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CHARMED |
Prue Halliwell – Shannon Doherty Piper Halliwell – Holly Marie Combs Phoebe Halliwell – Alyssa Milano Leo Wyatt – Brian Krause 
OTHER CHARMED SEASONS Season 1 Season 3 Season 4 Season 5 Season 6 Season 7 Season 8 OTHER WITCH SHOWS Buffy The Vampire Slayer Eastwick Hex 
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Witch TrialOn the anniversary of the date that the Halliwell sisters first came into their powers a demon called Abraxis steals the Book of Shadows and starts reading it backwards, releasing some of the demons and warlocks that the witches have already vanquished. If he can get to the beginning of the book then the sisters will no longer be witches, something that the still-mourning Prue might actually appreciate. CHARMED is back with a sort of greatest hits episode. They're not doing the usual 'flashback using old clips', but bringing back some of the less than impressive array of villains from Season 1. These are all dealt with almost more easily than the first time around and so it is the loss of the book that is the most worrying. There are the usual array of light comedy moments (Phoebe and Piper getting naked being a standout - if you'll pardon the phrase), which are well played as usual and shannon Doherty gets some grief to play with. The episode does come with a sucrose alert though. Between the power of three being made the power of one through love and the girls' grandmother showing up to say she loves them and Andy leaving messages that he loves Prue there's a sentimentality overload that crushes the whole thing before the final credits roll. TopMorality BitesPhoebe gets a premonition of herself being executed by fire in the future. Casting a spell, the three sisters go forward in time to inhabit the bodies of their older selves. They find that their powers have grown exponentially, but that Phoebe has taken a life and witches are now universally feared and hunted. This second episode of the new series has a much harder edge to it that marks it out from everything that has gone before it. The world of the future with its witch trials and denunciations and institutional burnings is nasty and would be believable if anyone could actually prove that witches existed. Furthermore, the fact that Phoebe actually commit the murder that she is accused of and isn't willing to just walk away from the consequences of that make for a more powerful ending than is usually the case. This episode may be the first sign that the show is starting to mature a little. TopThe Painted WorldPrue discovers that a painting she has been given to sell actually has someone trapped inside it - her. Going to the aid of someone else, she herself has been trapped, leaving Piper and a newly-enhanced (intellectually speaking) Phoebe to save the day. Hiding in, or being stuck in, paintings is not a new idea, nor one that ended with this episode. We've seen its like is SAPPHIRE AND STEEL and LEGEND OF THE SEEKER before and since. Still, it makes for a slightly diverting episode that is lightweight and utterly disposable. Even the fairly nasty deaths of the bad guys is softened by having them frozen by Piper first. TopThe Devil's MusicPop group Dishwalla turn Piper's club's fortunes around, but there is a price attached. The band's manager has a pact with a demon to supply willing souls. The only way to kill it might need them to be eaten themselves. There is virtually nothing memorable about this episode at all. The actresses have their characters down and continue to make more out of the scripts than is actually there, but plot deficiences can't be dodged forever. TopShe's A Man Baby, A ManIn order to catch a succubus that is killing through a dating agency, Prue is turned into a man in the hope of luring the creature out. Seeing Shannon Doherty doing a pretty poor impression of a man is the only reason to watch this episode. The plot is slight, there is little excitement and not very much humour either. The moral, that men have it as difficult as women when it comes to dating, is pretty much sledgehammered home. TopThat Old Black MagicAn evil witch is released from her prison in a cave and sets about hunting down the three good witches who are now in possession of her wand. Only the intervention of a confidence-bereft 'chosen one' can save the day. This is painfully straightforward and undemanding stuff, predictable from the outset and with only the bad witch's willingness to kill the kids acting out the Blair Witch Project by removing their hearts and the Leo/Piper friction to give it any interest whatsoever. Even the fairly nasty deaths of the bad guys is softened by having them frozen by Piper first. TopThey're EverywhereThe whole future history of the world is held in series of scrolls, the location to which is found on an untranslatable stone tablet. The kid who works out the translation turns out to be in deadly danger when he works out what it means and only Piper and Prue's temporary ability to read thoughts will prevent a disaster from occurring. The possibilities of mind reading aren't even remotely made the most of as the cast run through the paper-thin plot with the perkiness that is the only thing holding this show together. TopP3 H2OPrue has always been afraid of water, ever since her mother drowned at a remote lake they used to go to as children. That death was as a result of a water demon, but now the lake is looking to start up in business as a kids' camp again, the Halliwells have unfinished business to attend to. The vanquishing of the demon is the least interesting and least important thing about this episode. The relationship between Piper and Leo is thrown into stark relief by the fact that their mother had also fallen in love with her whitelighter and it was her desire to save him that killed her. Could history be in the process of repeating itself? TopMs HellfireThe Halliwells are attacked by a human assassin, a woman who gloried in the name of Ms Hellfire. Since nobody knew what she looked like, Prue takes on her persona and goes after the demon who is ultimately responsible. This is Shannon Doherty's chance to play the bad girl and she does take to some of the killer's revealing outfits with relish, but that doesn't give the plot any increased depth. TopHeartbreak CityA cupid is attacked by his dark equivalent and his ring is stolen. The demon sets about destroying the cupid by destroying the relationships that have recently been created, including Piper and Prue's. Throwing Cupid into the mix is particularly saccharine thing for this show (not known for its gritty realism at the best of times) to do and the focus on all things smoochy is a bit oversweet. Fortunately Phoebe's inability to hold down a relationship allows for some sparring between her and the Cupid and the death of the demon into a pile of tarry goo is impressive enough to be replayed back, once in reverse. TopReckless AbandonWhilst at the police station Phoebe has a vision that an abandoned baby's parents are in danger from an angry ghost. The witches set out to save the family, but a sacrifice is going to be required. It's Three Witches And A Baby and no cliche is left unturned as the girls fail miserably to deal with nappies and feeding and crying and all the things that babies do. For once, the men all seem to have the whole parenting thing covered off. Stephanie Beacham plays the child's grandmother, but makes such little impact that it could have been anyone. TopAwakenedPiper smuggles some fruit past customs and ends up with a potentially fatal disease. Her sisters cast a spell that puts the disease into a ninja doll, but the doll comes alive and starts stabbing people with its infected katana all over the place. For once it's not a magical threat to the family, but a natural one and a salutory lesson as to why you shouldn't smuggle stuff past customs. The response that the girls have to come up with in order to save the innocent folk is pretty harsh and calls for emotional hugs all round and it requires a return visit from Leo to save the day. The living ninja doll effects are pretty awful. TopAnimal PragmatismThree college girls get dates by turning a pig, a rabbit and a snake into men for 24 hours. When the men decide that they're having too much fun to go back to being animals, they search out Phoebe to be made human permanently. If you were looking for animals to turn into dates would pig and snake really be high on the list? The three manimals don't really pause any great threat to the sisters so the story ambles along quite harmlessly, but also with little to relieve the boredom. TopPardon My PastPhoebe is threatened in the present by echoes from one of her past lives. In order to protect herself, she must travel back in time and find out what happened in the sisters' house in the 20s that might lead to her death. It's fun taking the characters out of their normal setting and seeing them in a new situation, this time a speakeasy in the 20s. Lots of period costumes do not a coherent plot make, however, and the ease with which the threat is finally dealt with is quite a let down after all the build up. TopGive Me A SignPrue is kidnapped by a human hitman who had been hired to kill the sisters only this time he is asking for her help. She promptly falls for him and agrees to help him against a new demon. The fact that Prue falls for her kidnapper and the man who had formerly tried to kill her so quickly makes this an utterly silly episode. Nobody goes from fearing a former assassin to taking their knickers off wilingly within the space of an afternoon. This causes some light and fun banter, but the result is still forgettable at best. TopMurphy's LuckPrue casts a spell to free a woman of a run of bad luck only to find that the luck was being caused by a darklighter who turns his attention to her, attention that can only lead to depression and suicide. THE MUMMY himself Arnold Vosloo guest stars as the darklighter and Amy Adams is his initial target in this episode, but there is little else aside to mark this out from all the others. As an insight into depression it is sadly shallow, but it does mark a change in the relationship between Piper and Leo. TopHow To Make A Quilt Out Of AmericansThe Hallliwells' aunt Gail arrives with news of a demon that is killing and skinning people near to where she lives. What she doesn't tell them is that it is her own coven that is carrying out the murders to make a skin for a demon who promises eternal youth in return for the sisters' powers. Vanity is not a good thing. Everyone grows old. It's a bad thing, but it happens. The message of this episode couldn't be hammered home with any less subtlety even if that was what was needed. At least the manner in which the demon gets taken down has a bit more action than usual and the show has enough nerve to kill off those responsible rather than use the normal reset switch. More interesting is Piper finally having to tell neighbour Dan that it's over and she is back with Leo. It provides the show with more of an emotional heart. TopChick FlickPhoebe Halliwell is thrilled when the man of her childhood dreams steps out of the movie she first saw him in, but since he is accompanied by a demon who also uses horror movie killers as weapons against the sisters, this thrill risks turning deadly. CHARMED does THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO or, more accurately, the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie THE LAST ACTION HERO and it takes the idea right down the presence of an axe murderer coming after the sisters. It's not subtle in hiding where its stealing its ideas from. Fortunately, the pastiche of horror movies is fun enough and well-played enough by the leading trio (all running and screaming and hiding behind each other) to make it fun enough to forgive the plaigirism. TopLibrisPhoebe encounters the ghost of a girl who was killed when on the brink of proving the existence of demons, Prue wants to help a man prove who killed his daughter and Piper learns that Leo's wife is still alive. Three different stories running at once means a lack of focus to the episode and also weakens the show's greatest asset, the three sisters together and bantering. The show also shows signs of getting darker with Dan and Leo punching it out, Phoebe's murdered girl being beheaded and Prue's story being more grimly realistic than the show usually dabbles in. TopAstral MonkeyThe doctor who treated Piper for her infectious disease is desperate to work out how she survived, so he injects three chimpanzees with the sisters' blood. They inherit the sisters' powers and use them to inject the doctor with a mixture of all three blood samples. Since he is not equipped to deal with the powers, he goes to the dark side and starts harvesting organs from the undeserving. CHARMED's move towards the darker end of the street takes a big leap here as not only are the sisters slightly to blame for the situation, but the doctor goes around slicing and dicing his victims without anaesthetic in a grim parody of good. The fact that the sisters can't save everyone is also a big step for the show. Sadly, the chimps are a distraction from that, but nothing like as much as the wholly pointless subplot in which Prue becomes a media target following an encounter with a famous actor. TopApocalypse NotThe sisters have to go up against the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, but when Prue and War are trapped in another plane of being, Piper and Phoebe are left with a choice between saving their sister and the world. As ethical dilemmas go, this is a top one as the sisters are faced with the sacrificing of one of their number for the greater good. This is a contnuing sign of the show's maturing into something with a darker and more interesting edge as we race towards the season finale. TopBe Careful What You Witch ForThe Halliwell sisters are targeted by a council for evil who set a genie to undo the Charmed Ones by granting their wishes. As a result, Prue is a powerless 17 year old, Dan next door is ageing at an advanced rate and Phoebe can fly – well sort of. 3rd ROCK FROM THE SUN’s French Stewart appears playing virtually the same part as the genie who makes the Halliwells’ lives vaguely miserable for a while. There isn’t any real sense of threat to this until right towards the end when Prue comes up against a fire-breathing demon without any powers of her own. She ends up dead and for a moment it seems like the show might have a surprise in store, but then it uses a reset button to end the season happily. Top |
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