TV Review: The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Says Goodbye
Color me SHOOK! When Chilling Adventures of Sabrina was cancelled, I was surprised. People LOVE this series because it is dark, campy, and Kiernan Shipka has embodied this character with total strength and magic. Thus, it seems right that for her final season, Shipka’s Sabrina goes out with an iconic bang.
This season is DARK in ways that, again, surprised me. It is the first time, since Season 1, where you really remember Sabrina is just 16. While she has always battled Heaven and Hell, this season feels oddly more adult, perhaps, because it is a season about sacrifice. If every other season was about how Sabrina truly knows how to get herself INTO trouble, this season is about her paying the consequences for always escaping them. She is a cunning character, whom always finds a loophole. Yet, with this year’s villain, The Eldritch Terrors, she just keeps on sinking, and you feel genuinely bad. Season 4 is about how many times Sabrina can lose without finding another “loophole” but still rising up to facing consequences. Thus, for a show about the occult, this season you understand that world truly is negative.
I say it EVERY TIME I review the Sabrina series, “Where is Jesus?” In Season 4, especially, I was like, “Is the Lord not coming?!” While you do see more interactions with Heaven, this show is about a teen, filled with light, but cursed to have it be hellfire. Thus, you laugh as her student body run or her stint in a battle of the bands, while you also get grossed out by her battle with an octopus and her foolish belief that she can outsmart THE UNIVERSE! Yet, that is the charm of Sabrina; she truly is a teenager with an invincibility complex and a fantastic set of cute exes.
I am 100% for Nick and Sabrina, and it seems like creator, Roberto Aguirre Sacasa, is, as well. We pick up Season 4 with Ross (Jaz Sinclair) and Harvey (Ross Lynch) in a happy relationship that includes double dates with a fellow, healthy romance, Theo (Lachlan Watson) and Robin (Jonathan Whitesell). I really enjoyed watching two teen couples unthreatened by cheating, wandering eyes, or hormonal bits of boredom. Moreover, they played into a rather new-ish point of this season, which is that every character felt stands out as individuals: not couples. Every season felt divided between Sabrina’s love life and powers, but this season was more about magic and wits, which is why Ambrose (Chance Perdomo) really shines! While I love my Auntie Hilda (Lucy Davis) and Zelda (Miranda Otto), Perdomo’s Ambrose really takes the helm of the family this season, which makes me sad it its last. Even Prudence (the fierce Tati Gabrielle) shines as a warrior queen and builds a bond with Ross that is so intriguing because its women standing in their power. In a way, that is why sacrifice is a recurring theme of this season; no one sacrifices more than a strong woman. Still, of course, Sabrina has to have her Bae-Watch!
Nick truly pulls through for Sabrina this season, which will only amp people’s obsession with Gavin Leatherwood. He feels like a light for Sabrina as she persists through one trial after another, and every scene with him become a breather in a rather dense season. Every episode was PACKED with storylines and villains, which made its 8 episodes feel slightly rushed. Yet, the writers still managed to plug in some moments of softness between Sabrina Spellman and her twin, who forms a cute bond with the always salacious Caliban (Sam Corlett) while seductively duplicitous Lilith cannot stop fawning over her crown. Now HER storyline gets really grim, and solidifies how dark this show is in essence: enough to lose a little of its campy spark.
There are no cliffhangers or what could be’s. Season 4 100% closes off Sabrina’s story to, again, my shock. In some ways, the writers were lucky to know it was their last HURRAH because the 8 episodes felt bombarding and addictive. Thus, from Lilith’s pregnancy to Zelda’s new partner, the series feels like a lot going on, you take the ride because you know, this time, it truly ends and WOW in how it ends!
