Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: A Midwinter’s Tale review: A bridge between the seasons

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: A Midwinter’s Tale brought the magic of the winter solstice and it’s not all good. Serving as a bridge between seasons, it offered danger, humor, and drama.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: A Midwinter’s Tale brought the magic of the winter solstice. Of course, not all of that is good magic, with plenty of myths and legends about demons, dangerous and cheeky spirits, and the horrors of Yuletide. Serving as a bridge between the two seasons, the Christmas special certainly gets you into the spirit.

If you loved the first season, this is definitely a Christmas special for you. However, it does take time to kickstart, with the beginning serving more as a recap of the events that happened in the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Season 1 finale. We were reminded that:

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• Sabrina and Harvey broke up
• Sabrina’s friends know the truth about magic
• Zelda kidnapped a baby
• Sabrina saw her mother in Limbo

Once the episode actually got into the swing of things, it was okay. Between the threat to Susie (although I have to admit I saw that storyline coming a mile off) and the invisible children (what is it with creepy children storylines?), there was plenty of potential but it just didn’t quite meet hopes and expectations.

Starting with the bad

One of the main downsides for me is that it’s more of a bridge. Instead of being a special episode, it felt like an episode that could have been more of a YouTube webisode — and probably would have been back in the days before Netflix. There was a lot of filler material, making it possible for the team to create Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Season 2 from scratch, being able to avoid the major questions that came from the first season finale.

By the end, it does set up a few questions for the second season to answer, but nowhere near as many had this Christmas special never aired. Now, it’s pretty clear that Sabrina’s friends will accept her as a witch. Without Sabrina, Susie would have been a wax figure (I certainly got House of Wax vibes throughout those scenes) so that’s one point in the “for” column when it comes to being friends with a witch.

There also wasn’t enough action. I’d have loved to see more focus on the demon and the evil witch storylines (and yes, what is it about witches and cannibalism?). We got all this focus on a recap of the last season that not enough time was left for exciting villains and legends.

Ending with the good

What I adored about the episode was the Sabrina/Harvey storyline. This is something that will take the next season to follow up and, in a way, I hope they don’t get back together.

We saw how much Harvey doesn’t like magic. He’s not comfortable around it considering everything that’s happened in the past. Then there’s the fact that when Sabrina had the chance to talk to her mother about dating a mortal, it was clear Sabrina shouldn’t take Harvey on this dark path.

I want to see the two make a grown-up decision; that they’re just not right for each other. Sometimes, no matter how much you want to be with someone, there are circumstances that make you not right. Love can’t conquer all. Or maybe that’s just my cynical view on life.

I also loved Zelda’s decision. Without realizing that Sabrina and Diana had used magic to protect the baby, she sacrificed the child to avoid tearing her to pieces. The story reminded me of one in the Bible and only someone who truly loved the child would sacrifice their own happiness over life.

Then we got to see Zelda make another sacrifice. Knowing that the baby would never be safe in the house, we get to see her make a difficult decision to send her somewhere safe. She’s still my least favorite Spellman, but there could be potential.

What I will say is this episode confirms that Chilling Adventures of Sabrina just isn’t for me. While I wanted to enjoy A Midwinter’s Tale, a lot of the episode was guessable and didn’t quite hit the mark and I think I’m out for Season 2.

What did you think of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: A Midwinter’s Tale? Are you excited for the second season? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Season 1 and the Christmas special are currently available for streaming on Netflix.