Netflix Sabrina's scary adventures maintain Harry Potter's influence

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Anyone who appreciates the magician aspect of the Netflix game Sabrina's icy adventures should be happy to know that the second half of the first season of the series doubles its debt towards Harry Potter and Buffy against the vampires while shooting at Star wars and The Lord of the Rings. One of the most enduring ideas popularized by George Lucas and J.R.R. Tolkien is that powers that change the world can easily be misused. In this last Sabrina The heroine's decision to sign her name in "The Book of the Beast" at the end of the first half of the season means that she is now one of the most capable witches on Earth and that these new abilities change.

Ice Adventures debuted last October with 10 episodes, introducing the turn of the series on the old character of Archie Comics, Sabrina Spellman, "The Teenage Witch". While delving into what it might mean to be a half-mortal high by a family of witches, creator of the Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa series (who also created the comic book series of the same name) expanded the roles A guardian aunts from Sabrina, Hilda and Zelda, exploring their devotion to the satanic "Church of the Night". After being rebelled against her faith for much of her 16-year-old life, Sabrina embraced her witch roots in the mid-season finale to gain the power needed to rescue her human friends at Baxter High.

The second part of the season, which will begin on Netflix on Friday, April 5, includes 10 more episodes, although one of them, a Christmas special examining the story of Sabrina's family, appeared for the first time on Netflix in December. (Of the nine new episodes, the critics have been scheduled in advance for five critics.) Although this is apparently the same season, Part 2 seems to be a new phase of the series. Sabrina Fans should always enjoy it, but it's certainly different.

The most important change is that the new episodes move the action of Baxter High to another school in Sabrina, the Academy of the Invisible Arts. After helping save the mortals from her home town of Greendale, Sabrina decides to pursue her idea that something sinister – or at least more sinister than usual – is going on with the fundamentalist high priest of her faith, Father Faustus Blackwood. She is becoming more active in church educational programs, hoping to deepen them and perhaps subvert them from within.

Inevitably, just as Harry Potter, Buffy Summers and several generations of Skywalkers and Bagginses have learned, the evil puts great pressure on those who approach it, even if they had good intentions. . Kiernan Shipka continues to be the best reason to watch the show, especially when Sabrina begins to alternate between the debonair and generous teenybopper she was at the beginning of the series and the more motivated and sometimes perverse young woman she is in becoming.

Just warning: most Sabrina's icy adventuresThe biggest defects of the device remain. Each chapter is exhausting, and usually lasts an hour. The moments of lightness are too sparse and, given the dark tone and tone of the series, can become painful. The rare colorful moments are a treat, as in the opening sequence of Chapter 12, "The Epiphany", where Sabrina revolves around her room, using magic to try new outfits. It's a pity that Aguirre-Sacasa and his creative team do not exploit this fun side more often.

The second half sticks to a more pleasant episodic structure, which is a welcome change since, at mid-season, Sabrina was mired in his own mythology. "The Epiphany", for example, is mainly about Sabrina's challenge to the sexist rituals of the Academy of Invisible Arts by confronting her new potential boyfriend, Nicholas Scratch, in a series of challenges to win the title of "Top Boy". . comparisons to the Harry Potter the books are clearly intended.)

Meanwhile, in Chapter 13, "Sabrina Spellman's Passion," Sabrina briefly returns to Baxter High, where the Dark Lord Satan attempts to misuse her powers to solve her friends' problems. In Chapter 14, "Lupercalia," Sabrina and Nick participate in the annual celebration of teen debauchery at the Academy. In the very good chapter 15, "The house of the horror of Dr. Cerberus", a tarot reader predicts the possible futures of various characters.

The first three episodes of the second half of the season have set up parallel stories between the Academy and Baxter High. As Sabrina defeats patriarchy while trying to become a Top Boy, her friend Susie introduces herself as a transsexual – now named Theo – and tries out for the boys' basketball team. While Baxter High embarks on the production of Romeo and Juliet the Academy of Invisible Arts organizes its own blasphemous profanation of a biblical account. The Lupercalia of chapter 14 are performed at the same time as Baxter's Valentine's Dance. Etc. The show continues to contrast "normal" teenage life with what Sabrina does.

Chapters 15 and 16 begin to focus more on this season's main storyline, involving Father Faust in the possible involvement in the death of Sabrina's father, a high priest who advocated for a liberalized night church and respectful of mortals. In the last episode provided in advance to critics, "Blackwood," no Baxter High character appears, aside from the school director, Lady Satan's plot. It is therefore possible, given what is happening in "Blackwood", that the rest of the season is more serialized.

As a result, new episodes are unlikely to appeal to those who have not benefited. Sabrina's icy adventuresPrevious chapters But they show more depth than before and a stronger thematic command. The producers are still doing a supernatural melodrama that drops fans' references to the favorite genres of the past, including through casting. Buffy / angelAlexis Denisof and Twin peaks / combineRay Wise occupies key roles. But they also propose a targeted critique of institutional sexism.

Even the villains of the show – Madame Satan, the wicked popular girls of the academy "Weird Sisters" and Aunt Zelda Sabrina – are well heard, like ladies forced by a predominantly male culture to exercise their power by submitting to aggressive and capricious men. . In the same vein, the richest subplot of these new episodes implies that Theo openly assumes the identity of a boy and quickly becomes disenchanted by private spaces reserved for men, where men are brutalized and demean.

What's the most exciting in the second half of Sabrina's icy adventuresThe first season, however, is how the heroine continues to become what she's fighting against. She draws on her satanic gifts while integrating so completely into the larger projects of Church of Night that she may not be able to cope. This is a classic dilemma of a fantastic hero, revitalized by the brave Shipka, who keeps Sabrina's curiosity and brightness alive as she ventures deeper into the darkness. Her performance and the strong feminist perspective of the series give new relevance to the old bow.

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