The original 'Sabrina the Teenage Witch' is still a witty, charming and magical show. Its animated prequel show 'Sabrina: The Animated Series' is very much inferior but for a show that gets a lot of dislike to me it wasn't that bad while with room for it to be much better.
Continuing on from 'Sabrina: The Animated Series', this time set a year later with Sabrina now a fully fledged witch leading a secret double life, 'Sabrina's Secret Life' has the higher rating but to me for all its faults the less obscure (even though more hated) 'Sabrina: The Animated Series' was the stronger show. Don't get me wrong, 'Sabrina's Secret Life' is watchable and you can find a million times worse shows, and we are including ones that have lasted much longer and are still going inexplicably, but can kind of understand why it didn't last long (only 27 episodes).
'Sabrina's Secret Life' has good things. The animation is bright and colourful with nicely detailed backgrounds, and the drawing is smoother and somewhat more refined than 'Sabrina: The Animated Series'. The music is dynamic rather than discordant and while not unforgettable it's likable enough.
A few of the characters are well done. Sabrina is a flawed but easy to endear to titular character that serves as a healthy and positive role model for the primary target audience. Cassandra is vastly improved over Gem, the same kind of character with the same snobbishness and arrogance but these are nowhere near as overdone as before and she is not a brat and actually more interesting and antagonistic. The contentious relationship between Sabrina and Cassandra is the best realised of the character relationships, providing some believable conflicts without losing either character's appeal. Maritza is a decent replacement for Chloe.
Really liked the morals, issues and life lessons. Are they original? No. Regardless, they are universal, important relevant and it's hard for anybody not to identify with and they are dealt with in a way that's tactful and fun, not in a way that's unsubtle, sugar-coated or grating. Like 'Sabrina: The Animated Series', 'Sabrina's Secret Life' is a positive show on the whole, really trying to teach good values (which it does well), have stereotypes but mostly positive ones (also achieved with some characters) and not be mean-spirited (successful here).
It is let down once again by the lack of originality and feeling a bit bland. The stories have very little new to them, they have too much of a rehashed feel and are too basic and safe. The writing was in need of more wit and more consistent humour, some effective funny moments were there but there weren't anywhere enough of them.
Primarily because the characters that provide the humour were underwhelming in how they were written. Aunts Hilda and Zelda aren't as funny or as cool, they are a bit bland in personality and don't have enough to do. More disappointing was Salem, he is my favourite 'Sabrina' character and seemed stripped of what made him so good as a character, he doesn't have as much funny and he isn't anywhere near as interesting or as wonderfully sarcastic.
Harvey is not just as wet as a drip here but he also manages to be even more of an idiot than in 'Sabrina: The Animated Series'. Didn't give a toss for the more romantic angles, which were neither cute, romantic or charming, instead being bland and sappy. The voice acting is vastly inferior, the voice actors don't sound as enthusiastic and then there is a little over-compensating in others. Salem was one of the more disappointing examples.
To conclude, could have been much better but not a complete waste. 5/10 Bethany Cox
