As a half-witch, it's twice as difficult. For Sabrina (Kiernan Shipka), who is nearing her "Dark Baptism", the final pact with the devil, everything comes together - if she bows to the wishes of her aunts Zelda (Miranda Otto) and Hilda (Lucy Davis) and in On Halloween night, signing the "Book of the Beast", she can not return to her old high school in Greensdale. She would have to abandon her clique, her friends, and the sweet boyfriend Harvey (Ross Lynch), who falls in love with his beard.
On the pro side, however, are immortality, magical abilities, the use of magic tricks, flying with or without a broom - the very promising Schmu, the witch-fiction knits for centuries in their stories. Sabrina decides pretty much at the beginning of this new adaptation of the 90s series "Sabrina - Total Verhext" against the pact and for the in between: "I chose both ways or none," explains the protagonist from the off, while classic nocturnal horror house pictures end the second episode of "Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina" (abbreviated "CAOS").
But that's the beginning of the story. Because CAOS, which resembles the stuffy afternoon sitcom only in staff and premise, has a different intention: In the character Sabrina, skilful-savvy and self-consciously embodied by Shipka (Sally Draper in "Mad Men"), it is also about the in between , To the state between teen and adulthood, fish and meat, half-witch and, so are the rules, full-blood witch academy graduate.
Witches help
It's about the fledgling of a young woman in a world equipped with lovely retro horror accessories, but inside is modern: Sabrina's first act is the construction of a student organization with the telling name "WICCA" (old-fashioned English for sorcerers), the against schoolchildren, mobbing and other injustices. The fact that Sabrina the big-mouthed tormentor of her friend Ruth can then only with the help of a few other witches to deal with, makes one think: Do you actually need magic skills to defend himself against brazen macho "mortals"?
Showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Acasa, who also writes for the series "Riverdale", which resembles "CAOS" in setting and composition, strikes a nerve with the new version of Sabrina: one could call the "CAOS" characters - albeit the nonchalantly smelling old cigarette witches with cigarette tweezers , the charming, bisexual cousin Ambrose (Chance Perdomo), Sabrina's obsessive tutor or even her permanently anxious friend Harvey - quite apt to call feminist.
The female power, a topic in many witch myths between 1200 and today, is relished here with relish. Unlike the many other mystery TV hits, such as the fearless vampire hunter "Buffy" or the pretty, well-intentioned witches in "Charmed", the staid sitcoms "In love with a witch" and "Sabrina - totally bewitched", At "CAOS", there is an argument between privileged white men and colorful, modern women.
The carotid blood is splashing
In addition, the series is darker, nerdy and hipper than their precursor in spirit: Here is already getwisted to "Monster Mash" by Bobby Picket, and in a conversation about zombie movies Ruth explains to her friends the symbolism of the undead and epidemics in the film.
The inventors also do not save on fright and splatter moments: With a youthful, already moderately media-literate audience in mind, the creators stage splashing carotid blood and scary decaying creatures hiding in the bedroom at night. For Bibi Blocksberg, Ottfried Preußler and Schrumpelmei-Afficionados the emotional and horror chaos of "CAOS" is absolutely not thought of.
Nevertheless: "CAOS" gives a lot of potential. Too slow, the dramaturgy in motion, too cheeky, unbroken and transparent is the main character, you hardly have fear for them. The assumed media competence of younger viewers allows much more complex and exciting plots. In "CAOS", on the other hand, you have to stay stuck forever, get yourself explained twice and three times, smile away some stale jokes and even stumble over logic errors.
It had worked out in Harry Potter, whose genesis from normal pupil to mega-wizard the way Sabrina is not unlike, but already worked better - in Hogwarts any logical-magical problem was simply wegegrononiert by "special magic rules". And that Sabrina at some point in the fight against the devil consult a lawyer, is almost touching old-fashioned: As if you could ever drive out the Beelzebub with the "advocatus diaboli".
From October 26th on Netflix