I loved Nickelodeon’s ‘Sabrina the Teenage Witch’ when I was younger 0 I loved the sass of Salem, the rebellious attitude of Sabrina and I loved the dynamic of her two glorious aunts… I binged all of the new series of Sabrina in a couple of days, and whilst I have a couple of issues in regards to the plot, I absolutely adored Netflix’s (Hopefully) first instalment of the series.

I had forgotten just how dreamy and perfect Harvey was as a mortal boyfriend, and whilst their proclamations of love at barely 16 years old made me cringe inside, on the whole it was adorable and heart-warming. Their love and admiration seemed as sincere as it can at 16, and one particular scene comes to mind (No spoilers here) that just demonstrates how much they care for each other as individuals.

Now onto the beefiness with minimal spoilers: the story.

So besides the other series I have very little context in regards to plot lines and character development (My husband has just ordered a backlog of the comics!) so I will only comment on the story in the series. In a nutshell, Sabrina needs to choose between her mortal life with her friends, boyfriend and traditional school, and her inheritance and family ties to becoming a fully fledged witch. Sabrina is a strong feminist character, so of course she tries to find another way besides the two paths that are laid in front of her by a warlock that her family respects.  She brilliantly represents the preconceptions of those tried for witchcraft many moons ago in the sense that a smart and wise woman can only be that way by magic due to her “ladylike disposition”. Sabrina does everything in her power to make life fairer for those that are poorly represented, whether they are human, magical, black, white, straight, trans or just not quite sure yet.

The biggest plot issue for me is that in one of the earlier episodes, the introduction of a particular character was made out to be a massive deal and an hour to behold, but as soon as we meet this character they appear in pretty much every damn episode! If they’re always gonna be at your house then where’s the mystery in that?! There are a few other niggly areas of story that I don’t want to expand as I don’t want to spoil too much, but if you engage your analytical side you will probably also see fault in it too.

The earlier episodes of the show are shot with an effect that gives a cloudy or smudged effect to the edge of the screen. I think it works really well for some of the witchcraft scenes in the show as it adds to the eeriness, however every shot being this way is counter-productive. From my understanding this effect was dropped about halfway through due to complaints about it, and to be honest it did the show a world of good.

My favourite character in the show (Besides Aunt Hilda!) is Prudence, and whilst she is portrayed as a villain, her character development is so rewarding and satisfying to watch, Team Prudence all the way! But again one of the issues I have with the show (Maybe it’s just society as whole) is why witches are prejudice against a half-witch when witches themselves have faced such massive persecution in history. Surely any witch, whether whole, half, quarter or 15 16ths should be embraced by the witch community? This is the point that I really started to identify with Sabrina. As I said before she fights for what is right regardless of the background of people, and she is badass in the process! She takes down her enemies in fantastic style that is both suited to her character, and satisfying to watch as an audience. It. Is. Brilliant.

So in summary, if you love witches, believe in feminism and just want a damn good show to watch, get on to Chilling Adventures of Sabrina! You won’t be disappointed!