Like many people, I recently watched “The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina,” that came out on Netflix the end of October. I can’t say I’m an expert on Sabrina lore, my knowledge of the show basically is this: It’s tied to the Archie comics, there was a long running show with Melissa Joan Hart (who was both hot and cute!), there’s a cat named Salem who is a snarky mother fucker, and recently there were some darker comics based on the property. I’ve been told the original sabrina stories were also dark, but can’t confirm. This new series, however, does get back to the horror potential.

And holy shit, does it go full horror. These are not your 90’s ‘cool and friendly’ witches like Sabrina was in “Teenage Witch” or like the sisters in Charmed. Nope, these are the witches they warned you about in sunday school. Cannibalistic, murderous, dangerous demi-humans that will as soon hex you to death as look at you. All of whom worship the Dark Lord Satan.

As soon as I was watching it, I knew many in the Pagan community would likely be upset. After decades of witches trying to prove they aren’t a bunch of murderous, Satan worshiping, hex throwers, having a blatant case of such is probably not something they’ll enjoy having around. Especially since so many of the ones I’ve come across have done their level best to come across as Charmed style friendlies.

Frankly, I can’t say I had much of a problem with it. First off, it was actually kind of nice to see such a devout and faithful group of people actually get some representation. Sure, they’re a bunch of crazy Satanists, but in a day and age of Atheists being literally the norm, some religion was nice to see. And because, when you think about it, Christianity was the dominant religion in Europe for the better part of 1000-1500 year. As much as we Pagans and Heathens like to romance “le resistance” of witches and the like keeping their old Pagan ways, in reality a group being hunted down and killed for being demi-humans like this would probably latch on to anyone willing to give them the power and means to survive, especially if he was the hated enemy of the guys trying to kill them. And because it hints that there are other magical folks in the show (I think) and so for all we know this group of witches is part of Satanic covens, but there’s others who are not.

What did make the show somewhat hilarious for me though, was the politics. This show is very “progressive” and “inclusive” at least as far as Sabrina and her friends go. They even start a WICCA group which I forget what it stood for but was basically all about inclusivity and blah blah blah. In regards to the witch community, Sabrina has an openly gay cousin whose homosexual nature is never a problem. As readers know, I’m pretty right wing and this stuff generally just annoys me, but this time I actually found it funny and had to wonder if the writers were secretly redpilled. Why?

Because all these progressive and inclusive people are Satanists who eat long pork (human flesh), have cannibalistic rituals, murder people at a whim (and this includes our heroine Sabrina), and praise Satan while literally selling him their souls for continued power. Honestly, it played out like it had been written by some anon on /pol/.

As for the mechanics of the show, the casting was well done, the acting was surprisingly well done for a Netflixs original, the mood was well captured, the cultures were believable, the effects were done well enough they never took me out of the show, and the writing (despite sometimes not being sure if it was a show about heroes or villains) did well enough, and I’m actually hoping there’s another season of it. Which surprises me, because after the giant fiasco that has been the Netflix Marvel series, where first seasons were good to great (not you Iron Fist), to terrible, I’m modestly hoping they don’t fuck it up.

That being said, even if they do go full Progressive next season I might still enjoy it because, well, it’s a bunch of evil Satanists. At least they’re being somewhat accurate to reality. I do wonder if we’ll get a bunch of deus vulting witch hunters next season. That could be fun.

 

 

 

 

 

Hela Bless