The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Season 4

Another promising story preyed to a rush ending

Netflix returned with the final season of the popular witchcraft show on the last day of the year. To the unknown, “The chilling adventures of Sabrina” follows the life of a teenage girl “Sabrina Spellman” played by Kiernan Shipka who was a half-witch by birth and was destined to submit herself to the dark lord at her 16th birthday by signing herself in the “Book of Beast”. The whole story then follows her journey from managing her life as a mortal and as a witch.

Storyline

The key thing which I like about this Netflix original that the story is very well crafted and quite chunky meaning it has a lot of substance to it. Every single episode has its own volume filled with a promising storyline that never feels like being stuffed or shallow by being served a filler. There are so many tangents that the storyline follows including the mortal world High school, the witchcraft academy, the Hell, every character’s own personal issues, and on top of that the danger looming over the city. But the beauty of the storytelling and the direction is that all of these threads fuse so effortlessly that it delivers fine art to be seen. 

Characters

Talking about the characters, Sabrina is a teenager who knows that she’s a half-witch by her birth but like any teenager, she had her doubts about submitting everything and moving to an altogether different life. The thing to note about Sabrina’s character that she wants everything and she got the courage to ask and fight for it. On the way, she makes some choices and decisions that she had to face consequences of but she was bold enough to face that as well. Her look for more has made her juggle a lot of life simultaneously including being a student at the normal high school and the witch academy eventually being the “Queen of Hell” and on top of that saving her friends and family from the uninvited threats. She never gave up!

The supporting cast was just as amazing as the main, Sabrina’s aunties Zelda and Hilda played was portrayed beautifully. Each one of them has its unique characteristics and it comes out very naturally on screen. Her friends Ross and Theo who has their own special powers, her love interests, Harvey (maybe the only normal human being in the whole list of characters),  Nicholas or Nick (a very charming Warlock), and Prince Caliban (prince of hell) all had their own screen space and a dedicated role to be played. The antagonist Lucifer or King of Hell, Lilith the Mother of Devils, Father Blackwood delivered a splendid performance.

Season 4

The final season dropped by Netflix on the last day of 2020 left us heartbroken, seems like 2020 wasn’t done giving us. This season had a scattered storyline, normally every storyline has a bigger objective that glues every episode together and eventually gives a very promising climax. “The chilling adventure of Sabrina Season 4” had a very promising start, with the first episode delivering a storyline of a proper movie, but after that, it all looked a bit scattered. With 2 split timelines, one having Sabrina Spellman and another having Sabrina Morning star the storyline looks promising with father Blackwood playing the main antagonist releasing a new threat and demon in every episode leading to a final leash of the void that sucks up the entire universe. 

What didn’t work out “for me” (as this is my personal opinion”) was the ending. The ending was heartbreaking and to me, Sabrina’s character deserved more! Kiernan Shipka who plays Sabrina also admits that in one of her interviews

I was very surprised. I think I sort of had the same mentality as everyone else, which was Sabrina can't die. She is Sabrina. She can't die. And then I was like, "Oh, there's no more pages [in the script]. I think that’s it."

At least hell of a fight, similarly with Lucifer it just all seemed to rash and fast that it didn’t justify the whole 4 season journey.

Recommendation

All in all, I never say no to watch a great story told beautifully, which by all means this series will provide you so please do watch it (if not already). To the ones who are planning to watch anything new and are into witchcraft shows this is a “Must watch”.