There might not be a lot of Charmed fans on the board… I watch the show occasionally, and am almost always irritated.
Haven’t caught the show yet this season but tuned in tonight, and they are working with a government agent who knows about demons and is attempting to appropriate their powers or some such nonsense.
The only thing this episode left me with was a powerful nostalgia for new Buffy.
How’s Alison’s show going? Is she coming back for a Buffy spinoff yet or what??
I can’t STAND Charmed, because it rips off all the external trappings of Buffy, without even attempting to understand the underlying factors that made Buffy a great show. It’s like Buffy, only by Aaron Spelling. It’s not even Buffy Light; it’s Buffy Lite.
I’ve nicknamed the new witch from this season Cousin Oliver.
There has been lots of talk about a made-for-TV movie focusing on Spike – Joss Whedon said so himself, and James Marsters would be interested. Presumably, Willow (Alyson Hannigan), Andrew (Tom Lenk), and Illyria (Amy Acker) would also appear in this movie. I haven’t seen all of Buffy season 7 or any of Angel season 5 yet, so I don’t know where the others would be.
I haven’t watched Alyson’s sitcom, but I know Nicholas Brendon’s sitcom Kitchen Confidential has already been canceled by Fox, whereas David Boreanaz’s forensic detective show Bones has been picked up for a second season.
I really do not want a Spike/Illyria buddy movie, nor do I want to see everyone conveniently being together again after two or three years. It goes against the dynamic aspect of the Buffyverse.
As for Charmed, yes. I agree with lissener. It’s nothing more than a soulless copy of Buffy. I used to watch two hours of *BtVS *and an hour of *Charmed *every day at work for around a year and seeing them like that, it’s so obvious it’s painful. I can’t stand the show now.
Piper and Page are quite cute, though.
I can’t help but think that with better writers, Charmed might actually be a decent show. I like the premise, but I hate the execution…
Good idea! Shane Black can write the script, Jerry Bruckheimer can produce it. Lots of rapid-fire wisecracking dialogue peppered with profanity, lots of explosions (especially exploding cars), a pointless trip to a strip club so we can see a few seconds of gyrating boobies, and a plot centered around one of the following:
[ol]
[li]Scalping football tickets… that explode![/li][li]Costumed criminals giving out Halloween candy… laced with drugs![/li][li]A plot to replace the police chief… with a known gangster![/li][li]An illegal martial arts tournament… in Hong Kong![/li][li]High-tech thieves planning the ultimate heist… online![/li][li]Smuggling priceless artifacts… inside of low-cost Scandinavian furniture![/li][li]A plane carrying a prisoner is hijacked… by snakes![/li][li]Only the end of the world… again![/li][/ol]
He’s a smarmy, smug, violent vampire with a soul. She’s… Fred! With blue hair. (I told you I haven’t seen Angel season 5 yet!) THEY FIGHT CRIME.
As you said, you haven’t seen the fifth season yet but the blue hair is only the most obvious difference between them. They’re completely different characters and it’s amazing to see Amy Acker portray someone so opposite what you’ve come to expect from her. I didn’t think she was a very good character until she switched characters but after that, I think she proved herself to actually be one of the better ones on either show.
Also, after seeing the fifth season, you will understand why I would call a movie starring Spike and Illyria a buddy movie.
When I was out of work for an extended period a while back I ended up watching the first IIRC four seasons of Charmed in syndication. I kept hoping that it would get better. Or at least good. The show is horrible. And this is coming from someone who thought Wolf Lake was awesome. Now I read the recaps on TWoP for the show every week and laugh and laugh. I don’t think the show can reasonably be compared to BtVS for the simple reason that BtVS in its worst moments was light years beyond Charmed in quality.
In fairness, I did get a geniune chuckle of appreciation out of Charmed - once.
It was the season that aired the year Buffy moved from WB to UPN, and the story arc on Charmed was - I think- Cole “Nip/Tuck” becoming The Source. I may be confused on that, but I distinctly remember a gathering of all the denizens of the underworld - demons, ghouls, zombies, etc - to discuss some alliance. Someone questioned the absence of vampires at this conclave, and was told that vampires aren’t part of the underworld - they’re part of a different network.
snicker
Kinda sad that in seven or eight seasons, that’'s the best praise I have for the show.
I have tried watching Charmed on many occasions, because the eye candy is great, especially Alyssa Milano and Rose McGowan. But I never could watch it for very long because it was so boring. (And if you knew how, um, tolerant I am of shows that make good use of eye candy, that’s saying something). And I never mistook Charmed for a Buffy retread. What it reminds more of is Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. That was a show I loved when I was very young, because it was science fiction on prime time when there wasn’t any science fiction on prime time. But even as a kid I got bored with VttBotS when it turned into a Monster Undersea Vegetable Man of the Week marathon. Well, Charmed kinda strikes me as a Heartthrob of the Week Marathon. Y’know, every week one of the Halliwell sisters will fall for some cute guy, or there’ll be difficulties in the relationship with the cute guy because the sisters are so magical and stuff. It’s not quite as predictable as guying running through submarine corridors dogging hatches on Broccoli Man, but it’s close.
For Pete’s sake, is “Charmed” still on the air? I’ve never really watched the show; always had the impression it was like a less sophisticated version of “Buffy”. Apparently I wasn’t far off.
The ending of “Angel” was so perfect, I don’t know if I want to see any continuation.
I’m one of the few you’ll find who’s brave (or stupid) enough to risk the torch wielding lynch mobs and say I actually prefer Charmed over Stuffy… er… I mean Buffy.
Never could quite get into Buffy and all her insipid little faux-teen problems.
I actually like the characters on Charmed. They seem like the sorts of people I’d like to know in real life.
Those brats on Buffy would drive me nuts.
Much as I love the series finale to “Angel,” I must admit that I would LOVE to see a Spike movie. There is still so much potential to the characters of Spike and, particularly, Illyria. If, as the rumors suggest, Tim Minear (of “Firefly” and “Wonderfalls” fame) is writing and directing, then I’m all for the idea. The man wrote “Out of Gas”- as far as I’m concerned, he’s second behind Joss on the list of Dudes That Can Do No Wrong.
Was “Out of Gas” the one where the ship was hijacked and Mal was running out of oxygen, flashing back to how he met each member of the crew?
You know, I never thought of comparing Charmed to Buffy. I’ve always thought of it as a supernatural Charlie’s Angels.
Yup. Although in fairness, the ship was not really ever hijacked. The engine broke, the ship was adrift, and potential hijackers tried to board, saying they’d sell Mal the part needed to fix the engine.
And of course, the one good actor they ever had jumped ship for Nip/Tuck (and apparently is doing pretty well there).
Getting back to Charmed, I guess for me the high point of the series for me was a span of shows where Alyssa Milano was doing her darnedest to see just how low on her hips she could wear low-rider pants and still not be displaying vaginal cleavage. I mean, it was obviously she was shaving down there, very obvious.
Sad thing is, I want to like Charmed for more than its babe factor, because what with Internet porn and such babe factorness on a TV show isn’t going to carry water for very long. I think the writers could improve the show by going in one of several different directions … borrow from the works of William Gibson, and imagine some sort of rapprochement between the Internet and the spirit world at some level. Or borrow from the works of Roger Zelazny and have the Halliwells exhibit mythic as well as mundane qualities. Or borrow from Charles deLint or Tim Powers. But please, writers, do some borrowing. Your original stuff has worn a little thin.
Are you joking? There’s nothing left for them to appropriate.