KSUN · 19.81 · The New Sun · essay ·
October Country
A witch's sixteenth birthday, a teacher in a cardigan, a church turned inside out, and a new Halloween tradition at our house.
Christmas at our house has its shows. Rudolph comes out, and so do Charlie Brown and Snoopy. Now Fran does, too, with The Christmas Setup. Halloween never had one. Aldo and I just started Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, thirty-six episodes are in the queue, and we're thinking it could become our October tradition. This is a post about why, written one episode in.
The show ran on Netflix from 2018 to 2020, four parts in all. Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa developed it from the Archie Horror comic, and it has almost nothing to do with the sitcom from the nineties. The first episode is called "October Country," the title of Ray Bradbury's 1955 book of dark stories, and the show lives up to the name.
Sabrina
Sabrina Spellman is half witch, half mortal, and she turns sixteen on Halloween. That night she's supposed to sign her name in the Book of the Beast and give up her mortal life: her school, her friends, her boyfriend Harvey. She lives with her two aunts, Hilda and Zelda, who run the town mortuary, her cousin Ambrose, who isn't allowed to leave the house, and a cat named Salem who isn't a cat.
Kiernan Shipka (Sally Draper on Mad Men) plays her, and the acting is spot on. Sabrina wants both of her lives and won't be told she has to pick, and Shipka makes her stubborn and scared in the same scene. The character is complicated, and I believe her.
The aunts
Hilda and Zelda are sisters and opposites. Zelda is Miranda Otto (Éowyn in The Lord of the Rings). She's tall and severe, devout in the Church of Night, never far from a cigarette, and she runs the house like a headmistress. Hilda is Lucy Davis (Dawn at the reception desk in the British Office). She's soft where Zelda is sharp, fond of mortals, quick with the kettle, and she couldn't be sweeter. I'm on Hilda's side every time.
Ms. Wardwell
For me, though, the star is Ms. Wardwell. She's Sabrina's English teacher at Baxter High, in cardigans and glasses, and something about her isn't right. I know what it is, and I'm not saying.
Michelle Gomez (Sue White in Green Wing, Missy in Doctor Who, later Madame Rouge in Doom Patrol) plays her. She was born in Glasgow, and once you've seen her you don't mistake her for anyone else. In every one of those parts she looks like she's having more fun than anyone else in the room, and she's just so fun to watch.
In Sabrina she does it with her whole body. Every pose is held, every expression a few degrees past where a normal person would stop, with a smile that arrives a beat late. And she gets the lines. "When will the world learn? Women should be in charge of everything."
The Academy
Across the woods from Baxter High is the Academy of Unseen Arts, where witches and warlocks go to school, and running it is Father Blackwood, High Priest of the Church of Night. He just made his first appearance and he's so good. Richard Coyle (Jeff in Coupling) plays him, and none of that comes with him. Blackwood is courteous and cold, and he talks about the Dark Lord the way a bishop talks about the diocese budget.
Then there are the Weird Sisters, Prudence, Agatha and Dorcas, three orphans raised at the Academy who move as a unit and finish each other's threats. Tati Gabrielle plays Prudence, the leader, with Adeline Rudolph as Agatha and Abigail Cowen as Dorcas. They're cruel and funny and a bit sad, and the show gets the mix just right.
Power and freedom
The show is about women and power, and it says so in the first hour. Some boys at Baxter High have been tormenting Sabrina's friend Susie, and Sabrina asks the Weird Sisters for help. The four of them lure the boys down into the old mines and teach them a lesson. Afterward the witches talk. Prudence tells Sabrina that a witch can have power or freedom, and the Dark Lord won't let her have both. Sabrina asks why. Prudence says, "He's a man, isn't he?"
That idea runs through every woman in the show. Zelda keeps the house in order. Hilda keeps it kind. Ms. Wardwell thinks women should be in charge of everything. Sabrina won't choose between her two lives, and she wants to know why she should have to.
The other church
The thing I'm looking forward to most is the mirror-image church. The show takes every familiar piece of ritual and doctrine and reverses it. A Dark Baptism instead of a christening. A Book of the Beast to sign instead of a Bible to swear on. A High Priest with vestments and an office and opinions about the young. The faithful greet each other with praise for the Dark Lord the way a congregation says good morning.
All of it is played straight, with full commitment and no tongue in cheek. The Church of Night has the same politics as any other church, one set of rules for women and another for men, the same old men deciding, and because the cast takes it seriously, so do you. It's brilliant.
Next October
I've seen the whole thing before, I remember how it ends, and I loved where it ended up. None of that goes here. We're one episode in. When we've finished all thirty-six I'll come back and write the rest, Ms. Wardwell included.