The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: Magic, witches, warlocks, and err, orgies…

Kiernan Shipka, left, and Michelle Gomez in “The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina,” on Netflix.

Sabrina debuted in September 1996 — one of the decade’s funniest and most real teen shows. Melissa Joan Hart, already familiar from Clarissa Explains It All For You, lived her so-called life with a couple of Lilith Fair-era feminist aunties and the gayest cat in TV history.

Fast forward…

And we get to “The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” which is frequently chilling, and dark, anguish adventure of growing up in two worlds. Netflix’s new spin on the lore of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, starring Kiernan Shipka (“Mad Men”) as our spooky heroine, gets off to a spellbinding start, dwindles in the middle over 10 episodes but becomes a pleasant surprise by the last episode

When we meet Sabrina Spellman, she lives in Greendale – site of a Salemesque witch hunt back in the day – with her fabulous aunts, Hilda (Lucy Davis) and Zelda (Miranda Otto), as well as her charming cousin Ambrose (Chance Perdomo), who is under house arrest.  This Sabrina has long been aware of her heritage, and she’s carefully crossing days off her calendar, and is preparing for her Dark Baptism on her 16th birthday.

And yet Sabrina is rushed, mostly by her Aunt Zelda, as well as the High Priest, Father Blackwood (Richard Coyle), both of whom are eager for Sabrina to join the coven. Surprisingly (and thankfully) that’s not a story that gets stretched out the length of a season, but one of this enthralling series’ very first predicaments. It’s the start of Sabrina’s adventures, not the end, as she finds a way to honor both her mortal and supernatural heritage.

It’s hard being a teenager these days. Or whatever days “Sabrina” is set in: The show has a ’50s retro aesthetic, from the cars to the town, but modern sensibilities about feminism, gender expression and the costs of serving as Satan’s handmaid.

The Devil isn’t just in the details here; he’s everywhere, with his clomping hooves and goat head, wreaking gruesome havoc and dispatching his servants to torture and coerce Sabrina into falling in line.

But Sabrina doesn’t want to submit to baptism, and she doesn’t want to sign her life over to the Dark Lord. She’s only half a witch (on her father’s side), and she wants to stay in the ordinary world, in her ordinary school, alongside her doting boyfriend, Harvey (Ross Lynch), and her spunky besties, Roz (Jaz Sinclair) and Susie (Lachlan Watson). Once you enlist in Satan’s service, you can’t have silly sleepovers anymore and a new life beckons, starting with a new witchy life at the Academy for Unseen Arts.

One theme which runs at the core of Sabrina throughout its flawed, stylish, thrilling first season: Is magic a tool of empowerment for women? Or is it just another trap?

Everything ultimately works, including the series’ excellent pacing. If you dare to look away or glance at your phone, you might miss something pivotal, and yet, the show never feels like it’s burning through plot.

The overarching question is whether Sabrina will ultimately choose the Path or Light or of Night?

Sabrina, though, is unabashedly a hero. She fights for justice and equality like a superhero, because honestly, who but a 16-year-old would have the moxie to call out the Devil and defy him?

STANDOUT CHARACTER:

Things only really come alive – and how could they not? – when the ever-magnificent Michelle Gomez strides on screen as Sabrina’s mousy teacher, now possessed by a demon bent on visiting hell on Sabrina because her father married a mortal. She sways about the series with the sort of cool, bemused bravado we saw in her past Doctor Who performances.

And the aforementioned Davis and Otto really ground the series as Sabrina’s aunts, but not without their own distinct personalities, even though they share a bedroom. (Really. We think it’s weird, too.)

FLAW OF THE SHOW:

That’s true right down to its animals, like Salem, Sabrina’s familiar, with whom she communicates. But in this harrowing version, lovely little Salem doesn’t actually speak, as in previous 90s series (at least, not that we can hear), but he remains an important part of the story, as do all of Sabrina’s characters.

CONCLUSION:

By the second episode of Netflix’s The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Culturedemandsgeeks was all in on the show. Not because it’s perfect, which it’s not; Sabrina can be clumsy and messy, and over the course of its 10-episode first season, it never quite figures out how to establish a tone and stick to it.

But…

As for that darker side to Sabrina, there are some genuinely spooky moments and decent jump-scares within the series, but not enough to chase away the horror-averse. The ingredients for a spellbinding show are all there: a blood curse hints that her parents did not die in an accident as she’s been told. The academy’s mean girls (the Weird Sisters) apparating in the forest to warn Sabrina of the world of new-plain-girl pain that awaits her. Magical hallucinations, a witch-hunter on the move, oh, and let’s not forget… sordid orgies!

This superb Chilling Adventures is the first version that’s an outright horror story. Showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa takes the Archie Comics milieu and gives it a dark and edgy makeover, as he did on the CW’s fabulously lurid Riverdale.

The show is not for kids of a certain age but suited for mature teens and above. Good news (The series has already been picked up for Season 2), which sees Sabrina and her friends take on issues as varied as bullying and demonic possession in both the human and witch realm.

4/5 STARS