In “The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina,” Poor Writing Tarnishes a Captivating Plot
By Teresa Fanzo
On October 26, 2018 Netflix introduced a new original series, “The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina”. The show has received an 82% from Rotten Tomatoes, a website that averages critical ratings. Some viewers, however, felt this high score was undeserved, largely because the first two seasons feel like different entities. Season 1 was very good in comparison to Season 2: the plot was not all over the place and people enjoyed watching it and were excited for more. Sadly, season 2 is a let-down. The show has interesting plot lines, but this is lost on audiences because of the poor dialogue and in some cases bad acting.
Dramatic scenes that should be moving are often perceived as cringey because of corny delivery. The show has fallen victim to the constant use of full names as a tool to express importance; however, this is done so often throughout the show that it has lost its power and effectiveness. This overuse extends to two episode titles: “The Passion of Sabrina Spellman” and “The Miracles of Sabrina Spellman”. This could have been very clever, but the two episodes are not a part 1 and part 2, just random episodes unrelated to one another. This ultimately takes away from the scene as the overuse of full names is downright annoying.
In a dramatic scene, Sabrina finds out that she is the daughter of Satan. This was a shocking revelation that could have been a very emotional moment. However, when Lucifer tells her ,“You will blow the horns of Gabriel for me...You will wear the crown, you will sit on the throne...”, she responds, “Sorry, but I have school.” The quirky line does not land well and robs audiences of that intense reaction. It seemed eerily similar to Peter Parker and Tony Stark’s interaction in “Captain America: Civil War”, when Tony asks Peter to go to Germany with the Avengers and Peter responds, “I can’t go to Germany, I have homework!” There, it works because the scene was comedic and silly one liners are expected from those characters. When Sabrina responded that way, it did not seem like her: she has never made school a big priority and is not a very funny character.
Madison Morales, a sophomore studying Social Work, said, “Lucifer starts laughing and I did too, but rather than laughing with the character as the showrunner’s intended, I laughed at the absurdity of the statement.”
Overall, as a follow up to the first season which was beloved, the second season feels very disconnected. It relies on shock value with many scenes that seem to be filler for the one event they were leading to, and whole episodes that feel like the finale because of how dramatic and “twisty” they are. While it had the potential to be great and continue in the same fashion as season one, season 2 lacks cohesion, which results in a messy plot and an unsatisfying viewing experience.
