If your family has ever wished a storybook could come to life, The Sisters Grimm is about to make that wish even more magical.
Apple TV’s animated series returns for Season 2, following sisters Sabrina and Daphne as they continue navigating a world filled with fairy-tale characters, mysteries, unexpected clues and plenty of magical mayhem. This time around, though, there is even more to unravel — and the sisters are growing up along the way.
For legendary comedian and original Saturday Night Live cast member Laraine Newman, who lends her voice to the series, that combination of smart comedy, larger-than-life characters and genuine heart is part of what makes The Sisters Grimm so special.
And if you’re wondering whether Season 2 has the kind of humor kids love most, Newman has one important disclaimer.
“We all know that kids like farts,” she jokes. “There are no farts in this show. I should just let you know, not to get anybody’s hopes up.”
In other words, The Sisters Grimm is aiming for a slightly more sophisticated kind of funny — although Newman is quick to admit, “Not much though.”
What the series does deliver is the kind of silliness that works across generations.
“I think silliness, seeing characters that look a certain way but behave a different way,” Newman explains. “I think that is universally funny and I think we have a lot of that in this show.”
More Magic. More Mystery. More Everything.
If families enjoyed the first season, Newman promises that Season 2 turns up the volume.
“I think this season has more of everything,” she says. “It has more humor, it has more scary moments, it has more excitement, and it has new characters and new relationships.”
And there is another very relatable development for young viewers: school.
Sabrina and Daphne are entering middle school, adding an entirely new layer to their already complicated magical adventures. Suddenly, the sisters aren’t just trying to solve mysteries and navigate a fantastical world — they’re also dealing with friendships, teachers and all the familiar uncertainty that comes with growing up.
“The whole introduction of middle school for the kids is a whole new aspect and everything that comes with that is a great element to this new season,” Newman says. “So there’s a lot to enjoy from it.”
That combination may be one of the show’s biggest strengths. Beneath the magic and fairy tales are experiences kids recognize: figuring out who you are, navigating new relationships and discovering that something you weren’t particularly excited about might actually turn out to be pretty great.
From SNL to Storybooks
Newman knows a thing or two about creating memorable characters.
As one of the original cast members of Saturday Night Live, she helped establish the character-driven comedic style that would become a hallmark of the series — and she sees a natural connection between sketch comedy and animation.
“It is part of my DNA,” Newman says of her SNL roots. “But you find there’s a lot of SNL people that are working in animation because basically it’s characters.”
For Newman, the connection is simple: “I think for SNL, the most enduring sketches are things that are character driven, and it is a natural skillset to go from something like that to animation.”
It’s an especially fitting skill set for The Sisters Grimm, a show populated by characters who look as though they’ve stepped directly out of a storybook — but don’t always behave the way you’d expect.
The Art of Making a Character Come Alive — Without Being Seen
Voice acting requires a very different kind of performance.
Without costumes, makeup, sets or traditional physical comedy, actors have to communicate personality, emotion and intention almost entirely through sound.
Newman says that’s exactly what makes the craft so fascinating.
“Voice acting is a really fun and different art form,” she says. “The people that work in it are just, I am so dazzled by the talent that I encounter in that world.”
And while voice actors may not have the visual tools of a traditional performance, Newman points out that the body still plays an important role.
“If you’re going to be pulling something or lifting something or anything like that, you’re using your body to affect your voice,” she explains. “But for the most part, it is really focusing on putting emotion and intent and all those things just with your voice.”
For Newman, that’s part of the fun. “It is really a fascinating process and I love it.”
A Comedy Education at Home
Newman’s own appreciation for comedy goes beyond her professional career. When her children were young, comedy was part of their everyday life — and their entertainment education extended well beyond animation.
Her two children, who are three years and eight months apart, didn’t necessarily watch the same things growing up. But both were exposed to comedy from an early age.
Her older child was particularly drawn to British comedies, while the family also listened to comedy albums featuring performers including Maria Bamford, Patton Oswalt and Steve Martin.
“Their education was not only in animation, it was comedy albums too,” Newman says.
That love of character-driven comedy is something she still recognizes in great storytelling today.
When asked what defines good comedy to her now, Newman points to a style that feels authentic and rooted in the strange, recognizable ways people actually behave.
She cites the Australian series Colin from Accounts as a current favorite, describing it as an example of comedy built around how people think they’re being perceived versus how they’re actually being perceived.
“That’s a kind of comedy that I’ve always really loved,” she says.
And that observation feels particularly relevant to The Sisters Grimm, where characters are often funny not because they’re delivering a traditional punchline, but because of who they are, how they react and the unexpected ways they interact with the world around them.
A Different Kind of Fairy Tale
There is also something visually distinctive about The Sisters Grimm.
The animation has a beautiful, almost painted quality that gives the series the feeling of an illustrated storybook coming to life — an aesthetic Newman says is unusual for animation.
“You don’t often see it in animation,” she says. “So that was good observation on your part and it is a beautiful thing. It is beautiful.”
That visual storytelling is part of what makes the series feel immersive for families watching together. The world isn’t simply a backdrop for the sisters’ adventures; it becomes another character in the story, filled with familiar fairy-tale elements and unexpected twists.
For kids, there are mysteries to solve and characters to discover. For parents, there are layers of humor, storytelling and nostalgia tucked throughout.
And then there are Sabrina and Daphne themselves — two sisters learning to navigate a world that is simultaneously magical and remarkably familiar.
The Magic of Growing Up
Ultimately, that’s what makes Season 2 of The Sisters Grimm so appealing.
The stakes may be magical, but the emotions are real.
It’s about curiosity. Friendship. Family. School. New relationships. Being brave enough to follow a clue when you don’t know where it’s going to lead.
And, of course, figuring things out along the way.
With more humor, more adventure, more characters and the added challenge of middle school, Season 2 gives families another reason to settle in together and get swept into the story.
For Newman, the magic is in the combination — a world imaginative enough to capture kids’ attention, with comedy and character work that gives adults plenty to enjoy too.
And while she may have spent decades making audiences laugh, her latest role proves that the best comedy — and the best stories — don’t necessarily need to be loud or obvious.
Sometimes, all it takes is a wonderfully strange character, a little silliness and a good mystery to solve.
Season 2 of The Sisters Grimm is now bringing even more of that magic to Apple TV
