S01.E03: Chapter Three: The Trial of Sabrina Spellman

[Athena]

Quote

As Sabrina confronts a long line of family secrets, Harvey faces turmoil at home -- and shares a secret of his own.

 

[Lebanna]

Well, I was definitely not expecting this show to be a Christian religious recruiting tool. 'You can only be truly saved if you have been baptized into the one true faith'? Seriously? I hope it leaves the whole 'be Christian or be damned to hell' message behind, or I don't think I'll be watching the rest of it. I had enough of that at school and I don't need it again from my fun Halloween entertainment, thanks. Some of us are other faiths, or none, and we don't need constant preaching to, or just society assuming that Good Person has to mean Christian Person. And that's what I am getting from this show right now. Frankly, if anything I assumed the witches would be Pagan or Wicca or whatever. What is with America's obsession with god v devil and why have the showrunners got it all over a potentially fun spooky witch show? Couldn't we have something else? I quit Supernatual when they did this storyline and that was season 3, so only about ten years ago.

Also, the whole 'I'm going blind in three months exactly!' or whatever, so telenovela. And what, only a demon would want you to read 'Lolita'? What is actually going on with this show? I am totally confused, and I have no idea what they are driving at.

Edited October 27, 2018 by Lebanna

[Avaleigh]

Thank you for articulating some of the issues I have with this show. There are other things that annoy or confuse me but this probably isn't the thread for that.

[Blue Plastic]

2 hours ago, Lebanna said:

.Well, I was definitely not expecting this show to be a Christian religious recruiting tool. 'You can only be truly saved if you have been baptized into the one true faith'? Seriously? I hope it leaves the whole 'be Christian or be damned to hell' message behind, or I don't think I'll be watching the rest of it. I had enough of that at school and I don't need it again from my fun Halloween entertainment, thanks. Some of us are other faiths, or none, and we don't need constant preaching to, or just society assuming that Good Person has to mean Christian Person. And that's what I am getting from this show right now. Frankly, if anything I assumed the witches would be Pagan or Wicca or whatever. What is with America's obsession with god v devil and why have the showrunners got it all over a potentially fun spooky witch show? Couldn't we have something else? I quit Supernatual when they did this storyline and that was season 3, so only about ten years ago.

Also, the whole 'I'm going blind in three months exactly!' or whatever, so telenovela. And what, only a demon would want you to read 'Lolita'? What is actually going on with this show? I am totally confused, and I have no idea what they are driving at.

Yeah, I'm uncomfortable with the satanic vs Christian stuff too, but I guess they wanted to go with a "Salem witch trial" history of witches.  I'm trying to think of it like that.  YMMV.

Yeah, I hate the side stories for Susie, Roz, and Harvey.  I even hate their names.  They're probably trying to make Sabrina's friends more well rounded characters, but I kind of hate them, honestly.  And Roz's story with the blindness makes me nervous because I'm severely myopic, and when I was a kid some kids spread a rumor that I was going blind (I haven't yet, years later) so I really don't like it.

[theatremouse]

It's like the show has some weird aversion to the phrase "macular degeneration", which would've made more sense.

[AmandaPanda]

This is just the most weirdly religious show. I like a lot of things about it. I adore Kiernan Shipka, so I'll follow the show until it gets canceled purely for her. I just don't know how I feel about all the religious overtones. 

[AngelKitty]

16 hours ago, Lebanna said:

I was definitely not expecting this show to be a Christian religious recruiting tool.

 

13 hours ago, Blue Plastic said:

I'm uncomfortable with the satanic vs Christian stuff too

Wow, I am surprised to see these statements since nothing like this ever crossed my mind. I actually thought discovering the Christian baptism document was a very clever way to have Sabrina in both worlds. I also loved they used Daniel Webster as the lawyer.

I think this show does harken back to the old witch movies from the 60's and 70's that I grew up with. They were all pretty much Satan vs. God and usually involved the sacrifice of a virgin girl.

One of the things I like best about this show is that there is a good mix of adults and teens. And I like them all. (This is what worries me about Legacies, there's one adult and many, many teens.) Ambrose is intriguing and is getting involved in a mystery that will probably include Sabrina eventually. The boyfriend's father is a bit over the top but I'm willing to assume there's a reason for that. And it may be a bit obvious that the friend's blindness will become a bargaining chip somehow. So far I'm liking the tertiary characters and their possible plots. But I'm confused  about the friend having problems with the football team. Is she gay or trans?

I'm actually glad I can't just watch all the episodes right now, because then it would be gone and I think I will miss it.

[roctavia]

3 hours ago, AngelKitty said:

One of the things I like best about this show is that there is a good mix of adults and teens. And I like them all. (This is what worries me about Legacies, there's one adult and many, many teens.) Ambrose is intriguing and is getting involved in a mystery that will probably include Sabrina eventually. The boyfriend's father is a bit over the top but I'm willing to assume there's a reason for that. And it may be a bit obvious that the friend's blindness will become a bargaining chip somehow. So far I'm liking the tertiary characters and their possible plots. But I'm confused  about the friend having problems with the football team. Is she gay or trans?

I'm actually glad I can't just watch all the episodes right now, because then it would be gone and I think I will miss it.

I don't think it's clear if Susie is gay, trans or hetero...  I just assumed the football guys were harassing her because she doesn't look traditionally feminine and doesn't have big boobs. 

[Lady Calypso]

So, Roz is going blind because of myopic atrophy and she only has three months or less to see? Well, that totally isn't going to play a factor in Sabrina's story at all. Though, I know myopic atrophy isn't technically a real condition, other eye-related diseases (myopic degeneration, for example) seem to be similar, but they don't cause total blindness, like Roz said her condition did. It certainly causes legal blindness, but not 100% blindness.

I guess I wasn't expecting this series to go this way. I knew it would be dark, but I wasn't expecting the full religious aspect of the show, or that witches and warlocks would be praising to an evil being. I'm getting used the idea, but it definitely is darker than I thought it would be. 

The Harvey stuff is....decent. I like Harvey's brother Tommy, which probably means he's doomed at some point this season. 

I do find myself enjoying the back and forth plays with Blackwood and Wardwell. That's fun to watch go back and forth with who has the power, though it seems mostly with Wardwell. 

I'm still unsure how I feel about the series. I find it decent so far, but not particularly amazing or as engaging as I hoped.

[Slovenly Muse]

23 hours ago, Blue Plastic said:

Yeah, I'm uncomfortable with the satanic vs Christian stuff too

I don't know. I don't think they're trying to portray real-life witchcraft (or real-life Satanism, for that matter), more like imagining that witches are what they were believed to be during the Salem witch trials (having the witches on the show connected in a fictionalized way with the real history of the region). That way, the individual witches aren't necessarily good or evil (so we can root for them), but their power DOES come from a place of darkness and servitude to Satan, as was feared by the puritans, and the Salem witch hunts are a feature of the past that is still hanging over the heads of witches in the present, hence their secrecy.

I also don't get the impression the show is denigrating or pushing one religion over another ("Satansim" (a fictionalized version) vs. Christianity) - more like laying the groundwork for themes of rebellion against patriarchal organized religion in general.  (Which is, funnily enough, more in line with real-life Satanism, which is not about evil at all, but about putting rational free thought over superstitious beliefs.)

After all, how do you set up a dichotomy between two religions that BOTH require girls to save their virginity for marriage, call out that practice as patriarchal bullshit, and still try to claim that one of them is right? I get the sense this show is preparing to burn it ALL to the ground!

[rainsmom]

31 minutes ago, Slovenly Muse said:

After all, how do you set up a dichotomy between two religions that BOTH require girls to save their virginity for marriage, call out that practice as patriarchal bullshit, and still try to claim that one of them is right? 

And this right here was the biggest loophole. The whole problem could have been resolved if Sabrina had sex with Harvey. Why no one even noted that bugged me to no end. Because, you know, it's so normal for a 16-year-old girl with a long-time serious boyfriend to not have sex in this day and age.

[starri]

I don't think this is some kind of "repent or burn" story.  I do think, however, that some people involved in making the show had to have grown up with some kind of Fundamentalist Christian background during the Satanic Panic.  All of the imagery is very familiar to me from that.

Mad props to whoever is finding all these obscure words for Zelda to use.  "Pettifogger" apparently means "bad or unethical lawyer," and I can't want to start using it in conversation.

[AngelKitty]

1 hour ago, rainsmom said:

The whole problem could have been resolved if Sabrina had sex with Harvey.

Wait, did they say Sabrina had to be a virgin? Because if they did, I totally missed it. And quite frankly, after the looking for a birthmark scene, I figured virginity was not an issue.

[rainsmom]

1 hour ago, AngelKitty said:

Wait, did they say Sabrina had to be a virgin? Because if they did, I totally missed it. And quite frankly, after the looking for a birthmark scene, I figured virginity was not an issue.

Yep, they did -- in episode 1. Aunt Zelda got very worried that Harvey had ruined Sabrina and stated explicitly that the Dark Lord needed pure pledges. (Not in those words.)

[Slovenly Muse]

1 hour ago, AngelKitty said:

Wait, did they say Sabrina had to be a virgin? Because if they did, I totally missed it. And quite frankly, after the looking for a birthmark scene, I figured virginity was not an issue.

Yeah, it came up in her conversation with Father Blackwell. She was rightly concerned that Satan got to choose what she did with her body (no indication yet if men are also expected to remain virgins). That's what gave the birthmark scene some extra energy - the fact that it was the first time they'd seen each other like that.

 

2 hours ago, rainsmom said:

And this right here was the biggest loophole. The whole problem could have been resolved if Sabrina had sex with Harvey. Why no one even noted that bugged me to no end. Because, you know, it's so normal for a 16-year-old girl with a long-time serious boyfriend to not have sex in this day and age.

I disagree. It shouldn't be our go-to solution that girls should have to sacrifice their right to make decisions for themselves about their bodies and their sexuality (whether it's having sex before they have decided they are ready, or "saving" themselves for someone they don't even know yet) in order to protect themselves from being victimized by patriarchal bullshit. It defeats the purpose. It would be devastatingly unfair if Sabrina had had sex for the very first time with Harvey because her church (or anti-church) forced her into it, not because it was truly her choice. Plus, it still would have been "breach of promise" since she had "promised" herself (virginity and all) to the Dark Lord, so I don't see what that could have done for her besides hasten a "guilty" verdict.

I admire the fact that the show is standing its ground on objecting to the PRINCIPLE of religious over-involvement in women's personal sexual choices, rather than avoiding saying anything about the issue by finding a convenient loophole.

I'm a ways beyond this episode now, and something I'm really enjoying about the show is the way it seems to comment on Christianity and its institutions by slyly ascribing real attributes of the religion (like the expectation of virginity: dictating girls' sexual choices and basing their worth only on what they haven't done) to the fictional Satanic version - which make perfect sense when the religion is "evil," but also forces us to confront the fact that the so-called "good" church does them too.

Edited October 29, 2018 by Slovenly Muse
Adverbs.

[theatremouse]

8 hours ago, roctavia said:

I don't think it's clear if Susie is gay, trans or hetero...  I just assumed the football guys were harassing her because she doesn't look traditionally feminine and doesn't have big boobs. 

At this point I think they're being intentionally ambiguous about Susie. We don't know if she's gay or straight. We don't know if she's trans or nonbinary or genderfluid or just androgynous. I'm kind of confused at this point because in the first episode there was a scene at the beginning with Sabrina and Harvey on one side of a booth and Susie and Roz on the other side, and it looked like Roz's arm was out across the top of the seat, in a not literally arm-around-her way, but that read very couplely to me. So at that point I was pleased at how matter of factly it was presented. But since then I'm less sure if Roz and Susie are a couple or not. 

[vavera4ka]

So why can’t the girl who is going blind read banned book on her own? Is school library the only one in town? Aren’t there personal libraries? Online libraries? Audiobooks? 

do students know they CAN read books other than assigned ones? Or is it that if you didn’t argue about it in class or write a report on it it doesn’t count? 

[CrystalBlue]

I don't understand the banned books either.  Why didn't they just start their own banned books club a la the WICCA club and order from Amazon?  Go to the public library?

Since Sabrina is a witch from her father's side, and her mother was a mortal, it could make sense that her mother wanted the Christian baptism of her infant daughter, "just in case."  Good work, Hilda!

[Slovenly Muse]

2 minutes ago, CrystalBlue said:

I don't understand the banned books either.  Why didn't they just start their own banned books club a la the WICCA club and order from Amazon?  Go to the public library?

That supposes the problem is that they don't have access to the books. It's not. Roz had a copy of "The Bluest Eye" in her hands at the beginning. The problem is that the school is secretly censoring the library, removing books from the shelves that it purports to have available, and dictates which classic works of literature are acceptable for an open-ended book report. The students shouldn't HAVE to travel to another library or spend their own money on books the school library says are available. I agree the resolution was weird, but I was disappointed they ended with a secret book club, and not by continuing to pressure the school to end its paternalistic practice of censorship.

[Miles]

On 27.10.2018 at 9:58 PM, Lebanna said:

Well, I was definitely not expecting this show to be a Christian religious recruiting tool. 'You can only be truly saved if you have been baptized into the one true faith'? Seriously? I hope it leaves the whole 'be Christian or be damned to hell' message behind, or I don't think I'll be watching the rest of it. I had enough of that at school and I don't need it again from my fun Halloween entertainment, thanks. Some of us are other faiths, or none, and we don't need constant preaching to, or just society assuming that Good Person has to mean Christian Person. And that's what I am getting from this show right now. Frankly, if anything I assumed the witches would be Pagan or Wicca or whatever. What is with America's obsession with god v devil and why have the showrunners got it all over a potentially fun spooky witch show? Couldn't we have something else? I quit Supernatual when they did this storyline and that was season 3, so only about ten years ago.

I'm about as atheistic as they come and I don't see anything wrong with this. it's a fictional universe where Satan actually exists, so it stands to reason that god does, too and if god has a claim on your soul, Satan can't have it. I have more of a problem with the fact that other people can sign over your soul. That's generally not how christianity works. Even baptised babies aren't full members of the church yet.

Also nobody said that another diety can't have a claim on your soul. Maybe if Yama has a claim on your soul, Satan can't have it either.

Same goes for Supernatural. Up to the end of season 5 that show was amazing. Sadly fell off a cliff after.

[Chaos Theory]

How did a sixteen year old girl beat Satan in a trial?  Why does that annoy me?  Why am I rooting for Satan?

Harvey is painfully boring which makes it hard for me to root for him and Sabrina.

zelda is hilarious.

On 10/29/2018 at 1:33 AM, vavera4ka said:

So why can’t the girl who is going blind read banned book on her own? Is school library the only one in town? Aren’t there personal libraries? Online libraries? Audiobooks? 

do students know they CAN read books other than assigned ones? Or is it that if you didn’t argue about it in class or write a report on it it doesn’t count? 

It is the principle of the matter.  Why doesn’t a public school carry certain books?  And when schools say they don’t ban books but then sign them out forever it’s kind hinky.  

Edited October 30, 2018 by Chaos Theory

[benteen]

Three episodes in and I have to say I'm disappointed with this show.  I was a big fan of the comics (when they actually still published them and Afterlife with Archie) and I had higher hopes for this series.  The length of these episodes isn't exactly helping.  This show's premise does not justify 60 minute episode lengths.  I really don't like the blurry camera images that the show utilizes more than JJ Abrams uses lens flares.  A show like this should be a visual feast and blurring much of the screen doesn't help that.  Also, if they wanted to do a modern show with modern dialogue, music, technology and an ultra-PC atmosphere, then they should have set the show in 2018 instead of this quasi-1960s landscape. 

Edited October 29, 2018 by benteen

[vavera4ka]

8 hours ago, Slovenly Muse said:

That supposes the problem is that they don't have access to the books. It's not. Roz had a copy of "The Bluest Eye" in her hands at the beginning. The problem is that the school is secretly censoring the library, removing books from the shelves that it purports to have available, and dictates which classic works of literature are acceptable for an open-ended book report. The students shouldn't HAVE to travel to another library or spend their own money on books the school library says are available. I agree the resolution was weird, but I was disappointed they ended with a secret book club, and not by continuing to pressure the school to end its paternalistic practice of censorship.

I understand that, but I was reacting more to "I have 3 months left to read, so I want to read as much as possible, and they banned my book"

If you want to read as much as possible, who cares if the book is banned? Who cares if it's school program? If you are into reading that much (and believe me, I understand. I was attached to a book since I was 3.) you read "allowed" or school program books in between your regular reading.

I guess I don't really understand this problem. I come from a SUPER reading family. My dad built a shelving unit that spanned a whole wall top to bottom so it could hold all the books that didn't fit three other shelving units we already had (one for us kids, one for my grandma, and one for my parents) . If there was a book I wanted to read that was deemed "not suited for kids" I would probably find it on one of the shelves... All my friends borrowed books from us. If we didn't have that book, I'd go to a public library. I guess I'd rather read and let you read my book, than spend time in futile battle with the authorities banning the books from one small library lol

[CrystalBlue]

9 hours ago, vavera4ka said:

I understand that, but I was reacting more to "I have 3 months left to read, so I want to read as much as possible, and they banned my book"

If you want to read as much as possible, who cares if the book is banned? Who cares if it's school program? If you are into reading that much (and believe me, I understand. I was attached to a book since I was 3.) you read "allowed" or school program books in between your regular reading.

I guess I don't really understand this problem. I come from a SUPER reading family. My dad built a shelving unit that spanned a whole wall top to bottom so it could hold all the books that didn't fit three other shelving units we already had (one for us kids, one for my grandma, and one for my parents) . If there was a book I wanted to read that was deemed "not suited for kids" I would probably find it on one of the shelves... All my friends borrowed books from us. If we didn't have that book, I'd go to a public library. I guess I'd rather read and let you read my book, than spend time in futile battle with the authorities banning the books from one small library lol

It's social justice warrioring for the students to demand that books are not banned at the school library.  I thought the idea was to read the books they like, not take over the school and force the library to stock what the students demand.  Next stop . . . the cafeteria?

[rainsmom]

1 hour ago, CrystalBlue said:

It's social justice warrioring for the students to demand that books are not banned at the school library.  I thought the idea was to read the books they like, not take over the school and force the library to stock what the students demand.  Next stop . . . the cafeteria?

This is a school. The books they're asking about are in the canon of literature. The books are in the school's library catalog. The books are supposed to be there. If they weren't supposed to be there, the cards would have been removed from the catalog.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I love that the Baxter High library still has a card catalog!

I've noticed that a lot of British and Australian actors lower the pitch of their voices when they do American accents. It's not quite vocal fry but it's really annoying. Miranda Otto has been doing this as Zelda. In this episode, she let her natural accent peek through a little when she said "Hilder" (instead of Hilda).

I really felt for Roz because going blind is one of my fears (which is not unrealistic given how bad my eyes already are), partly because I have loved reading since I was a little kid.

Poor Harvey. His dad is an ass.

Woooooo for Ambrose getting some (especially since he can't leave the house)! I was disappointed that he didn't get any information out of the lizard before it died, but I was half expecting Luke to come back just to steal it. Please don't make Luke be a dirty double crosser who snuck in just to kill the lizard!

I was afraid that Sabrina's witch's mark would somehow not be visible until they magically made it appear in court or that it would be somewhere hidden like on her scalp underneath all her hair. I wish Sabrina had been more suspicious due to the fact that Faustus kept saying that she HAD to go to the academy but I guess they had to get her to go there eventually.

Zelda's vanity about growing older to the point that she was wearing huge sunglasses and hats inside court in the middle of the night cracked me up.

Part of me feels bad that Hilda was from the church, but considering that in a previous episode, she said that sometimes she imagined burning down the entire forest, maybe it's for the best. I just feel bad that she no longer has the community of her coven because that means now the only peer she has is Zelda, who has no qualms about killing her and burying her in the yard repeatedly. I guess I should just be glad that they didn't take away Hilda's magical powers permanently.

Ha, Daniel Webster! I liked that his last bit of advice to Sabrina was to take advantage of being at the academy to learn everything she could so she could fight back. Yes, there is a pit of fire you can burn in, but he's already living another version of hell knowing that he helped free so many murderers and rapists (including the one who raped his daughter). I was afraid that Voldemort was going to just straight up kill Daniel Webster after the trial was over.

Interesting that Sabrina's mother had her baptized secretly. I guess better safe than sorry when you're dealing with the future of your baby's soul.

The issue with the books was multi-pronged. First, Principal Hawthorne claimed that the school doesn't ban books, but (1) Roz was not allowed to do her book assignment on The Bluest Eye and (2) books in the school library card catalog have been purged to prevent students from reading them. That's akin to saying that the school doesn't ban women's sports but they just don't have any funding or teams even though they have uniforms and equipment that they aren't letting anyone use. Saying that you can go check the book out from the public library or buy it at a store doesn't change the fact that the school is banning books in a sneaky way while claiming that they don't. And even without the library issue, there's the fact that Roz already had a copy of the book she wanted to read but she was told that she wasn't allowed to use it for her assignment.

Sure, there are mature themes in The Bluest Eye, but is reading a book that contains incest/rape worse than reading books about murder (we read The Cask of Amontillado in middle school and The Great Gatsby in high school) or with alcoholic main characters (most Hemingway books)? And let's not forget that one of the great classics that many public school students read, To Kill a Mockingbird, centers around a court case where a woman accuses a man of rape when it was actually her father who had been raping/molesting her for years.

Edited October 30, 2018 by ElectricBoogaloo

[AmandaPanda]

On 10/28/2018 at 11:23 AM, roctavia said:

I don't think it's clear if Susie is gay, trans or hetero...  I just assumed the football guys were harassing her because she doesn't look traditionally feminine and doesn't have big boobs. 

Lachlan Watson is non binary and they intend for the character to be viewed that way as well. There's a really great article in Bustle about the actor. 

[roctavia]

4 hours ago, AmandaPanda said:

Lachlan Watson is non binary and they intend for the character to be viewed that way as well. There's a really great article in Bustle about the actor. 

I should have added a "or anything else on the gender spectrum" in my original comment :) Thank you for the article link. I do think they have done a good job with not labeling Suzie as anything, which I think is better at this point in the story- so we can see the journey and the struggle and not just the cut and dried- here is a lesbian or here is a trans person etc.  

[millennium]

7 hours ago, AmandaPanda said:

Lachlan Watson is non binary and they intend for the character to be viewed that way as well. There's a really great article in Bustle about the actor. 

Thanks for that link.

While Kernan Shipka is adorable, I find myself more impressed by the older actors.   It's good to see middle-aged faces in this show, represented by veteran actors who really know their craft.    Richard Coyle was a perfect choice for Faustus.  I love his Euro-sophisticate delivery.   Michelle Gomez plays her role well but she is upstaged by her fascinating bone structure.  Whenever she's on the screen I find myself gazing at her features and only half-listening to what she's saying.    Miranda Otto also commands attention every time she's in a scene.

Aside from Sabrina, the other teen characters aren't very interesting.   They seem more a formulaic CW assemblage of diversity casting.  After three episodes not one of them has left much of an impression.

[xander874]

I think the episodes do tend to run a bit long. And I just do not get what Wardell is up to. I'm sure it will all make sense at some point, but for now I'm lost (although I am loving MG chew up the scenery).

And on a shallow note, hello Ambrose! Please be shirtless in your underwear more often.

[tennisgurl]

Yeah, I dont at all think this is coming off as some kind of Christian recruitment tool. If anything, having the Satanic witch church be so similar to the Catholic church (the Dark Baptism especially was almost word for word a Catholic baptism) shows how the two are two sides of the same coin, despite what would surely be massive protests on both parts. Plus, its a fantasy show that is clear not trying to show any real kinds of Wicca or Christianity or Satanism or anything like that. Within this universe, signing your name to a church bonds you to that church, so Sabrina was "claimed" by both churches by having two baptisms. Presumably, it would have worked the same at any house of worship, or maybe even something else of faith or importance. Like a magical, pseudo religious legal loophole. I mean, yeah this show is pretty upfront about the Satan stuff, but its hardly the only urban fantasy/magical based show that uses those elements (demons, god, religious relics, etc, just that its normally not this...upfront? 

So everything is coming up Sabrina, huh? She basically gets to have it all, powers, AND freedom, AND her mortal life! Yeah, the Dark Lord is definitely playing the long game on this one. Just what is so important about Sabrina anyway? Something to do with her parents? 

Daniel Webster as the lawyer is great, and made me outrageously happy! I hope we see him again, I want to know more about his backstory with Sabrina's dad!

So Roz is becoming blind and is horrified because...she wont be able to read anymore? So, I know this is kind of a reto style universe, but, I assume Brail is a thing? Or audio books? Going blind is definitely something worth being upset about, its a really big deal, but she seems to be getting upset about a really weird, random thing. I would think that having to change almost every aspect of her lifestyle (driving, clothes shopping, eating) and having to learn to deal with all that would be a bigger deal, but its just...books. I dont hate the stuff with Sabrina's friends or anything, but its way less interesting than the witch stuff. 

[jane1978]

I hope it will get better but so far I don´t think this is a good remake/reboot/whatever. It´s like a weird mix between the comics, 90´s sitcom and some MeToo and girlpower stuff. And I really wish Sabrina was more active. The show is basically her facing some trouble, complaining to Ambrose who comes with some last minute advice, her following that advice, and then letting someone else do all the work, She is not even trying to find a solution herself and she is not shown doing any school stuff except the PC activism. 

That, and her BF is the most wet noodle ever so all the scenes of them canoodling in the woods are extremely boring. It´s just her complaining and him nodding along. They are hinting at some side stories for other characters, but the only interesting is the one with a possible witch hunter. Except the occasional laugh with the aunts and Shipka´s cutenes there is really not much why to tune into the next episode. 

[Cheezwiz]

I've sort of been watching this in a half-interested way, because I do like Kiernan Shipka.

I'm enjoying the set & costume design, and I'm generally just going with the silly flow of the witchy religious aspects, which I don't think bear any resemblance to real life wiccan /pagan or satanic practices. 

Like several others have mentioned, I'm not terribly interested in Sabrina's mortal friends, and am more entertained by the supernatural stuff. I'm looking forward to seeing what she studies at the Academy of Unseen Arts. I think the older actors are doing a great job, with campy fun performances.

Minor quibbles:

Blossoms on the apple trees when it's supposed to be autumn.

Sabrina's aunts: One has a British accent, and one an American accent. Why? Presumably they are the sisters of Sabrina's warlock father, so why is one a Brit and the other an American? Miranda Otto is an Aussie, but surely she could pull off a British accent to keep things consistent. 

Halloween decorations are still up everywhere at school. Haven't we gone past Halloween? Wasn't that Sabrina's birthday mass? Shouldn't we be into November at this point?

Things I like:

Sabrina's cat. The cat is awesome and we need to see it more. I wish I could choose a familiar of my own. RIP lizard.

Ambrose's hilarious alarm clock. I think this is my favourite prop on the show so far.

[rubinia]

As a librarian, my biggest issue was the fact that her school library still had a physical card catalog. WHERE IS YOUR OPAC?!!!

Also, if those books have been "checked out" for that long...just buy new copies for the collection :)

[Anela]

I watched this yesterday morning. I'm usually put off by anything heavily religious, but I actually liked that the one aunt did something that counteracted the plans of the other aunt and the father. I really like her (although the "evil" aunt is growing on me - Miranda Otto). 

I'm liking this more than I thought I would, when I watched the first episode. 

[PrePreBabylonia]

On 2018-10-29 at 10:26 AM, benteen said:

Three episodes in and I have to say I'm disappointed with this show.  I was a big fan of the comics (when they actually still published them and Afterlife with Archie) and I had higher hopes for this series.  The length of these episodes isn't exactly helping.  This show's premise does not justify 60 minute episode lengths.  I really don't like the blurry camera images that the show utilizes more than JJ Abrams uses lens flares.  A show like this should be a visual feast and blurring much of the screen doesn't help that.  Also, if they wanted to do a modern show with modern dialogue, music, technology and an ultra-PC atmosphere, then they should have set the show in 2018 instead of this quasi-1960s landscape. 

I wouldn't call the technology modern. It hit me pretty quickly that none of them have cellphones. That's definitely not 2018, right there. I think that might have been a big reason to push the time frame to a less advanced age. Too easy to avoid many situations if you don't have a smartphone handy.

On 2018-11-08 at 2:59 AM, Cheezwiz said:

I've sort of been watching this in a half-interested way, because I do like Kiernan Shipka.

I'm enjoying the set & costume design, and I'm generally just going with the silly flow of the witchy religious aspects, which I don't think bear any resemblance to real life wiccan /pagan or satanic practices. 

Like several others have mentioned, I'm not terribly interested in Sabrina's mortal friends, and am more entertained by the supernatural stuff. I'm looking forward to seeing what she studies at the Academy of Unseen Arts. I think the older actors are doing a great job, with campy fun performances.

Minor quibbles:

Blossoms on the apple trees when it's supposed to be autumn.

Sabrina's aunts: One has a British accent, and one an American accent. Why? Presumably they are the sisters of Sabrina's warlock father, so why is one a Brit and the other an American? Miranda Otto is an Aussie, but surely she could pull off a British accent to keep things consistent. 

Halloween decorations are still up everywhere at school. Haven't we gone past Halloween? Wasn't that Sabrina's birthday mass? Shouldn't we be into November at this point?

Things I like:

Sabrina's cat. The cat is awesome and we need to see it more. I wish I could choose a familiar of my own. RIP lizard.

Ambrose's hilarious alarm clock. I think this is my favourite prop on the show so far.

I didn't worry about the magical tree/magical orchard. Just another opportunity to practice my suspension of disbelief.

Love Salem as a familiar. I would be very disappointed if I was stuck with a spider or a lizard.

[Chaos Theory]

Not everyone reads alot or has access to books because they come from reading families.  I dated a guy whose family considered books a waste of money.  They either got them from the library or from school.     They 

On 11/9/2018 at 11:25 AM, rubinia said:

Also, if those books have been "checked out" for that long...just buy new copies for the collection :)

When I was in high school I asked about a book that had been checked out my a senior that had graduated two years before me and it still had't been replaced.  The library had a tiny budget.  I don't think ever replaced missing books unless several people put in a request for it.    I don's consider a bunch of kids who like books SJW any more then I would consider them SJW if they asked for new uniforms for girls sports.  

[cleo]

Well late to the show. I don't know whether this show is good or bad but it is entertaining. 

It is way over the top and half of it seems like it's written by someone stuck in 70s feminism.

The other half seems more current lol.

I'm enjoying it, the school stuff is totally boring, agreed. 

I like the evil teacher, love Ambrose. I mean damn. 

I don't like the one aunt being mean or whatever. Just the whole dynamic with her and the sister is off putting to me. Don't enjoy it at all. It's also like- if she was genuinely evil, Sabrina would have noticed and would not treat them the same. 

Also I just find Kiernan Shipka's acting very limited. She has like 3 facial expressions/tones of voice and just recycles them.

The religious aspects on either side don't bother me bc I don't believe in any of it so to me it is all just fantasy. 

Edited April 11, 2021 by cleo