TV Review: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Gets Even More CHILLING For Season 2!
Watching Season 1 of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (CAOS), I nearly had to buy a rosary for every episode. The series is dark in the campiest of ways; embracing The Devil like he is the one you turn to for guidance. Naturally, those expecting to see the 90’s, “happy-go-lucky” version of Sabrina were surprised, and Season 2 has the Greendale witch rising towards her darkness.
The key ingredient to CAOS is Kiernan Shipka’s performance. While Sabrina is a powerful teenager, she is also one of the maturest people of the series. Her story is intriguing because she is a good person that would love to stay good, but feels compelled or is pushed by her Aunt Zelda (Miranda Otto) to embrace her wicked roots. As a viewer, you are fascinated because she is living in a family that wants her to go bad or so they think. While Sabrina embraces her inner malice, Shipka has some great, deliciously devious scenes that show she IS NOT one to mess with, which makes Ambrose (Chance Perdomo) and Aunt Hilda (Lucy Davis) a little nervous.
Season 2 shines as an elaboration of fan-fave characters such as, Ambrose, Hilda, Zelda, and, of course, Prudence (Tati Gabrielle). Each actor gave their characters such humanity, you wanted to tell them to turn away from hell. Though they have aimed to hurt others, it is their desire for love that makes you watch their growth. This season LOVE is in the air. New couples are FORMING! From Zelda’s furthered descent into Blackwood’s arms and plots to the new ship of Sabrina and Nick ,(Gavin Leatherwood), with each new pair, a power struggle is born.
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina was created by Riverdale writer, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, which is why YOU KNOW no relationship goes without a hitch. Yet, RAS’ troubles love to test the waters of loyalty, which is a big theme this season. While Season 1 had us shipping noble Harvey Kinkle (Ross Lynch) and Sabrina, Leatherwood’s Nick is superbly charming. His chemistry with Shipka’s Sabrina is fiery and really contrasts to what she had with Harvey. Theirs was a sweet love, but Sabrina and Nick are supernaturally adventurous and make you pray he is someone she can trust. Moreover, in becoming more magical, with CAOS’ best scenes based in The Academy of Unseen Arts, Season 2 is more intriguing and emotionally wrought. It is not so much about whether Sabrina can be loyal to her human friends, but whether she can be loyal to her humanity, especially as she uncovers how eager and evil Blackwood is in destroying the Spellmans.
If you hated Faustus Blackwood(played spitefully by Richard Coyle) during Season 1, then you will detest him season 2. As episodes progress, you realize how sexism motivates his hatred for the Spellman ladies. We already knew he loved to cheat on his wife, but he also loves to assure women do not get into positions of power, i.e. Sabrina. The versus brewing between her and Blackwood is the heart of Season 2, and makes Sabrina’s apocalyptic purpose even scarier because Satan is on her side. (EEEECKKK!!!) While you are cheering on “our girl” for fighting back against gendered injustice, you are also shook that The Evil One is cheering with you.
From Lachlan Watson’s Susie Putnam and her transition into Theo to Jaz Sinclair’s Rosalind Walker and her journey to see clearer in every way, Season 2 of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is all about women solidifying their power. Even Michelle Gomez’s Mary Wardwell reveals her own, gut-wrenching journey as a woman scorned by men: in heaven and hell. Hence, what I love about CAOS is that all the female characters are aware of what they can do and where they could go, which helps them combat the men that try to stop them. They do not doubt their capacities, which empowers them as they fend of the males that notice these women are more capable than them. YAAAASSSSSS QUEENS! Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Premieres on Netflix on April 5.
