Sabrina: A Midwinter’s Tale {Roundtable}

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina returned for Midwinter festivities at the Spellman’s. Sabrina recruits the Weird Sisters to help her contact her mother in purgatory. Unfortunately the girls leave the door open for more troublesome spirits. Susie also finds herself in trouble, and the aunts have to call on outside help to deal with it. Let’s see what Roz and I thought about A Midwinter’s Tale.

How do you feel about the Spellman’s Yule celebration?

Roz: Yule is such a good season, with all manner of traditions. I love the idea of using all the general mid-winter celebrations for this show, especially with so much of solstice being pagan before. It’s great to see a Yule log, little Yule Lads and a demon who wants to focus on children at the time of year when we celebrate so much for children.

Cara: I loved seeing all the old traditions mentioned. I love all the dark myths that exist around the world related to Midwinter and winter, so it was really fun to see a little bit of that mixed in with more typical Christmas fare. It was an excellent nod to the origins of some common traditions.

What did you think of Gryla?

Roz: I feel so bad for any spurned woman who wants to protect children, but she was a great look at what sort of spirit can be both good and evil. She was sending her little impish guys to all homes, but in the end she helped the Spellmans defeat the demon holding Susie.

Cara: She was such a great antihero. She’s certainly out to cause trouble with her Yule Lads, but ultimately her motives are very relatable. I think she was an excellent character to put opposite the return of Sabrina’s mother Diana, who was portrayed as so saint-like and kind. So often a character like Gryla would be clearly wicked in contrast to the goodness and light of Diane, but here we see that Gryla wants to protect children just much as Diana wants to help Sabrina.

What do you think the future holds for Sabrina and Harvey?

Roz: Harvey seems pretty set on not having a relationship with her, at least when she’s still using magic. He’s rejecting her outright for something that can be helpful (we saw how good it was at getting his dad off alcohol), but until he sees that the magic can help even if it does hurt (like Tommy), he’s going to stay far far away.

Cara: I have to say that I kind of agree with Harvey’s reluctance when it comes to magic. Sabrina has a tendency to forget about things like a person’s free will and right to choose and be responsible for the results of their actions (which is ironic given her own issues with free will). Harvey’s father’s alcoholism is a real problem, but Harvey mentioned that his father doesn’t want anyone to see him that way, so it’s clear he isn’t happy with his addiction. But, if Sabrina really wants to help someone, she should involve them in the choice of what is done.

Susie’s run in with the demon explains so many strange things about Christmastime. What do you think of how the show incorporated seasonally appropriate villains?

Roz: I’m all for seasonal evilness so let’s keep it up; he was a good demon for children who are looking for some joy and happiness. Can the next season feature some evil spirits around Eastertide? More creepy resurrections?

Cara: Yes, I love it. We’ve kind of lost the tradition of scary stories and wicked things that go bump in the night at Christmastime. I’m all for bringing it back. Ghost stories, and Krampus, and mischievous spirits, let’s have it all.

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina will return for season 2 on April 5 on Netflix and has been renewed for seasons 3 and 4, so it looks like we’ve got a lot of Sabrina to look forward to.