T’s Summer Binge-watch Guide: Charmed

This is one of my all time favorite shows.  In fact, it’s one of only two shows that I have all the seasons on dvd…. the other is Supernatural.  Do you see a pattern here?  Yeah, me too.  This show is the reason that I refused to watch Supernatural when it first started.  In fact, I actually called Supernatural a …. Charmed rip off without the magical powers.  Don’t throw stones at me until you hear me out.  Charmed was on the air first… it was about sister witches fighting evil.  Charmed had an episode in it’s first season called The Wendigo … and Supernatural’s second episode is about … yep, you guessed it … a wendigo (although they were different types of creatures and neither Sam nor Dean got turned into one).  So, as a huge fan of “The Witches” you can see where I was a little skeptical, right?  I came to see the light in the end, and that’s really all that matters.

Anyway, this is one of the best shows to ever grace a television screen, and if you’ve been watching all my previous suggestions, then you know that I know good TV.  And, if you haven’t been watching all my previous suggestions…. why the hell not?

The show had an awesome theme song and several different openings over it’s 8 seasons, but a really awesome fan of the show combined all the season openings into one long video with the whole song (not just the parts used in the show).

You’ll be thanking me for including that in this article if you watch the show on Netflix, because for licensing reasons they didn’t use it in the Netflix version.  It is on the dvd’s though, well except for Season 8 (because again they were trying to save money on licensing when they released that season).

Premise of the show:  Three sisters discover that they’re witches… a set of prophecied (yes, that’s really a word… I looked it up) siblings destined to save innocents…. The Charmed Ones.  For 8 seasons, they do just that while trying to maintain some sort of normal life.

Primary cast:

Holly Marie Combs … Piper Halliwell

Alyssa Milano … Phoebe Halliwell

Rose McGowen … Paige Matthews

Brian Krause … Leo Wyatt

Dorian Gregory … Darryl Morris

Shannen Doherty … Prue Halliwell

Pros:  The show is a mix of great drama and comedy.  There’s a lot of special effects and great action.  It features strong women who save the world every episode… self saving princesses, if you will.  And, if that doesn’t hook ya …. there’s scantily clad hot women… and great looking guys.

Cons:  After three seasons, a behind the scenes battle between the cast members caused a major character to leave the show.  But, the replacement character fit in and was explained well so the show continues without any problems.  Don’t want to give away too many spoilers, so sorry about being vague there.

There have been rumors about a reboot of the show, which I’m totally against.  However, if they wanted to do a Charmed: The Next Generation type thing, I could get behind that… ya know, a show about the grown up (or teenage versions) of the Halliwell children.  I’d love to see adult Wyatt and Chris kicking demon @$$.  Wonder what Wes Ramsey and Drew Fuller are up to now days.

There were 8 seasons and 179 episodes (including an un-aired pilot that had a different actress playing Phoebe), and you can watch them all (except for the un-aired pilot) on Netflix.  This show is not available on Hulu.  If you look, you can find the un-aired pilot on youtube (in parts).  But, here’s a little side by side (sort of) comparisons of Lori Rom (the original Phoebe) and Alyssa … and you can see that Alyssa was far better in the role.

If you can, you should watch the dvd’s of the show; there’s a dvd bonus on the last dvd of Season 8 called “To the Manor Born” that shows a lot of behind the scenes stuff about the house set… including little inside jokes that you might miss when watching the show.

Some trivia about the show… The Halliwell Manor’s address was 1329 Prescott Street in San Francisco.  The actual house is located at 1329 Carroll Avenue in Los Angeles.  The Book of Shadows weighs 9 pounds 6 ounces, is the most valuable prop on the show, and is almost entirely hand painted.  Alyssa Milano liked the drawings in the Book of Shadows so much that she hired the artist to paint murals in her house.  Holly Marie Combs is the only one to appear in all 179 episodes, including the un-aired pilot.

I’ll leave you with some bloopers from the show….

Comments

  1. It has been ages since I’ve watched Charmed. I really love it and I’ve got the DVD’s around somewhere so I should definitely get them out and watch it again. Thanks for sharing.

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  2. Always love meeting fellow Charmed fans ❤ It's one of my favorites too!

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  1. […] that Joss Whedon may be involved with an upcoming favorite show, and @b2daitch continues her Summer Binge Watch with Charmed. @fondofjesus marvels  at the DC Extended Universe take worldwide. The Doctor Who […]

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