Carstairs Considers....: TV Show Review: Sabrina the Teenage Witch

Monday, April 22, 2013

TV Show Review: Sabrina the Teenage Witch - Season 1

Stars: 4 out of 5
Pros: Laughs. Innocent fun.

Cons: Still finding itself; a few special effects

The Bottom Line:

Some building involved

Laughs but show does get better

With the next season

Who Says Being a Teenager Isn't Magical?

I didn't get into Sabrina the Teenage Witch until its second season, mainly because I didn't have access to a TV until then. But I have caught the first season several times in reruns before buying the first season set. While there are plenty of laughs here, it still isn't my favorite season.

Sabrina Spellman's (Melissa Joan Hart) life is changing. She's just moved in with her aunts Hilda (Caroline Rhea) and Zelda (Beth Broderick) and is starting a new school.

But that's not all. On her sixteenth birthday, Sabrina learns that she is a witch who is just starting to get her powers. So not only does she need to fit in at school, but she needs to hide her powers for fear of being labeled a freak. And there's the fact that their cat Salem talks (voiced by Nick Bakay).

On her first day of school, she quickly makes friends with idealistic Jenny (Michelle Beaudoin) and develops a crush on Harvey (Nate Richert). Unfortunately, she also draws the distain of head cheerleader Libby (Jenna Leigh Green). And she has to survive biology with Mr. Poole (Paul Feig).

This school year will be anything but easy as she turns Libby into a pineapple, learns that messing with her friends lives can cause terrible things to happen, makes a magician invisible, gets trapped in a mirror of her own bad mood, turns Harvey into a frog when they kiss, and faces her own worst fear when Libby accuses her of being a witch while on a field trip to Salem, Massachusetts. Who ever said being a witch was easy?

Many shows seem to spend part of their first year finding their footing, and that's certainly the case here. Some of these episodes sound good on paper, but don't quite work out that way in execution. The ones I already mentioned are pretty good. However, this is one of the weakest Christmas episodes as Sabrina and Salem fight, leading to the cat being kidnapped by a kid. There's an episode where Sabrina accidentally turns a baby into a man. And turning Libby into a geek doesn't quite work out either.

Even with the weaker episodes, I still enjoy the season overall. It is creating the world we'd visit for the next six years, and it's an ambitious fantasy world. In addition to our world, there is The Other Realm where you can ski on Mars or live in The Pleasure Dome. Sabrina's father lives in a book, literally. And you've always got to watch out for trolls. And because it is such obviously fantasy, I don't think many will have a problem with the witches shown here.

The acting is fine here. This is especially true of Caroline Rhea and Beth Broderick. Melissa Joan Hart has a tendency to overdo things slightly, but most of the time her reactions to the situations are realistic. After all, there are some pretty wacky things going on here. Paul Feig and Michelle Beaudoin's characters were replaced with new ones in season two, which is a shame because I thought they did fine.

This show always seemed to land pretty big guest stars, and that is established right from the start. Penn shows up a few times as Drell, head of the witch's council. Teller shows up a couple times as well. And, yes, he never speaks. Other guest stars include Raquel Welch as Aunt Vesta, Chris Elliot as a spy, and Coolio, Sally Jessy Raphael, Jack Wagner, and the rock band Violent Femmes as themselves to name a few.

The special effects work well for the most part. A few times they are obviously fake, but those are the rare exception. Salem the cat is played by a real cat and a puppet. The puppet is weak in the beginning of the season, but he gets better as things go along.

This set contains all 24 season 1 episodes on four discs. They are the full frame and stereo that they were originally broadcast in. And that's it. There are no special features as well.

There isn't anything serious about Sabrina the Teenage Witch, but it isn't trying to be serious. Instead, with season one you get a funny show set in a creative fantasy world.

Season 1 Episodes:

1. Pilot

2. Bundt Friday

3. The True Adventures of Rudy Kazootie

4. Terrible Things

5. A Halloween Story

6. Dream Date

7. Third Aunt from the Sun

8. Magic Joel

9. Geek Like Me

10. Sweet and Sour Victory

11. A Girl and Her Cat