History
This was a follow-up to Sabrina: TAS, and its movie Friends Forever. Along with being a late entry for DiC entertainment, this was the final production of their French subsidiary Les Studios Tex. To give you a quick sum-up of that latter company, only two shows of theirs are considered objectively good, and I hate one of the objectively good shows.
Secret Life came out in 2003, roughly a year after Friends Forever and less than two months after Sabrina the Teenage Witch ended. Admittedly, bad timing wasn't this show's downfall, and those with Sabrina fever were able to hold on for a little longer. Would this be considered a cash-in if this had the same production company as Sabrina: The Animated Series? How could you cash in on yourself?
Interestingly enough, but perhaps not surprisingly, this doesn't have any involvement from the Harts (or Savage Steve Holland for that matter.) Then again, as this and Sabrina the Teenaged Witch both borrowed from Archie Comics, and since DiC did business through them, er... no harm no foul I guess.
Like most of Les Studios Tex's shows, this aired in syndication (at least two others aired on Fox Kids and Foxbox respectively.) I have a bit of a hangup with shows produced for first-run syndication, in that they don't have the same budget as shows that appear on network television. These tend to be produced for educational and informative purposes, which is code for throwing anything at the wall as long as you learn something at the end.
Another thing to note on Les Studios Tex's network front, their shows had also aired in France. Most times they aired on M6, others had aired on TF1, which is where this show wound up (TF1 had also aired Sonic Underground, though M6 got The Wacky World of Tex Avery, Les' first and worst production.) It did air on Toon Disney in reruns at some point and on CBS, where it got its start on DiC's old syndication block (all you need to know is that aside from DiC's own bile, they brought most of America On-Line's kid stuff onto network television.) I hate CBS for some reason...
For better or worse, Sabrina's actor changed. Now she's voiced by Britt McKillip. You may recognize her as Hannah from the Scary Godmother films, though she also appeared on most horror anthology shows, I know she appeared in an episode of Night Visions, though she also appeared on the 1995 version of The Outer Limits and more recently in R.L. Stine's The Haunting Hour.
Bill Switzer returned to voice Harvey, basically the only mainstay on an acting basis. Maurice LaMarche also appeared in this, for some reason, and replaced Nick Bakay, for some reason.
Why it Makes my Skin Crawl.
There's nothing much that could be said about the premise. Aside from taking place after Friends Forever, it's more or less the same as Sabrina: TAS in terms of structure. But there is one aspect that sets it apart from that show.
They ramped up the moral schtick.
You know how I talked about E/I compliancy in the previous section? This aired in syndication on a morning block, which is home to shows like this. But we'll get into that shortly. I'm gonna have to cheat on this because I typically go by one episode to make my judgement, so I'm gonna go over a list of reasons why this show got slammed, hold the nitpicking.
Apparently, this occurring after Friends Forever holds no water. Sabrina's friend from that is never heard from again, but she could've easily been worked into this show, I'm sure. This show is also home to recolors, where Sabrina's friend from the original show is present with a new skin color. The antagonist in this show is a redesign of a character from Friends Forever as well (but that used a background character from STAS as a reference.), and they also brought in background characters to be part of the antagonist's posse. That wouldn't fly if it were The Loud House, background characters in that show are heralded to the same extent as the main ones, I should know.
Sounds like I'm in for a hell of a ride.
And the only reason I resorted to cheating was because when a blue moon shines on a leap-year, and a county in both Massachusetts and Vermont turn red, someone will comment and tell me that I missed out on talking about these flaws.
So how did the characters suffer?
Uncle Quigley from STAS doesn't appear at all, and his position as the voice of reason is given to Salem, who for the record was a former wizard who tried to destroy the world and was turned into a cat, and maintained some of his evil ways which he exhumes through dark sarcasm. Is this meant to show the dark side to moral figures? If they incorporated that into any show I'd probably watch it.
Now to be fair, Salem does maintain some sarcastic wit, but it's just weird how someone of his upbringing would be the voice of reason. I've noticed in most cartoons that the worst possible people are used to promote messages. Mr. Krabs well withstanding. Admittedly, Maurice LaMarche did a decent job, Nick Bakay has a more recognizable voice, but LaMarche has bigger chops than many voice actors.
Now to be fair, Salem does maintain some sarcastic wit, but it's just weird how someone of his upbringing would be the voice of reason. I've noticed in most cartoons that the worst possible people are used to promote messages. Mr. Krabs well withstanding. Admittedly, Maurice LaMarche did a decent job, Nick Bakay has a more recognizable voice, but LaMarche has bigger chops than many voice actors.
We lost more than Quigley though, gotta make room for new characters with as much meat as a leaf of lettuce. Also, aside from yet another retarded rip-off accusation (they called Sabrina a Harry Potter rip-off mainly because she uses a wand), the stories are cliched and the characters are flandarized in order to push more morals.
I don't go into flandarization, but I'm aware that it happens, especially in E/I shows. Characters are stripped down to one key personality in order to make it easier to teach lessons, not like they'd absorb what they learned from previous episodes, which is why I hate moral-driven shows. Why preach morals when nobody learns from them?
From what I know, Sabrina, in spite of being two years older than she was in STAS, doesn't necessarily have the mature behavior to match. Harvey apparently lost some braincells over the years and is portrayed in a more idiotic fashion (something tells me his adult self in Anywhere but Here holds a big kernel of truth.), also we have the stereotypical popular girl Cassandra.
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| No not that one. I mean I would love to see more of that one, but not that one. |
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| Er-e-go. |
People are quick to write off the queen bee characters, but I'm a little different. The way I see it, the popular ones are the losers and the main characters are the obnoxiously popular ones who put themselves before others. I'm out of my mind.
Before I go into an actual episode, I'd like to bring up that I heard a testimony on this show from someone who watched this and STAS. To say they didn't like it is an understatement, and to put it into perspective, they actually admitted the morals in this show were preachy and weak and didn't encourage me to look beyond one episode.
Whether or not I get through the whole episode will hold no bearing here. I need to see at least one episode in full to know how the moral is executed. At least with something like MP4ORCE and The Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer, they're mindless enough to the point you're not obligated to see it through.
Whether or not I get through the whole episode will hold no bearing here. I need to see at least one episode in full to know how the moral is executed. At least with something like MP4ORCE and The Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer, they're mindless enough to the point you're not obligated to see it through.
And now I get to talk about an episode.
It was never said that the show got better as it went on, so really, a single episode would be enough. Going through the summaries, a lot of them are rather predictable, one involves not doing your work at the last minute, be the best you can be and not better than anyone, don't lie for attention, pay attention in class, don't shrink your jeans and fall asleep in class otherwise you'll wind up in detention... Also I found one that reminds me of an episode of Archie's Weird Mysteries.
I'm just gonna play it safe and stick with the first, since the premise is partially ambiguous.
First up, the theme song. According to a strike against it, it's just repeating the same phrase over and over, but there're more words to it. Though the song still sucks, in a mediocre fashion that is.
Right off the bat, I personally consider Britt McKillip's voice to be better than Emily Hart's, in that the former gives just enough emotion for a serviceable performance. But that performance in the first few minutes gets dulled by what the dialog centers on. A school dance. The easiest premise in any television show episode. The conflict of this episode revolves around who's taking Harvey to the dance and Sabrina wants revenge on her friend after she winds up becoming Harvey's date.
Sabrina expects Harvey to ask her out to the dance, which he does over the phone. Now, they say he has been made stupider in this show, and to levy skepticism... he has to use a written transcript just to ask her out. It's really how he goes about popping the question. Something tells me he'd be doing worse things deeper into the series.
Anyway, his stupidity plays into Sabrina's friend Maritza (who I will call Fake-Flan (Sabrina's friend in STAS was Chloe Flan, just thought it'd be funny to incorporate some Brady Bunch humor for no reason, and because Flan sounds like Jan, who became Fake Jan in The Brady Bunch Hour). Anyway, Fake-Flan, in an attempt to prevent the queen bee Cassandra from asking Harvey out (because apparently that'll be enough to destroy Sabrina's perception on life, implicatively.), asks Harvey out.
I'd just like to point out how Fake-Flan isn't necessarily the greatest friend ever. This all happened because Fake-Flan intruded on a phone call Harvey and Sabrina were in, causing Harvey to believe he was being spoken to when Sabrina told Fake-Flan to wait. Also, her acting is ass. Ass in that it's somehow worse than Emily Hart's. It's not that it's wooden, but it just sounds incredibly awkward. Then again, this was her actress' first ever acting role (not counting an interview appearance on a documentary about Hearst Castle.), and she had appeared in quite a bit since then, though it seems like she's taking a break from more major roles as she is slated to appear in two short films, with her latest role being in Watch Dogs 2 of all things.
Anyway, to prevent Cassandra from hooking Harvey (and ironically, she uses the same metaphor before she goes to try and pop the question), Fake-Flan asks Harvey out. I don't know where the hell Sabrina was before this. An explanation could've been made for why Sabrina wasn't around, but we got nothing. It's not like nerves got the better of her, before the phone scene concluded, Sabrina declared she would ask Harvey out the next time she saw him. You can't excuse a blatantly desperate reach for conflict, especially in a moral driven show.
You'd probably assume they'd gloss over Fake-Flan trying to explain herself, but to be fair, she does try, and while I expected Sabrina to leave before Fake-Flan could get a word in, it's firmly established how hurt Sabrina is by it and I knew she'd be too upset to hear Fake-Flan's word. Whatever the case, that scene wasn't as contrived as the previous one, and hey, Sabrina wasn't aware of went on beforehand, she was just in the right place at the wrong time.
Okay, now it's time to go over my impressions of the moral. I'm gonna say... never seek revenge. Toward the end of the episode, I'll know for sure if I hit the nail on the head.
Sabrina teams up with Cassandra to get back at Fake-Flan, and at this point, I'd like to bring up that Cassandra is also a witch, and that her and Sabrina's dynamic is similar to that of Sharon Spitz and Nina Harper from Braceface. To sum up, both pairs were friends at some point, but something led to them breaking it off and becoming enemies. Sabrina and Cassandra make amends later on, with the latter getting in some development as well, and hey, that's more I could say about development than Archie's Weird Mysteries, take what I said about character's never fully taking in anything they learn in these kinds of shows and put it into a general context.
So, after going against Salem's advice to hear Fake-Flan's side of things (and I'm still surprised that Salem of all people gave her that kind of advice), Sabrina and Cassandra conjure up a potion, well the latter does and Sabrina goes along with it. It's a longshot, but I imagine Sabrina will be labeled guilty by association. But then again, Sabrina gives into Cassandra's plan a bit too quickly, so maybe some form of punishment wouldn't be so bad. On the upside, Sabrina didn't sell her friend out for the sake of popularity, many many times, like one Dodie Bishop.
Anyway, the two get caught, and surprisingly, Sabrina admits the truth. The one who catches them seemingly helps, but I know for sure her desire for comeuppance is aimed at the two. It's a dragon-related thing, and for those of you who're gonna call this a rip-off of an episode of Danny Phantom because of it, I have a gut feeling that episode came out some time after this, either that or I don't feel like making a rip-off claim, plus, I want to use this as a statement.
Oh yeah, turns out that Cassandra is also after Sabrina. I'd be mad about this, but this is the first episode. If you wanna go after a character, save it for after their first appearance. Anyway to the dance, Sabrina starts to have second thoughts... only after the second spell, and I get the feeling Sabrina cares more about Fake-Flan's dress than Fake-Flan herself. Anyway, after an overly-expository breakdown, Sabrina learns of the intent behind Fake-Flan's indirect backstab. Also... I think I spoke too soon on Fake-Fran's impact on Sabrina, she basically admits everything that happened on the call, like, every key detail. I didn't see that coming.
Remember that dragon thing I mentioned? It was saved for the 19 minute mark, and it turned out to be a dud. It just turned Cassandra into a mouse. Sabrina would've gone through this alone, but after saving Fake-Flan from one of Cassandra's spells and winding up getting trapped in the rubble of a disco ball, well you can figure it out.
Now for the moral. I hinged on revenge was wrong, and I was wrong on that. The moral of this episode was to always trust your friends. This isn't implied by the way, it's stated point-blank. They say STAS handled morals better than this show. I can't say if it's true since I never saw much of STAS, but I imagine they didn't resort to Secret Life's methods.
I'll give it this, Fake-Flan wasn't rotten enough for this moral to feel out of place, and she had gone through enough suffering to warrant forgiveness. However, I think the issue with this episode in particular is the kind of moral they went with. I think they should've done something like "revenge is never okay", where Sabrina would let her emotions get the better of her and she would wind up making the wrong decisions. I'm saying that because a bulk of this episode felt like it was building up to that.
First up, the theme song. According to a strike against it, it's just repeating the same phrase over and over, but there're more words to it. Though the song still sucks, in a mediocre fashion that is.
Right off the bat, I personally consider Britt McKillip's voice to be better than Emily Hart's, in that the former gives just enough emotion for a serviceable performance. But that performance in the first few minutes gets dulled by what the dialog centers on. A school dance. The easiest premise in any television show episode. The conflict of this episode revolves around who's taking Harvey to the dance and Sabrina wants revenge on her friend after she winds up becoming Harvey's date.
Sabrina expects Harvey to ask her out to the dance, which he does over the phone. Now, they say he has been made stupider in this show, and to levy skepticism... he has to use a written transcript just to ask her out. It's really how he goes about popping the question. Something tells me he'd be doing worse things deeper into the series.
Anyway, his stupidity plays into Sabrina's friend Maritza (who I will call Fake-Flan (Sabrina's friend in STAS was Chloe Flan, just thought it'd be funny to incorporate some Brady Bunch humor for no reason, and because Flan sounds like Jan, who became Fake Jan in The Brady Bunch Hour). Anyway, Fake-Flan, in an attempt to prevent the queen bee Cassandra from asking Harvey out (because apparently that'll be enough to destroy Sabrina's perception on life, implicatively.), asks Harvey out.
I'd just like to point out how Fake-Flan isn't necessarily the greatest friend ever. This all happened because Fake-Flan intruded on a phone call Harvey and Sabrina were in, causing Harvey to believe he was being spoken to when Sabrina told Fake-Flan to wait. Also, her acting is ass. Ass in that it's somehow worse than Emily Hart's. It's not that it's wooden, but it just sounds incredibly awkward. Then again, this was her actress' first ever acting role (not counting an interview appearance on a documentary about Hearst Castle.), and she had appeared in quite a bit since then, though it seems like she's taking a break from more major roles as she is slated to appear in two short films, with her latest role being in Watch Dogs 2 of all things.
Anyway, to prevent Cassandra from hooking Harvey (and ironically, she uses the same metaphor before she goes to try and pop the question), Fake-Flan asks Harvey out. I don't know where the hell Sabrina was before this. An explanation could've been made for why Sabrina wasn't around, but we got nothing. It's not like nerves got the better of her, before the phone scene concluded, Sabrina declared she would ask Harvey out the next time she saw him. You can't excuse a blatantly desperate reach for conflict, especially in a moral driven show.
You'd probably assume they'd gloss over Fake-Flan trying to explain herself, but to be fair, she does try, and while I expected Sabrina to leave before Fake-Flan could get a word in, it's firmly established how hurt Sabrina is by it and I knew she'd be too upset to hear Fake-Flan's word. Whatever the case, that scene wasn't as contrived as the previous one, and hey, Sabrina wasn't aware of went on beforehand, she was just in the right place at the wrong time.
Okay, now it's time to go over my impressions of the moral. I'm gonna say... never seek revenge. Toward the end of the episode, I'll know for sure if I hit the nail on the head.
Sabrina teams up with Cassandra to get back at Fake-Flan, and at this point, I'd like to bring up that Cassandra is also a witch, and that her and Sabrina's dynamic is similar to that of Sharon Spitz and Nina Harper from Braceface. To sum up, both pairs were friends at some point, but something led to them breaking it off and becoming enemies. Sabrina and Cassandra make amends later on, with the latter getting in some development as well, and hey, that's more I could say about development than Archie's Weird Mysteries, take what I said about character's never fully taking in anything they learn in these kinds of shows and put it into a general context.
So, after going against Salem's advice to hear Fake-Flan's side of things (and I'm still surprised that Salem of all people gave her that kind of advice), Sabrina and Cassandra conjure up a potion, well the latter does and Sabrina goes along with it. It's a longshot, but I imagine Sabrina will be labeled guilty by association. But then again, Sabrina gives into Cassandra's plan a bit too quickly, so maybe some form of punishment wouldn't be so bad. On the upside, Sabrina didn't sell her friend out for the sake of popularity, many many times, like one Dodie Bishop.
Anyway, the two get caught, and surprisingly, Sabrina admits the truth. The one who catches them seemingly helps, but I know for sure her desire for comeuppance is aimed at the two. It's a dragon-related thing, and for those of you who're gonna call this a rip-off of an episode of Danny Phantom because of it, I have a gut feeling that episode came out some time after this, either that or I don't feel like making a rip-off claim, plus, I want to use this as a statement.
Oh yeah, turns out that Cassandra is also after Sabrina. I'd be mad about this, but this is the first episode. If you wanna go after a character, save it for after their first appearance. Anyway to the dance, Sabrina starts to have second thoughts... only after the second spell, and I get the feeling Sabrina cares more about Fake-Flan's dress than Fake-Flan herself. Anyway, after an overly-expository breakdown, Sabrina learns of the intent behind Fake-Flan's indirect backstab. Also... I think I spoke too soon on Fake-Fran's impact on Sabrina, she basically admits everything that happened on the call, like, every key detail. I didn't see that coming.
Remember that dragon thing I mentioned? It was saved for the 19 minute mark, and it turned out to be a dud. It just turned Cassandra into a mouse. Sabrina would've gone through this alone, but after saving Fake-Flan from one of Cassandra's spells and winding up getting trapped in the rubble of a disco ball, well you can figure it out.
Now for the moral. I hinged on revenge was wrong, and I was wrong on that. The moral of this episode was to always trust your friends. This isn't implied by the way, it's stated point-blank. They say STAS handled morals better than this show. I can't say if it's true since I never saw much of STAS, but I imagine they didn't resort to Secret Life's methods.
I'll give it this, Fake-Flan wasn't rotten enough for this moral to feel out of place, and she had gone through enough suffering to warrant forgiveness. However, I think the issue with this episode in particular is the kind of moral they went with. I think they should've done something like "revenge is never okay", where Sabrina would let her emotions get the better of her and she would wind up making the wrong decisions. I'm saying that because a bulk of this episode felt like it was building up to that.
Animation
The animation is said to have taken a nosedive, compared to STAS. When it comes to a company shift, it's expected. To be fair, LST's animation isn't horrible, at least here the art style looks to be in the same vein as STAS. However, for something made in 2004, it pales in comparison to other shows. Then again, as this was two-three years after flash became more common in TV shows, it's commendable to see traditional animation.
Right off the bat, I'm not into STAS' art style. It's unique, I'll give it that, but it just doesn't look good to me. If I had seen more of that, I would've probably been open to more nuances that Secret Life had.
Overall
Most fans of STAS have said they don't have much of an issue with Secret Life. Admittedly, while Secret Life is more heavy handed when it comes to morals, it still kept the same spirit STAS had in terms of humor. However, Secret Life is still fundamentally flawed, and compared to STAS, any misfires are hard to avoid.
As someone who never grew up with STAS, I can't even say I'm a fan of Secret Life, but that's probably because I'm not a fan of Archie's Weird Mysteries either. Both handled morality tales in a similar fashion, I get the same vibes from that show that I do here. I only had one episode to go by, but I can't help but feel it'll get more insane later down the line.
The best thing I can say about this is that Sabrina's voice actress in this is better than Emily Hart.
Apparently, Sabrina is more popular than I thought, because we had more shows since then. I'm aware that I haven't talked about Sabrina the Teenaged Witch, or the first animated show to involve Sabrina, and I'm aware I still have two movies on the chopping block and other adaptations, but there is one I want to focus on out of all of these.
Before I sign off, I want to end on this note. Apparently Secret Life scored a higher rating on IMDb than STAS.
Which is why I find it hard to trust IMDb these days, unless it involves MP4ORCE.
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