The original Charmed, which ran from 1998 to 2006, was one of the cornerstones of The WB, along with shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dawson’s Creek, One Tree Hill, and Smallville, and the new reboot (premiering October 14 at 9 p.m.) brings a bit of that old WB spark to The CW. Developed by Jane the Virgin creator Jennie Snyder Urman along with fellow Jane writer-producers Jessica O’Toole and Amy Rardin, the new version adds some very 2018 buzzwords and casts women of color as its lead characters, but the core of the show remains the same: Following the death of their mother (or grandmother in the original), three adult sisters discover that they’re the “Charmed Ones,” destined to be the greatest witches in history, using the “Power of Three” to fight the forces of evil.
At first, there are only two sisters: Brash, outspoken Mel (Melonie Diaz) is a women’s studies graduate student and teaching assistant at Hilltowne University, where her mother is the chair of the women’s studies department. Mel’s younger sister Maggie (Sarah Jeffery) is an undergraduate at Hilltowne, where she’s more interested in partying and rushing a sorority than in fighting for social justice. When their mother dies under mysterious circumstances, the sisters discover that they have a family heritage as witches, and also that they have a previously unknown half-sister, Macy (Madeleine Mantock), who’s been drawn to Hilltowne by forces both mystical and academic (she’s a geneticist who’s been recently hired as a professor at the university).
The first episode (the only one available for review) establishes the show’s basics and brings the sisters together, setting up a few ongoing storylines that should play out over the course of the season (including the mystery of who killed their mother). The sisters’ witch powers have been awakened not only because of their reunion following their mother’s death but also because of an apparent impending apocalypse (the first sign of which, according to an ancient witchcraft tome, is the election of Donald Trump as president), which they’ve been enlisted to avert.
The sisters learn all of this thanks to their self-appointed mentor and advisor Harry Greenwood (Rupert Evans), a stuffy British academic very reminiscent of Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Rupert Giles. Harry is younger than Giles, and as a “Whitelighter,” he has powers of his own, including teleportation and healing. The dynamic between Harry and the three sisters is playful and fun, with a hint of something sinister on the horizon, and it’s one of the ways that the first episode effectively draws the audience in for future installments.
The sisters also have a lively and engaging chemistry among the three of them, even as Macy is just being integrated into the family. As in the original, they each have powers that relate to their personalities: The passionate, confrontational Mel is able to freeze time, but only when she’s calm; the somewhat flighty but empathetic Maggie can read people’s thoughts, and the rational Macy can move objects with her mind, but only when she gets worked up. They also have the Book of Shadows, their mother’s spell book with resources for combating demons and other supernatural threats.
The quippy dialogue also owes a bit to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the creators do a good job of balancing clever one-liners with genuine emotional connection among the sisters and a sense of menace from the forces aligned against them. Showrunner Carter Covington has a history of working on smart, progressive teen-focused series, including short-lived high school dramedies Faking It on MTV and 10 Things I Hate About You on ABC Family, both of which are prime for rediscovery and cult appreciation, and some of that same sensibility shines through here.
The social commentary is clear without being heavy-handed, and the show gently satirizes campus culture (when Maggie reads the minds of her fellow sorority pledges at a mixer, all they’re thinking about is locating the mini-quiches) without getting self-righteous. Mel even manages to make a callback to an earlier lesson about consent while vanquishing a demon.
That demon is a little underwhelming, though, and the show will need to build up villains who are as entertaining as its protagonists in order to sustain long-term interest. The Buffymodel of the “big bad” may be somewhat overused at this point, but establishing an overarching antagonist would give the show a greater sense of purpose. Having a dying demon warn, “Now it’s begun,” is not quite enough to establish a direction for the season.
Then again, in an era when every TV series is heavily serialized, a throwback to the WB days of episodic standalone stories might be refreshing. While it could be incredibly cheesy at times, the original Charmed made time for plenty of detours into other times and alternate dimensions, and there’s no reason this version can’t indulge in some similarly silly individual stories while keeping the ongoing storylines in the background. There’s certainly enough material in the first episode to take things in various promising directions, paying homage to the original series while putting a clever, modern spin on the concept.
At first, there are only two sisters: Brash, outspoken Mel (Melonie Diaz) is a women’s studies graduate student and teaching assistant at Hilltowne University, where her mother is the chair of the women’s studies department. Mel’s younger sister Maggie (Sarah Jeffery) is an undergraduate at Hilltowne, where she’s more interested in partying and rushing a sorority than in fighting for social justice. When their mother dies under mysterious circumstances, the sisters discover that they have a family heritage as witches, and also that they have a previously unknown half-sister, Macy (Madeleine Mantock), who’s been drawn to Hilltowne by forces both mystical and academic (she’s a geneticist who’s been recently hired as a professor at the university).
The first episode (the only one available for review) establishes the show’s basics and brings the sisters together, setting up a few ongoing storylines that should play out over the course of the season (including the mystery of who killed their mother). The sisters’ witch powers have been awakened not only because of their reunion following their mother’s death but also because of an apparent impending apocalypse (the first sign of which, according to an ancient witchcraft tome, is the election of Donald Trump as president), which they’ve been enlisted to avert.
The sisters learn all of this thanks to their self-appointed mentor and advisor Harry Greenwood (Rupert Evans), a stuffy British academic very reminiscent of Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Rupert Giles. Harry is younger than Giles, and as a “Whitelighter,” he has powers of his own, including teleportation and healing. The dynamic between Harry and the three sisters is playful and fun, with a hint of something sinister on the horizon, and it’s one of the ways that the first episode effectively draws the audience in for future installments.
The sisters also have a lively and engaging chemistry among the three of them, even as Macy is just being integrated into the family. As in the original, they each have powers that relate to their personalities: The passionate, confrontational Mel is able to freeze time, but only when she’s calm; the somewhat flighty but empathetic Maggie can read people’s thoughts, and the rational Macy can move objects with her mind, but only when she gets worked up. They also have the Book of Shadows, their mother’s spell book with resources for combating demons and other supernatural threats.
The quippy dialogue also owes a bit to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the creators do a good job of balancing clever one-liners with genuine emotional connection among the sisters and a sense of menace from the forces aligned against them. Showrunner Carter Covington has a history of working on smart, progressive teen-focused series, including short-lived high school dramedies Faking It on MTV and 10 Things I Hate About You on ABC Family, both of which are prime for rediscovery and cult appreciation, and some of that same sensibility shines through here.
The social commentary is clear without being heavy-handed, and the show gently satirizes campus culture (when Maggie reads the minds of her fellow sorority pledges at a mixer, all they’re thinking about is locating the mini-quiches) without getting self-righteous. Mel even manages to make a callback to an earlier lesson about consent while vanquishing a demon.
That demon is a little underwhelming, though, and the show will need to build up villains who are as entertaining as its protagonists in order to sustain long-term interest. The Buffymodel of the “big bad” may be somewhat overused at this point, but establishing an overarching antagonist would give the show a greater sense of purpose. Having a dying demon warn, “Now it’s begun,” is not quite enough to establish a direction for the season.
Then again, in an era when every TV series is heavily serialized, a throwback to the WB days of episodic standalone stories might be refreshing. While it could be incredibly cheesy at times, the original Charmed made time for plenty of detours into other times and alternate dimensions, and there’s no reason this version can’t indulge in some similarly silly individual stories while keeping the ongoing storylines in the background. There’s certainly enough material in the first episode to take things in various promising directions, paying homage to the original series while putting a clever, modern spin on the concept.
by Josh Bell ,in CBR Exclusives,
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