EJ Moreno on the first five episodes of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Part 2…

Over the first five episodes for Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Part 2, the show dives into so much material that it feels overwhelming. Usually, when screeners for TV shows come out, you get a small sample to review, and you crave more. Not for this show though; it was almost a blessing to get a break after five episodes.

The second season of Netflix’s teen scream does so much in such little time that it feels like the sky’s the limit for what can happen next. Honestly, it’s hard to predict what will happen in the next half of this season…let alone the show’s future!

Right now though, let’s focus on Part 2 of the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Picking right up where season one left off, Sabrina is trying to find a balance between the light and dark in her life. After signing The Dark Lord’s book and giving up her soul to him, she’s a bit more powerful as a witch, but her life is not any more comfortable. Leaving behind her mortal friends, Sabrina attempts to shake things up at The Academy of Unseen Arts. Things aren’t cozy for Harvey, Roz, and the rest of the Baxter High crew as the satanic Ms. Wardell is now principal of the school. All of that is the first episode alone. Again, this season is jam-packed.

For all of its silliness, the second part of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina brings the horror. Take the fourth episode titled Dr. Cerberus’s House of Horror. Broken into different vignettes, each feels like its own mini Twilight Zone episode with our main characters dealing with their darkest possible futures. Usually, the show’s campy humor cuts the tensions at just the right moment, but this episode relishes in the darkness.

A shift in the show also happens around this time. The dread and paranoia manufactured by the stories all our characters see in episode 4 throw the show down a much darker alley. Gone are a lot of the jokes to help reveal some of the tension, the fun competitions of earlier Part 2 episodes feel like a distinct memory. Chilling Adventures of Sabrina might lighten up after the fifth episode but it doesn’t seem like the immediate future is bright for Sabrina, The Spellman’s, and anyone in Greendale.

Kiernan Shipka is a beautiful addition in the long list of female horror heroines. While the show gets enough comparisons to Buffy The Vampire Slayer, it’s hard not to see so much between the show’s titular characters. For many, Sarah Michelle Gellar shaped what a woman could do with her take on Buffy Summers. Shipka also feels like an actress who can use a character to inspire a generation of empowered girls. Even if Sabrina does something that feels a little dark, it never feels malicious. Still, throughout the season Kiernan Shipka takes her Sabrina performance to some levels of what a protagonist can do to keep audiences on their side.

Hopefully, the show gets enough time as Buffy did so they can flesh out every layer of Sabrina Spellman’s complex character.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina isn’t only about the title character though; there’s also an excellent supporting casting that elevates all of the material to new heights. Michelle Gomez chews up the scenery as Principal Wardell/Madame Satan, able to command a scene all by herself. Also, Miranda Otto’s Zelda is getting far juicer material to work with in Part 2. The standout of these five episodes though is Father Blackwood as his character is growing to be a force the Spellman’s must deal with immediately. The fifth episode this season is titled merely Blackwood, and you’ll surely be shocked by the insanity of that episode.

Are you craving a deliciously dark path? The show is everything you didn’t know you wanted, with the boundaries pushed every episode. There are so many elements to what makes it work: the campiness, the stellar scares, and a new scream queen; which makes it easy to recommend to genre fans. If you’re looking for a bewitching and bewildering good time, then sign the Book of the Beast and check out the second season of Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina!

EJ Moreno