. It’s not even well-defined, like modern secularism. We don’t see much of religion in Greendale beyond the church of Satan. We don’t see concerned priests or pastors. Don’t see church buildings. Don’t see churchgoers. In fact, the only reference we see of G-d on any basis is spoken from the mouths of those against Him. G-d and his followers are silent or non-existent. Secularism offers nothing save the possibility of mysticism and LGBT virtue. The only real opposition we get from the followers of Satan are his followers because they’re a terribly fractious bunch.
It seems the message is, “when faced with evil, do evil so that the worse evil will be overcome,” but we’re not given a reason why one evil is worse than another, other than that evil is opposed to Sabrina and those around her. There is no guide rail beyond the personal feelings of our modern individuals, which I suppose makes this one of the most 21st-century shows of those I’ve seen. The show is well-produced and fairly well acted. By the end, I found it left a bitter, awful taste in my mouth, but given the themes perhaps that is the best way it could end this.
Published in Entertainment
Just wait until you see Our Mountain, Dammit, the gritty reboot of The Waltons.
So, it’s good then?
I will note that The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina saw print in comic book form, first. Which most likely felt like a free pass to well-dippers.
Y’know, it’s like one of those West Coast heavily-hopped IPAs. If you go for this kind of thing, it’s great.
I think I’ll give it a pass. I get enough satanism as it is.
So, a society where the only two faiths are Satanism and atheism?
In better hands, that could be the premise of a great conservative television show.
Seriously, C.S. Lewis could have run wild with that premise.
Screwtape: The Series.
Apparently satanists hate this show because it portrays followers of Satan as evil.
Kevin Smith wrote a pretty great Green Arrow story where the villain was a Satanist who’d become disillusioned by how shallow and suburban American satanism had become.
“It’s so hard to enjoy the monthly blood orgy when Fred McGillicutty won’t stop talking about mutual funds.” (Paraphrased.)
Those poor dears.
Pumpkin Spice IPA. I hear it’s your thing.
I’m still waiting for the return of B.J. and the Bear.
http://www.fakingstarwars.net/2015/05/27/b-j-and-the-bear-remake-headed-to-big-screen-with-oscar-isaac-and-tom-cruise-attached/
You’re rooting for Satan, aren’t you?
I stopped watching the first episode when it had the sexually ambiguous girl (or whatever it was) being bullied by the football team. I mean give it a rest already. I’m convinced these writers are the nerds from high school, the way they depict the football players. It’s ridiculous. In this show, the football players lifted up her shirt. That just wouldn’t happen. So I tuned out.
It is notable that witchcraft in this show is not depicted as that happy sunny Wiccanism we were told was such a noble thing all through the 90’s and 00’s.
The SJWism gets strong regarding a couple characters. They don’t quite declare it as badly as some shows do (we don’t get into “very special episode” turf), but it’s there.
It’s like a box they all have to check now. I’m sick of it. I just want to be entertained, not clubbed over the head.
Dialogue from a gritty conservative version of Sabrina:
If I join a coven do I get immediate friends, acceptance and purpose in life? That may be what they’re selling.
My lovely wife lost interest in a couple of shows for similar reasons. I will say that as the show progresses, the character’s virtues are not because of their sexuality, which at least is different.
Nope. In fact joining the coven guarantees her opposition and bondage (not the fun kind) to darker forces. If they were trying to sell “friends, acceptance, and purpose” in a coven they did a poor job.
The Brady Gang
Who’s the Street Boss?
Nine is Too Many
Two Men and a Juvenile Delinquent
That last one would just be re-runs.
To be fair, this was essentially the background of the comic book character as well…..except it was light-hearted and played for laughs, much like that first Adams Family movie.
Is this a TV show? Frankly, I gave up my TV several years ago just because it all was witches, demons and zombies (and reality shows, I guess). Maybe you remember that period. Maybe it’s still all the same. I don’t know. Has cable gotten wholesome?
Regarding any witch-type shows, I don’t think they ever were created to turn off the viewer to evil forces, but to get people under thirty (perhaps) to choose a powerful side. For most people I think, magic and witchcraft have an empowering personal and social appeal even if it brings you right into the heat of battle, a lot like being Antifah these days.
You don’t have to repeat yourself.
Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn…
At least we know you’re not a “vote for the lesser evil” type.