Sabrina reboot takes a new and chilling dark twist

Ashley Flint, Staff Writer

In just the nick of time before Halloween, Netflix finally released one of its most anticipated new shows all year — The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.

Since Sabrina the Teenage Witch was one of my favorite shows growing up as a kid, I was very excited when I heard that this series would be making its way back to television. However, I was genuinely worried for how this show would turn out after seeing that it is produced by some of the same producers that work for the show Riverdale.

Oct. 26 finally came around so I sat down and decided to give this new show a try.

Immediately I was hooked.

This modern day Sabrina Spellman (portrayed by Kiernan Shipka) has to balance the life of being a mortal and a witch. Of course this becomes difficult on her 16th birthday when her aunts want her to be baptized to the church of Satan, something the original Sabrina Spellman (portrayed by Melissa Joan Hart) would have never had to worry about.

The show starts off with Sabrina and her friends at the movies watching a horror film with zombies. Everyone seems to be afraid except for Sabrina, who seems to be loving every second of the movie.

This just shows how dark the new reboot is because the original Sabrina would never be into those kinds of things. After all, her show was a PG-rated sitcom.

However, creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa made sure to make this new Sabrina the same caring girl who would do anything for the ones she loves. Just like the previous teenage witch, this Sabrina makes sure to try her hardest to save the day when something goes wrong.

Aguirre-Sacasa also managed to make one of my favorite things from Sabrina the Teenage Witch still true today in the reboot-that Harvey Kinkle (portrayed by Ross Lynch) will always have a special place in my heart.

Although Austin and Ally was another one of my favorite childhood shows, I did not intend on getting my hopes up about Ross Lynch’s acting for his part as Harvey since he started off his acting career on a Disney Channel show. Everyone knows how that turns out. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Lynch’s acting has improved over the years as he was able to portray the modernized Harvey Kinkle.

Truthfully one of the key things that bothered me about the show was that Salem, Sabrina’s cat, does not say a word throughout the show. As a child and still today, this was one of my favorite aspects of the original Sabrina sitcom, so I definitely was disappointed realizing that the show would not contain any of Salem’s hilarious one liners.

However, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina did an excellent job of conveying the personalities of Sabrina’s aunts by keeping Zelda’s (portrayed by Miranda Otto) smart and more serious traits and Hilda’s (portrayed by Lucy Davis) comedic nature.

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina came out less than two weeks ago and it has already been renewed for a second season rumored to be coming out this coming February. That being said, this Sabrina reboot said will have viewers hooked for days with its new thrilling storyline.