What was more important to you on Charmed?

[pheebs]

What was the most important aspect of Charmed for you as a viewer? What did you watch for and or love the most?

[rebooted]

My top would have to be being protectors of the innocent.

I think that linked to everything, the Po3, the sisterly bond and relationship, their purpose and the premise of the show.

[Ruth Marie]

Sisters relationship, Protectors of the Innocent and standalone episodes. Those three are what makes up my favorite episodes of Charmed.

[Melinda Halliwell]

Being sisters, protectors of the innocent, the stand-alone episodes in the early years and the innocents they saved.

[rebooted]

The relationship between the three very different Halliwell sisters, their bond and strength as independent women and as a collective unit protecting the Innocence.

Basically, if Charmed wasn't a supernatural series about witches and soley focused on the relationship between the three Halliwell sisters, it would still be a good series. That's why Season's 1 and 2 are so highly regarded because the sisterly and girl power elements were at the forefront of the show.

Enter Season 3 and Cole shifts the focus to Phoebe and Cole as well as Leo and Piper becoming more centric and Prue losing focus in the background. Which leads to the Jump the Shark moment, Phoebe not being able to kill Cole and lying to her sisters about it in Sleuthing with the Enemy.

Saeson 4 reset things and offered a different approach, focused on the death of a sister and an arrival of an interesting other sister while Phoebe and Piper were still likeable. However from Lost and Bound/Charmed and Dangerous the focus goes back to Cole and concentrates of the Source and gives rise to PhoeME.

by the premier of Season 5, the sisterly relationship is unrecognisable. The show turns to 3 witches who happened to be sisters and story-arcs become the thing. PhoeMe is already a thing.

Season 6 feels like a continuation of Season 5 on hardcore drugs with the sisters being more like friends/flatmates, the sisters beginning not wanting to Protect the Innocent and a badly executed storyline with Chris that had so much potential.

Season 7 started with a lot of PhoeME, then less PhoeME and then back to PhoebeME again and the last half of Season 7 from Scry Hard really picks up as well as some good episodes from the first half's Styx Feet Under, Witchness Protection etc. The sisterly element is still not as strong as Seasons 1 - 4 or even 5 in some respects but the fundamentals about saving innocence becomes more important again.

Season 8 was just an extra added DVD bonus that had its moments but effectly wasn't entirely needed. I liked some of the great acted HMC episodes like Vaya Con Leos and Kill Billie Vol 2. The sisters still feel like best friends who have shared nephews who keep them together by this point. The same can be said from Wyatt's birth in Season 5's The Day the Magic Died. By the way, Story arcs are always going to be thing unfortunately!

[Elle Em]

Relationship between the sisters, being protectors of the innocent, blend of everyday life with demon fighting, and relating to the sisters.

[Elle Em]

Jul 5, 2018 6:43:13 GMT -5 rebooted said:

Basically, if Charmed wasn't a supernatural series about witches and soley focused on the relationship between the three Halliwell sisters, it would still be a good series. That's why Season's 1 and 2 are so highly regarded because the sisterly and girl power elements were at the forefront of the show.

I agree with everything you said, but especially this. The magical aspects are great, but I'd totally watch the show even if magic weren't a part of it. I don't know what it would be replaced with, but a show with the basis of these three sisters and their relationship would be enough to keep my interest for a long time. It's always been the most interesting thing to me, far surpassing anything magical. The magic is more like an extra that provides more of an escape from daily life. 

[Miranda Turner]

Jul 5, 2018 6:51:14 GMT -5 Elle Em said:

Jul 5, 2018 6:43:13 GMT -5 rebooted said:

Basically, if Charmed wasn't a supernatural series about witches and soley focused on the relationship between the three Halliwell sisters, it would still be a good series. That's why Season's 1 and 2 are so highly regarded because the sisterly and girl power elements were at the forefront of the show.

I agree with everything you said, but especially this. The magical aspects are great, but I'd totally watch the show even if magic weren't a part of it. I don't know what it would be replaced with, but a show with the basis of these three sisters and their relationship would be enough to keep my interest for a long time. It's always been the most interesting thing to me, far surpassing anything magical. The magic is more like an extra that provides more of an escape from daily life. 

The show could still work without demons at all for instance. What if it focused primarily on human villain's or if Warlocks were the only ones. Seeing as they are closest counterparts to witches.

I don't think you lose anything. It would be like S1 and S2. The relationship between the sisters is more key than the many demons or magical things they faced.

What if they didn't even have powers or magic. I guess then it would be more on potion making.

But I'd wonder how things go if they had used the skills from All Halliwells Eve and no active powers on the show. Especially if the only villain's. Would remind me of the Lois and Clark 90s show that was just human villains, scientists and people with abilities. But never Supernatural things.

[Elle Em]

They ultimately need something to bring them together besides just being family. We saw how in the first episode that especially Prue and Phoebe probably wouldn't have spoken much ever again if magic hadn't kept them together.

But for me at least, I don't need demons and the underworld and the Source. I'd be fine with just warlocks. It could start with just simple plots and then get more involved as the show went on as the warlocks they went up against were connected to more human crimes throughout the city. This way, Andy could be involved as well. In this scenario, they could have their active powers or just rely on their more subtle magical abilities like in All Halliwell's Eve.

I wonder what approach they'd take if there was no magic involved at all.

[rebooted]

Jul 5, 2018 7:16:09 GMT -5 Miranda Turner said:

Jul 5, 2018 6:51:14 GMT -5 Elle Em said:

I agree with everything you said, but especially this. The magical aspects are great, but I'd totally watch the show even if magic weren't a part of it. I don't know what it would be replaced with, but a show with the basis of these three sisters and their relationship would be enough to keep my interest for a long time. It's always been the most interesting thing to me, far surpassing anything magical. The magic is more like an extra that provides more of an escape from daily life. 

The show could still work without demons at all for instance. What if it focused primarily on human villain's or if Warlocks were the only ones. Seeing as they are closest counterparts to witches.

I don't think you lose anything. It would be like S1 and S2. The relationship between the sisters is more key than the many demons or magical things they faced.

What if they didn't even have powers or magic. I guess then it would be more on potion making.

But I'd wonder how things go if they had used the skills from All Halliwells Eve and no active powers on the show. Especially if the only villain's. Would remind me of the Lois and Clark 90s show that was just human villains, scientists and people with abilities. But never Supernatural things.

Which did work well in the first Season with the Supernatural Investigations with Andy and Daryl.

Instead of widening the magical community and focus on villans, they should have just stayed true to witchcraft and the one off villans like Lois and Clark.

[Esmeralda]

I agree with the majority. I'll always wonder what Charmed would've been like had Connie's original ideas - that had nothing to do with witches or magic - been used. I know I would've still watched - it was seeing Holly and Alyssa that attracted me, not the idea of them being witches, and it was Phoebs' personality that kept me watching before I fell in love with the three sisters, especially feeling like I was Patty watching over them. I think the same would've been true even without the magic.

But the magic was definitely a special extra that made them and the show special.

If the show had just been Prue and Phoebe constantly battling each other with Piper in the middle, I think I would've gotten bored, and it was the magic that brought all of them together.

I'm pretty sure the series wouldn't have lasted as long without the magic, but for me that's definitely not a bad thing, since I think it went four years longer than it should've.

[Ruth Marie]

Jul 5, 2018 22:27:40 GMT -5 rebooted said:

Jul 5, 2018 7:16:09 GMT -5 Miranda Turner said:

The show could still work without demons at all for instance. What if it focused primarily on human villain's or if Warlocks were the only ones. Seeing as they are closest counterparts to witches.

I don't think you lose anything. It would be like S1 and S2. The relationship between the sisters is more key than the many demons or magical things they faced.

What if they didn't even have powers or magic. I guess then it would be more on potion making.

But I'd wonder how things go if they had used the skills from All Halliwells Eve and no active powers on the show. Especially if the only villain's. Would remind me of the Lois and Clark 90s show that was just human villains, scientists and people with abilities. But never Supernatural things.

Which did work well in the first Season with the Supernatural Investigations with Andy and Daryl.

Instead of widening the magical community and focus on villans, they should have just stayed true to witchcraft and the one off villans like Lois and Clark.

I wished that element stayed through the show with Andy and Darryl.

That would have been great. I suppose most of the demons can easily become Warlocks and not much changes. They could expand and turn several non magical villains into bigger parts too like Dr. Williamson or the Witch Hunter from Morality Bites. 

I'd have liked a big bad of a season being a human villain.

[rebooted]

Jul 6, 2018 0:00:14 GMT -5 Ruth Marie said:

Jul 5, 2018 22:27:40 GMT -5 rebooted said:

Which did work well in the first Season with the Supernatural Investigations with Andy and Daryl.

Instead of widening the magical community and focus on villans, they should have just stayed true to witchcraft and the one off villans like Lois and Clark.

I wished that element stayed through the show with Andy and Darryl.

That would have been great. I suppose most of the demons can easily become Warlocks and not much changes. They could expand and turn several non magical villains into bigger parts too like Dr. Williamson or the Witch Hunter from Morality Bites. 

I'd have liked a big bad of a season being a human villain.

Yeah, the more episodic the baddies were while we learned more meaningful knowledge about the sisters, their relationship, strength and ancestory, the more interesting it got. Being magical and the supernatural was just a bonus and easily could have been replaced with something else like crime or drama. The book didn't neccessarily need to the Book of Shadows either!

I feel like Constance M. Burge made a mistake in which I can only imagine was an idea crafted by Brad Kern, to introduce whitelighters and the eventual permanent character of Leo with and his relationship with Piper. Followed by Cole's influence in Season 3 mixed in with Shannen's Departure just changed the focus from sisters who happen to be witches to witches who happen to be sisters.

This was a really cool thread to start pheebs!

[pheebs]

Jul 6, 2018 5:31:21 GMT -5 rebooted said:

Jul 6, 2018 0:00:14 GMT -5 Ruth Marie said:

I wished that element stayed through the show with Andy and Darryl.

That would have been great. I suppose most of the demons can easily become Warlocks and not much changes. They could expand and turn several non magical villains into bigger parts too like Dr. Williamson or the Witch Hunter from Morality Bites. 

I'd have liked a big bad of a season being a human villain.

Yeah, the more episodic the baddies were while we learned more meaningful knowledge about the sisters, their relationship, strength and ancestory, the more interesting it got. Being magical and the supernatural was just a bonus and easily could have been replaced with something else like crime or drama. The book didn't neccessarily need to the Book of Shadows either!

I feel like Constance M. Burge made a mistake in which I can only imagine was an idea crafted by Brad Kern, to introduce whitelighters and the eventual permanent character of Leo with and his relationship with Piper. Followed by Cole's influence in Season 3 mixed in with Shannen's Departure just changed the focus from sisters who happen to be witches to witches who happen to be sisters.

This was a really cool thread to start pheebs!

I agree I think they made a huge mistake. Leo and Cole as much as they were great, shouldn't have been permanent characters. I wonder if they didn't introduce whitelighters at all, and found I don't know maybe kept Melinda Warren around for a while longer, to teach the sisters or found someone else to mentor the sisters for a little while. 

I'm surprised that they didn't have the concept that all whitelighters were former witches and became a whitelighter after they died. So at least, their previous life they had the true knowledge and background of a former witch to guide their charges. 

Sure having them healed was an asset and orbing, but it was an easy way out of plots. Can't the sisters get creative with other methods to heal themselves without actual healing powers?  

No problem. I'm glad you liked it, and so glad that great discussions have emerged from it.

[universalcharmed]

I chose being able to juggle being witches with their everyday lives. I feel like this was the core idea of the show from the very beginning. When we were introduced to them they were already sisters and already had a relationship so not much growth was done there honestly. The best part of the show was them trying to have a personal live while fighting demons.

[prudencehalliwell]

Jul 6, 2018 5:31:21 GMT -5 rebooted said:

Jul 6, 2018 0:00:14 GMT -5 Ruth Marie said:

I wished that element stayed through the show with Andy and Darryl.

That would have been great. I suppose most of the demons can easily become Warlocks and not much changes. They could expand and turn several non magical villains into bigger parts too like Dr. Williamson or the Witch Hunter from Morality Bites. 

I'd have liked a big bad of a season being a human villain.

Yeah, the more episodic the baddies were while we learned more meaningful knowledge about the sisters, their relationship, strength and ancestory, the more interesting it got. Being magical and the supernatural was just a bonus and easily could have been replaced with something else like crime or drama. The book didn't neccessarily need to the Book of Shadows either!

I feel like Constance M. Burge made a mistake in which I can only imagine was an idea crafted by Brad Kern, to introduce whitelighters and the eventual permanent character of Leo with and his relationship with Piper. Followed by Cole's influence in Season 3 mixed in with Shannen's Departure just changed the focus from sisters who happen to be witches to witches who happen to be sisters.

This was a really cool thread to start pheebs!

Now I'm wondering how a Charmed where neither Leo or Cole are introduced would be like. But whitelighters and Leo were a fixture for all the series. Cole was only a presence for 2.5 seasons. 


That I think not having Leo or whitelighters changes much more significance since without him we get no hybrids in Paige or Wyatt or Chris either and Piper would be a whole new person with storylines. 

[sanfranciscodreaming]

I also chose balancing being witches with their everyday lives. I love the fact they are sisters, and exploring their relationships with each other. However, the fact they are witches added to their relationship as sisters. Phoebe and Prue would never have spoken again if they weren't brought together again by magic, and as Universal Charmed said above, the uniqueness of the show was that they were witches. Certainly in the first 3 - 4 seasons, their relationship as sisters grew and developed because they were witches.

[Sasha]

Sisters, innocents and standalone episodes.

[summerreading]

The relationship between the sisters, protecting the innocents and the wonderful stand-alone episodes in the earlier seasons.

[pheebs]

I'm smiling with the choices in the lead. Surprised that some are no high. I thought many did like the demons, love lives and children on Charmed.

But glad to see the true essentials are what people most appreciate and love about Charmed.