Charmed season 8 ep 22 series finale 'Forever Charmed' [spoilers]

Cafe Society
1

I know some of you watched it. Fess up. Did you cry? A little? Or just want to? A little?

It kinda took me by surprise. I knew it was the season finale, but then it said series finale. Oh, noes!

Well, it wasn’t entirely unexpected I guess. What the heck were they doing to poor Leo? Take all his powers away. Stick him in the fridge for like, what? Half the season? All the way until the end?

It was a pretty good episode though, even if it seemed just a bit rushed. Does anyone know if this was known well in advance, or was the canceling a sudden thing? After eight seasons, I certainly wouldn’t blame the cast for saying “enough already!”

Poor Pheobe never did get any decent powers back. What was up with that anyway? All the demons were afraid of the Charmed Ones. “Ooh, don’t mess with a Charmed One, she’ll kick your ass!” Well how was Pheobe supposed to kick ass? Girl ain’t got no powers. Except, I guess, every once in awhile she gets a vision. Whatever. They’re always wrong.

Does anyone beside me not particularly care what happened to stupid old Billie & Christy, except for being glad at least one of them got offed? God, I couldn’t stand Christy. Die already! Die again! And again! You could never die enough! Die, die, die!

It was great seeing mom, dad, grand-mom & especially grown-up Chris & Wyatt from the future. I admit to screaming like a little girl when Coop showed up and Wyatt yelled “uncle Coop!” Yay!

At one point they showed a scene of future Chris & Wyatt making a potion together. Do you think a spin-off show with them could be possible? Would you want to watch it? Would it be a total bomb? Charmed seems to mostly be a girl-power show, so I wonder if a show chronicling the adventures of two or three Halliwell boys would even have a chance?

Ah, well. It was a good show. I know it’s got some big detractors here on the Dope, (wah, it’s not Buffy!) but I liked it. It was kinda like feel-good soul food. An old friend. Kinda sad it’s gone, but not too sad. After eight seasons they’d burned through just about every story-telling cliche possible, and had some fun along the way.

Thoughts? Anyone?

2

Oh god no. No it wasn’t. i mean, it really wasn’t.

My not liking it had nothing to do with the fact that it wasn’t Buffy. I didn’t like it because of the however many seasons I watched in repeats on TNT (from the start through the end of the Future Chris season…was that five?) and really wanting to give the show almost literally every opportunity, it was just awful. Boring and often repetitive stories (Phoebe can’t find love…again! Piper and Leo argue about wanting to have a normal life…again!), lapses of logic, quite a lot of bad acting, and it just all added up into I have so many better things to spend the time on.

Like catching up on Dharma & Greg reruns.

The only thing I liked about the show was reading the TWoP recaps ripping the show multiple new ones every week. I know that many fans think the recapper is unfairly mean to the show but I hated it lng before I started reading the recaps.

3

Oh God. TWoP is a fansite that really takes itself too seriously. I can’t stand that place. Who cares what they think?

The show was comfort food for me. I didn’t mind hearing Phoebe complain about not finding love… again. I didn’t mind hearing Leo & Piper argue about having a normal life… again. I love the fact Phoebe did find love, and Piper did get not only a normal life, but also her own restaurant, and a house full of kids.

Heck, the show was worth watching if for no other reason the endless stream of hot male guest-stars every week.

4

You know, I won’t say it was a great show, or even a good show, but like those plastic chocolate doughnuts from hostess, I liked it anyway. It was escapism in the purest sense. The last few seasons it has lost its initial charm, but I still liked the women on the show and was pleased to see three to five decent male figures finally equal, happy and on the show as well (in general, men did not fare well on this show in much the same way they weren’t especially well represented on Murphy Brown – which I liked a great deal).

So, the finale, was pretty good, though and very true to the spirit of the show (though all three women happily married seems counter to the women power theme). I thought it was fun but that this season’s whole story arc felt lazy at first and rushed toward the end. I found it stretched suspension of disbelief in ways that even it should be embarassed about (it never did manage to establish an internal consistency). I never felt they credibly pushed the whole reversal of good and evil bit, but hey, I really try not to think about these things when watching it – I just let it happen. I find it much easier that way. (and fun, did I mention I think this show is fun like “My Favorite Martian” fun you know?)

All in all, I think they went out only slightly less than they came in, which in 8 years isn’t so bad.

But, it was really time to go.

Oh, and I think I’d watch a Wyatt/Chris show if we could get some infrequent guesting by Charmed cast members.

5

Really? I thought it worked great for these women. It’s what they really wanted. An important theme throughout the show was having kids & family and passing on the “Charmed” trait.

The show that disappointed me more in that regard was Sex and the City. The ending didn’t feel right.