Well, I just finished watching season 2 and I felt you deserved a review while it's still fresh in my mind. So here are my thoughts on how well The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina held up. It's hard to explain the second season without spoilers, so there will be a spoiler-free review below, followed by a spoiler review. The end of season 2 will NOT be spoiled, although it may be talked around a bit.
SPOILER-FREE: They managed to save the series! The twist at the end of season 1 made me angry, and I'll be honest, I was still angry through a lot of season 2. But they eventually resolved the conflict in a satisfying way.
I felt like a lot of season 2 was drama filler (especially the episode with the tarot card reader, which felt like 100% fluff) and it didn't really get interesting until near the end, when it finally started pushing forward the plot that season 1 left on a cliffhanger.
I was not a fan of Harvey throughout season 2. He was very intolerant of Sabrina and her magic, and it was frustrating watching them constantly butt heads over it. In the comics, the two of them are a lovely couple, but this series decided to break them up and turn Harvey into a jerk. He barely redeems himself by the end, making himself a sort of dull tag-along among the main foursome of friends.
SPOILERS AHEAD: The entire plot of season 1 revolved around getting Sabrina to sign her soul away to the Dark Lord, which Sabrina spent the entire season fighting against. The end of the series negated all its own efforts, as Sabrina was tricked into signing away her soul anyway in order to save her town from a great evil force. It was the exact opposite of a happy ending - the bad guys won, her hair turned white, she swore off her mortal friends, and she began worshiping the Dark Lord at the Church of Night instead of attending her mortal high school. Not the expected end for the strong-willed, virtuous Sabrina Spellman.
Season 2 continued that plot, with a revelation that Sabrina was prophesied to be crowned Queen of Hell and herald in the apocalypse alongside the Dark Lord Himself. Unlike the false pretense of the previous season's cliffhanger, Sabrina wasn't going along with it willingly. No, she had just become more confident in her magic and was giving her mortal friends some space while she adjusted to being a full-powered witch.
Still upset by season 1, I was having a hard time getting into this season, but I started to really enjoy it when she suddenly manifested god-like powers out of nowhere, smiting some powerful angels of God who were violently and maliciously "converting" witches and warlocks. From there, it became a battle of wits against the Dark Lord as Sabrina fought to find a way out of her predestined path. I won't spoil the end, but I will say it left me on the edge of my seat up until the end.
All in all, I think it was a satisfying end. It tied up a lot of loose ends and helped clean up the world of Sabrina. The biggest conflict I felt in this series was in how witches and warlocks could worship evil and perform satanic rituals, yet still be good people. The Dark Lord makes an interesting comment at one point, stating that good and evil are merely mortal perceptions. His coven seem to practice that, being sworn to Him while also being both good and bad, depending on the person and the situation. Even bad people would occasionally have moments of goodness.
The end of season 2 further expands that concept, allowing witches and warlocks to truly be free to pursue whatever nature they want, whether it be good or evil. My hope is that it brings this series a little closer to the original TV series in concept, where Sabrina is free to be a witch without having to constantly fight against a darker force pulling her toward evil. But we'll see what season 3 holds. Supposedly, there are at least two more seasons planned!
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