Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (138 views)

Pasting my question from a while ago when I was mid-way through this season:


Is there gonna be a thread because I have some thoughts about Chilling Tales of Sabrina. And by 'thoughts' I mean a wall of text, with spoilers.



Overall, I'm digging it. I like the main cast. Whoever said Ambrose would basically take Salem's role was right. I don't even mind anymore that he doesn't 'speak' (out loud). I like the Aunts. I like the friends. Harvey is a bit dull, but whatever.



I'm at episode 4 or 5 I think. Never read the comic, so I didn't know what to expect going in. I'm used to when they have witches in stories (that aren't 100% evil villains/monsters), just having them be magic users with the same capacity for good or evil as regular people. Like Wizard of Oz's good and bad witches. Or even when they make a harder distinction, that distinction is that there is "good" and "bad" magic, like in Harry Potter or something. So I was not expecting them

{Spoiler}to be straight up devil worshipers.







It took me a minute to catch on to that because I didn't expect it. Like, I assumed the "Dark Lord" was some kind of vaguely pagan god or something. I don't think I was hip to the jive until someone literally said, "Hail Satan!".



So then I'm like, ok cool, my grandmother will never watch this particular program. But then I'm waiting for them to do the, but it's not the satan you're thinking of type thing, or make him some kind of cool, chaotic neutral, Lucifer type satan. They already made a Lucifer show for network tv, so the ground is primed for it.



And I'm surprised yet again when the Satan they're all worshiping is a big scary goat man. But then I'm thinking maybe it's a Nightmare Before Christmas or Addams Family situation, where yeah, they're creepy and they're kooky, but y'know don't judge a book by it's cover...But then it seems like this show is following mainstream Christian dogma?? Like, there's no 'yeah it's the devil, but that story didn't go the way you think it went' moment. And it seems like this isn't 'Satan the libertine', or 'Satan as an agent of chaos', or even 'Satan representing your base impulses which can tend towards good or bad'. Even though the high priest was talking all that free-will shit, the dark baptism was literally about submitting your will to a big scary goat man...and y'know, the high priest too.





So I'm feeling odd about it? When witches are explored in media, they usually make some kind of parable about society hating/fearing powerful women and trying to keep them down, or witches as stand-ins for people who are weird or outcasts of some kind. And they pay lip service to that same idea here. But I think it falls apart when your withces aren't misunderstood magical people, but actually do get their power from actual-Satan, and it's not even a 'Satan as a representative of hedonism or free-will' but Satan as the straight-up embodiment of evil. Like, he's a bad person (goat monster) who does bad things, and only bad things.

{Spoiler}Like make a deal with him to be a good lawyer and spend your career representing horrible people. And not, 'people who may not get a fair shake because they are accused of something heinous, or are misunderstood/villainized by society' they're legit guilty and you're helping them avoid just punishment. And you also will be punished for that, because lol Satan ain't loyal.





Like, what is the up side here? You give yourself over to an evil monster who calls on you to do evil things...in exchange for power? How is that...not evil? Not saying anyone deserves to be burned at a stake, but uh...

It also falls apart as a gender studies critique because not only is there the regular-world patriarchy with all its bigotry, there's also a parallel witch patriarchy. And a bunch of strict rules about how you can live your life. Also you have to be a virgin to go through your dark baptism, wtf? What kind of Satan is this?!



The High Priest is very clearly shady. So right now I'm thinking he has somehow warped the witch religion to prop himself up. Which would be a nice parallel to real-world human social movements/religions/anythings, where people in power abuse followers and change things to suit their own needs. Like, even your counter-cultural witch society is not immune to corruption. That's where I'm hoping they go? Otherwise, thematically I'm not sure this makes sense?

It was okay. Ghost kids ep was my fave. Prudence and 'Brina's friends were my favorites. Also Ambrose's fashion choices.

Zelda irritated the sunlights out of me with her religious life. Ambrose is boring. Salem not being sass king was a huge letdown and I think he could've give the comedy punch or dark humor this show desperately needed.

I was desperate that WICCA was a huge deal in one episode and then it wasn't. Scratch was a bore also, also Blackwood.

I was really surprised we didn't find out anything about Sabrina's parents. It was glaringly obvious they didn't die in an accident.

I'm watching now. I'm on episode 9. Sabrina causes SO MANY PROBLEMS and gets away with it all while being incredibly hypocritical.

Like wow you deserve to have your soul sold to Satan.

Harvey isn't as aesthetically pleasing in this show as he was in the first one but he's still such a good boy™️

Ambrose has terrible fashion sense but also great sense of fashion