Label Volunteer, Isaac Cave is back with his views on part two of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.
A while back, I reviewed the first part of this series starring everybody’s favourite half mortal half witch, Sabrina Spellman and summarised it as a delightfully entertaining show with well-rounded characters and gothic settings. So, when part two showed up on my Netflix recommendations, I was thrilled to see how the characters would develop in the next chapter of the story. Unfortunately, my uncharacteristic optimism was dashed by the last episode and it’s a shame to say that part two of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina isn’t very good.
The main vexing issue with part two is that the plot fails to bring everything together, with several of the subplots being poorly explained or just ignored by the end. This is particularly clear in the final episode where the characters seem to be pulling solutions out of nowhere. Even Sabrina uses unknown powers to solve a problem that actually proved itself a threat to the coven. They also make Salem little more than a background character, something that should be considered a deadly sin by Sabrina fans.
However, to me, one of the worst mistakes the show makes is by bringing Satan in as a full character. One of the greatest strengths of the show was that Satan was a shadowy ominous figure, pulling strings in the background and subtly manipulating events to achieve his goals with Sabrina as the unwilling player, trying to outwit him. The dynamic between them worked well when they were trying to outsmart one another, despite never interacting directly. In Part Two however, Satan is brought into the forefront and suffers for it.
That being said, it’s not completely unwatchable. The style, charm and characters are still present and there are some very amazing moments but overall, it’s a bit of a let-down and speaking as someone who found the first part to be surprising in its excellence, it is just disappointing.
Featured Image: Omeiza Haruna
