In the new Freeform/Disney+ series Coven Academy, three teenage witches form a coven that learns to control their powers and work together.
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that → form → powers
And they need to do that because it seems that New Orleans is under threat from vampires and… maybe even worse monsters?
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Orleans → need → vampires
Three teenage girls are out for a night, and a young man tells them to “stay safe.”
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man → tell → them
It turns out he’s a vampire, and he leads an attack on the girls, who go to a “coven academy” for witches and warlocks.
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who → turn → witches
Briar (Malina Weissman) is a new student at the Crescent Veil Academy, and when she goes into the office of the headmistress, Ms. Graves (Tiffani Theissen), she has no idea why she’s there.
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she → go → idea
Graves talks to her about how she got in trouble back home in Brooklyn, and when Briar gets ticked off at Graves, she unleashes some powers she didn’t even know she had.
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she → talk → powers
She’s about to be attacked outside when a new classmate named Tegan (Ora Duplass) leads her through a secret entrance.
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classmate → ’ → entrance
Tegan introduces Briar to Sasha (Jordan Leftwich), and Briar quickly finds out that Crescent Veil is a magic school, with witches and warlocks like Jake (Malachi Barton) as students.
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Veil → introduce → students
For instance, Tegan can rewind time, and Sasha can read people’s feelings.
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Sasha → rewind → feelings
The warlocks are trying to organize to find the three missing students that they think were attacked by vampires.
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they → try → vampires
Sasha thinks there’s something that Briar is hiding, and she’s right: Briar’s mom was murdered a year prior, and her killer hasn’t been caught yet.
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killer → think → that
Sasha, on the other hand, is gushing over the fact that Ollie (Louis Thresher), who drove Briar to the school, is so good-looking.
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who → gush → school
But no one knows exactly why Ollie is interested in Briar.
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Ollie → know → Briar
What Shows Will It Remind You Of?
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It → remind → You
Created by Tim Federle, The Coven Academy feels like a combination of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and Wednesday.
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Academy → create → Sabrina
Coven Academy feels like it’s Freeform’s (and by extension, Disney+’s) first attempt at a microdrama.
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it → feel → microdrama
The 21 episodes are between 12 and 18 minutes long (without commercials), and each episode tries to end on some sort of cliffhanger.
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episode → try → cliffhanger
But the show suffers a bit from what looks like a limited budget and a veteran actor who spends a lot of time trying to find the right tone for her character.
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who → suffer → character
What we liked was the chemistry between the developing “coven,” which in the world of this show is a group of three witches.
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which → like → witches
Weissman, Duplass and Leftwich work well together, even at the start when the bond between them is tenuous.
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bond → work → them
We even get a picture of Ollie, who works for a hybrid vampire-witch named Tamora (Keegan Connor Tracy), but doesn’t want to drink human blood.
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who → get → blood
But we have an issue with a particular performance….
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we → have → performance
We know that Tiffani Theissen is a good actor; she has almost 40 years of screen credits that prove that.
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that → know → that
But she has a hard time getting a hold of just who Ms. Graves is in the first few episodes; we don’t believe her as a stern taskmaster, and the warmth that is Theissen’s hallmark takes time to reveal itself.
Parting Shot: We find out that Ollie is being tasked with drawing in Briar for his boss Tamora.
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Ollie → have → boss
Though there are moments during the first few episodes of Coven Academy that felt a bit stiff or featured CGI that felt unfinished, the quick pace of the episodes and the chemistry among the leads keeps things fun and interesting.
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pace → be → things
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie.
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he → write → himself
His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
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writing → appear → Times
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