Post — Aaron Ngo

Alongside Supergirl, Charmed has taken a Sunday night timeslot and premiered to the horror of serious hard-core OG Charmed fans. I have watched the entire Charmed series in all its greatness growing up for some reason and was also skeptical of how the new series would approach the reboot to pay homage to its ancestor.

Unlike the original series, the pilot starts with only two sisters, Mel and Maggie. They are younger, in college, and have a mother. Yes, their mother is alive for the first couple of minutes, and it is a contrast to the original series where both mother and grandmother are dead right away.

However, the series kicks off once the mother dies and unlocks her daughters’ powers. The death scene used a lot of CGI for the crows and so did the magic battles later on with both Brian and the demon of the week. More on that later…

Three months pass, and things have gone to hell. Mel is angry all the time and has estranged relationships with both her ex-girlfriend Niko and her sister. Then she blames other people for abandoning her and not being able to see how much her grief has affected her behavior.

Maggie is trying to move on with her life and rushes a sorority that is “woke”.

The third sister, the half-sister, Macy arrives for a job and meets with the professor accused of sexual harassment. He is super creepy, telling Macy that he wanted to clear the air about the allegations against him if they were to work together, THEN he compliments her blouse. Yeah, what an awful little man.

I think when they all got together was an interesting change of pace. They end up fighting about Macy’s revelation and going their separate ways, which triggers their newfound powers. Macy has telekinesis, Mel can freeze time, and Maggie can read people’s thoughts with physical touch. Then they’re all kidnapped and brought back to their house.

Harry, the new women’s studies professor who replaced their mother, turns out to be their kidnapper and their Whitelighter. He introduces them to the world of demons and witches, the Book of Shadows, their powers, and how the demons are rising to start the end of the world.

He hates exposition, but he brings it out for them anyway. Then he likes monologues, but he keeps getting interrupted. I do think he is a mixture of both Leo and Rupert Giles especially with him being British. He is definitely a more powerful entity compared to the original series Whitelighter and heals faster. I miss Orbing and the snapping teleportation isn’t vibing with me.

I think the overall themes and messages of the series: feminist, consent, women empowerment, rape culture, etc. are all good things to address. It’s just how the show is conveying it is too much at once or shoving it down our throats to the point we can’t take it seriously. Especially when the Professor who sexually assaulted the female student turns out to be the demon… The forced dialogue also reflects this as a lot of it is geared toward making sure the message comes across for the audience. Yes, we got it.

I think men can be monsters without being turned into demons, but alright, let’s make him a demon. I would’ve preferred to keep the sexual predators human to remind our audience that people (men) don’t need supernatural influences to do terrible things, but I guess this works too.

The extent of their powers are not fully explained either. Macy has the best control of her powers despite not believing in magic. She’s a scientist, the skepticism will always be there. Maggie has to touch people to read thoughts, but she has yet to learn control. Mel has the least amount of control over her freezing time but holds the most potential to become the strongest of the three.

I believed the scene where Macy drew her sisters to her using telekinesis and the purple mist was pretty cool. It was symbolic, but the actual vanquishing was not my cup of tea according to my brother anyway who helped me with this review.

Thanks! You Rule!

The Demon also looked like the Night King from Game of Thrones. Yeah, seriously. He did.

The episode ended with Macy moving in with her newfound sisters and learning that Harry cannot be trusted. He is a darklighter manipulating them for his own personal gain… like Eobard Thawne did to Barry Allen during the first season of The Flash.

Or Harry is Mel and Maggie’s father since that part of the family wasn’t addressed yet.