Who else is watching this? I’ve been eagerly awaiting it’s premiere and I’ve gotten up to episode 2. Needless to say it’s very different from Sabrina: the Teenage Witch, although Hilda & Zelda have similar, but darker and edgier dynamic. The aesthetics are a little weird though; the show is clearly set in the present day, but most of Greendale seems stuck in the '60s. This is a little jarring for the Mortal inhabitants (less so for Witches & Warlocks); especially given that Kiernan Shipka is best known for her role on Mad Men. Please label any spoilers by episode.
I’ve watched the first 4 so far. I’m not hating it, but not bowled over by it either. I miss the “constantly crying over his failed schemes” Salem, and Penn and Teller on the witch’s council. (And with a series filled with the supernatural, the one non-factual thing that has really annoyed me so far is a non-magical apple orchard in late October with the trees covered with ripe apples and fresh blossoms.)
It’s obviously set in the same universe as Riverdale. And Riverdale, like Greendale, is so obviously a fictional universe that “60’s” doesn’t even register. Maybe it was the 60’s when they got caught in the space warp and spun off into the other dimension?
That would be a hilarious turn for both shows. That the witches at some point screwed up and spun off the two towns into some sort of Brigadoon thing.
Watched the first episode. The show doesn’t track well with me. It’s like the producers can’t decide if the want to make a Disney cookie cutter show, or a dark horror series.
I’ll give it a few more episodes.
My wife was watching it today and I popped in and out and saw pieces of it. None of it really got me interested and Kiernan Shipka’s performance didn’t do much for me. Which is a shame since I liked her in Mad Men and she was the only part of this I was remotely interested in seeing.
On the other hand, pretty sure my wife watched at last six hours of it so what do I know?
The blossoms on the apple trees REALLY bugged me!!
Other than that, I’m enjoying it.
I am rather puzzled that the Devil himself is obviously quite easily fooled by cheap courtroom shenanigans . But I’ll hold my judgement til I see more of him. It is all extremely similar to Harry Potter, what with the halfblood hate and secret Society of witches with their super Special School. Also, as actual Satanists, a lot of these witches are big old softies.
The best part is Geoffrey from Coupling as the High Priest of Satan - my wife and I can’t stop saying “Oh, Geoffrey” whenever he pops up 
I’m digging this show so far, overall. The first episode blew me away, sort of like Buffy mixed with Harry Potter.
But as the show goes on I don’t quite buy a lot of the plot points and character motivations. Such as, why are Sabrina’s aunts so willing to have her sign away her soul? The concept that witches really did make a deal with the devil is both interesting and distressing. And I don’t quite understand the point of the banned book club that Sabrina’s friend wants to start, is that just a side plot or somehow relevant to the main plot?
But still, I love the setting, characters, and look and feel.
I like it. I wish it were darker, actually, or weirder, or something. But for what it is (i.e. set in the Riverdale universe) I think it’s pretty entertaining. I am really impressed with the casting and the acting in general is pretty good. The one aesthetic thing that bugs me is the way the camera fuzzes out around the edges whenever there’s a supernatural element as a focal point. I get what they’re going for but I didn’t pay so much for a 4K TV just to get blurry visuals
FWIW I never watched the “other” Sabrina show so I have nothing to compare it to.
What I recall from watching the original Sabrina as a 13-year-old boy in 1996 was that Melissa Joan Hart was the hottest object in the known universe. Kiernan Shipka is … not.
Well one possibly is that…
…the Dark Lord really can’t exercise dominion over anyone who doesn’t sign their soul away of their own free will and her father signing over Sabrina’s soul was completely meaningless; the whole trial was just a sham to guilt Sabrina into signing the Book of the Beast to save her aunts. Also the Dark Lord may not have envisioned this particular scenario when he made his deal with Danial Webster. :smack:
I’m up to episode 4. I like it. I miss Salem talking.
Hey, speaking of the other version… can anyone who has read the comics and seen the 90s show weigh in on which TV show is closer to Sabrina depicted in the comics? I watched the 90s version for a few years before I found out that Sabrina began as an Archies comic character, and that has always struck me as moderately bizarre.
I never read the original comics, but I’m confident that they were as light and fluffy as Archie. The new series is based on a new comic series, and is apparently pretty faithful to that.
I can’t be the only one who laughed when I heard the lawyer’s name?
I liked the show. There were a couple episodes that weren’t as strong the dream episode just bored me because so much of it wasn’t real and I knew that, so it was tedious for me until we got the point where Sabrina knew it wasn’t real
I do wonder what next season holds. As Sabrina spent so much of this season fighting for her friends, I am hoping next season will be her friends fighting for her.
There was one thing at the end that seemed a bit of an unnecessarily drastic action on Zelda’s part, but maybe magic makes it make sense. I didn’t follow every bit of of dialog, I admit, so may have missed some important bits.
Not sure I’m happy with how Catholicism (v. Church of the Night) is being treated, but I’m reserving judgement.
Yeah, from the few I’ve read.
Nope. Not at all. Checked out the comic to see after liking the series (skimmed a half dozen issues). It is a horror comic. And there are some broad similarities. But it is much, much different in very significant story-telling respects. And the comic was completely boring to me with no fleshing out of characters. It didn’t have my most favorite element of the series.
No. But then I was very confused when it turned not to be the historical figure.
I’m not far in, but I’m really liking it. The acting of the main characters is really good – Sabrina and the aunties, the other witches; not so much Harvey and the two friends. The look and aesthetic is awesome, particularly the Halloween party scenes. And it subverts just enough expectations to underline its point. The banality of how the Satan-worshipping witches are depicted seems like a pointed commentary on modern times: sure, Zelda is a murdering would-be cannibal, but she sort-of cares for Sabrina and is sure to maintain the proper image.
It’s relevant to (one of) the main themes. It’s an example of the same thing that Daniel Webster describes: he thought he was doing a good thing by making his deal with Satan to be a better lawyer, but he learned that Satan being involved made it awful. The book club is, on the surface, a good thing for fighting censorship… but Madam Satan is involved and will be making it horrible, too.
Unintended consequences have always been a key point of Sabrina stories. Even the goofy Sabrina the Teenaged Witch revolved around stories of ill-conceived use of magic with unintended consequences. Seemed like a good idea; turned out not so. Same with the book club.
Neither woman is the hottest object in the known universe, and I’m generally not one to ogle. But if you find Melissa Joan Hart the more attractive of the two, well… your perception of reality is clearly skewed by any objective measure. Perhaps you’ve been hexed?