Charmed premieres on October 14th on The CW.
By Mary Rosealea
So, we’ve got a Charmed reboot. This new series plays with almost the same theme as the original: Three sisters come together despite their differences and learn that they are the most powerful witches in the world. Other than a slight Easter egg or two for diehard fans, that’s where the similarities stop.
Before I begin to bash the pilot, let me say, the actresses themselves are good, although their characters are pretty standard tropes. We’ve got your feminist warrior in Mel (Melonie Diaz); the younger, immature sister that only wants to fit in, Maggie (Sarah Jeffery) and the long-lost intellectual, Macy (Madeleine Mantock), who wants to know more about her family. Then we’ve got your typical mysterious bystander in Harry (Rupert Evans) who we’re not sure if we can trust or not.
The storyline is also promising! You almost can’t go wrong nowadays as far as the fantasy genre is concerned. It will be quite interesting to see if the writers take on a creature-of-the-week format that is so popular in shows like Supernatural. If they do, there is a world of possibilities to go after in that department. As for the “big bad” of the season, honestly I can’t tell if it’s supposed to be the Source of All Evil, or after their mother’s Ouija board warning it’s going to be their new friend Harry. Quite frankly, that is the type of suspenseful cliffhanger that will help cultivate a fandom right away.
However, you would think that the network that provides us with such fan favorites as the Arrowverse would have much better special effects than what this pilot episode seemed to deliver. I’m not sure what glitch there appeared to be in these costume and effects departments. Even if entirely new fans come to this show with no prior knowledge of the original show, they will still find this area lacking, especially in today’s standards of the science fiction/fantasy genre.
I’m probably still a little bitter about the lack of continuity with the original series. They don’t even have the support of the original cast! That’s a big deal in this reboot-MO of modern pop culture. Hopefully, as the season progresses and gains popularity, Charmed might be able to hold their ground and blaze through all the naysayers.
I give Charmed’s pilot a C.
TV and City 