Halloween Edition: Spooky, Scary
Looking for something to kickstart your Halloween festivities? In between listening to the Wicked soundtrack (see my recommendation below), the best way to start any Halloween party is with this jam from 30 Rock. Fill in the rest of the party with a special Halloween playlist I designed just for you! It's filled with some spooky classics, some themed rock and of course, an excessive number of musical theater hits.
Check out the Seen & Heard Halloween playlist here!
As Seen on Screen
Last week, just in time for Halloween, Netflix released The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, a spooky interpretation of the classic Sabrina the Teenage Witch series. The "chilling" version is based on Archie Comics' Archie Horror imprint, and the series takes place in the same universe as Riverdale. The series tells the story of Sabrina Spellman, who is half-mortal and half-witch. Her 16th birthday takes place on Halloween, and on that evening, she's supposed to complete the dark baptism to become part of the Dark Lord's coven of witches. Of course, while she's dealing with all of this, she's also living a normal teenage life. She's in love with her adorable boyfriend Harvey Kinkle. She's dealing with football player bullies. And she's trying to start a new organization, the Women’s Intersectional Creative Cultural Association (WICCA), to support one of her best friends, Susie. Side note: Teen Vogue published a great article about the careful way in which the character of Susie was developed and the influence Lachlan Watson, a non-binary actor, had in shaping Susie's arc during the season.
Growing up, I was a huge fan of the original Sabrina series, starring Melissa Joan Hart. If you haven't already seen these hilarious promotions featuring the old cast, be warned, the Chilling Adventures is definitely not the family friendly WB show it once was. Ironically, the Netflix series was originally supposed to air on the CW with its teen drama counterpart, Riverdale. The network station might have been a better fit for the Sabrina series. The Netflix version clocks in at around 60 minutes per episode, which means each one feels a little long, a little overstuffed and a little dull. I've just seen the first three episodes of the show, but my initial impression is that it's off to a slow start. During network shows, a slow start can be excused. Show creators are often still figuring out who their characters are and are still in the process of filming and writing new episodes. But with Chilling, the show is already fully baked and out of the oven, so there's no time to adjust, recalculate or speed things up. After finishing the third episode, I can see the show begin to settle into its self a bit more, and I'm excited to see that progress throughout the rest of the series.
Given the empowering tone of the show, I was surprised to find that the first three episodes were written and directed by men. One of the reasons I first looked this up was because of some weird moments throughout the first few installments that involved glimpses of almost-nude female bodies that feel very much directed through a male gaze. The moments don't fit with the female-power tone of the show, and I sincerely hope that this doesn't continue throughout the rest of the series and that the creators realize the impact the male gaze can have on the directing style. At its core, Chilling Adventures is a story about a teenage girl finding her power and identity, while also grappling with the patriarchy in both the real world and the witch realm. While female witches are given magical powers by signing their names over to the Dark Lord, the witch world is still completely controlled by one "man" aka the devil. Sabrina pushes back against the expectation that she should join a community ruled by an all-powerful man. It's a great way to re-frame the narrative of the series that feels true to its core and also incredibly relevant in 2018, and I hope that by incorporating more female writers and directors (as it looks like the next few episodes do), we'll get to see Sabrina take full control of her power.
Haven't You Heard?
To celebrate the 15th anniversary of Wicked, NBC aired a special "Halloween Party" dedicated to the Broadway musical. Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel hosted the special event and treated the audience to performances of fan-favorite songs, including Popular, Defying Gravity and an emotional performance of For Good, where Kristin and Idina were accompanied by other Glinda and Elphaba duos from the last 15 years. While the show didn't feature as many behind-the-scenes secrets or flashback footage that I would have liked, they did manage to get Ariana Grande to come and sing The Wizard and I, Adam Lambert and Ledisi to sing As Long as You're Mine and Pentatonix to sing a fun rendition of What is this Feeling?. When Wicked first came out, the musical was all the rage in my middle school. Performances during school talent shows for the next few years featured plenty of Wicked numbers, and I listened to the soundtrack over and over again and eventually saw the show when it came to the Chicago-area. But alas, as I've gotten older Wicked worked its way out of my listening rotation. The 15th anniversary special warranted a re-listen, and I've been bopping along to the soundtrack all week to accompany Halloween festivities. The powerful female ballads still give me chills. The duets between Idina and Kristin still blow me away. And a musical about female friendship, overcoming adversity and coming to terms with the power you wield as a woman could not be more timely. Check out the original soundtrack, the songs from the NBC special or re-watch Idina Menzel's iconic Tony performance!
Required Reading
A few months ago, I wrote about how much I loved Jasmine Guillory's The Wedding Date romance novel, which came out in January. So now I'm even more excited to announce that her second novel, The Proposal, hits book stores this week. While I attempt to patiently wait until the weekend to devour the book, I'm enjoying The Atlantic's article about Jasmine's books and how she is doing her part to change how romance novels address conversations about race and conversations about giving consent. Jasmine says, "There are so many hard things going on. [But] reading romances about women of color finding joy and finding love is just something so affirming to me and something that I need to read... Because all day you’re looking at the news or you’re on Twitter and you’re seeing all of the bad things that are happening to women out there, and I just need to see men treating women well in a book, you know?" So if you're looking for a fun escape, pick up one or both of Jasmine Guillory's novels!
