Three P's in a Pod! (Charmed)

Member Name: Emma1973

Product:	Charmed
Date:	14/02/04 (654 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Funny, Entertaining, Hasnt lost its sparkle

Disadvantages: Cant think of any right now

Yeh, yeh, I'll admit it, I'm a bit of a fantasy geek! Anything a bit out of the ordinary is fair game, books, games and now TV, not that Most Haunted though because its just nonsense!

A programme that has really captured my attention lately is Charmed, the tales and adventures of 3 witches AKA The Charmed Ones, or to mere mortals, the Halliwell sisters.

At one point these sisters were ordinary mere mortals. After inheriting their 'grams' (grandmothers) house, they move in and discover the Book of Shadows, things spark off and viola the sisters discover they are witches with funky new powers. Being good witches of course, the sisters use them to fight evil, demons, warlocks, etc
As I've said there are 3 sisters, now if you've recently tuned into the new series after missing a couple of others you may be surprised to see a character change. As a mainstay of the first 4 series it would be remiss of me not to mention the now missing sister, Prue.

Prue was expertly played by Shannon Doherty (yes she of the fiery temper and Scare Tactics), the eldest with the ability to move things, she was very much the sensible one with a great sense of duty. In fact such a great sense of duty she sacrificed herself to save the world from destruction by a demon. She is sorely missed, but towards the end a little smugness crept into the character, and it wasn't entirely appropriate.

Now to introduce the two original remaining Halliwell sisters, and then the new one.

Holly Marie Combes plays Piper, originally the middle sister, she was quite a plain ordinary character, dare I say overshadowed by the other two? Now she's the eldest sister as well as being a wife and mother, with a new maturity rising to the fore. Whilst she's had to deal with this her character is becoming slightly too sensible, if she doesn't watch it she'll end up being a bit of a killjoy. Thing is, she's really useful due to
the fact that her power can make her freeze time, quite useful with a demonic fire ball coming towards your head!, but then her fantastic new power means she can blow things up as well! Combes has also started to take a large role in producing and directing Charmed which may explain the new direction its been taking.

Phoebe is admirably played by the rather striking Alyssa Milano. Lets just say, if I was a man or a lesbian this woman's picture would definitely be on my bathroom door! She is simply stunning, always laughing, has a lovely new hair do and what a cheeky smile! Lets just say, if any one gets transformed into something that involved wearing skimpy clothing, its usually Phoebe. Alan wasn't protesting too much at the sight of her in her Valhalla Warrior outfit last week!
Milano isn't just a pretty face though, she really is a fine actress and the star of the show for me.
Phoebe has visions when she touches objects and humans, she's also just been given the gift of empathy, thus rather annoying when she tells her sister 'I do know how your feeling' Emotional is the whole phrase for Phoebe, her heart very much rules her head leading to a fair few problems along the way. How else could you explain a woman who gets married to the Head Honcho demon who's real goal in life is to kill her and her sisters! If Phoebe leaves then Charmed would definitely be over.

Now to the newbie Paige, played by the cheeky chappie Rose McGowan. Not saying that's she's into weird stuff but she was engaged to that Marilyn Manson bloke! Paige was welcomed into the family after Prue died, well it took at least 2 episodes because no one knew she was a Halliwell. It seems her father was a bit of a naughty one having a liaison with the Halliwell mother, the reason she was fostered away was because her dad was a Whitelighter (more about them in a mo), her mother a witch and these things aren't supposed to happen. In fact th
ey are banned completely! Hence she has the powers and duties of a Whitelighter and the abilities of a witch. Paige had huge difficulties adjusting to her new status and still looks for a life away from magic. The fact that she can 'orb' anywhere and take the sisters with her means they are save a fortune on bus fares! In all she was the right addition to the clan, even if she does talk funny.

Lets get on to Whitelighters:
Whitelighters are basically Guardian Angels and every witch has one. The Halliwells is Leo (played by Brian Krause), contrary to Elder rules, Leo and Piper get it together, get married and have the little offspring Wyatt. Unfortunately things don't go to plan and Leo has become an Elder (a God, basically) and has to leave Piper and Wyatt, although he's still very much around.

Enter their new Whitelighter, Chris. Chris has been sent back from the future to protect the sisters, however nobody knows from what. It's obvious Chris is up to no good and Leo wants to know what!

A Whitelighters real job is to look after 'innocents' (me and you) and get witches to rescue them, usually from demon attack. Often Whitelighters are an unknown quantity ruled by higher beings.

The last character is Wyatt, again an enigma. A production of a Whitelighter and a witch, he's also the first boy to ever be born into the Halliwell family. Wyatt obviously has great powers, how many babies do you know get amused do dragons on the telly and then go and conjure one in the back garden? Hence quite a few people would like to get their hands on him.

Charmed has changed over the past few series and in particular with the disappearance of Shannon Doherty, the first few series, good against evil, the end of the world, stopping Armageddon, etc, but its now far more humorous, even comedic at some points, the girls have turned into super heroes, muses, etc. The most bizarre things happen to the poor thing
s, three blondes including the very funny Donna Air take over their identities and wreak havoc, Piper turns into a biker chick, Harley and all, and at one point they turn into the 'Hear no evil, Speak no evil, see no evil' monkeys!

This has made for a much lighter show than the dark action series it was before. I suppose you could draw comparisons with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but this wouldn't do Charmed justice, I actually prefer Charmed. That's not to say its all cheerfulness, the break up of the relationship between Piper and Leo is very poignant even tearful, but you know its going to work out in the end.

For a well written, amusing and equally addictive escapist hour tune into Living TV at 8.00pm on Thursdays, it also repeats on Saturdays. There's also repeats of all the series on every day on Living TV.

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