IMDb crashed and deleted my long review, so :'''))) I'm going to keep this short:
I understand why fans of "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" are rating this series so highly, because they think it's a fresh and exciting take, however, this is a poor adaptation of the actual comic this is based on, a horror comic titled "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Moving past the fresh and exciting ideas of the comic, it's not a compelling representation of them.
- This series waters down SO much. In the original comic, there was a heavy emphasis on Sabrina's aunts being cannibals, graphic scenes of Hell and Satanic rituals, nudity and gore were EVERYWHERE. It immediately set a legitimate horror tone for the comic, whereas you never get the feeling in this tv show like something bad might happen to the characters. It feels too "nice" and like an obvious tv production, like Riverdale. There's not the same standard of narrative tension.
-They also jumble up the story wildly (and remove some of the best aspects) from the comic - I assume to stretch it out so they can add them in later. And while you can argue that this is an adaptation and it doesn't need to be the same, the point is that it's not better - in fact, it's less interesting. For an example - this isn't even a spoiler because its not in the show - in the comic, Harvey follows Sabrina to her dark baptism and get murdered/eaten by witches (and then brought back to life through necromancy). But the point of him being there was incredibly important to **certain** decisions for Sabrina, and it's exciting (hello!! murdering the love interest and then necromancy? awesome). But they just cut it out. And the resulting scene is just, less important for her as a character, and its duller
-There are storylines inserted (mainly high school drama ones) that add nothing to the show other than confusing its tone.
-Netflix shows should have the luxury of "showing" not "telling" and allowing for a more cinematic experience. I couldn't count the number of times that people's backstories and personalities were just explained through dialogue instead of showing us.
- There's a couple of problems with continuity, jarring edits and an overuse of short focal length and blur in the cinematography. To me, this plays like something which should have been picked up on in the edit, and been fixed during reshoots (which is a professional standard) but it wasn't.
Overall, there are positives about this series (set design is good, it is also atmospheric in places, and I don't mind the actors), but when you really look at this series, it plays like Riverdale, which is ""okay"" if they're pandering to a younger audience, but this series could have been something GREAT in the vein of more serious adaptations like the Haunting of Hill House. I highly recommend that if you're unsure about what I'm talking about, read the comic series "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina", because it's definitely more arresting than this.
