Honestly, if you grew up with the bubbly, neon-colored Melissa Joan Hart version of Sabrina, clicking play on the Netflix reboot was a total system shock. No bright kitchens. No laugh tracks. Just a lot of blood, goat-headed demons, and a house that doubled as a mortuary. It was weird. It was dark. And for a few years, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina was basically the only thing anyone wanted to talk about on Friday nights.
But then, it just... stopped.
The show didn't just end; it imploded. We got four "parts" (don't call them seasons, apparently) and a finale that still makes fans want to throw their laptops across the room. There’s a lot of noise about why it vanished and whether the "dark" take actually worked. Most people think it was just a victim of the "Netflix Three-Season Curse," but the reality is a bit more tangled than that.
The Greendale Shift: Not Your Mama’s Spellman
When Sabrina Teenage Witch Netflix first dropped in 2018, it wasn't trying to be a sitcom. It was chasing that Riverdale energy—which makes sense since Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa ran both. But where Riverdale was a fever dream of bear fights and organ harvests, Sabrina leaned into the "satanic panic" aesthetic of the 60s.
Kiernan Shipka’s Sabrina was different. She wasn't just worried about her chemistry test; she was worried about signing her soul away to the Dark Lord in a blood ritual.
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The show lived in this bizarre, timeless bubble. One minute Harvey is using a rotary phone, and the next, someone mentions a laptop. It felt like a dream. Or a nightmare. Depending on how you feel about spiders.
What Actually Changed?
The biggest pivot from the 90s show wasn't just the gore. It was the mythology. In the original, magic was a wacky tool for fixing high school drama. On Netflix, magic was a religion—The Church of Night. This wasn't "Wicca" in the modern sense; it was full-on devil worship with a side of cannibalism.
- The Aunts: Miranda Otto’s Zelda was terrifying. Lucy Davis’s Hilda was the only one with a pulse. Their dynamic was less "loving guardians" and more "cult members with a complicated sisterly bond."
- Salem: This was the biggest heartbreak for 90s kids. The cat didn't talk. Well, he talked once in a goblin form, but that was it. No snarky one-liners. Just a lot of staring.
- Ambrose: Cousin Ambrose (Chance Perdomo) was the breakout. Stuck under house arrest for trying to blow up the Vatican? Iconic.
The Controversy That Killed the Vibe
It wasn't all aesthetic and spells. The show hit some serious turbulence around Part 3. The writers started leaning heavily into the musical numbers. Look, nobody asked for a cheerleading routine to "Mickey" in a show about the literal apocalypse. It felt like the show was losing its identity, trying to be Glee with pentagrams.
Then there was the ending.
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If you haven't seen it, brace yourself. Sabrina dies. She actually dies. And then, her boyfriend Nick Scratch commits suicide to "be with her" in the afterlife. People were furious. It was marketed as this romantic Romeo and Juliet moment, but it felt incredibly irresponsible. To take a show aimed at teenagers and frame suicide as a romantic "happily ever after" in a white-walled room called The Sweet Hereafter? Yeah, that didn't go over well.
Why Did Netflix Actually Cancel It?
Netflix is notoriously tight-lipped. They don't release "ratings" like cable TV. But we can read between the lines.
Usually, by season four, the cost of production for these shows skyrockets. The actors want raises. The sets get more expensive. If the viewership isn't growing—which it wasn't, thanks to the weird tonal shifts in the later parts—Netflix pulls the plug. They'd rather spend that money on a brand-new show that might bring in new subscribers than keep an expensive one on life support for a shrinking fan base.
Also, COVID-19 played a massive role. The pandemic hit right as things were getting shaky. Producing a show with big casts and complex special effects became a logistical nightmare in 2020.
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The Riverdale Connection (The Crossover We Deserved?)
Fans spent years begging for a crossover. We finally got one, but it was... underwhelming. Sabrina showed up in Riverdale Season 6 to help out with some witchy business, confirming they exist in the same universe. It gave us a tiny bit of closure, suggesting she didn't stay "dead" forever, but it felt like a band-aid on a bullet wound.
The comics are actually where the "real" story lives if you want the hardcore stuff. The Chilling Adventures comic book is way darker than the show ever dared to be. We're talking Sabrina's dad being a literal monster and the horror elements being turned up to eleven.
Is It Still Worth the Binge?
Despite the mess of the final act, Part 1 and Part 2 are genuine masterpieces of modern horror-fantasy. The production design is gorgeous. The Academy of Unseen Arts feels like a gothic Hogwarts.
If you're going to watch it, do it for the atmosphere. Watch it for Tati Gabrielle’s performance as Prudence—honestly, she carried the show on her back half the time. Just maybe skip the singing parts and prepare yourself for an ending that’s more "frustrating" than "chilling."
What to do if you’re a Sabrina fan:
- Read the Comics: If you hated the ending, the original graphic novels by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Robert Hack are a totally different beast.
- Watch 'The Craft' or 'Yellowjackets': If you liked the "teen girls with dark secrets" vibe, these are the spiritual successors.
- Check out the 90s Sitcom: If the Netflix version left you feeling too grim, go back to the 90s. It’s on Hulu and it’s basically a warm hug in TV form.
The legacy of Sabrina Teenage Witch Netflix is complicated. It tried to be everything—a feminist manifesto, a horror movie, a teen drama, and a musical. It didn't always stick the landing, but it was never boring. And in a world of cookie-cutter streaming shows, that’s gotta count for something.