Forget ‘Agatha All Along,’ This 21-Episode Masterpiece Fantasy Is the Perfect Replacement

Published Oct 6, 2026, 9:43 PM EDT

Amanda M. Castro is a Network TV writer at Collider and a New York–based journalist whose work has appeared in Newsweek, where she is an Associate Editor, and The U.S. Sun, where she previously served as a Senior Consumer Reporter.

She specializes in network television coverage, delivering sharp, thoughtful analysis of long-running procedural hits and ambitious new dramas across broadcast TV. At Collider, Amanda explores character arcs, storytelling trends, and the cultural impact of network series that keep audiences tuning in week after week.

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Amanda is bilingual and holds a degree in Communication, Film, and Media Studies from the University of New Haven.

If Agatha All Along left you wanting another supernatural series to disappear into, Coven Academy makes a convincing case for your next magical obsession. The new drama series from Freeform features witches, vampires, warlocks, plenty of secrets, and a lot of teenage romance, but its real highlight is a relationship between three young girls who learn to form their own coven.

Created by Tim Federle, best known for High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, Coven Academy takes place in a boarding school for witches and warlocks situated in New Orleans, where students learn to use their powers. The pilot aired on Freeform during Halloween programming before later being released in parts on Disney+ and Hulu. And while that unusual format takes some getting used to, a surprisingly substantial story hides inside those short episodes.

What Is ‘Coven Academy’ About?

Image via Freeform

The plot kicks off with Briar Roberts (Malina Weissman), a defiant girl living in Brooklyn who is haunted by the death of her mother. Her father decides to send her to Crescent Veil Academy in New Orleans, a so-called school for troublesome girls. Briar soon finds out that Crescent Veil Academy functions as a training school for witches and warlocks, which means she herself is one of them.

Briar doesn’t exactly embrace her new circumstances; she’s angry, suspicious, and determined to find out what really happened to her mother. Unfortunately for her, Headmistress Emma Graves (Tiffani Thiessen) isn’t particularly interested in giving her straightforward answers. Graves knows far more about Briar’s family than she’s willing to reveal, leaving the teenager with another mystery to solve alongside her mother’s death.

Her first real allies are Sasha Baptiste (Jordan Leftwich) and Tegan Kimball (Ora Duplass), two witches whose personalities and abilities couldn’t be more different. Sasha is an empath who can manipulate minds and has little patience for dishonesty, while Tegan can bend time and brings a much-needed burst of chaotic energy to the group. Their friendship doesn’t happen overnight, however. In fact, Briar and Sasha clash almost immediately, but their friction eventually develops into one of the show’s most compelling relationships.

Three Witches, One Very Complicated Coven

Image via Freeform

Coven Academy's heart is its central trio. Briar is the hot-headed outsider, Sasha is the moral center, and Tegan is the unpredictable optimist — their differences could easily have turned them into familiar genre archetypes, but the series gives each girl enough emotional baggage to make their evolving friendship feel consequential.

Briar’s search for answers about her mother drives much of the supernatural mystery, while Sasha has to decide whether her initial distrust is justified, and Tegan is learning how to navigate a world that doesn’t always know what to do with her particular way of thinking. Together, they form a balance that works because none of them has it completely figured out.

To complicate matters, there are, of course, boys. Malachi Barton plays Jake Dawson, a fearless young warlock whose mystical abilities mask a deeper need for recognition. Louis Thresher plays Ollie, a vampire with a turbulent past marked by blood and violence. Briar’s interest in both boys provides a well-known YA love-triangle twist to the plot, and it also raises the bigger question regarding Briar’s self-acceptance or denial.

At the same time, adults have their own stories. Graves has a history at the academy that stretches back decades, while Devon Sawa’s Mr. Cole provides a more relaxed presence among the warlocks. The result is a magical world that feels bigger than whatever mystery drives the current episode.

‘Coven Academy’ Is the Perfect ‘Agatha All Along’ Follow-Up

Image via Freeform

Agatha All Along and Coven Academy grasp that supernatural tales become more interesting when they feature complicated people. However, while Agatha shows the darker comedy and dynamic of a strange crew, Coven Academy looks at witchcraft through the prism of teenage friendship, first love, mourning, and identity issues.

Federle has mentioned inspiration sources such as Charmed, The Craft, Hocus Pocus, Dawson’s Creek, and The Vampire Diaries, and the series’ influence shows throughout. Coven Academy offers a cozy mythology of the magical coven, the dark danger of unnatural creatures, the melodrama of teenage love affairs, and a mystery that draws characters deeper into the academy's history.

The 21-chapter format is arguably the show’s biggest weakness. Episodes can run as little as 10 minutes, which sometimes makes major developments feel abruptly interrupted just as the story gains momentum, but that structure also makes Coven Academy remarkably easy to binge. Taken together, the chapters amount to several hours of serialized supernatural drama rather than a collection of disposable shorts. This show taps into the same reason supernatural television remains so irresistible: give us a strange world, a dangerous mystery, a handful of complicated characters, and a group of people who have no choice but to become a family.

Coven Academy