This week I finished the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, which has been my most recent Netflix obsession, and I found myself needing more—but there’s no release date for season 2 and the holiday episode (which I am pumped for) isn’t out yet. But then I found out that the original Sabrina the Teenage Witch series is on Amazon Prime (an account which students can get for a discounted price!), so, of course, I started watching it and, even though I’m only on the first season, it was a great choice. Here’s why I think you should watch it too:
1. All the witchy teen fun, without Satan!
Although I love the creepiness of CAOS, there were a few parts that were almost too much for me. Some of the jump scares caught me off guard and definitely kept me from falling asleep later. Also, as someone who was raised Catholic, the literal Satanism and shots of the scary goat-man/Dark Lord definitely had me clutching my pearls. The nice thing about the original Sabrina show was that it has the magic, but a very watered down, sitcom version. Although it doesn’t have the same ~Halloween~ vibes, it’s way more relaxing than CAOS.
2. Salem, the power-hungry cat
In the original Sabrina, Salem is this weird animatronic puppet cat that talks–the character of Ambrose in CAOS makes up for the new non-talking Salem. Original Salem is not Sabrina’s familiar, instead he’s a witch that was turned into a cat because he attempted to take over the world, like Ambrose was confined to the house for trying to blow up the Vatican. Although I love Ambrose and the cat that plays Salem in CAOS, the original Salem and his sassy comments really adds some charm and hilarity to the Spellman household that just can’t be accomplished without a weird, 90s puppet thingy.
3. All your fave characters—sitcom-ified
Following the trend of the original Sabrina being way more kitschy and chill, Hilda and Zelda, Sabrina’s aunts are way different than CAOS. They get along better (original Zelda never kills Hilda) and their personalities are way more normal. Original Zelda is a genius physicist and calm maternal figure, while Hilda is way more confident, but still unlucky in love and hilarious. Harvey is also still around and still adorable with Sabrina, just without the whole (*spoilers*) “seeing the devil in the mines” and “zombie brother” stuff. Sadly, Susie and Roz are not in the original, although Sabrina does have a great friend named Jenny. Also, instead of Prudence and the weird sisters, the original Sabrina has the classic mean girl/cheerleader character named Libby. One big downside of the original that has to be mentioned—it’s way less diverse than CAOS is, which was the norm of 90s TV but is still not really an excuse.
4. The clothes!
The 90s were definitely a time of fun and cool (and sometimes really rough) fashion, which can definitely be seen in the original Sabrina’s outfits and really add a lot of fun to the show.
5. Short episodes
The original series went on for a really long time (7 seasons!) but the episodes are quick and definitely bingeable. I’ve been watching it for, like, two days and am already almost through the first season, which probably says more about my Thanksgiving break than the show.