Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Netflix Original Part 2 Review
Major Spoilers are included in this season review. Please read with caution.
On July 17, 2020, I started watching Chilling Adventures of Sabrina’s Part 2—season 2—and finished on July 19, 2020. With the coronavirus pandemic still ongoing, I decided to use my free time to catch up on my television shows, leading me to remember how much I enjoyed Sabrina’s Part 1 back in 2019. When I heard Part 4 would be the last season, I decided to get back into the show in order to see how it ends.
However, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Part 2 completely dropped the ball, losing all its magic in the process. I was both disappointed and frustrated at how much I didn’t like my viewing of Part 2. The fact that I enjoyed watching Part 1 so much made the Part 2 experience more heartbreaking. The betrayal was deep. Part 1—the first season—was pretty good too with its take on darker take on Sabrina Spellman’s story. The link to my Part 1 Review is here.
The story picks up where Part 1 left off, with Sabrina (Kiernan Shipka) trying defeat the Dark Lord at the Church of Night. She is also fighting for gender equality and against sexism within the Church of Night. None of these goals go particularly well for Sabrina, and all her mortal friends hate her for most of this season. Sabrina was so focused on the supernatural problems during Part 2 that the mortal side-characters were pushed too far to the wayside.
Susie—now going by Theo (Lachlan Watson)—transitioned, but the story wasn’t given much screen time to be fully appreciated. This was the storyline I was looking forward to the most, but it was barely a footnote in the season. Harvey (Ross Lynch) and Roz (Jaz Sinclair)’s unexpected romance was something I would’ve preferred less of. Roz also went blind due to a curse on her family, but her disability wasn’t given much attention either. As a result of these shortcomings, Part 2’s first half was painfully slow.
The writing wasn’t the best either with dialogue. There was a lot of bad dialogue that made think, “Why wasn’t this show set in the past?” I don’t think it would’ve totally saved the show, but the plot would’ve fit better.
The second half—the last three episodes—did pick up on the action a bit, but it was not worth the payoff. The storytelling was too much and not enough at the same time. The potential in Part 1 was squashed in Part 2, but sadly enough, I will be watching Part 3. I don’t recommend watching this series past Part 1 at this point, so I promise to let y’all know how the rest of the series goes. Thanks for reading this season review! The link to my Part 3 Review is here for those interested.