Charmed is a tv series that I watched a lot when it aired on Star World in India but had completely written off and almost forgotten until a few months ago. That was when I was watching the videos of an American girl who loves Charmed. The way she went on about Charmed being her favourite show and how much she loves it and was showcasing her dvd box set of the full 8 seasons of it, it made me think “hmmm maybe I should watch the show again and get my own copies!”
Well I’ve completed season 1 and have started season 2 (4 episodes in) and you know what – it’s a lot more cheesier than I remember it to be. The original run of the show was from 1998 till 2006 and surprisingly enough for Indian cable tv, we did get the show around either 2001 or 2002 (with multiple seasons shown back to back followed by reruns) and the final episode aired here in India not too long after it aired in North America. Surprising that soon after that I forgot the show ever existed, despite featuring 4 very hot women (5 when you include Kaley Cuoco who was there only during the final season) as the lead characters.
So what’s the show about? Well in the pilot episode the three Halliwell sisters – Prue, Piper & Phoebe – inherit the Halliwell Manor when their grandmother dies and also the Book of Shadows, a family heirloom book containing centuries of knowledge, spells, and magic learned or created by the Halliwell matriarchs. They discover that they are powerful witches destined to protect both innocents and the world at large from demons, warlocks, and other evil creatures, with the most powerful witch power of 3. Prue the eldest (Shannon Doherty) has the power of telekinesis, Piper (Holly Marie Coombs) can freeze people & objects and Phoebe (Alyssa Milano) the youngest has the gift of premonition. Helping them, unknown to them initially, is their whitelighter Leo (Brian Krause) who is assigned to them. Their powers were hidden from them at a young age in order to not bring attention to them but when their grandmother died, the powers came back.
In Season 1 the sisters must deal with these powers and adapt to them, while juggling normal lives and jobs while battling demons & warlocks who attack them. Using visions from Phoebe of people in need of help, they also seek out those that need protection from the evil supernatural beings. They are brought to the attention of Det. Andy Trudeau, the girls’ childhood friend and a love interest of Prue, who finds it out that the sisters always seem to be involved or around the more ‘weird cases’ and tries to get the truth out from Prue, which she doesn’t until the season end. He accepts them being witches but is killed in the season finale trying to protect them from a warlock. The girls get spells from their book to even go back in time and meet their mom who died when they were very young. Their father had also left them, unable to accept his wife as a witch.
Like I stated there is a lot of cheesy scenes, dialogues & storylines and more corn than in a huge bucket of popcorn but it can be a lot of fun as well. It’s a safe kind of series for those who like elements of the supernatural, monsters, witches & evil – but who are too scared to tackle something like Buffy, Angel, Supernatural or even The X-Files. I like it, even if it nowhere near the top of my favourite series but who can resist three beautiful women and what with Alyssa Milano bouncing along in the tightest of tops and enticing my fantasy. Shannon Doherty too plus Holly Marrie Coombs is just too sweet & nice. Check out the episodes online before deciding if you want the whole season or series. Oh and they did have some music featured throughout the episodes some of which were nice, although most of it reminded me that the 90s DID have some really crappy music.
