Who Cares about Harvey Kinkle?

When the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina first premiered last October I was excited to see Kiernan Shipka in a lead role, since I loved her as the emotionally traumatized Sally Draper in Mad Men. I was also excited to see Ross Lynch, whom I had a major crush on during his Disney days, return to the small screen as the archetypal boy-next-door, Harvey Kinkle. The show honestly exceeded my expectations and was a tender look at the struggles of being a teenage girl. I mean, who wouldn't love to hex the annoying football team or sexist principal?

But Poor Harvey (I started calling him Poor Harvey halfway through the series), was disappointing from the get-go. Sweet, supportive, and innocent to a fault, he's not a bad character, he's just...boring. It kind of feels like the writers wrote him into scenes last, when they were tired and dying to go home. With lines like, "I was confused by the zombies. I mean, why were they so freaking slow.", he comes off more like the stoner in the back of your history class, not the man who captured the heart of a talented witch.

Even before Sabrina went dark it was obvious that Harvey wouldn't be able to keep up with her. While Sabrina and her friends were creating safe spaces for LGBTQ+ students and starting a banned book club, Harvey was just kind of there, with a hug and a "Man that sucks. Someone should do something." attitude.

The trailer for part two came out this week, suggesting a love triangle between Sabrina, Harvey, and Nick. Fans were also shocked to see a clip of Harvey and Roz kissing, but honestly, who cares? How Sabrina will defeat the Dark Lord seems like a more pressing issue to me than who Harvey will take to prom. If Roz and Harvey get together that will be great. While losing her sight and harnessing her soothsaying powers Roz will need someone supportive and stable like Harvey. Sabrina, however, just needs to move out of her comfort zone, and Harvey is keeping her there.

Not that I'm Team Nick, but at least Nick moves the plot along, helping Sabrina perform resurrections, cast protection spells, or just adjusting to life at the academy. It's not entirely Harvey's fault though. If Sabrina would let him in the loop once in a while, he might be able to help, or the whole "Hey Harvey I resurrected your brother but now he's evil, so now you have to kill him again" situation could have been avoided. However, Sabrina insists on protecting him because she doesn't think he can handle all her witch problems, which is understandable. But, I mean, if your boyfriend can't handle God and the Devil fighting over your soul and curses from vengeful witches, should you even be dating?

This season, I look forward to seeing Sabrina (gently) ditch Harvey, and literally fly away.