Common Sense Media Review
By Joyce Slaton
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Supernatural violence in dark, appealing teen witch tale.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 11+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
Coven Academy
What's the Story?
When Briar's (Malina Pauli Weissman) life blows up after her mom is murdered in a mysterious incident on the NYC subway, she's summoned to New Orleans and what she believes is a school for troubled girls: COVEN ACADEMY. But this is no mere therapeutic institution; this is a school for witches, run by powerful witch Miss Graves (Tiffani Thiessen) who ensures that young witches and warlocks can use their powers to keep themselves and the world safe from evil beings. With the help of her new friends Tegan (Ora Duplass), Sasha (Jordan Leftwich), and Jake (Malachi Barton), Briar hopes to wield her magical powers to find out what happened to her mother, and set her world to rights again.
Is It Any Good?
With cute teens at a magical academy involved in a secret otherworldly battle between supernatural creatures, this series has a gender-flipped Harry Potter-esque appeal. Coven Academy has magic battles, incantations, school uniforms that include cloaks, secrets shrouded in history, and regular ol' romances complicated by ancient rivalries; in other words, a lot of mystic baggage is attached to the central murder mystery that anchors the series. Sarcastic and resentful yet relatable, Malina Pauli Weissman as Briar makes a fine entry point into a world of witches, warlocks, vampires, werewolves, and other uncanny creatures. She's on a hero's journey to find out what happened to her mom, and how her own history is connected both with the school and with a potentially cataclysmic clash between, as the show says, creatures of the night and creatures of the light (yes, there's a lot of rhyming at Coven Academy).
Like most heroes, Briar has special powers not available to her classmates; also like most heroes, she needs to undergo trials accompanied by loyal friends to access them. Tegan and Sasha, assigned by the academy to be part of Briar's coven, make eager helpmates; their blossoming sisterhood group is definitely part of Coven Academy's appeal. As Miss Graves says tells them: "On your own, you can be formidable; as a trinity, a coven, you can be unstoppable." And Coven Academy taps into a common and powerful fantasy for those who feel less-than: Somewhere out there, there is a place and people who will appreciate exactly who you are and will help you become all that you can be. So though the magical trappings of Coven Academy may sometimes feel overly familiar to viewers who've experienced similar ones in the Harry Potter universe, or in teen-girl witch narratives like Wednesday or The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Coven Academy can cast a spell.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how supernatural powers have been portrayed on television and in movies. Are the people with powers depicted as heroic? Monstrous? Why does it vary, and what does this say about what the supernatural represents to us?
Why is it important that Briar is young? How would this story change if she were an older character? What's interesting or special about youth, and why is it so often the center of drama? What types of stories make sense for young characters and not older ones?
Have you seen other stories in which a character suddenly realizes they have powers and must use them for a special purpose? How is Coven Academy similar to or different from these stories? Why do so many narratives involve characters with supernatural powers?
TV Details
- Premiere date : October 1, 2026
- Cast : Malina Pauli Weissman , Ora Duplass , Tiffani Thiessen
- Networks : Disney+ , Freeform
- Genre : Drama
- Topics : Fantasy ( Magic , Monsters , Vampires ) , School ( High School )
- Character Strengths : Courage , Teamwork
- TV rating :
- Last updated : September 29, 2026
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