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CHARMED |
Prue Halliwell Shannon Doherty Piper Halliwell Holly Marie Combs Phoebe Halliwell Alyssa Milano Leo Wyatt Brian Krause Cole Turner Julian McMahon 
OTHER CHARMED SEASONS Season 1 Season 2 Season 4 Season 5 Season 6 Season 7 Season 8 OTHER WITCH SHOWS Buffy The Vampire Slayer Eastwick Hex Switch 
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The Honeymoon's OverWith Piper and Leo still missing, Prue and Phoebe save Darryl from demons known as Guardians who help protect human killers. Brought to court as witnesses, they become instrumental in saving prosecutor Cole Turner from the revenge of the freed killer. The third season of witch sisters series CHARMED kicks off with a pretty standard entry that benefits solely from the setting up future plot points in the shape of Julian McMahon's duplicitous prosecutor Cole and the ongoing relationship issues between Piper and Leo. No doubt everything will becomes clearer in time and hopefully the stories will get better. TopMagic HourLeo has found a way to keep him and Piper together - they have to get married, in secret and by tomorrow night. This task is made all the more complicated by a curse that turns two lovers into animals - him an owl by day and her a wolf by night. This episodes steals its entire main story from the film LADYHAWKE and makes only the token gestures of changing the bird into an owl and swapping the genders of the recipients of the curse in order to hide the fact. There's even the whole eclipse bringing day and night together thing lifted directly from the movie. As for Leo and Piper getting married so that they can stay together, but having to keep it a secret from the higher ups - how can being married help them if they have to keep it secret? What is all that about? A poor, not to mention legally actionable episode. TopOnce Upon A TimeA little girl has a tale about being terrorised by trolls, but nobody believes her since she isn't taking her new family situation too well. The witches, though, do believe her and attempt to save the girl and the fairy that she is protecting from the evil trolls. Fairy princesses? Horrible little troll demons? This is a little girl's fantasy and the only saving grace is when Phoebe and Prue try to awaken their inner children to enable them to see the trolls that are invisible to adults and merely regress to an earlier age. That's fun, but it doesn't make up for the tedium of the rest. TopAll Halliwells EveIt's Halloween and the sisters are all dressed up to make a night of it, but they are drawn back in time to the 1600s when an ancestor needs them to fight a powerful witch holding a captive. Unfortunately, in the 1600s the girls didn't have their powers and so have to resort to more direct methods. Whilst the central concept of this episode is fairly straightforward, the story gets muddled along the way by Cole also going back in time but either not remembering what he was from the future or deciding not to kill the Charmed Ones or something equally obscure. The girls look fabulous in their costumes, especially Alyssa Milano as Elvira-Mistress of the Dark, but that aside the only thing of note is how easy it is for the Halliwells to wander around a supposedly carefully guarded camp whenever it pleases them. TopSight UnseenPrue has become singleminded about the demon triad that is pursuing them to the point of mania. She refuses to believe that the latest attacks on the house are because of a human stalker and insists that a demon is responsible. A trap she sets snares Cole, but as suspicions run wild and invisible demon and human stalker turn out to be responsible. It is interesting to see Prue cracking under the stress and becoming a driven obsessive. OK, so we know it's only for this one episode in order to drive the story, which is more complex than most CHARMED tales (which isn't to say that it's complicated, this being CHARMED after all), but the stories of the stalker, the invisibility demon and Cole's near exposure all dovertail nicely into a plot that is more diverting than most. There is just one question and that's what happened to the spell that is supposed to keep all the bad things out? OK, Cole has been invited in, but the invisible demon certainly didn't receive any invites. TopPrimrose EmpathCole guides Prue to a man about to be evicted who is unable to leave the place because he is assailed by the feelings of others. When trying to take the curse away, she actually takes it into herself and finds herself on the same downward spiral even as her telekinetic powers increase. Shannon Doherty gets to show what she can do in this episode as she gets to play a tortured soul. Following on from the previous story in which she was obsessed there is a sense that the writers are concentrating on her character at the moment. Phoebe, however, gets about as close to Cole as its possible to get and the effect that she is having on the undercover demon makes for an interesting sideline. TopPower OutageCole is given an ultimatum by the Triad to either kill the Charmed Ones of die himself. He signs up a demon who can amplify anger into killing rage and together they set about turning sister against sister until the power of three is broken. Cole, though, remains conflicted because of his love for Phoebe. Family members argue and fight about trivial things and that's the truth, but it's a truth that isn't very dramatic and so using it as the spine of the story puts it on shaky foundations at best. Cole's dilemma as he faces his own death or the killing of Phoebe and her sister is more interesting and leads to the final confrontation with the Triad, which is the best thing about the whole episode. TopSleuthing With The EnemyThe Halliwells team up with a demon killer who has been hired to destroy Belthazor, Cole's demon half. Phoebe is now fully in love with Cole which leaves her with a very difficult decision to make. It is surprising to see the Cole/Belthazor storyline come to an end (temporarily surely?) so early in the season. Unfortunately, the storyline is not one of the strongest and doesn't exactly hit the high notes in terms of action either. TopCoyote PiperIt's Piper's 10 year high school reunion, something that she isn't looking forward to since she had the worst time there. Her day doesn't get any better when an artificially created essence takes over her body and decides to party whilst Piper's disembodied soul dies. If you've been hankering after seeing Holly Marie Combs let down her hair and act a little less prim and proper then this is the episode for you as she gets up and shakes her stuff all over the bar at the P3 nightclub. This story proves to be one of the better ones, not least for sticking to its guns about the only way for the invading spirit to be removed being to kill the host body. How this is all resolved is one of the more satisfying moments of the show. TopWe All Scream For Ice CreamThere's an ice cream van that is stealing kids by way of its music. The sisters manage to free some of the children, but it turns out that they are more than they appear and the only way to resolve matters lies with the father that Prue can't forgive. Apart from Prue's unbelievably sickly and rapid turn around in terms of her father, this is a better episode thanks to the inside of the ice cream truck which is genuinely spooky and wierd and the twists that the story takes, making it far less predictable than some of the others that there have been. TopBlinded By The WhitelighterA warlock has been killing witches and now he had stolen the power to kill whitelighters. The Charmed Ones are the only people who stand between the warlock and the destruction of all whitelighters and all witches. At least the warlock in this story has a decent plan up his sleeve rather than just the usual kill the Charmed Ones and take their powers. The arrival of the new whitelighter is too reminiscent of similar events in BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER to really be effective and the vision of the whiteligters' home is all billowing robes and even more billowing mist instead of something a little more imaginative. TopWrestling With DemonsAn old friend of Prue's is one of a number of humans who is training to become human. His last task is to kill his own mother. In order to save him, the witches have to take part in a supernatural wrestling contest. Two slim girls take on two WWF wrestlers in the ring without supernatural aids and win? That's how ridiculous this episodes becomes. Even having Ron Perlman cameo as the wrestling manager/demon creator can do nothing to save this from its own ridiculousness. TopBride And GloomAs preparations for Piper's wedding progress, Prue is trapped into a forced marriage by a warlock and priestess which has the effect of allowing Piper and Phoebe to give in to their darker sides. You can't say that the two witches turn evil in this episode since they indulge in some petty mischief and turn two wedding planners into animals, but that's about as far as it goes. Both actresses, though, have fun playing the darker side and there might even be a much more fun show in there somewhere. TopThe Good, The Bad And The CursedPhoebe feels the injuries of a native american who is trapped in a time loop from the old west. Prue and Cole break into the time loop to try and save him this time in order that Phoebe won't die. The set up for this story is completely unbelievable. What father takes his grown up daughter to an abandoned old west town for bonding time when she is more used to and prefers more urban pastimes? That said, once back in the old west, the setting allows for some fun to be played with the conventions of the genre and this turns out to be one of the most fun episodes for a while even if it does come at the cost of a heavy-handed moral. TopJust HarriedPrue is exhausted all the time. During the day she is helping with Piper's wedding and at night she is unknowingly projecting an image of herself that is freed from all the bonds of responsibility. Unfortunately, when a man is killed it's the normal Prue the cops come looking for. Sickly sentimentality goes into overdrive for the wedding episode with not only the father back, but the dead grandmother officiating and the dead mother showing up for one day only to share the tears and joy and all that mush. The sharper edge of Phoebe's night time outings unfortunately isn't sharp enough to crawl out from the overwhelming meringue. TopDeath Takes A HalliwellDemon seekers are closing in on Cole's whereabouts and so are the cops. One of them is being followed by a shadow that only Prue can see, a shadow that turns out to be the Angel of Death. In interesting delve into the meaning of death and its aftermath is at the core of this story, which takes the hunt for Cole as its main thrust, but it is the conversations between Prue and Death that really raise the interest here. Unfortunately, it all boils down to a simple lesson that makes it all the less worthwhile at the end. TopPre-WitchedA cat turns itself into a warlock, but has to lose all of its nine lives to become immortal. Only the Halliwells can kill him so he goes out of a spree of death. Meanwhile, Piper and Leo decide to move out. Did flashbacks ever make a show better? In this episode, the time when the girls' grandmother died and they all went their separate ways is shown in sepia tones, but it isn't clear whether this is for the audience's benefit alone or whether the girls are remembering it since the lessons and similarities are so obvious that they ought to react to the memories in some way. The cat-killing shenanigans make for a nice dilemma from the demon world to be dealt with that makes up for all the soap operatics. TopSin FranciscoA demon is using the original seven deadly sins to turn good people bad. When the Charmed Ones interfere, he uses the sins on them. Prue's pride, Phoebe's lust, Piper's gluttony and Leo's sloth could see the destruction of the power of three at last. There's some fun in seeing the girls play against type, though Phoebe's lust is far closer to home that making Piper buy everything that she can lay her QVC watching eyes on and Leo's sloth seems totally against type. Prue's pride, though, seems perfectly fitting to the character, so much so that it's built into the script in a series of witty quips. TopThe Demon Who Came In From The ColdCole reappears at a time when his ancient brotherhood is about to pull off a major coup for evil by taking over the internet. Cole has to go undercover back to the order, walking a tightrope between the sisters whose trust is fragile and the brotherhood whose trust is nonexistent. After some of the otherworldy threats that the girls have faced the taking over of the internet doesn't really strike as being that much of a crisis. Cole's undercover task is pretty much as similar stories in simple crime shows turn out, so there aren't any surprises along the way, but the plot trips along nicely and it doesn't strain any brain cells along the way. TopExit StrategyCole is in the hands of the head of the brotherhood who is intent on turning him evil once more. The way to do that is to make him kill a witch in the face of the sisters, thus breaking Phoebe's love for him. Following straight on from the end of The Demon Who Came In From The Cold, there is more of the is he/isn't he evil toing and froing, none of which is very convincing, even if it leads to a resolution that is unexpected. Phoebe's reaction is certainly beyond harsh and not really believable. TopLook Who's BarkingIn order to trap a banshee, Prue is turned into a tracker who is also a dog. It's worse for Phoebe who is turned into a banshee and the only way to save her is to contact the newly evil Cole. Alyssa Milano looks quite incredible in the excellent makeup of the banshee. It is a shame that the movement of the creatures isn't quite there, undermining their otherworldliness. At the same time, dealing with the newly canine-d Prue is quite funny and diverting. TopAll Hell Breaks LooseThe sisters are finally caught in the act by TV cameras and revealed as the witches they are. With the house besieged by crowds and reporters only a reversal of time will solve the problem, but the only way to do that is to do a deal with the evil Source for the services of a demon. There's everything going on in this season finale which ends on a three way cliffhanger. The only way for time to be reversed is for Phoebe to remain in hell whilst one of the Source's demons has left Prue, Piper and Leo lying unmoving on the floor. Before that one of the sisters has died and another has gone all magical on a SWAT team's ass. With all that plot going on you could be forgiven for a lack of character stuff, but the death of Piper gives the opportunity for soem serious emoting all round. Top |
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