‘Charmed’: Reboot is more mayhem than magic

[Tim]

And it helps that the CW is behind this Charmed.  By the end, the dying WB only saw the original series as something to fill a time slot.

[adzpower]

Ooh, one other thing I liked, the witch-whitelighters seem to be ostracized? Like how in the original they made a big deal out of it being forbidden but then didn't actually do anything to Paige, Wyatt or that random British witch-whitelighter in season 8, so that kind of fell flat.

But in the reboot from what I got from Jada they really are cast out as it were, at least by the elders, not recognised or officiated as proper witches, which is interesting if that is indeed the case. It gives kind of a darker edge to the elders for kind of being heartless as it were by not treating them how they should be. I know so far we've relly only seen one proper elder, but I hope we meet more at some point properly.

[Tim]

that random British witch-whitelighter in season 8

Ugh, don't remind me.  He kept harassing Paige, even though she made it clear she wanted nothing to do with him.  There is a word for that: stalking.

But in the reboot from what I got from Jada they really are cast out as it were, at least by the elders, not recognised or officiated as proper witches, which is interesting if that is indeed the case. It gives kind of a darker edge to the elders for kind of being heartless as it were by not treating them how they should be. I know so far we've relly only seen one proper elder, but I hope we meet more at some point properly.

And the Vera sisters are more than willing to call these Elders out on their bulls**t.  This is another refreshing change from the original series.  Mel, Maggie, and Macy are not just going to roll over all the time.

[adzpower]

Yeah he was a total pest, and really quite a stereotypical depiction of a British man (shocking I know coming from Kernus), but it never sat right with me that 1. He's clearly a stalker and 2. WHY GIVE BRITISH MEN A BAD NAME?!

Also, Kernus can afford to hire a British actor for season 8 but not a good set, just saying.

[Tim]

Yeah he was a total pest, and really quite a stereotypical depiction of a British man (shocking I know coming from Kernus), but it never sat right with me that 1. He's clearly a stalker and 2. WHY GIVE BRITISH MEN A BAD NAME?!

Yeah, Kernus, the Revolution was more than two centuries ago.  Get over it!

Kernus has this habit of creating stalker men.  Look how Mr, Cardboard was, for all intents and purposes, stalking Phoebe.  And, instead of taking out a restraining order, Phoebe MARRIES him!

Of course, given what had been revealed about Kernus in the years since, that all makes sense now.

[adzpower]

Its kind of funny that when I think about it, most of Phoebe's relationships had stalking involved.

Cole was stalking her at first to try and kill them all, then Phoebe kept stalking Lesley because she didn't like him doing her job (probably better than she was), and then that guy in season 8 who had the hideous art, I think she went stalking him as well pretending she liked the atrocities he made.

And then of course we have Coop the creep.

[Tim]

Didn't Phoebe tell Coop a number of times to leave her alone? 

Of course, he was her sperm donor, uh love of her life

Luckily, the reboot is avoiding this.  Of course, the reboot doesn't have a misogynist like Kernus in charge.

[adzpower]

And good God does it show. The different is actually startling, I mean can you imagine one of the Vera sisters turning up to work looking like this:

This was Brad Kerns idea of feminism.

In kernus' mind, he thought he could make a woman look strong by having them display their bodies in whatever he wanted them displayed in. Shame on him. Its nice to have some Charmed Ones who are wearing normal clothes. 

In this new show I'm almost certain we will never get anything like:

Or

Or

Instead now we get:

SEE THAT KERNUS! CLOTHES ACTUAL WOMEN WOULD WEAR TO FIGHT DEMONS.

[BettyNewbie]

So with you, Adam.

And, sadly, Kernus' influence in that department was already being felt pretty early on. Just in EARLY S2 we had Prue showing up to work dressed like this:





And, then, she spent most of the very next episode dressed like this:





Huge difference from Season 1, where the Halliwells wore normal clothes just like the Veras currently do:





Hopefully, the reboot's wardrobe doesn't suddenly go south in Season 2 like the original's did.  Keep Kernus and Hellish away!

[Tim]

Well, I think it's safe to say that Kernus is washed up, especially since he no longer has Les Moonves to protect him.

Has Hellish done anything since the original series?  Anyway, I don't think those that run the reboot would let her within a mile of the set.

[Melinda Halliwell]

True. I think to Natalie from Blinded By The Whitelighter and what she said about the sisters wearing loose moving fitted attire and think back to the times after season one when that wasn't so.

More Phoebe probably because of her martial arts you'd think her clothes and shoes would be things she could do kicks and punches easily in like trousers and trainers. And her hands and some of her arms would be protected whether it's a long sleeve top or something other whatever.

By season three when the girls were better experienced their wardrobes could've been sectioned three ways. Day and evening wear, work wear, and evil fighting wear which was low-cost affordable clothing and shoe wear that was loose fitting and comfortable which done the job and could easily be replaced whenever needed.

I think after season one there were only two or three times when anything about clothes or footwear concerning demons or whatever was even mentioned. When Prue was stalked by Abby and she got the sisters to wear sneakers and said they wore the wrong clothes, The training session with Natalie, and when Chris mentioned in The Power Of Three Blondes about Phoebe's heels which surprised me considering the work they did.

[BettyNewbie]

Feb 10, 2019 6:04:23 GMT -5 Melinda Halliwell said:

True. I think to Natalie from Blinded By The Whitelighter and what she said about the sisters wearing loose moving fitted attire and think back to the times after season one when that wasn't so.

More Phoebe probably because of her martial arts you'd think her clothes and shoes would be things she could do kicks and punches easily in like trousers and trainers. And her hands and some of her arms would be protected whether it's a long sleeve top or something other whatever.

By season three when the girls were better experienced their wardrobes could've been sectioned three ways. Day and evening wear, work wear, and evil fighting wear which was low-cost affordable clothing and shoe wear that was loose fitting and comfortable which done the job and could easily be replaced whenever needed.

I think after season one there were only two or three times when anything about clothes or footwear concerning demons or whatever was even mentioned. When Prue was stalked by Abby and she got the sisters to wear sneakers and said they wore the wrong clothes, The training session with Natalie, and when Chris mentioned in The Power Of Three Blondes about Phoebe's heels which surprised me considering the work they did.

It was all about sticking the leads in skimpy/trendy outfits for the (presumably straight and male) audience to drool at, regardless of whether or not it was realistic or practical. That's why we kept on seeing them chase demons down in crop tops and heels, and that's also why they seemed to have bottomless wardrobes of designer outfits despite living in one of the most expensive cities in the entire country.

And, what makes it even worse is that these outfits haven't done anything but badly age the show. What was "trendy" in the early 00s just looks dated and cringeworthy nowadays. Normal outfits are mostly timeless, "trendy" stuff isn't.

[Squad 51]

Yeah, you really have to wonder how they could fulfill their Wiccan duties with the clothes they wore. Hence, I felt I was in a model show and not a series about sisters who happen to be witches, especially starting from S3. Exact the time when BK took over. Not nice!!

[Tim]

One could have been forgiving for thinking that they'd turned on UPN by mistake and was watching America's Next Top Model.  All that was missing was Tyra Banks.

[Jean]

Nice that they are not like the original with thin white girls. Kernus would never hire someone who isn't stick thin or someone who isn't, Good to see representation for all shapes and sizes. I remember he wasn't happy Alyssa gained weight after her divorce in S3 or S4.

Not the strongest episode. But Galvin was absent for the first time. I feel if Harry had been absent his absence would be noticed.

One issue I have is they need to do more with the sisters. It is getting annoying they separate the sisters with their own storylines in nearly all the episodes. More sisterly moments than book ending episodes. We barely see them together to face off against demons. That happens every so often. I'd like to see less episodes where they go out of their way to separate the sisters with their own plots and just have one or two vanquishing the demons and not all three. The Power of three barely is vanquishing demons. Out of 12 episodes it has happened only four episodes.