“Coven Academy” premiered on Freeform on Thursday, October 1st as part of the network’s 31 Nights of Halloween, and the first four episodes aired that night. Disney+ and Hulu released the entire season the next day. Tim Federle, the creator of “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series”, built the show around Malina Weissman as Briar Roberts. Briar is a grieving teenager who arrives in New Orleans and learns she is a witch at a school called Crescent Veil. The premiere ends on a vampire twist that changes how you see the first boy Briar meets in town.
This review does two things. It goes through the first Freeform episode beat by beat, then gives an overall read of the rest of what has aired. The episode one beats come from three independent recaps of the broadcast that agree with each other, not from a screener viewing. The overall read of the later episodes comes only from critics who saw the season early, and it describes tone rather than plot. Warning beyond this point there are spoilers for the first episode of “Coven Academy” and the general shape of season 1.
The premiere ends on a vampire twist that changes how you see the first boy Briar meets in town.”
First the structure, because it confuses people. The same season exists in two different cuts. Freeform airs ten TV episodes, and each one is a double-length block made of two or three shorter chapters stitched together. Disney+ and Hulu carry that same material as 21 streaming chapters that run between 10 and 22 minutes each. That is why the first Freeform episode has three titles in its name: “Hex Education / Blood, Sweat, and Fears / Mother of All Secrets”. On Freeform, three more episodes air on October 8th at 9 p.m. Eastern and the final three air on October 15th.
The episode opens on a vampire attack. Three teenage witches from the academy are walking back toward school at night in New Orleans when a group of vampires goes after them. By sunrise the girls are gone. All three recaps open on the same scene and agree that the students are missing, not confirmed dead. ShowSnob adds one more detail that the other two do not mention. Its recap says a newspaper reveals these “random attacks” have been happening across the city for a while. It is a strong cold open because it puts the danger on screen before the heroine even lands.
Briar arrives angry. She is grieving the recent death of her mother and her father has sent her away from Brooklyn to a place called Crescent Veil. Briar believes it is a school for troubled girls and treats the move as a banishment. ShowSnob notes that she walks out of the airport to Olivia Rodrigo’s “Brutal”, which fits her mood exactly. Her driver is Ollie, played by Louis Thresher. He returns her backpack and asks her out on a date. All three recaps describe the same meet-cute and it plays as the one warm moment of her first day.
Her powers show up in the headmistress’s office. Tiffani Thiessen plays Miss Graves, who runs Crescent Veil. Briar’s emotions rise during their meeting and the objects on Graves’ desk start to shake. ShowSnob describes it plainly when it writes that “The knickknacks on her desk begin to shake as Briar’s emotions rage inside of her.” The TV Cave describes the same scene. It is a classic first sign of magic and the show does not waste time getting there. Briar does not yet know what she has done.
Tegan tells her the truth. Ora Duplass plays Tegan, who explains that Crescent Veil is not a school for troubled girls at all. It is a school for witches learning to control their magic. Briar also meets Sasha, played by Jordan Leftwich, whose power lets her pick up on other people. Most descriptions call it reading emotions, though one summary calls it reading minds. Either way it makes Briar distrust her. All three recaps also note that Sasha reacts strangely around Briar in particular, which is the episode’s quietest hook.
Malachi Barton plays Jake, a warlock. He enters the story trying to find the three missing girls from the cold open with a locator spell. ShowSnob and The TV Cave both describe that scene. It ties the vampire attack to the school and gives Briar a reason to care about more than her own grief. Jake also becomes one corner of a love triangle that ScreenRant, which saw the whole season, says starts almost at once. The premiere sets up both boys inside a single hour.
Then comes the twist. Ollie, the charming driver who asked Briar out, is a newly turned vampire. All three recaps agree on that reveal. ComicBasics goes further than the others and describes a vampire leader named Alexander. In its account Alexander says that Ollie should be the one to deal with Briar, and the recap concludes that “Briar is already a target.” That detail appears in only one recap, so treat it as one outlet’s reading of the scene. The TV Cave summed up the hour in its headline as “Briar Gets a Magical Reality Check and One Very Dangerous Crush”.
The premiere works because the twist does real damage. The first person who was kind to Briar in New Orleans is on the wrong side. That turns the meet-cute into a threat after the fact, and it puts an edge on any scene the two share from here on. It also pays off the cold open, since the creatures hunting the academy’s students are now inside Briar’s circle. The weak spot is how much one hour has to carry. Three chapters, a cold open, a headmistress, two new classmates and two boys all compete for room, and Sasha gets the least of it.
Freeform also aired episodes two through four that night. They are titled “Dead Ends / Power Trip”, “Roses Are Red / Pick Your Poison” and “The Scrying Game / Trial by Fire”. No outlet has published an independent recap of any of them yet. So the rest of this review is an overall impression of the season, drawn from critics who watched it early, and it does not describe their plots. Poppednews and Laughing Place both saw all 21 chapters. ScreenRant reviewed all ten episodes, and NexusPointNews saw the first nine.
The overall vibe is a supernatural teen soap that knows exactly what it is. ScreenRant wrote that “The forbidden love triangle between Briar, Jake, and Ollie begins almost instantly, and the raging hormones between all three, as well as the supernatural world, become a danger for all involved.” NexusPointNews describes a season where “Secrets and true natures begin to unravel, personal connections are put to the test, and deadly mistakes are made.” Variety called the show “Intriguing and heartfelt, with sinister elements” in a line from its review. The same line praises how it handles sisterhood, first love and secrets that refuse to stay buried.
The praise is not unanimous on pacing. Laughing Place wrote that “there are several moments in the first season that I wish had been given more room to breathe.” That fits the format, since 21 short chapters leave little time to linger. The ending gets better marks. Poppednews wrote that “The final few chapters bring the main mystery together while still leaving enough open for another season, including a tease of something bigger and darker still out there.” The general read from these early reviews puts the show in the line of “Sabrina the Teenage Witch”, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Wizards of Waverly Place”.
It is pitched at a family audience. Common Sense Media rates it for ages 11 and up, and it carries a TV-PG rating. That guide flags vampires baring fangs, a vampire bar with vials of blood, teen dating and very mild language. It also credits the show for supportive friendships and compares it to “Harry Potter”. Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic have not posted scores yet because too few critics have filed. The show was shot in Vancouver even though it is set in New Orleans, and Devon Sawa joins the cast as a teacher named Mr. Cole.
What Do You Think? Did the Ollie twist land for you, or did you see it coming from the backpack? Are you Team Jake or Team Ollie after one episode? And are you watching week by week on Freeform or did you binge all 21 chapters on Disney+ and Hulu?
See you on the next binge!
