MovieChat Forums > Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996) Discussion > Sabrina: is she kind of a jerk?

Sabrina: is she kind of a jerk?

posted 8 years ago by gabriel-kingsom
16 replies | jump to latest

I'm currently re-watching all seasons, as I hadn't watched the show since it's original run. Right now I'm in the middle of season 4 and I'm noticing Sabrina being increasingly vain, self-centered and sometimes plain rude (not to mention the Harvey-Josh storyline). Am I alone in thinking this?

Although, to be fair, the quality of this season is the worst so far in writing, new characters, the re-writing of some of the backup stories, etc., and above all: the awful new opening and theme. I'm all for changes, but they could have done better than that, I think.

Anyways, peace and love, let me know what you think! 😸✌

[–] stareyes24 8 years ago

I totally agree. I enjoyed the first three seasons, but this season is painful to watch.

[–] Jeannette_Mary 8 years ago

Her character changes from the early seasons to the later seasons. She's sweet in the early seasons but as the series continues she does become bitchy.

"Sometimes life hands you lemons that are worth 2 in the bush, I like kittens."

[–] poem 8 years ago

As I just wrote in another thread and as I've written before: I prefer to pretend that StTW only lasted for three seasons.

After that it only gets increasingly worse and worse.

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A gentleman will not insult me, and no man not a gentleman can insult me.

[–] gc18 8 years ago

I think part of it had to do with Melissa Joan Hart wanted to do more mature storylines by having the character grow up.

[–] poem 8 years ago

That explanation only works if MJH doesnt actually have a concept about what "more mature" means. And even then it would still only explain some of the changes.

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A gentleman will not insult me, and no man not a gentleman can insult me.

[–] xj-10520 7 years ago

She's pretty much played the same character her entire TV career. This leads me to believe she's kinda jerky in real life. Once her commercial career winds down I see her on one of those xian channels with her own show. She has enough siblings for a built-in cast.

[–] tfrankovich 7 years ago

I totally agree. Sabrina the teenage witch in season 1-3 was a very good show. The plot or storyline was good. My favorite show at the time. Sabrina the character was sweet, nice, caring, loyal friend. She tried to do the right thing. She was very mature for her age. Sabrina was a very likable character.

Sabrina the teenage witch in season 4-7 was not a good show. Hard to watch at times. The storyline was not as good. Some episodes good, a lot more bad. Sabrina the character became too self-center. She was less caring. She was less likable. She became more immature and did not care for the people she hurt. She was a jerk to Harvey. I stop watching every week (In season four). I did like the last episode, a lot.

Sabrina the teenage witch is still one of my favorite shows. I will always have fond memories of the show.

[–] danfaz94 8 years ago

Am I alone in thinking this?

You are definitely not alone with this way of thinking. I agree about Sabrina coming across badly at certain points.

As a character, Sabrina always had flaws throughout the seven seasons, but she was particularly bad in Season 4 with the way she treated the whole situation with Harvey and Josh.

In Seasons 1-3 and 5-7 Sabrina still had bad moments (as is common for most people in real life, to be fair) but in Season 4 she came across as, like you say, very selfish, vain, self-centred and rude. I think it's the only season when this aspect of her character outweighs the sweetness and eccentricity and makes her quite unlikeable.

the awful new opening and theme.

Agree 100%. I loved the opening of Seasons 1-3 and I even have a soft spot for 5-7's as well. I think they both fit with the upbeat nature of the show and really worked when followed by the jokiness set up in the intros. The Season 4 intro is just awful, it's too slow. I always feel like after the intro in which there's always a joke, the Season 4 intro just kills the comedy beat.

Little people? Who decides they are so unimportant?

[–] prydain17 7 years ago

The original opening is sooo bad. In three seasons, there were never a single good one-liner, sometimes they're bad enough that I actually cringe.

I think even in season 2 there are *lots* of episodes where Sabrina is shown as being a huge jerk. She's pretty selfish too. Unless the episode's plot needs her to be extra sweet or extra bitchy, she's kind of just in some middle ground. I find it more disturbing how we're constantly hearing Salem remark upon the abuse he receives from Sabrina, off-screen. And in season 2, well over half the episodes all comment on something Sabrina did off-screen that makes her sound not sweet at all, and potentially sociopathic.

I know it's a sitcom but still. I was OBSESSED with this show growing up and it was by far my favorite on TGIF. Somehow though I never picked up on all these personality inconsistencies, especially the ones regarding the mistreatment of Salem.

_____

"No! He is imprinted on you like a gay duckling. If you don't wean him off you slowly, he'll die."

[–] Moonlighty 7 years ago

And in season 2, well over half the episodes all comment on something Sabrina did off-screen that makes her sound not sweet at all, and potentially sociopathic.

Gosh I'd love a few examples to back up this absurd claim.

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Consider the daffodil. And while you're doing that I'll be over here looking through your stuff.

[–] Stratego (29199) 7 years ago

I agree. In the first season she's kind and polite, but once Valerie came along she got more of a condescending attitude, which only got worse as the show went on.

[–] Faridah (1325) 6 years ago

I agree earlier seasons are the best

[–] AmeriGirl26 (12249) 6 years ago

I usually don't consider any seasons past Season 4 to be really part of the series, for a number of reasons, most of it due to bad writing, bad acting, and continuity issues.

What really bothered me about Sabrina in the first 4 seasons was how immature, impulsive, and spontaneous she could be. Granted, she was a teenager, but I have met teens that could behave much more maturely than her (I was one of them). What was really dumb, was how she really would not plan out things ahead very far, but that could just be the stereotypical teen and comedy angle they were going for.

I was also bothered about the way they dressed her. I know for a fact teenagers did not dress that way on the east coast in the 90s. In fact, a lot of her clothes looked more like something young women in LA would wear to cocktail parties and business meetings, rather than a middle-class, east coast teenager of the 90s. Plus, almost NOBODY wore the pseudo-Shirley Temple hairdos, save for at least 1 or 2 celebrities in Hollywood for ONE YEAR in the late 90s.

[–] leader (1682) 5 years ago

The character was just relying a lot on passive agressive humor which was not something that was okay for girls to do at the time. The show was actually a trail blazer in the way she normalized girls being funny.

[–] GreenGoblinsOck8 (7394) 5 years ago

I'm one of the few people who can tolerate the 4th season. Mainly cause I liked Josh and Harvey's friend who comes from a family of Witch Hunters. I hate Season 5 onwards. Except for the very last episode of the show when [spoiler]she finally gets back with Harvey.[/spoiler]