The Netflix series for Sabrina has ended and I have lots of thoughts about this hot mess of a show.

I'm going to chat about Sabrina (the Netflix series) which has ended now. So spoiler alert, if you are still watching or intending to watch.

The fourth (and final) season of Sabrina ended at the turn of the year, and I just finished watching it. When the show first aired, I was rather shocked at how different it was to anything I'd known about Sabrina. And it took me a little while to enjoy it because the main character of Sabrina was such an asshole. But we wouldn't have a show if the main character wasn't immediately doing exactly what she was told not to do (and suffering the consequences). I think (overall) my favorite character was Harvey. The people he interacted with on a daily basis were insufferable, and I'm glad the writer doing his lines knew how to thread that particular needle. 

That being said, there were a lot of qualities I did like.

For one, it was very adult, sexual, respectfully diverse and inclusive (although the graduate thesis level gender studies remarks seemed out of place in high school), and fun in the kind of way that I think a lot of people who are in love with Halloween (the holiday) imagine it to be. It was a very "woke" series as far as that goes, which seems really odd because it had so much to do with things that I think are evil. But I guess this show's interpretation of evil was that you could still have all the Beelzebub stuff as long as you were respectful about it. It just seems weird to me that you could use the right pronouns with someone (like "they" and "them") but then cut the head off your own father. Like...how does that work exactly? It seemed to pack some kind of messaging like, "the worst crimes in the world are ones which target identity." However, I was raised that murder and rape are actually worse than that...so, I got a little lost.

In many ways, Sabrina might have been a clever ode to the spooky holiday. And I really do mean "clever" because the way the sources of magic whether they be from Hecate or Lucifer are all clearly defined. Hell's role with its earth-bound witches is so intertwined that there is no sense of "other" in Sabrina. Rather, Hell is just right through the door, and you visit it as much as you would the kitchen in your home. And getting there and back again is as easy as opening a fridge door. Early on they try to scare you with mysterious gateways in mines that appear to be portals to Hell. But you do get to the point of asking, "What's the big deal?" when by fourth season, Sabrina just goes there all the time and chats up her father Lucifer or drops off a doll house or attends a social event.

And with regard to Hecate and Lucifer, both of these entities appear to be just "sources of power" rather than actual religions. If anything, Sabrina's track record with regard to religions isn't great. The way in which they used Baron Samedi in the fourth season seemed "not right" mostly because it was a big surprise and Hilda was in a queer relationship with a witch who was really a man the entire time. And then there was the whole first season fiasco with the statue of Baphomet and the Satanic church, that went to court. But mostly, religion for these witches (at least) doesn't seem to matter. They can trade faith like shirts. It was really all about the powers they got from the entities rather than anything they actually felt toward them. That does seem odd, but when your god is someone you "pal around with" I suppose you can unfriend them just like on Facebook.

I'm also not sure how I feel about the end of this show. Sabrina dies, and the ending feels very "tacked-on." She's just sitting in an empty room with three pictures and Nicholas Scratch (who presumably committed suicide so he can be with her) shows up and they just start kissing. It feels strange. Additionally, I'm just assuming that Nicholas Scratch committed suicide. What he tells Sabrina is that he swam in the "Sea of Sorrows," and I don't know what that is other than a metaphor for extreme depression. If he did commit suicide to be with his one true love, maybe that's a trope that we should just leave with Romeo and Juliet.

I also was not a fan of Father Blackwood. I was tired of this villain, and his crazy turn for Eldritch Terrors seemed very empty. It also felt like the Eldritch Terrors had absolutely no use for him, so he was pretty much just this really annoying person that distracted from the overall plot of the fourth season. It seems like the showrunners didn't really get Lovecraftian horror either, because the fourth season of Sabrina was just monster of the week, which pretty much sums up 90% of the series Supernatural.

Anyway, all that said, I did enjoy the show, but it doesn't hold any rewatch-ability for me. I think the ending caught everyone by surprise, because even the showrunners didn't realize that they'd run out of time when they were told that it would not be renewed for a season five. Knowing this, my strong preference is for shows to know that they're ending. That way people can write, film, and act like they know that the end is coming. It's basic storytelling, and it should be required of television.