Charmed

In time for my 100th post, I finally finished all eight seasons of Charmed! It has been a long journey, which for me started back in March of 2011. I've watched it off and on since then taking a break when Prue leaves and then Cole. The show went through a lot of up and downs. Throughout the show's run, my favorite sister alternated between Pheobe and Piper and it probably had to do with who Pheobe was dating and the state of Piper and Leo's relationship. Seasons 6, 7 and even 8 were a little hard to watch. I am a romantic at heart so I was tired of Piper and Leo constantly being broken up. They were sort of the Ross and Rachel of the show and they could never be happy and it got old after a while. The whole storyline of Leo becoming an Elder and then an Avatar was horrendous. It was just another obstacle to put between him and Piper and one with serious fashion mishaps. I mean those robes! After he was finished with the Elder and Avatar personalities, and his insanity he goes back to being mortal. I'm not so sure I enjoyed that. He played such a role as the Charmed one's Whitelighter, being able to heal them and get information. Once he became a mortal his role was almost obsolete - which again caused problems for him and Piper. He was given the run-around which zaps the energy out of the show.

And then there's Cole.

I absolutely loved Cole. I was all about Cole and Pheobe, but again their relationship got too convoluted. The whole Source storyline of the 4th season made me want to stop watching. Cole's constant struggle between good and evil was tiresome. At the beginning you were hopeful, when you thought maybe he could overcome his evil, demonic side but the show used too many soap opera tricks to make it clear that Cole could never truly be good. In season 5, after coming back from the wasteland to win Pheobe back my romantic heart flared up again. Here was a man driven by love and although he was most certainty evil, he was trying. I just think the show tried to hold on to him for too long. He should have died for good when he essentially tried to commit suicide by provoking the sisters to attack. It was such a beautiful gesture and would have been perfect but no, the show just had to screw it up and cause his character to go insane. From then on his character took a turn for the worst and his final death was anti-climatic.

After Cole, Pheobe had a succession of lovers, including McSteamy himself! I enjoyed seeing Eric Dane so young and wished he had stuck around a bit a longer. Nick Lachey was fun as was Jason Lewis (who would later been seen in Sex in the City. Ironically Charmed did a Sex in the City themed episode which he was in but it was the worst Charmed episode). Billy Zane was a hoot. I only know him as the bad guy from Titanic so it was great seeing him in such a fun loving role. And the connection between Zane's character and Cole made me happy. Although Zane was close to holding a candle against Cole, the closet was Victor Webster as Coop the Cupid. It must have something to do with the fact that all three men are tall and have dark hair and brooding looks. I just wish we had seen more of Coop in season 8. It was a shame he was kind of just thrown in there to create a happy ending for the finale. The last four episodes are all geared towards the final battle which unfortunately takes away from the budding romance between Pheobe and Coop. I wish there was more of Coop. It was too short of an introduction for a character. I did enjoy the bit where future Wyatt addresses him as Uncle Coop.

That brings me to the Charmed children, Chris and Wyatt. When Chris first came on the show I was sure if he was a good guy or a bad guy. The show did a good job on disguising his identity although I had an inkling of who he was. I was upset at him for making Leo an elder but I got used to him and enjoyed him. In fact when I saw his name in the credits in season 8 I was excited. They really missed an opportunity of a spin-off show with Chris and Wyatt. That would be something I would be interested in seeing. Having Chris and Wyatt as children runs the risk every show has that involves children, they are often forgotten or shipped off somewhere so the main story could proceed without any baggage. This became a bit of a noticeable problem.

Once future Chris left then they brought in Billie who was not as entertaining as Chris. I don't really know where here character came from. Now having seen everything it makes sense but at the beginning she's an annoying witch. She was too easily manipulated for my tastes. Her character created an opportunity to give the Charmed Ones a reprieve as they adopted new identities. That storyline lasted way too long and was just ridiculous. It was more like they needed an answer on how they could extend the season 22 episodes. Although I'm glad the ending of Charmed was not them taking on new identities and that they ended with the season 8 finale where everyone is happy and old with lots of children.

All that is left are the two other Halliwell sisters, Prue and Paige. It's been such a long time since season three with Prue. I knew she would be leaving the show because I remember hearing the news when it was actually airing so I was prepared for it. Still, it was hard to get used to a new sister. I didn't like Paige at first but I grew to like her. Although she's the same age as Piper in real life she looks a lot younger and wore a lot less clothes. They could have done worse with Prue's replacement.

Since I've touched on the other sister's love lives. I might as well talk about Paige's, especially because her final man, Henry was a lot like Coop in fact that we didn't get to know him all that well before they said I do. Again they were thrown together and I could never tell whether or not Paige really loved him. Maybe they just didn't have good chemistry and that's why I didn't much care for him. I preferred Richard or Agent Brody. 

Charmed was a great show even with its missteps and it provided a voice for women on television which is so often lacking and became the longest running one-hour drama to have the main cast led by women which is quite the achievement. With Charmed there has been a perception that there was a rivalry between Charmed and Buffy, one which Charmed never quite lived up to. Now that I've seen both in full I think I enjoyed Charmed more because there was more variety; a new demon every week vs. just another vampire. There was more character development that made sense and I was emotionally invested in the characters of Charmed over Buffy. It didn't hurt that Charmed had a nice and neat closure to the series which I greatly appreciated. Of course, watching it now, I think I can identify with the characters better then if I had seen it when it originally aired. For me, coming to the end of Charmed was bittersweet, saying goodbye to characters I had grown to know. Although I was glad to finally reach the end, it will be weird to not watch Charmed now after cramming eight years of the character's lives into nearly two years of mine. 

Even writing this blog post I'm having trouble letting go but I am consoled in the fact that the battle between good and evil will always be safe in the hands of the Charmed ones and I can always return to the power of three through DVD.