Darkness has fallen. Only the wind remains awake; gathering loose leaves under the orange glow of the street light like a cat bringing me mice. I am gathering my thoughts. If I had children they would be tucked up in bed; the day's follies replaying in their spring minds. A face comes to me. Harvey. My smiling beaming boy. Innocent. Charming. Completely without sin. Is Harvey merely innocent in the way a baby is or is he worthy of the adulation afforded someone priestly? I think the latter.
Harvey provides moral guidance simply through his actions unlike H&Z who merely prescribe it. It is Harvey who shines in this episode which centres on cheating. I will leave it up to the man himself to dispense to you his wisdom.
Sabrina begins taking Kung-Fu classes. She decides to use an enchantment to make her better and quickly out masters her teacher who recommends she enter a tournament.
The side plot involves Helda competing with a pretentious foe for first chair violin in an orchestra. Unlike Sabrina she is intent on doing it fairly; more for her own personal satisfaction than out of duty to her opponent. The story doesn't really have enough room to breath and the similarities with the main plot are derivative rather than complementary.
Throughout the episode Sabrina badly beats her opponents. I understand it's comedy but Mr. Pool even comments on his ongoing symptoms of concussion. The episode takes care to show us her lust for violence. It's easy to over analyse a piece of entertainment but we are shown her in slow motion, wild eyed and in ecstasy; revelling in combat. I find it hard to believe she didn't seek out weaker prey away from the cameras. People like that use competition as a mask when their violence is public but they need have no such pretence when it is just them and some vulnerable member of society; perhaps a homeless person who sadly will not receive the investigative attention a white mother would.
The competition also raises a question for me. Are the people who are witness to Sabrina's magic memory wiped every week? Otherwise wouldn't everybody be like, 'hey Sabrina what happened to you being a master kung-fu master?' And that's just one week. Imagine how her escapades would add up. Even when the events by themselves aren't explicit proof to the people around her that magic is real; in aggregate they would raise suspicion. Libby seems to be the only person who ever spots this pattern and Sabrina humiliates her again and again when she voices her suspicions.
This makes Sabrina lonely. She has shared all these experiences with people but she can never reminisce with them. We keep each other company not only with our presence but with our memories. That she can only share them with her aunts and Salem makes her life even more claustrophobic. They weren't there. They only have her account. While her friends are alive in the present, they are to some extent dead in the past. She is like the last of a circle of friends to survive old age. Nobody understands the world she grew up in but her. Sure she has spent time with them that they can all recollect but to what extent is an edited story an entirely different one? Is Macbeth the same play if Lady Macbeth's incitement to murder is excised? Is she the same person? Is Macbeth?
Of course eventually Sabrina's cheating catches up with her. Though it's worth noting that it doesn't do so in the form of guilt. Even after the usual pontifications of H&Z, this time on the value of winning fairly, she is more or less strong armed into doing the right thing by a magical comeuppance.
I find myself returning to Harvey. It is often implied that Sabrina is superior to him. After all she is experiencing this weekly personal growth and Harvey always stays the same. But maybe Harvey is done growing; done learning lessons. At what stage will Sabrina call it a day and join him in his humble happiness? What is the point in this perpetual moral merry go round if it never stops?
The clothes changing gag was dreadful. Sabrina chooses some 60's mod clothes and then says "Groovy" and some other plastic-hippy catchphrases. I could feel that Melissa grinned and bore the bit.
Harvey provides moral guidance simply through his actions unlike H&Z who merely prescribe it. It is Harvey who shines in this episode which centres on cheating. I will leave it up to the man himself to dispense to you his wisdom.
Sabrina begins taking Kung-Fu classes. She decides to use an enchantment to make her better and quickly out masters her teacher who recommends she enter a tournament.
The side plot involves Helda competing with a pretentious foe for first chair violin in an orchestra. Unlike Sabrina she is intent on doing it fairly; more for her own personal satisfaction than out of duty to her opponent. The story doesn't really have enough room to breath and the similarities with the main plot are derivative rather than complementary.
Throughout the episode Sabrina badly beats her opponents. I understand it's comedy but Mr. Pool even comments on his ongoing symptoms of concussion. The episode takes care to show us her lust for violence. It's easy to over analyse a piece of entertainment but we are shown her in slow motion, wild eyed and in ecstasy; revelling in combat. I find it hard to believe she didn't seek out weaker prey away from the cameras. People like that use competition as a mask when their violence is public but they need have no such pretence when it is just them and some vulnerable member of society; perhaps a homeless person who sadly will not receive the investigative attention a white mother would.
The competition also raises a question for me. Are the people who are witness to Sabrina's magic memory wiped every week? Otherwise wouldn't everybody be like, 'hey Sabrina what happened to you being a master kung-fu master?' And that's just one week. Imagine how her escapades would add up. Even when the events by themselves aren't explicit proof to the people around her that magic is real; in aggregate they would raise suspicion. Libby seems to be the only person who ever spots this pattern and Sabrina humiliates her again and again when she voices her suspicions.
This makes Sabrina lonely. She has shared all these experiences with people but she can never reminisce with them. We keep each other company not only with our presence but with our memories. That she can only share them with her aunts and Salem makes her life even more claustrophobic. They weren't there. They only have her account. While her friends are alive in the present, they are to some extent dead in the past. She is like the last of a circle of friends to survive old age. Nobody understands the world she grew up in but her. Sure she has spent time with them that they can all recollect but to what extent is an edited story an entirely different one? Is Macbeth the same play if Lady Macbeth's incitement to murder is excised? Is she the same person? Is Macbeth?
Of course eventually Sabrina's cheating catches up with her. Though it's worth noting that it doesn't do so in the form of guilt. Even after the usual pontifications of H&Z, this time on the value of winning fairly, she is more or less strong armed into doing the right thing by a magical comeuppance.
I find myself returning to Harvey. It is often implied that Sabrina is superior to him. After all she is experiencing this weekly personal growth and Harvey always stays the same. But maybe Harvey is done growing; done learning lessons. At what stage will Sabrina call it a day and join him in his humble happiness? What is the point in this perpetual moral merry go round if it never stops?
The clothes changing gag was dreadful. Sabrina chooses some 60's mod clothes and then says "Groovy" and some other plastic-hippy catchphrases. I could feel that Melissa grinned and bore the bit.
