Chilling Adventures of Sabrina- Part One Analysis available here.
To recap:
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is a Netflix horror-drama series. The first 'part' premiered on 26th October 2018. The show was created by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa.
The show is based upon the Archie comic - Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Part two is a continuation of Sabrina Spellman's journey of defeating 'the dark lord'.
First of all, one of the factors of 'Part One' that I enjoyed so much was the structure of the episodes. Each episode incorporated new themes, and discussed different important topics- virginity, sexuality, race, transitioning. Unfortunately, the second part didn't continue with this structure. It followed a more basic episode structure with a continuous narrative, cliff hangers - a pretty basic layout. This isn't to say it was bad, I just enjoyed the original structure and layout of the episodes with the first part. It felt fresh and exciting within each episode, wondering what new and interesting topics would arise.
The original structure allowed the topic of the episode to be discussed in great detail. In the new series we see some of the same discussions, though not in depth. There is clearly an overall discussion of feminism and powerful women, sexism, transitioning, bisexuality and more - though not in great detail, which is a little disappointing.
In the first season of the show, I remember I started to extremely dislike Sabrina's character (Kiernan Shipka). However, her growth in age and mindset was shown within the second part. She was way more likable, being less arrogant and making good choices for others rather than herself. She was an enjoyable character to follow, I sided with her along the journey.
Looking back on my critiques from Part One, I can see such a great improvement. The camera work is clearly better - without the use of the dreaded blurred lens. The characters improved, as well as the writing. It felt a lot more casual, rather than long scripted dialogue.
We were a little more distant from the mortal friends this season. They weren't really a focus, and if anything, they were the most annoying characters. They were sometimes just rude to Sabrina, or not a great friend to her. In comparison to part one, I don't feel greatly towards Harvey (Ross Lynch), Ros (Jaz Sinclair) and Theo (Lachlan Watson).
Honestly, one of the more complex characters is Prudence (Tati Gabrielle). We see more of her emotion in Part Two. We start to understand her, what she wants and how she feels. She constantly flickers from good to evil and we can clearly see her reasoning for this. Lilith/Mary Wardwell (Michelle Gomez) and Father Blackwood (Richard Coyle) were also great characters with lots of depth, we see their true colours this season.
Final Thoughts
I felt this season was easier to watch, you could get through it quickly because it was busy and filled with juicy plots. However, sometimes I did have to push myself to watch.
Personally, I believe the best aspects of this programme is the characters and the general themes. The characters are all very complex, interesting and entertaining. The themes are rather unique too. I enjoy these topics of Hell, Satan, Witches and Magic and it's great to see this show thriving with these obscure topics.
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