Kiernan Shipka in "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina." Photo: Diyah Pera/Netflix

By Kristi Turnquist | The Oregonian/OregonianLive

With a cast led by "Mad Men" standout Kiernan Shipka, source material loved by nostalgic "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" fans, and a Halloween-ish Oct. 26 streaming release, Netflix clearly wants viewers to binge-watch "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina."

But, as is often the frustrating case with Netflix series, you’d better be patient if you’ve got a “Sabrina” binge planned. For all that’s creepy-good about the series – Shipka, some members of the supporting cast, the dark and foggy woods – “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” isn’t as much fun as it could be.

Let's get one fact out of the way first. "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" may also be inspired by the Sabrina character introduced in Archie Comics. But "Sabrina the Teenage Witch," the 1996-2003 series based on the comics, was a sitcom, complete with a talking black cat.

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Kiernan Shipka, Lucy Davis and Miranda Otto. Photo: Diyah Pera/Netflix

By contrast, "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" is meant to be spooky, and remind us of "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Exorcist." Netflix publicity doesn't mention it, but another obvious parallel is "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," in which a spirited high school student learned she had tremendous vamp-killing powers, a skill Buffy eventually reveals to her fast-talking, wisecracking friends.

"Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" comes from the creative team that gave us "Riverdale," which takes Archie, Jughead, Betty and Veronica and the gang out of the sunny world of the comics and plops them down in a dark, "Twin Peaks"-style setting.

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Which means the atmosphere is more horror-noir than sitcom-bright as we meet Sabrina Spellman (Shipka), who knows she’s half-witch and half-mortal. With her 16th birthday approaching, Sabrina realizes it’s time for her to have her “dark baptism” into full witchhood, a ritual that involves signing her name in the Book of the Beast, and pledging her loyalty to the Dark Lord, aka Satan.

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Miranda Otto and Lucy Davis. Photo: Diyah Pera/Netflix

Sabrina doesn't want to tell her boyfriend, Harvey (Ross Lynch), about her witch status, or the history of witches in their hometown, Greendale. So she keeps the dark baptism stuff to herself, saying instead she needs to celebrate her 16th birthday with her aunts, Zelda (Miranda Otto) and Hilda (Lucy Davis).

The show wastes a lot of time in the first three episodes, establishing that Sabrina doesn’t want to leave her friends at Baxter High and attend the Academy of Unseen Arts, where Harry Potter and Hermione – er, make that young witches – learn about supernatural matters.

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Michelle Gomez, Lachlan Watson, Jaz Sinclair, Kiernan Shipka and Ross Lynch. Photo: Courtesy of Netflix

As the plot slowly unfolds, we find out that Sabrina’s pals, Rosalind (Jaz Sinclair) and Susie (Lachlan Watson), have some secrets of their own. Unfortunately, their secrets don’t make them all that interesting.

The period is meant to be present-day, and Ros leads her friends in starting a woke-as-all-get-out school group called – sigh – the “Women’s Intersectional Cultural and Creative Association,” or “WICCA.” Get it? But one of the more appealing aspects of “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” is its sense of being out of time, with vintage sedans and Sabrina’s retro wardrobe (which echoes the circa-‘60s Sally Draper ensembles Shipka sported in “Mad Men”).

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Richard Coyle and Kiernan Shipka. Photo: Diyah Pera/Netflix

Though the series gets better near the end, “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” takes too long to get there, clocking in at a total of 10 roughly one-hour episodes. Characters boringly blather on about the Dark Lord, Father Blackwood (Richard Coyle), the Church of Night, the witches who died back in 1692, the forbidden love of Sabrina’s now-dead parents, and so many coven rules and regulations it sounds like the most restrictive condo board imaginable.

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Kiernan Shipka. Photo: Courtesy of Netflix

Shipka is sympathetic and watchable, but her Sabrina is written as a one-note wonder, staunchly devoted to her dull-as-paint boyfriend, and making a worthwhile but underbaked feminist point of resisting becoming the Dark Lord’s pawn.

Otto is definitely overqualified for the role of Sabrina’s controlling aunt Zelda. Davis, who fans of the British original “The Office” will remember as Dawn (the role that became Jenna Fischer’s Pam in the U.S. version), adds a few sparks of humor as Hilda, the more maternal of the aunts raising the orphaned Sabrina.

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Kiernan Shipka and Ross Lynch. Photo: Diyah Pera/Netflix

And there’s a black cat as Salem, Sabrina’s familiar, who doesn’t talk, but is a sleek beauty and deserves more camera time.

While the season-ending episode points to more intriguing story possibilities, “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” is, for most of Season 1, not quite enough. It’s not scary enough, not funny enough and the characters could all use some fleshing out.

“Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” has already been renewed for Season 2. Maybe that will add some much-needed dynamic forward motion, and more reasons to watch.

“Chilling Adventures of Sabrina” streams on Netflix beginning Friday, Oct. 26 on Netflix.

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