Charmed (Series Review)

 ***This review will contain spoilers***

I used to watch Charmed all the time in my childhood and it's one of the few good memories I have of my mother. We used to watch Charmed all the time and hurry to watch all the new episodes every Friday on the WB. Now as an adult, I have purchased the entire eight season collection and even bought myself a replica of the Book of Shadows featured on the show. 

My boyfriend and I love to watch tv shows together so my pick this time around was watching Charmed. It has been well over a decade since the last time I even watched an episode so I was interested in seeing how adult Amanda would feel about Charmed...

As a child, I absolutely loved Prue. Myself being the eldest, I definitely connected and related to the character of Prue. I loved the first three seasons and as a child was crushed when the final episode of season three premiered and we were left on a cliffhanger. Starting the first episode of season four, I recall asking where Prue was and why she's not coming back. It was gut-wrenching to have your favourite character be taken away from you so suddenly. And I will say, I have a similar reaction re-watching the same episodes as an adult. 

As a child, I could see and feel the change of the show and how the entirety of it completely shifted. Suddenly, it wasn't about witches learning the craft and fulfilling their destiny but it was about young women living their lives with a hint of magic sprinkled in. The first three seasons felt so serious while the last five felt like a sitcom show. The show creator Constance M. Burge also left the show which definitely played a huge part on the decline of the show. 

And to top it off, as a child I noticed how Alyssa Milano; Phoebe Halliwell became #1 during the opening theme song. And not only that but any magazines, publicity and on the DVD background during episode selections she would be featured more than the other girls. It's disgusting how someone's ego had to go and ruin a show. 

As an adult, I've learned from what the girls have expressed in interviews and in podcasts just how much things were insufferable backstage. I learned that a lot of my favourite episodes were directed by Shannen Doherty aka Prue. Imagine just how many GOOD seasons we could have had, had Shannen stayed on and Alyssa left. As soon as Prue left it became the Phoebe show. Piper and Paige were essentially used as secondary characters in MANY storylines pertaining Phoebe. It's sad how someone's ego hijacked a really good show. 

The first three seasons were the best seasons of the entire run of Charmed. I've read over the years a lot of fans saying they will strictly watch the first three seasons then restart it. And re-watching Charmed as an adult I can completely understand why. The quality of the show really declined after season 3. It's like each season had a different team of writers who never watched the show but just the highlights and had no concept of how the Charmed Universe worked. There was no concept of a season arc after season 3. I wish that for the 4th season vanquishing the Source would have been a season arc and not just a half season storyline. The first three years of being witches and the Charmed ones was a culmination to eventually vanquishing the Source. Especially, since Prue was killed by his head assassin they should have written this out well but instead the season was about Phoebe and Cole. The whole reason why Prue died was because Phoebe wanted to go to the Underworld to 'save' Cole. In doing so, she had to keep Leo with her which led to Prue and Piper being without a white lighter to heal them in case of injury. Which I never understood why the Charmed ones wouldn't have more than one white lighter. They're the most powerful witches who fight against the most evil of demons...it would make sense for each sister to have their own white lighter. 

Prue died because of Phoebe...it's not my opinion. It's a fact. And fast forward to season 5 where Cole was supposed to be dead but found a way to resurrect himself, he comes back into Phoebe's life to win back her love and she throws him away like trash...you lost a sister for this dude but don't care enough to be with him? The way she acted towards Cole led to his eventual down spiraling and courting crazy. I never understood why Phoebe was portrayed as wanting love when every time she was faced with a man who wanted to settle down with her she found excuse after excuse to not be with them or she would find ways to shift the situation to make herself the victim. Jason loved her but she never came clean about being a witch till she almost kills him, Lindsay was just a weird phase altogether, Dex was basically led to believe he was dating her cousin but then she thought 'coming clean' would fix things when their entire relationship was based on a lie. And let's talk about the fact since season one she was using her powers for personal gain to 'find love' aka having sex with random men. In the first season, she cast a spell to attract lovers and she had sex with a guy while under the influence of magic...for someone who was extremely vocal during the MeToo movement you would think she would have pointed out her acting out date-raping a guy with magic. I'm shocked that I have yet to see anyone comment about that. That episode was disgusting because if it were men casting spells the entire media would go crazy. And over the seasons, Phoebe's active powers were taken away from her due to personal gain...god forbid she actually helps people instead of her own vagina. From the beginning, I never enjoyed the character of Phoebe and what she represented. And it being fueled by an actress that had to be the center of attention and it made me wish that Prue stayed and it was Paige that came along. 

I always felt that it made more sense for Paige to have the power of premonition instead of 'telekinesis'. Seeing as how she was half white lighter and they in nature are pacifists, it makes more sense for her to have premonitions so she can help her own charges and future white lighters. It made less sense over the seasons when we come across other white lighters who can do the same telekinetic orbing. Imagine how much of a powerhouse the Charmed ones would have become if Paige was trained under the tutelage of Prue? 

One thing that always annoyed me in the show was Leo being a complete flake as a father and husband. I never understood why one episode him and Piper would be all lovey dovey and then the following one they would be fighting over nothing. Essentially, fabricating something out of nothing. Clearly, shitty writing doesn't help with character growth when there is no fluidity. 

It became apparent over the seasons that the show was less and less about them being Charmed ones fighting for the greater good but more about them being women looking to have normal lives. They were living in utopia through the Avatars intervention and they were still not happy. The Avatars were being introduced as early as season five yet actual utopia lasted a couple episodes??? Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Every single season that passed, the sisters as a whole was reduced to being barely more powerful than regular witches. All they needed was a potion or a spell. They stopped developing their powers. I hate that this show just kept being produced when it was clear the quality wasn't there. While I wasn't a fan of season four through seven. I would have preferred they ended the show at season seven instead of renewing the show and giving us the dumpster fire that was season eight. They couldn't even retain the same theme song! Like, come on! 

Season eight was a travesty and it was one of the worst seasons produced. Here are the Charmed ones; the most powerful witches...sike! Christy and Billie are just as strong as the sisters. Make it make sense because that never made any. Or the fact that it seemed the writers just couldn't keep track of what happened in earlier seasons so we had shit that didn't track. One thing that I did love was the fact that Billie and Christy were pointing out just how selfish the Charmed ones are when it comes to them prioritizing their personal lives above their witchy duties. They faked their deaths to have 'normal lives' and gave that up pretty quickly. And by faking their deaths, Magic School (aka Hogwarts because they clearly were not being original) was overrun by demons and they didn't take it back till after the 'big bad' was defeated. Pretty damn selfish of them to rob future generations the chance to learn magic just so they can have 'normal lives'. The last few episodes definitely felt rushed and it was obvious that they wanted all three sisters married and 'happy' to give the fans closure. I hated that not a single picture of Prue was shown in the final episode. I know that Shannen didn't want her likeness to be used but they could have used pictures featuring younger Prue...did not one single person even think of that? 

I have recently learned that during the series airing on tv there were books written simultaneously that are stories staring the sisters in between the series episodes. There are almost 50 books. I have the first one that I want to read before I bite the bullet and purchase all of them. And post series Charmed there are comics as well that are a direct continuation of the show so I have purchased a few of those already. Those are a lot more difficult to come across and purchase since they aren't being published anymore. I am so fortunate to come across ThriftBooks. They sell used and new media, whether books, comics, dvd's etc they sell so much and were the reason why I have been able to obtain a lot of books and dvd's for a fraction of the cost. While they are an American company they are definitely a cheaper option than many companies I could purchase from in Canada including Amazon. A lot of content that I have wanted to purchase cannot be found in Canada or they are 3x compared to ThriftBooks. While I do need to pay for shipping their reward system is so worth it. I have received so many free items and continuously still purchase through them. Even during this whole tariff idiocy I still have no issue purchasing from them. I am going to post my reviews on my blog whenever I end up reading the books and comics. 

Rating:

It's clear that the first 3 seasons are absolute gold and I can rewatch them again and again. However, season 4-8 are a 2 star at best. I would have preferred the show ending on a high then dragging it on till there were no more interest in it. It's a shame things ended the way they did because I just keep on thinking that there must be a different universe where we got 8+ seasons of Prue ❤️