[Music]
heyo welcome back to manic episodes
listen folks uh personal time here I
have a fascination with old genre shows
and I love watching them but not every
show is created equal and I have this
sort of terrible habit of trying to
finish everything I start to watch just
to say I did it so it's my own fault
that I've taken on the largely fruitless
task of watching all eight seasons of
Charmed for those of you like the show
I'm sorry for those of you don't you're
welcome for the 1998 TV season Aaron
Spelling created charmed is a way to
capitalize on Buffy's rising popularity
the show originally starred shannen
doherty is Prue Halliwell Alyssa Milano
as Phoebe Halliwell and Holly Marie
Combs as Piper Holly well three sisters
who are brought to their childhood home
following the death of their grandmother
they find the book of shadows in their
attic and discovered that they're
witches unlocking powers they never knew
they had Prue can move objects with her
mind Phoebe has visions and Piper can
freeze time they are the Charmed Ones
three sisters foretold to be the most
powerful witches in the universe you
must use the power of three to stop evil
this means they are constantly under
attack by warlocks which is pretty much
the catch-all term for evil magical
beings dudes and ladies alike likewise
which is a blanket term for all the good
ones regardless of gender though
sometimes good witches gone bad are just
called evil witches the terminology is
kinda inconsistent you'd think this is a
solid set up for a genre series but if
you're going to follow my videos on the
show you must know one rule and one rule
only if the idea sounds good
charmed will without fail find some way
to make it stupid here's the thing the
show pretty much sets women back about
50 years I'd say the same for the guys
but they rarely let any of the men have
enough personality for even that every
week they're trying to find a guy they
might cast a spell usually to find a guy
if they aren't looking for men they're
talking about looking for men if they're
not talking about looking for men
they're talking about how they're single
and they should have a man and I guess
if I were to watch for the romantic
aspect of the series I still wouldn't
have much to cling to most of the dudes
are gone in a couple of episodes I keep
wondering why I should care it doesn't
help that they keep casting guys that
look so similar
constantly forget if this is a new
character or not it's like our main
characters cannot survive on their own
and these are supposed to be the most
powerful witches that ever existed
proves big story arc involves overcoming
her fear of becoming like her mother
forgiving their father for abandoning
them and accepting phoebe back into the
family after becoming estranged from
them she goes from being rather cold and
cutoff to becoming more approachable and
opening up she spends most of her time
wearing knitted sweaters or tank tops
and working at Buckland's she also has
an ongoing romantic subplot making her
the character was focused on most of the
time in the first season shannen doherty
does a good job with her role coming off
as the sort of mother of the group who's
a little bit uptight truthfully the
three leads are actually fine actresses
but you can't save a stupid story with
good acting Phoebe's arc is about making
up for lost time with her family she
used to be a rebellious kid and started
a lot of fights before running away so
she's trying to make amends she's also
the one who's the most into witchcraft
and gets everyone involved with the Book
of Shadows she was originally played by
Lory ROM in the unaired pilot who quit
before the show made it to series but
Alyssa Milano does fit the character
better I've seen the unaired pilot and
Ron came off just a little too safe for
the role I didn't buy that she was
estranged from her family or that she
could rebel against anything that wasn't
already backing away Phoebe's power is
useful but not terribly proactive so the
writers had her take up kickboxing
apparently she can master this extremely
quickly and become an unstoppable
martial arts machine it's about as
believable as anything else on the show
I guess Piper's characters woefully
under used this season her romance is
the only well-developed plot but outside
of that her character is usually
relegated to subplots involving the
restaurant she works at name any given
episode of the season and she's stressed
about work
chances are someone at work is annoying
her or she's really busy
she might cook things one plot is
entirely forgotten by the end of the
episode actually most of them are but
this one was particularly bleeding she
has a new chef who's a douche at work
and all episode it's about her wanting
this guy gone and then by the end of the
episode he just quits off-screen and not
with anything to trigger it either he
was still being a douche ooh she
couldn't fire he just
for unspecified reasons she had a
douchey boss he was also French in the
pilot but he just disappeared for some
non French guy never to be seen again
the loss of their mother is a big deal
and one of the driving forces of the
show she was a witch as well but she
died under mysterious circumstances they
travel back in time for one episode and
get to meet her as well as their
grandmother which was probably one of
the stronger episodes of the season but
again if it sounds like a good idea
charmed will find a way to make it
stupid nice stock footage there folks
didn't find anything grainy er it turns
out they had powers as kids but they
were locked out to protect them this
just opens up a whole mess of questions
about their mother and grandmothers
parenting skills not to mention the
Charmed Ones memory retaining abilities
at a fairly developed stage of their
childhood there are two ongoing romantic
subplots for the first season or as
ongoing as you can call it while still
having sporadic episodes with new lemon
tress
the first one is perused relationship
with Andy a homicide detective who was
also a childhood friend of theirs they
have an on-off relationship because Prue
can't tell him about her powers I'm
mostly fascinated by his hair gel more
than anything it looks so crunchy
highlights from Andy include they went
to the video store once and couldn't
decide on a movie at least he has more
personality than his partner Daryl Daryl
is a character for seven seasons and I
[ __ ] you not for the longest time I
could not tell you a single thing about
him this season he mostly walks around
with a glass eye look as if to say yeah
I really miss Baywatch nights he and
Andy are usually there to give the girls
access to crime scenes or get the story
going but their involvement makes little
to no sense a lot of the time where are
the rest of the policemen the only time
we see them is in the pilot where one
murder victim apparently means the whole
squad and all the press need to gather
around the crime scene and that's one of
the rare times Andy and Daryl are
actually investigating a homicide when
you're a homicide detective that's what
you specialize in they have departments
and stuff but they're investigating
every crime in the city no matter how
small
like for instance there's a warlock who
jumps out of a window and lands on the
street completely unharmed people give
him weird stares
Andy why
way next thing you know Andy and Daryl
are there roping off the place and
questioning people it's a broken window
guys shouldn't you be investigating the
inside of the building anyway but
actually they shouldn't be investigating
this at all because it's a broken window
that's not homicide dudes anyway the
second ongoing romantic subplot and the
only one that lasts through the show
involves Piper and their handyman Leo
when Leo arrives the sisters are like
girl he's so fine and hitting on his
stuff but Piper's the only one for him
and this goes on for a long time
apparently a [ __ ] ton of things to fix
in their pristine looking house however
this changes when the show wrote itself
into a corner
the girls have signed away their powers
and are about to be eaten by a panther
warlock just go with it with a blank
Book of Shadows and no way out then it
turns out Leo isn't just a handyman he's
a magical handyman I repeat a main
character on the show is a magical
handyman oh those men folk am i right
they're so good at fixing stuff he gives
them their powers back because deus ex
machina czar this show specialty because
they apparently hate writing in magical
guy witches that aren't evil they
explain that Leo is a whitelighter which
are basically guardian angels for
witches yeah he was a normal dude who
died and got to come back as a
whitelighter specifically assigned to
the Halliwell's however he is forbidden
to fall in love with a mortal which
means he and Piper get to have an
on-again off-again relationship and
leaves Piper free to have a new love
interest when it's convenient the plot
it doesn't seem to hurt her much except
when it does Leo could be this super
cool character but they kind of make him
selfless in such a way that it seems a
little bit sexist he can't just have
powers he has to have perfect boyfriend
powers like how is this going to save
someone's life
your teas cold is he gonna show up with
chocolates and a warm pillow and leave
the toilet seat down while he's at it
oh what a girder you need you oh and the
white lighters have their own versions
of warlocks too called darklighters dark
lighters that's such a stupid name I
feel embarrassed even saying it they
only introduce one this season and you
guys uh you seriously couldn't find some
one more intimidating for the part
someone that could grow a full mustache
maybe we're supposed to be scared of
this guy
he shoots Leo with a poison arrow and
successfully kills him and seriously Leo
seriously that guy however Piper brings
it back and the villain is successfully
defeated that's the other thing about
this show makes it easy is pretty much
the mantra what I mean by that is every
episode ends being tied up nicely and
with all the villains defeated in an
insulting ly easy way look no mess they
just always melt or explode like
warlocks do I guess
keep in mind warlocks are people too
which means our main characters commit
homicide every week or sometimes they
just end up killing themselves the big
story arc for season 1 involved Prue's
boss at Buckland's the art gallery she
works as he and his assistant are
actually warlocks he want to steal the
Charmed Ones powers when the sisters
managed to kill the guy they both
disappear into flames why does the woman
disappear she was okay seriously you're
they gonna explain that they didn't
banish her oh well makes it easy and
these two make no sense anyway
apparently they were running this huge
business by taking the identities of two
people they killed but no one noticed
that their bosses suddenly look
completely different no one thought it
was weird the assistant lady was
suddenly not black never occurred to
anyone this isn't some magical thing
either that's how Andi discovers they
aren't who they say they are things are
either insultingly easy or just never
addressed take the first season's
attempt at tackling the exposure issue
what if their secret got out well this
is shoved into a side plot of an episode
where a reporter follows Prue around
looking for conclusive evidence that
witches exist
this evidence involves filming them when
Piper freezes time which just means he
has taped the equivalent of a jump cut I
fail to see how this will convince
anyone of anything
fortunately he just breaks his neck so I
guess they didn't need to take that any
further or here's one for you our main
characters haunting past involved their
mother's mysterious drowning when they
were kids
this means that prooves biggest fear is
dying the same way so when they face the
fear demon Barba's he uses that against
her how does she solve it by delivering
an ADR line with about the same
conviction as ordering a pizza
[Music]
it was that easy to defeat him that's
not my editing that's really the
sequence of events there the episode is
running out of time better wrap it up I
should also mention that this deathly
fear of drowning that Prue has isn't
mentioned at all until this episode
which is conveniently the episode that
helps her get over it
oh yeah remember that fear of drowning
yet since mom died just thought I'd
remind you about it for later in the
episode kind of like how Phoebe is
scared of the boogeyman in the basement
and apparently has been since childhood
despite never showing this fear before
or after that story needed it don't
worry
plot convenience is our specialty
Charmed has frequent familiar faces
slumming it on the show notable guest
stars this season include John Cho
Danielle Harris Billy Drago Raphael
Sbarge and David Carradine Oh David that
hair that's that's trying too hard
Carradine was in the season finale which
brought about some changes to the show
this includes Piper quitting her job at
the restaurants and after the same thing
every episode that's a welcome change
unfortunately she ends up opening a club
in the second season and doing the same
thing the plot of the season finale
involves Carradine being a time demon
who creates a time loop so this warlock
guy can kill off the Charmed Ones which
wouldn't be that bad if he weren't the
most incompetent guy in the world he
keeps getting banished and Cary Dean has
to keep resetting the day so why not
just get a different guy who doesn't
suck why does this guy specifically have
to figure out how to do it and what
state does Carradine having this does he
just like being evil and I guess
stopping the time loop banishes him as
well because makes it easy the biggest
thing that happens is proves realization
that if she doesn't stop the time loop
they'll all die so she stops it with a
spell knowing that Andy has been killed
by incompetent warlock guy and this
isn't something they can't prevent
Phoebe actually knew about the loop each
time the clock reset so they had a
chance to save Andy and stop the loop
but she just decides on leaving him dead
love at first sight by this point he
knows about them being magical but it
didn't really change the dynamic of the
show much he found out about Wendigos
one time and then just went about
business as usual never to mention it
again
he wasn't terribly developed Prue was
naturally traumatized by this and by
that I mean she's checking out the new
name
by the first episode of next season and
gets a new boyfriend by less than 10
episodes in but Yandy the show is
formulaic to put it lightly the
establishing shots are the same at the
beginning of every episode and they go
on just shorter forever for eight
seasons the monster of the week is
repetitive and samey
and it's always stuff about finding guys
in work troubles week in and week out
most of the time they put the two things
together and make the monsters the guys
they want to date he'll one of the
episodes is just called secrets and guys
they weren't even trying anymore again
the series comes off as incredibly
sexist to me bringing out the worst
traits of women and belittling men women
just want to find dates all the time and
men need to be the perfect boyfriend
usually with frosted hair they also like
to fix death most other plots involve
spells that go predictably wrong usually
because they break the rule that magic
can't be used for personal gain
the effects are incredibly tacky and
oftentimes laughable
[Music]
I think the thing that disappoints me
about the series is that it could have
been more I wanted it to be good but the
show absolutely refuses to try to do
anything to make you think as a result
it comes off as incredibly bland a lot
of the time characters are more often
than not criminally underdeveloped plots
are dropped unceremoniously and
everything is a bit milquetoast it might
make you chuckle or smile but it won't
make you think when shows like Buffy
were using demons and vampires as
metaphors for life Charmed was finding
ways to get their main characters into
sexy outfits this is what I'll leave
this episode on charmed is not an
intelligent or a particularly well-made
show however it is a bit unintentionally
hilarious if you have the patience for
it if you don't take it very seriously
you can laugh at the ridiculous outfits
the time capsule music the crappy
effects and the incredibly small-minded
view the show has regarding women men
and magic logic is not something that
plays a part in the series and it is
incredibly fascinating to see that it
ran for eight years and how it
progressed it may be a mindless show but
it's not without its certain merits and
you could probably do worse but then
again you could do a lot better
stay tuned for season 2
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in my smile
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warlocks pika
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