chillingwithsabrina

[chillingwithsabrina]

Sabrina Spellman

[chillingwithsabrina]

Sabrina Spellman

Sabrina is a high schooler, half mortal-half witch, and lives in Greendale. She’s shown as being a “different” witch, special because of her mixed status. 

In the beginning, her hair is short and blonde, and always pulled back from her face by a black headband. Her clothing consists of fall and winter colors, mostly dark red, olive green, black, blue, and gray. Her style evolves to darker colors as the show goes on, and Sabrina undergoes a transition in the beginning of the series, when her hair changes from blonde to whitish-blonde. After this point, she begins wearing darker clothing and makeup, but maintains her overall look and personality. She is kind, curious, strong, and confident. 

[chillingwithsabrina]

Storyline

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina starts on the day of Sabrina’s 16th birthday, when she is supposed to pledge herself to Satan, signing his book and vowing to follow his rule. Satan is worshiped like God is, and there are churchs and religious schools dedicated to him. Sabrina’s family attends the Church of Knight and she goes to the Academy of the Unseen Arts, where she practices magic and makes friends (or enemies) with the other teenagers there. The issue is that Sabrina is unsure if she will sign Satan’s book, the Book of Night, because that would mean leaving behind her mortal high school and mortal friends. She doesn’t have many ties to the Other Realm when the show starts. She researches the Church while juggling romances and friendships, and learning spells from her aunts and cousin. As the series goes on, Sabrina grows into a powerful witch, discovering secrets about herself, her family, and the church. She realizes she doesn’t want to be a part of the Church as it is, because it’s run by sexist, controlling men. At the end of the second season, she starts reforming the church and new problems and drama come about. 

The show is very serial. Episodes must be watched consecutively in order for the viewer to gain a true understanding and appreciation for the story. 

[chillingwithsabrina]

Sabrina’s bedroom and a woods scene

[chillingwithsabrina]

Tone

Both the wardrobe and set consist of very dark colors. The color pallette mostly consist of fall and winter tones: wine red, burnt orange, olive green, grays, blacks, dark blues, browns. These colors, in conjunction with creepy music create a kind of horror or halloween vibe. The house and Academy for the Unseen arts are gothic, and much of the show takes place in dim woods. The low lighting and sometimes distorted filter add to the dark vibe of the show. CGI and makeup are used to create monsters, demons, and evil witches. Screaming or creepy laughing is audible as well. 

[chillingwithsabrina]

Aunt Hilda, Sabrina, Aunt Zelda

Cousin Ambrose

[chillingwithsabrina]

Family

Both of Sabrina’s parents were murdered by a member of the Church of Night. Her mother was a mortal and he father, a warlock. Sabrina lives with her father’s sisters, Zelda and Hilda. Zelda is very stern, kind of posh and snobby, but has a soft side. She was deeply religious until the corruption of the Church was discovered. She wants to have someone to pray to. 

Aunt Hilda is kind, warm, loving, and compassionate but will do anything for her family. The aunts feud and kill eachother when they’re mad (they can come back to life). 

Cousin Ambrose plays a large part in the show, but he is a young man here. He helps Sabrina with her magic and helps her sneaks behind their aunts’ backs. He is under house arrest for trying to blow some part of the Church headquarters up. 

All of them are hundres of years old. It is revealed in season 2 that Sabrina’s true father is Satan. 

[chillingwithsabrina]

Harvery, Sabrina, and Nick

[chillingwithsabrina]

Love Life

Sabrina starts out with Harvey, a mortal, as her boyfriend but after she leaves mortal high school to study at the Academy of the Unseen Arts and her connection to the Other Realm grows stronger, their relationship falls apart and Sabrina dates a warlock named Nick. 

Harvey dates Sabrina’s friend, Roz, and it seems unlikely that Sabrina will ever be with Harvey again. Nick is kind of shady, and a new love interest comes into play. 

[chillingwithsabrina]

Salem

[chillingwithsabrina]

Salem

Salem in this show is similar to Salem in the original comic. He is Sabrina’s familiar, this time described as a type of demon that can take the form of an animal, and his purpose being to protect Sabrina. He often comes to the resuce in the first season, when Sabrina is still getting a handle on her magic. He appears more in his normal house-cat role in the later seasons, as Sabrina is more experienced. He does not speak out loud, but purs, and Sabrina can understand him. 

[chillingwithsabrina]

Contemporary Issues

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina most often tackles the sexism and chauvinsim within the magical realm. The religious leaders within that community are men who believe that their dominance must be maintained, and that women and girls cannot be in charge. The first two seasons follow Sabrina’s fight against these men. The end of the second season marks dramatic change within the magical community,  as Sabrina overthrows evil warlocks and brings the power into the hands of the witches for the first time in history. 

From the get go, Sabrina challenges incompetent male leadership in the mortal world, using magic to hand out justice and to protect her friends. Later in the series, Sabrina’s friend Theo transitions, and Sabrina works to defend him from transphobia. 

Race is also somewhat central to the main story but the races in question are that of warlocks and mortals. Sabrina consistently experiences ‘racism’ in that sense, seeing as she’s half mortal. It is a very interesting choice that the creators called it racism. I’m not sure how I feel about it. 

It’s clear from the beginning that Sabrina is a passionate activist, determined to defend her friends, but she fails in her allyship to ask the victims of sexism, racism, and transphobia what they actually want. 

Later in the series, she becomes the Queen of Hell, where she takes on the roll of dolling out justice. Throughout the series Sabrina struggles between being a “good” or “evil” witch, learning there is no perfectionism in allyship and justice.