Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Ep 3.6, (Dir. Michael Goi)

Posted on May 27, 2020 by casewright

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I couldn’t totally tell if I was being entertained by this episode. I’m gonna say no because it’s taken me a week to write this. I have to review Sabrina in stages like getting oral surgery. They root canal you- Sabrina Season Opener, They put bone and hardware up into your gums – mid-season Sabrina, and finally you get a new fake tooth and it’s over- Sabrina Season Finale.

If it weren’t the live tweet sessions with Lisa, I would’ve lost it long ago. Those banter sessions make the show pretty fun; it’s a shame that the writers and directors can’t achieve that on their very own. In that same vein, if Harvey gets to be any more boring, he’s just going to be recapping his favorite scenes from “How it’s Made” on the Science Channel. Hey Sabrina, you know what’re swell? Diving Helmets!

At least in this episode, Sabrina didn’t have to find anything. FFS, every episode has been

I miss Nick. But, Sabrina the Town. NIIIIIIIICK! Sabrina wait….

NO, I’ve to find Judas’ silver, a stop sign, and an Easter basket and have it back at the rec center by Midnight!

Meanwhile courtly intrigue, Caliban is proposing to Sabrina to be his Queen of Hell and he’ll prove he’s on the up and up by making a crappy spell to turn Roz back from stone. To do this, Harvey has to give up the thing he loves most – his 19th Century Danish Coin Collection. He actually had to kiss Roz and it would make her not want to have anything to do with him anymore. They should’ve just had Harvey try express a fully formed thought- she would’ve rolled her stone body the hell out of Greendale lickity split! The kiss didn’t work because he supposedly still loves Sabrina. Instead, they just capture Circe and she changes everyone back from stone. Oh well.

Hilda is super-gross and nearly full-on spider. She puts a glamour on and decides to hang out with Dr Cee. Unfortunately, she losses her glamour and he sees all of her spiderness. He does what any fiance would do and gets her some fast food. Why not? While he’s gone, she eats a guy who must be 90% balloon, given the blood splatter. When he does return, Hilda corners Dr Cee, has him fertilize her eggs (somehow yeech), and kills him. Hilda tells her sister to come and bring a gun and Zelda kills Hilda. Afterall, Zelda used to kill Hilda once a month; so, Zelda puts Hilda in the resurrection plot device out front and waits for Hilda’s return.

Lastly, Lilith seduces father Blackwood so that she will have a Satan baby to keep Lucifer from killing her. Why not?

This episode was not terrible, but not great. It kind of made me sad for Hilda and the actress herself because she rarely gets to show any range. In this episode, we find out that she has a broadway quality voice. Oh well, Lisa’s got the next one. Tag, you’re it!

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, S3, Ep2 “Drag Me to Hell” (Dir Alex Pillai)

Posted on February 29, 2020 by casewright

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Have you have ever been in a relationship that goes sour, but occasionally you get the hang out phone call and it’s really fun? That is what this show is. It’s usually terrible, but every now and again, it has an episode so good that you’re like- Why can’t it be like this all the time?!!! Why’d you marry Tom?!!!! I mean…TOM?! REALLY?!

This episode through me for a curve because the director – Alex Pillai is not known for horror, but he really knows the soul of this show. It’s supposed to be suspenseful with some shots that show that we are in comic book reality with practical effects. The episode established the stakes early on, built up the tension, and pulled you into the characters. In short, this director has a gift for horror and should be hired right away!

The writing by Ashley Chin was really well done as well. I was seeing a lot of dramatic pieces and wondered? How did he have such a great head for horror/thrillers? Then, I saw it: The Walking Dead!!! BOOM! I hope he writes more horror; he is gifted! WHY WHY WHY can’t it be like this anymore?!!!!!!

Sabrina is getting used to her job as the new Lucifer all while juggling being a…. cheerleader? Sure, why not? Fine. It turns out that Sabrina needs to be like Sam in Reaper and take sold souls to hell. The first soul she meets is this elderly chess master and she….lets him go? Why? Well, this does not sit well with Hell’s bureaucracy!

So, the next soul to take is this seemingly nice ice cream van vendor. Sabrina was about to get all mushy with him too because she is preternaturally incompetent, but this changes when he says that he should get another 7 year extension by killing a child. In fact, he already kidnapped her, sending Sabrina (and her much happier friends when Sabrina is not around) to find the child and send the ice cream man to Hell. Side Note: could they have gone Reservoir Dogs on the ice cream man and shortened the episode by 45 minutes? Yes, but this poor judgement is in character for Sabrina to NOT think of that because as stated before she is BAD AT EVERYTHING!

Sabrina searches and searches and when she discovers the whereabouts of the child, she ignores her friend who says she should not do the rescue alone and…. she gets captured because of course she does. Don’t worry Sabrina finds a way o….just kidding no way not Sabrina; she needs to be rescued because she is BAD AT EVERYTHING! Despite Sabrina’s incompetence, the episode did not let up the suspense, the plot moved nicely and there is a great practical effect pay off when the ice cream man is caught.

Other events: Blackwood is captured, becomes the new vessel for Lucifer, and the Eldritch terrors are coming. So you know what that means: Nick is back and there’s gonna be trouble. Hey na, hey na, Nick is back!

Get ready for Lisa’s reviews of 3 and 4!!!

cheer!

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, S3,Ep1, “The Hellbound Heart” (Dir. Rob Seidenglanz)

Posted on February 9, 2020 by casewright

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Welcome to horrorth….Wait a minute, it’s not October….it’s …February? Yes. Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is like a failed marriage, aging football player, or your dad posting a video on YouTube; it should’ve stopped awhile ago. Kiernan Shipka is a great actress, but it’s like she’s been shackled to the Detroit Tigers. It doesn’t help that the director Rob Seidenglanz could make the Titanic sinking feel like watching C-Span.

The entire episode from the Party City inspired costumes to the bad middle school sets to the pedestrian camera angles….it was just awful. Although I do like seeing a Lead Character as a self-centered incompetent, it’s refreshing and accurate for life. Am I going to watch and review this season? Of course I will, but I will be sharing the pain with Lisa who will review episodes 3-6. We may even do another Livetweet … Fingers Crossed!

We left off last season with Nick trapping the devil inside his brain and got carried off to Hell to save humanity. Well, I guess to heck with all that heroism because Sabrina misses her boyfriend and she REALLY doesn’t care about anything or anyone else.

First, going to take Nick out of Hell, puts everyone at risk who is strong-armed into going with her on this unnecessary adventure. Second, if they get Nick back and he dies, Lucifer is unleashed upon our world. Third, I don’t need a third; this is dumb.

Sabrina decides that she wants to go to Hell and get Nick out. Fine. She of course does the reasonable thing and just takes herself into Hell and doesn’t risk her friends lives. No, she risks everyone: Harvey, Theo, and Rosalind. Side Note: Rosalind was blind for a while, but can see now…that’s weird. Sabrina pushes her friends around and then they agree to go to Hell with her. One note, the second Sabrina isn’t around all of her friends they start singing and start a band. They need to read some self-help books about toxic friends.

The group goes into hell and it really looks like a British Columbia beach. They run into Theo’s uncle who’s being tortured in Hell. Of course, Sabrina insists that they stop and help Theo’s uncle. NO, Sabrina’s an Owner of Lonely Heart and she’s gotta get Nick back or there’s gonna be trouble hey na hey na. During the journey, we see that Lilith is ruling Hell in a Party City outfit and 10 dollar crown. For some reason, Lilith is angry at Sabrina and it’s not clear why. There’s also this boring intrigue competition for the throne of hell and can you blame them?! It’s British Columbia beach front!!!!

Sabrina confronts Lilith… because I just don’t know why. Sigh. Sabrina ascends to the Hell Throne – I’m assuming that’s what it’s called. However, Sabrina is just going to run Hell part-time like an Uber side-hustle because she’s got debate team, mathletes, and 4H; so, this is the LAST extra-curricular. Period. Lilith will advise Sabrina in her part-time Hell-gig. This is the best of the worst: Sabrina gets Nick out of hell and them…. puts him in a … dungeon. Yep, after all that, she puts him in a dungeon. Fine. There’s a lot of exposition that there’s some “Old Ones” coming to town and I keep thinking it’s going to be Wilford Brimley. Maybe, Sabrina will come down with Dia-beetus? Beach party

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, S2, Ep6, The Missionaries, Review by Case Wright

Posted on May 1, 2019 by casewright

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This is the first time in a long time where I rooted for the “villains” to kill off every character. It’s a hard thing to watch a show you love slowly fail. It’s like a bad relationship that slouches on from inertia and the inconvenience of setting up a separate bank account. This is how I feel about CAOS. I was really hoping that this episode would be the last one, but….not so much.

I would normally describe the director’s technique, but it’s Alex Pillai again and…man it has all the subtlety of a Lifetime MOW. Not to say that I don’t REALLY like a good guilty pleasure lifetime live tweet, BUT that’s a different animal. Lifetime movies are supposed to be campy and over the top ridiculous, but CAOS is supposed to bridge comics and realism and instead it’s just giggle-inducing borefest.

The episode opens with Nick being tortured by a guy who looks like a Mormon missionary who is about to chop his hands off. Oh well, Nick kinda got on my nerves; maybe they’ll have to write a soupy episode featuring Nick titled: Who needs the clap? Ambrose is still locked up without a shirt doing pull-ups. This show has more gratuitous beefcake than Arrow season 1 and that is saying A LOT! I do give Chance Perdomo credit on his abs. I’m developing my abs and it is a process. Chance, tip of the hat to committing to the shred!

The “Missionaries”of the episode aren’t really missionaries per se, but they ARE gorgeous blonde angels named Jerathmiel and Mehitable (Spencer Treat Clark and Bayley Corman)! I guess it makes sense that angels would be pretty, but WHOA! It turns out these angels are avenging angels armed with the latest in …..Ancient Weaponry… wait, what?! Why?! Really, why are they armed with crossbows? Most states just require a driver’s license to purchase any gun you want; let alone what you can get on craigslist. This just seemed unnecessarily antiquated and dumb like really dumb….really! Crossbows are heavy, awkward, take a long time load, hard to aim, and are ridiculous. Bleh.

Jerathmiel and Mehitable spent most of the episode blundering through town trying to kill all of the witches of Greendale. Why bother? We already learned in previous episodes that the teenagers are unvaccinated and catch the Chicken Pox. Just send in Jenny MacArthy’s measles carrying minions into town and you’ll have the whole town on its knees in matter of hours!

Jerathmiel and Mehitable catch most of the witches and start purifying the town. I guess this says a lot about how the show has degraded because I really rooted for the Angels. I thought to myself…Self, maybe they could just go full-on Hamlet?!!!!

This main plot is interwoven with the more compelling love story between Wardwell and Adam. He wants to take her to Tibet. She is about to accept when the Devil finds out about their escape plan, so the Devil turns Adam in Wardwell’s diner. REALLY. It’s really sad, but sets up a great revenge arc for Wardwell that looks MUCH more interesting than the primary storyline.

Jerathmiel and Mehitable have all the witches cornered and even put a few arrow bolts into Sabrina, but the Devil resurrects Sabrina and gets the Angels to renounce God and envelopes the angels in flames. Honestly, I thought this scene was just plain terrible. The angels spent the whole episode being intrepid crusaders, but they were easily cowed by a floating Sabrina?! Really?! It came across as contrived. The angels were so brave for the entire episode and then… nope. It was just awful in an awful way, not like Lifetime which is bad in an AWESOME way.

I’m not sure what the show should do or where it should go, but it needs artistic honesty because without it, the suspense withers away like a dried out orange.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, S2 E5, “Blackwood” (Dir: Alex Pillai) Review By Case Wright

Posted on April 23, 2019 by casewright

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First of all, it’s always so fun to read Lisa’s reviews. I hope she wants to review another one of these episodes. She always sees things that I don’t like HERE!!!! and HERE!!!!. It has been a true pleasure working with/for her over these years. This series is making me already plan for my October reviews!!! Weren’t they awesome last October?! Yes…Yes…They were.

Is this season getting better? Yes, but that’s mostly because the first episode of the second season was so very unsatisfying and disappointing. The series seems to be evolving into a Tales From The Crypt over the top fest. I loved TFTC, but that’s not what I expected Sabrina to become. I saw this series as a scary in your face we’re mad as hell at the patriarchy and we’re not gonna take it anymore! The feminism is still there, but it really hits you over the head with its agenda ….every….single…episode; It comes across as a PSA sometimes. When done right, like last season, you root for the agenda, but now I’m lectured by it. It’s kind of annoying when you already agree.

This episode was directed by Alex Pillai (Riverdale) and he did a fine paint by numbers job with the episode. It got the job done….fine, not great, but definitely fine like the Chicago Cubs in the 2000s or Two Buck Chuck (Charles Shaw). The episode was all about marriage, the loss of feminine identity, and misogyny…lots and lots of misogyny. Really, this Church of Night is a bunch of knuckle dragging dirtbags. I get the whole- we’re evil bit, but it doesn’t really work all the time. The characters are mostly strong women and the constant subjugation that the Church imposes seems kinda silly that anyone would put up with it let alone these powerful heroines. Also, the constant “for Hell’s Sake” “Your Unholiness” “Your Dishonor” just makes me laugh; I look like loon when I’m on the elliptical watching this.

In the episode, Aunt Z is getting married and she’s all jittery and worried about being exposed for stealing one of the Blackwood babies. Also, Father Blackwood is going full-on misogynist pig. He wants the church of night to go back to its old ways of chauvinism. His plan is to write up the basic philosophy and give it to the Anti-Pope (Ray Wise). (Side Note: God, I love Ray Wise. He’s awesome in everything he does and was the best devil ever in Reaper. Unfortunately, he’s only in the show for a couple of minutes.) Sabrina catches wind of Blackwood’s Misogynist plan because Ambrose tells her .

The Solution: Sabrina gets her Dad’s manifesto that’s all women and men are equal, witches should marry mortals, and powertrain warranties are bullshit. Sabrina has Nick retrieve it from the bottom of the sea. Just as the Anti-Pope will read it, Father Blackwood has him murdered and frames Ambrose for it!!! DUN DUN DUN!!!! Basically, all of Sabrina’s plans fail: Aunt Z and Blackwood marry, Blackwood has Aunt Z walk behind him (bleh), Ambrose is jailed, Sabrina and Nick are expelled, and Aunt Hilda becomes lactose intolerant. Bad all the way around.

I normally don’t get into subplots, but spring is in the air. Ms Wardwell and Adam are falling in love. It’s really sweet. She explains that marriage is a complete destruction of a woman’s identity. Wardwell looks at Adam expecting a fight, but instead he accepts her, her values, and just wants to be with her. It’s …well….sweet. I was a bit moved. Satan gets jealous and wants her to kill him, but instead she makes him a ring of protection. I hope these crazy kids make it work.

The show is moving in the right direction, but the show seems to collapse under its own weight sometimes. It has these big themes and plots, but can’t quite deliver them this season because of the campiness, clunky dialogue, and endless subplots that grind the suspense and gravitas to dust. Maybe this is the way Riverdale is? I never wanted to watch that show and now I really don’t want to. My guess is that season 1 was Ruth Chris Steakhouse and season 2 is Red Robin and yes I did get food poisoning from them once.

TV Review: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina 2.4 “Doctor Cerberus’s House of Horrors” (dir by Alex Garcia Lopez)

Posted on April 18, 2019 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Is Chilling Adventures of Sabrina the most underlit show on Netflix?

Seriously, every scene on the show seems to take place in near darkness. I get that’s because the show itself is supposed to be dark and spooky and I appreciate the fact that the show is trying to maintain a proper atmosphere but still, as I watched the fourth episode of the 2nd season, I found myself shouting, “Will someone turn on a freaking light!?” Like a lot of things about this show, the constant darkness seems like one of those “it seemed like a good idea at the time” concepts.

That said, I also have to say that I liked this installment a bit more than the previous episode. Though it can probably be correctly stated that this was something of a filler episode, it still had enough surreal moments to remain entertaining. In fact, it reminded me a bit of last season’s superior Dreams In A Witch House. Like that episode, House of Horrors largely took place in the minds of the show’s characters. Whereas Dreams In A Witch House used the character’s nightmares as a way to provide a glimpse of their subconscious fears and desires, this episode used Tarot readings.

The episode begins with Hilda and Dr. Cee hanging out at Cerebrus Books. No mention is made of the fact that Dr. Cee apparently has an incubus inside of him, which seems like an odd thing to go unmentioned. Anyway, a fortune teller (played by Veronica Cartwright) shows up and asks if she can do readings in the back of the store. Hilda and Dr. Cee promptly agree because …. well, when do they ever say no to anyone?

For the next hour, various characters wandered into Cerebrus Books and got their fortune read. The fortune teller turning over her cards would lead to everyone having a surreal vision of the future. The visions rarely turned out well but, with one huge exception, the fortune teller was always quick to explain that the ominous vision was actually a good thing. For instance, Sabrina may have seen herself getting killed during Nick’s magic show but the fortune teller was quick to explain that the vision meant Sabrina should put her faith in Nick and not trust anyone else. Theo may have had a vision of turning into a boy and then having his body turn to wood but apparently, that meant Theo should trust others to help him out. Roz was thinking of having an operation to get her sight restored but her vision — in which a blind girl accused Roz of stealing her eyes — convinced Roz that she should remain blind. Harvey saw that going to Rhode Island would lead to him having a Satanic roommate. Hilda envisioned telling Father Blackwood the truth about the baby but then discovered that would just lead to Blackwood cheating on her. “Some secrets,” the fortune teller announces, “should stay secrets.”

Finally, Ambrose showed up and got his vision of the future. Four things disturbed him. First off, Luke was nowhere in the vision. Secondly, in the vision, Father Blackwood made him a member of the Judas Society and ordered him to murder the Spellmans. Third, in the vision, Ambrose did just that. And fourth, the fortune teller told Ambrose this was going to happen, regardless of what he did.

Rushing to Father Blackwood’s office, Ambrose asked for an assurance that Father Blackwood would never hurt the Spellmans. “Of course not!” Blackwood replied before informing Ambrose that Luke was dead and that Ambrose was now a member of the Judas Society….

After all this, it was revealed that the fortune teller had actually been Ms. Wardwell in disguise. I can’t say that I was particularly surprised by this reveal. Since Wardwell was, up until the show’s final five minutes, the only regular not to have made an appearance, it was obvious that the fortune teller would turn out to be her. I’m going to assume that her advice was intentionally bad and we should definitely be worried about Sabrina’s relationship with Nick.

Anyway, this episode was entertaining enough. Since Sabrina is really the only multidimensional character on the show, Chilling Adventures can be uneven when it doesn’t focus on her but this show managed to do a pretty good job with the other characters. We may not have learned anything new about any of them but some of their visions were enjoyably surreal and macabre. The scenes of Theo’s body turning to wood were well-handled and Roz’s vision was genuinely frightening. Even though you knew they weren’t real, the scenes of a murderous Ambrose stalking through the Spellman House were appropriately creepy.

Up next in the TSL’s Sabrina review-a-thon: Case returns with his reviews of Episodes Five and Six!

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, S2,Ep2 Review By Case Wright

Posted on April 10, 2019 by casewright

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Hello friends. Last time we spoke, it was really hard. I wondered if my second favorite show after Santa Clarita Diet went Lost Season 2 on me. The season opener was bad…really bad. It was scary for me to watch the second episode. I was actually worried that the show was a season 1 fluke or maybe I misread or willfully blinded myself to a meh show. Well, I’m happy to write that this episode was a solid …. Not Bad. Its flaws were LEGION (and we’ll go over those), but the story had a theme, character growth, and despair. Honestly, through in some Adele and Ben and Jerry’s and you got the makings of a lonely night in as you watch yourself age and love sulks away from you, broken, and never to return.

The episode is all about unrequited love and who We should be, but who We really are. It’s fun, if you’re in the mood for it. It was written by new writer Mj Kaufman and Christina Ham (Orphan Black) and these writers capture the loneliness of all of the most interesting characters.

The Devil talks to Ms Wardwell who we know is Lilith (Adam’s First Wife). He not too gently casts her aside and tells Wardwell/Lilith that Sabrina is to be Satan’s Prophet and Queen, not Her. The heartbreak is palpable, but the Devil’s Costume looks like a step above Party City and it really takes me out of it. Lilith asserts that Sabrina is too goody goody to be the Devil’s main squeeze and they wager on it: have Sabrina steal a stick of gum. Sabrina resists.

I gotta ask why? She seemed all on board the Midnight Train to Gethsemane with Old Scratch, but she just can’t bring herself to steal the forbidden Fruit Stripe. I would’ve been all in for the Freshen Up gum…ya know the one with the goo inside…I liked it….Whatever. Because she refused, Satan starts hurting people around Sabrina by giving them Chickenpox. WHAAAA? Chickenpox?! What kind of anti-vax town is Greendale?! Let it burn to the ground! They’ll give us all measles! To make amends to Satan, she starts to burn the school down as per Satan’s command. Well, why bother?! They’ll all get Whooping Cough soon enough away. Come on, Lucifer…this town is doomed and weird.

There are good subplots the Lilith story, which is a nice evil love story where Ms Wardwell watches her life portrayed as entertainment. The Evil Dean wrote and produces a play of Lilith and Satan falling in sort of love. It might of brought her a smile, but instead it brings tears because Satan has found a new special lady and Lilith’s destined to be eternally alone. We see in Ms Wardwell AKA Lilith how love is supposed to be, but how it withers and dies.

Suzie is now Theo is the focus of the other subplot. She should be accepted as a boy, but it doesn’t quite work out that way. Theo tries to change in the boy’s locker room and is mocked by some, but gawked at by all. The shot is done very well. We close up on the known bullies from the previous episodes, but then the camera pulls back and ALL of the boys are gawking silently, waiting to see female nudity regardless of her gender identity. They simply can’t help it. Where we should be, but who we are. It’s disappointing, realistic, and sad.

Sabrina and Harvey react to a sensual spark and begin making out, but her tie to Satan destroys the encounter and ends their love affair forever. What their love should be and the reality cannot be.

This was a good episode overall. It allowed you to see and not be told Lilith’s story and the struggles that everyone has against loneliness and despair.

Adele

Sabrina S2 Ep1, Epiphany, Review with Spoilers by Case Wright

Posted on April 5, 2019 by casewright

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October came early this year! It’s time to once again get down with the baddest witch this side of Massachusetts. As you know from my previous reviews of this show, I’m a bit biased: I am a fan. In fact, I was looking forward to this next installment since October. Well, I can say without a doubt that the Season 2 Premiere of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, “Epiphany”, was an episode that was made.

A lot of shows go through a Sophomore Slump- the underwhelming return of a beloved show. By the end of the episode, all the characters that were the most interesting were diminished. It was still fun to watch and is very entertaining and it’s not Season 2 Stranger Things terrible, but I hold this show to a higher standard: and I mean it!!!!

Season 1 was all about failure and corruption. Sabrina set out to save her town and herself. Not only did she endanger her town, she became so corrupted by ego and hubris that the price was her very soul. It was Shakespearean with a David Lynch vibe. Season 2 was less than, not to say it can’t or won’t get back on track because it likely will, but this was not great.

The episode was written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (Showrunner) and directed by Kevin Rodney Sullivan who did ….. okay. The direction had the suspense of wet toast. Not everyone can do suspense and horror and this was sub-awesome. It sufficed as a recap episode, but not much more.

The plot is that Sabrina wanted to become the “Top Boy” of the witch academy and her love interest Nick is the favorite because he’s a dude. Suzie who is now Theo wanted to try out for the all-boys basketball team. I was excited to see them fight the patriarchy and all that, but they did so in the weakest way possible: they cheated. Sabrina needed to complete three trials versus Nick. The first one: she won because the Weird Sisters (including Zelda) who for no reason at all like Sabrina now and gave her the answers. This really bugged because it was not fair to her character. She’s Sabrina! She’s supposed to be this badass; anyone can win by cheating.

This theme is further reinforced by Sabrina fixing a basketball game so Suzie could win. Suzie wanted to get on the boy’s team, which is a fair challenge and a good one for this show to tackle, but she was legit terrible at the sport and could only win because Sabrina cheated for her. This is not empowering. It showed that Sabrina had no faith in Suzie and most importantly it made Suzie look stupid because she never noticed that she went from the beginning of the game from being the Generals to the Globetrotters?! Suzie was diminished, Sabrina was diminished, and I was insulted by it. It would have been so much better if Suzie was like WTF?! Why am I so great all of a sudden and then saw that Sabrina was cheating for her, the smile fades from her face, and then Suzie walks off the court. This would have set up some good conflict with Sabrina, especially since she doesn’t really have any foes right now.

Roberto Sacasa needs to understand the characters he created. Suzie, Ros, and even Harvey to a MUCH lesser degree were very aware of what was going on around them throughout season 1, making Sabrina’s unnoticed intervention on Suzie’s behalf a lot tougher sell.

There was a subplot of Evil Three King Demons trying to mess with Sabrina because they were afraid she would ascend. This could get interesting. My hopes are high on that one. This series is still fun, but if it continues down this lazy path it will be more of a guilty pleasure that I watch on the elliptical or something on while I fold the laundry.

Oct 18, 2015; Indianapolis, IN, USA; New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (12) walks past a sign referencing Deflategate at halftime during the NFL game against the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, S1 Ep 9: The Returned Man, Review (Dir Craig Macneill)

Posted on October 30, 2018 by casewright

STAW

Happy Devil’s Eve. I will be doing the last episode on Halloween- Bwahahaha!

The Returned Man – directed by Craig Macneill is all about the failure! Since both Episode 8 & 9 were directed well, I’d like to get into their differing styles just a bit. Maggie Kiley built suspense with camera moves and slowing ratcheting up tension like a Hitchcock thriller or The Shining. Craig Macneill’s work feels more like an Italian horror film that relies on music, gore, and lighting to convey confusion, horror, and fear.

This episode is the reckoning of Sabrina’s necromancy. She did raise Tommy, but he came back….different. Tommy doesn’t speak, eat, or catch footballs normally. What he does do is be very still and yet menacing. Also, Sabrina’s clever plot to cheat death and have the witch return from death after 10 minutes isn’t really working out. The sister is coughing up gravel. All and all everything is going horribly horribly wrong. When Sabrina returns the necromancy book to Ms. Wardwell, she feigns surprise that Sabrina went on the necromancy path. This cements the sole culpability for Sabrina.

Why isn’t Tommy eating? When the dead miners are delivered to the Spellman house, we learn that there is a good reason Tommy isn’t hungry; he was chowing down on the corpses of the other miners. Yes, Tommy is a ….. ZOMBIE!!!! This is cut really well with a scene with Tommy attacking their POS dad.

Sabrina realizes that Tommy came back without a soul and that his soul is in limbo. She thinks she can just waltz into limbo and get it. No muss no fuss. Well, nope. The Spellmans are now all aware of Sabrina’s shenanigans and think she is beyond reckless because she is. No one wants to help Sabrina go into limbo except…..Ms Wardwell.

The limbo scene is excellent. It reminds me of Phantasm or The Beyond. We pierce the veil and it’s filled with confusion and a terror called a Soul Eater!!! Sabrina meets her mother in Limbo, but she can’t recognize Sabrina. This reminded me of The Beyond because if you make it to Hell in that film, you go blind from the revelation. Then, she does find Tommy, but as she is about finish Tommy’s rescue, the soul eater devours him.

Ms. Wardwell is conveniently near Sabrina for this scene and all others that can compromise Sabrina. Wardwell convinces Sabrina that Harvey must know the truth. Sabrina agrees and we see Harvey’s love for Sabrina shatter. He doesn’t seem angry as much as he is disgusted by being completely overruled in any of the decisions that affected him directly. This causes them to break up, which isolates Sabrina completely from the human world.

I enjoyed how the characters were allowed to be diminished. Sabrina failed in every way possible and lost everything. This allows her to be prepped for a full corruption. See you on Halloween!!!

SPOILERS Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, S1 E8: The Burial, Review (Dir Maggie Kiley)

Posted on October 30, 2018 by casewright

STAW

Happy Devil’s Eve!!! I would like to take a moment to tell Jason Blum to hire this Director A LOT!!! From Jumpstreet, she throws us off and builds suspense with her camera angles and moves. We’re right there with the characters in the thick of suspense in the first seconds! It almost has a found footage feel to it. THAT TAKES SKILL! JASON, HIRE HER! A LOT!!! SHE’LL DO A GREAT JOB AND MAKE YOU LOTS OF MONEY!

Back to the review!

Maggie Kiley understood the theme of the episode immediately: Corruption. Mostly, she uses close-in one-shots and two-shots, drawing us into these conversations where all of our characters are being slowly cozened into full darkness.

We quickly learn that Harvey’s brother Tommy is trapped in the mine and presumed dead. The drunkard father moves ahead with funeral plans right away to get insurance money. All of these characters are under stress, which is when the easy corrupt always seems to present itself. We learn from Hilda that their ground brings people back from the dead and in no way should give Sabrina any ideas to commit necromancy.

Furthering the theme of corruption, as the funeral is held, Sabrina violates Harvey’s will for the third time in the season. She has used her power to make him forget, make him safe, and make him strong. As pressure mounts, she continues to become more and more comfortable in overriding Harvey’s will. The series is amazingly complex in that none of the characters end the season with clean hands. They all are slowly corrupted in some way. It brings home the slow pernicious temptation that humankind always faces in times of a crisis: To do right thing or the easy thing. In this show, everytime Sabrina overrides Harvey’s will, we bear witness to it sending her going further down the path of darkness, giving up more and more of her humanity and bringing her closer to Satan.

And who is there at every turn to nudge Sabrina down the easy path of darkness: Mary Wardwell. She never tells Sabrina: Raise Tommy From the Dead!!! No, that’s not how temptation works. She presents the means and opportunity, allowing Sabrina see this viable opportunity to make things all better. Mary does it over coffee. It’s innocuous, but the option is presented.

Throughout the episode, it’s brought up that she never asked Harvey if bringing Tommy back from the dead is what he would want. Once again, she is being tempted to substitute her will for his. In going down the path of resurrection, Sabrina is not only substituting her will in place of Harvey’s, she is substituting her will for the very will of God himself.

Why is this working on her? Evil is attractive. I have met people that were actually evil. They appeared normal, but they were not. They committed terrible acts. Why? Each time I was confronted with these men, their actions were done out of arrogance and expedience. They knew the act work and because they knew could do it. That’s the heart of evil: convenience and arrogance.

Ambrose is given clemency from his house arrest by Father Blackwood. With it, comes fealty. The shot is pulled closer and closer just more actively to bear. Then, once proposed, the shot backs off. As if to say, I’m just here to help.

Aunt Z is corrupted as well, but hers is a lot more direct and in keeping with the show’s raging hormone. She has a torrid affair with Father Blackwood. It is STEAMY! Honestly, this is the most relatable bad act on the show.

Sabrina learns that the sisters were responsible for Tommy’s death. She conflates vengeance with justice. They caused harm, so I can use them and harm them in order to correct a greater harm. In doing this, Sabrina convinces herself to commit murder. You could argue that it was temporary, but it was pointed out that it was still murder in order to bring Tommy back.

When you hear presumably Tommy banging on the Harvey’s door; it’s straight up terrifying. The last shot is the hand on the doorknob- Brilliant!

I’ve written about this before how you could have a great director who can’t direct horror. Maggie Kiley knows what she’s doing. I was riveted. I can’t wait to see more of her art!