WATCH & DISCUSS [REBOOT] 1x01: Pilot

[Reality Bites]

Unlike most here, I'm holding off my full judgement until a couple more episodes air. The pilot wasn't as good as Something Wicca This Way Comes, but it definitely wasn't as bad as say anything from Season 8 of Charmed. The thing I dreaded most was the actress playing the middle sister. Her acting wasn't that bad, but I do hope she improves. I think she is my least favorite acting wise.

The political stuff wasn't as heavy as I thought it was going to be, but I can see how it can be too much for some people. I think Mel and Harry were the most political based characters. Scenes without Mel and Harry rarely became political from what I remember. Which is kinda realistic. Everyone has that one family member who won't stop talking about politics and their family/friends tolerate them out of love.

I personally don't have anything against Macy moving in so quickly. Plus, all three realize that with demons around they'll be safest and strongest together. So, it's both sweet and practical to let her move in with them. This is NOT the same situation with Piper, Phoebe and Paige. Macy is not replacing a dead sister. When Paige found her sisters it took a while for everyone to warm up to each other because it would seem like she was only around to replace Prue. Something Paige herself didn't want as she expressed to Leo.

Macy moving in seems like a nice gesture on Mel and Maggie's part and it's understandable given their situation. After showing her home videos, Mel and Maggie looked a bit guilty they got to grow up with their mom when Macy didn't. Maggie's powers even showed her how alone Macy felt growing up even though she tried to hide it. With Macy you can see, due to the nuanced acting of the actress, how much she is hurt by finding out her mom didn't die like her father told her but instead went on to have and raise two more daughters.

It's almost like a Parent Trap situation. I wonder why Marisol allowed Macy's father to raise her and tell her she was dead. Was it a Victor situation only more successful? I'm curious to find out. After Patty died, I think Victor would have raised Prue, Piper and Phoebe away from the manor and magic if Grams hadn't interfered.

[Esmeralda]

Oct 18, 2018 1:30:07 GMT -5 Reality Bites said:

Unlike most here, I'm holding off my full judgement until a couple more episodes air. The pilot wasn't as good as Something Wicca This Way Comes, but it definitely wasn't as bad as say anything from Season 8 of Charmed. The thing I dreaded most was the actress playing the middle sister. Her acting wasn't that bad, but I do hope she improves. I think she is my least favorite acting wise.

The political stuff wasn't as heavy as I thought it was going to be, but I can see how it can be too much for some people. I think Mel and Harry were the most political based characters. Scenes without Mel and Harry rarely became political from what I remember. Which is kinda realistic. Everyone has that one family member who won't stop talking about politics and their family/friends tolerate them out of love.

I personally don't have anything against Macy moving in so quickly. Plus, all three realize that with demons around they'll be safest and strongest together. So, it's both sweet and practical to let her move in with them. This is NOT the same situation with Piper, Phoebe and Paige. Macy is not replacing a dead sister. When Paige found her sisters it took a while for everyone to warm up to each other because it would seem like she was only around to replace Prue. Something Paige herself didn't want as she expressed to Leo.

Macy moving in seems like a nice gesture on Mel and Maggie's part and it's understandable given their situation. After showing her home videos, Mel and Maggie looked a bit guilty they got to grow up with their mom when Macy didn't. Maggie's powers even showed her how alone Macy felt growing up even though she tried to hide it. With Macy you can see, due to the nuanced acting of the actress, how much she is hurt by finding out her mom didn't die like her father told her but instead went on to have and raise two more daughters.

It's almost like a Parent Trap situation. I wonder why Marisol allowed Macy's father to raise her and tell her she was dead. Was it a Victor situation only more successful? I'm curious to find out. After Patty died, I think Victor would have raised Prue, Piper and Phoebe away from the manor and magic if Grams hadn't interfered.

Thank you very much for this review, Reality - it's more what I'm looking for - a true Charmed fan who likes this show and will go into detail about how it compares. I'm still not interested in watching a second - at age 65, just not my thing, the way Charmed was when I was 45 (although I saw it a lot differently than the target audience, aka my reactions towards Cole and Chris, both whom I wish was never part of the series for how they took away from and changed the Charmed Ones - characters I loved in Season One - into people I hated), but identical to my reaction towards Supergirl, although I want to read about it, I don't want to watch it.

So I hope you keep watching, keep liking and keep reviewing.

[summerreading]

Reality Bites, I hope you continue to review episodes. It is nice to see you found something to enjoy about it to keep watching. Keep reviewing and letting us all know, because over time, who knows some might change their minds, and give it a try if things pick up.

But for some of us, like Es. Some people are a different target audience than what they are after.

[Reality Bites]

Thank you Es and summerreading. I will do my best to share my thoughts and opinions as the series progresses. Speaking of, I had some more thoughts to share about the pilot.

I did like how the new sisters dynamic doesn't automatically shift to their stereotypical birth orders because Macy shows up.

• Mel, the middle sister, still acts like the oldest sister. She is very opinionated, headstrong and basically attempts to lead both Maggie and Macy.
• Maggie is very much the baby sister. Although stubborn, she eventually becomes swayed by Mel's opinions. She's very much the typical teenage younger sister. Carefree and a bit rebellious, but still has a strong moral character.
• The actual oldest sister, Macy, acts like someone who grew up as an only child. She's very independent and makes decisions for herself. So even though Mel has very strong opinions, Macy still thinks independently and comes to her own conclusions. I also like how Macy isn't trying to jump in and be the leader and take charge. She's not argumentative with her opinions. She's very diplomatic. She's observant and analytical, which probably plays into her being a scientist.
  

Unlike in Classic Charmed, they don't state why these sisters are the Charmed Ones, just that they are Charmed. There's no mention of a prophecy (other than the signs ushering in the apocalypse, which causes the Source of All Evil to manifest), specific powers they have to possess, or a direct lineage to Melinda Warren (even though she's in their Book of Shadows). So I'm curious if they'll touch on why these three sisters in particular are Charmed. Harry does tell them their powers stem from their personalities, which is kinda similar to the original.

• Harry says Mel can stop time because she has a controlling personality. What's interesting with Mel is that in order to actually control her power she has to let go of her anger. I thought it was funny when Maggie told Mel her power was judging her. Personality wise, she's basically early Season 4 Piper. She's struggling with her grief and her inability to let others close to her. However, her power's trigger is forcing her to move out of this phase much faster than Piper did (if she ever really did).
• Harry tells Maggie she can read minds because she's naturally intuitive or deeply insecure as both traits were two sides of the same coin when it comes to telepathy. Maggie does care a lot about what other people think. She makes decisions based on what other people think because she wants to be liked and popular. I just hope they use her mind reading as a means to tackle her insecurities. It would be ironic if Maggie learns how to think for herself from reading other people's thoughts. It'll play into the whole Phoebe has no vision, so she gets premonitions and gains a sense of purpose. Maggie cares about what other people think of her, gets telepathy and hopefully she learns to think independently from other people's influences. I think she's the most like her original character. So, in terms of personality, she's basically Season 1 Phoebe with a different power.
• Macy is telekinetic and learns to control her power the fastest, and Harry says it's because of her high IQ. So, I'm guessing they are equating telekinesis with intelligence. Like Prue, she channels her powers when she gets angry, but she's also mastered it quickly enough where she doesn't necessarily need to be angry to use it. I feel like Macy is an amalgamation of Season 1 Prue and Season 4 Paige. She has Prue's intelligence and powers, but she has Paige's diplomacy, innovativeness and abandonment issues.  

I do wish Harry was less hands on in the big battle between the sisters and their first major demon. I understand they called him to heal their innocent, but the fact he had to tell them step by step how to defeat the demon and channel the Power of Three was awful. The demon definitely would have gotten the upper hand otherwise. Let's allow the sisters to be more clever and resilient without Harry in future episodes please!

[Esmeralda]

Thank you so very much, RB - this is what I needed, even more than your earlier one - showing why this reboot deserves to be called "Charmed" rather than "Rip-Off", since everything I'd read was how it ripped off so many different shows, not just Charmed. But if indeed they've taken those horrible incarnations of the Charmed Ones in the alternate-universe spin-off known as S4-8 and show how it could've/should've been done (my grin almost split my face when I read that the oldest is still the oldest, the youngest still the youngest and the only is still the only - IF ONLY!!!!) and how their personalities fits their powers - especially NuPiper's! If only her power had turned into something like this when her personality changed so horribly! And now I *really* wish NuPhoebe had gotten telepathy so she wouldn't have misused her empathy so horribly (sorry, still don't know the names well enough to know who's who, so for me, they're NuPaige, NuPiper and NuPhoebe. Right now their "whitelighter" is NuGideon until proven otherwise and the mother NuPatty until proven otherwise.)

I'm SO glad it's 'The Perils of Poor, Poor Pitiful Piper' that's being rebooted and done better, while leaving "Prue and Her Sister" aka Classic Charmed alone.

And NuPhoebs still NuPhoebs and not NuPhoeME... Oh, if only! Of course she hasn't run into NuCole yet. I'm SO hoping she does and SO hoping the experience makes her a better person, not a worse. Although if they match him up with either NuPaige or NuPiper, I think that would be more fun. NuDanaScully and NuCole...oh, what a concept!

Like I said, just keep these coming, RB!

[Sasha]

Oct 18, 2018 19:27:35 GMT -5 Esmeralda said:

Thank you so very much, RB - this is what I needed, even more than your earlier one - showing why this reboot deserves to be called "Charmed" rather than "Rip-Off", since everything I'd read was how it ripped off so many different shows, not just Charmed. But if indeed they've taken those horrible incarnations of the Charmed Ones in the alternate-universe spin-off known as S4-8 and show how it could've/should've been done (my grin almost split my face when I read that the oldest is still the oldest, the youngest still the youngest and the only is still the only - IF ONLY!!!!) and how their personalities fits their powers - especially NuPiper's! If only her power had turned into something like this when her personality changed so horribly! And now I *really* wish NuPhoebe had gotten telepathy so she wouldn't have misused her empathy so horribly (sorry, still don't know the names well enough to know who's who, so for me, they're NuPaige, NuPiper and NuPhoebe. Right now their "whitelighter" is NuGideon until proven otherwise and the mother NuPatty until proven otherwise.)

I'm SO glad it's 'The Perils of Poor, Poor Pitiful Piper' that's being rebooted and done better, while leaving "Prue and Her Sister" aka Classic Charmed alone.

And NuPhoebs still NuPhoebs and not NuPhoeME... Oh, if only! Of course she hasn't run into NuCole yet. I'm SO hoping she does and SO hoping the experience makes her a better person, not a worse. Although if they match him up with either NuPaige or NuPiper, I think that would be more fun. NuDanaScully and NuCole...oh, what a concept!

Like I said, just keep these coming, RB!

Great work, RB! I loved reading this, it gives a more positive review on the reboot. If it is a reboot of S4-8, then that might be the best way of doing it. 

Truly doing a better job with the half-sister, they already did something right not making her a hybrid with all sorts of powers.

I hope when she does run into NuCole, that it plays out like a few of us members have speculated it could in another thread. 

I ran across a screeners/early critic review of episode 2, and they said it is better than the pilot, and the pacing is better. I might post it in the spoilers thread now. 

[summerreading]

Oct 18, 2018 15:15:05 GMT -5 Reality Bites said:

Thank you Es and summerreading. I will do my best to share my thoughts and opinions as the series progresses. Speaking of, I had some more thoughts to share about the pilot.

I did like how the new sisters dynamic doesn't automatically shift to their stereotypical birth orders because Macy shows up.

• Mel, the middle sister, still acts like the oldest sister. She is very opinionated, headstrong and basically attempts to lead both Maggie and Macy.
• Maggie is very much the baby sister. Although stubborn, she eventually becomes swayed by Mel's opinions. She's very much the typical teenage younger sister. Carefree and a bit rebellious, but still has a strong moral character.
• The actual oldest sister, Macy, acts like someone who grew up as an only child. She's very independent and makes decisions for herself. So even though Mel has very strong opinions, Macy still thinks independently and comes to her own conclusions. I also like how Macy isn't trying to jump in and be the leader and take charge. She's not argumentative with her opinions. She's very diplomatic. She's observant and analytical, which probably plays into her being a scientist.
  

Unlike in Classic Charmed, they don't state why these sisters are the Charmed Ones, just that they are Charmed. There's no mention of a prophecy (other than the signs ushering in the apocalypse, which causes the Source of All Evil to manifest), specific powers they have to possess, or a direct lineage to Melinda Warren (even though she's in their Book of Shadows). So I'm curious if they'll touch on why these three sisters in particular are Charmed. Harry does tell them their powers stem from their personalities, which is kinda similar to the original.

• Harry says Mel can stop time because she has a controlling personality. What's interesting with Mel is that in order to actually control her power she has to let go of her anger. I thought it was funny when Maggie told Mel her power was judging her. Personality wise, she's basically early Season 4 Piper. She's struggling with her grief and her inability to let others close to her. However, her power's trigger is forcing her to move out of this phase much faster than Piper did (if she ever really did).
• Harry tells Maggie she can read minds because she's naturally intuitive or deeply insecure as both traits were two sides of the same coin when it comes to telepathy. Maggie does care a lot about what other people think. She makes decisions based on what other people think because she wants to be liked and popular. I just hope they use her mind reading as a means to tackle her insecurities. It would be ironic if Maggie learns how to think for herself from reading other people's thoughts. It'll play into the whole Phoebe has no vision, so she gets premonitions and gains a sense of purpose. Maggie cares about what other people think of her, gets telepathy and hopefully she learns to think independently from other people's influences. I think she's the most like her original character. So, in terms of personality, she's basically Season 1 Phoebe with a different power.
• Macy is telekinetic and learns to control her power the fastest, and Harry says it's because of her high IQ. So, I'm guessing they are equating telekinesis with intelligence. Like Prue, she channels her powers when she gets angry, but she's also mastered it quickly enough where she doesn't necessarily need to be angry to use it. I feel like Macy is an amalgamation of Season 1 Prue and Season 4 Paige. She has Prue's intelligence and powers, but she has Paige's diplomacy, innovativeness and abandonment issues.  

I do wish Harry was less hands on in the big battle between the sisters and their first major demon. I understand they called him to heal their innocent, but the fact he had to tell them step by step how to defeat the demon and channel the Power of Three was awful. The demon definitely would have gotten the upper hand otherwise. Let's allow the sisters to be more clever and resilient without Harry in future episodes please!

What a wonderful way of looking at it. They might just do a better job at making this turn out better with the way they handle the half-sister being brought in. After all, Macy isn't replacing another sister. So viewers are not supposed to hate her. I hope Mel and Macy have many conflicts, since Mel has been Maggie's big sister her whole life, and Macy grew up as the only child. 

This might inspire many fans to re-write Classic Charmed if the set-up had Paige being the oldest half-sister, a child Patty had as a teenager. It does give us ideas of how it could play out if Paige was the oldest born child from Patty, not the youngest born child. 

I do hope that Harry isn't going to be around to bail them out all the time. I think, what was a bad choice was having him present in the first vanquish, he would have served a better purpose, coming right after the battle, to heal their innocent. 

[summerreading]

Oct 18, 2018 20:25:13 GMT -5 Sasha said:

Oct 18, 2018 19:27:35 GMT -5 Esmeralda said:

Thank you so very much, RB - this is what I needed, even more than your earlier one - showing why this reboot deserves to be called "Charmed" rather than "Rip-Off", since everything I'd read was how it ripped off so many different shows, not just Charmed. But if indeed they've taken those horrible incarnations of the Charmed Ones in the alternate-universe spin-off known as S4-8 and show how it could've/should've been done (my grin almost split my face when I read that the oldest is still the oldest, the youngest still the youngest and the only is still the only - IF ONLY!!!!) and how their personalities fits their powers - especially NuPiper's! If only her power had turned into something like this when her personality changed so horribly! And now I *really* wish NuPhoebe had gotten telepathy so she wouldn't have misused her empathy so horribly (sorry, still don't know the names well enough to know who's who, so for me, they're NuPaige, NuPiper and NuPhoebe. Right now their "whitelighter" is NuGideon until proven otherwise and the mother NuPatty until proven otherwise.)

I'm SO glad it's 'The Perils of Poor, Poor Pitiful Piper' that's being rebooted and done better, while leaving "Prue and Her Sister" aka Classic Charmed alone.

And NuPhoebs still NuPhoebs and not NuPhoeME... Oh, if only! Of course she hasn't run into NuCole yet. I'm SO hoping she does and SO hoping the experience makes her a better person, not a worse. Although if they match him up with either NuPaige or NuPiper, I think that would be more fun. NuDanaScully and NuCole...oh, what a concept!

Like I said, just keep these coming, RB!

Great work, RB! I loved reading this, it gives a more positive review on the reboot. If it is a reboot of S4-8, then that might be the best way of doing it. 

Truly doing a better job with the half-sister, they already did something right not making her a hybrid with all sorts of powers.

I hope when she does run into NuCole, that it plays out like a few of us members have speculated it could in another thread. 

I ran across a screeners/early critic review of episode 2, and they said it is better than the pilot, and the pacing is better. I might post it in the spoilers thread now. 

I remember reading those theories, and that certainly could be how NuCole plays out. It was really great. I'll be keeping my eyes on that once I hear and read they have introduced him. 

[Sasha]

Oct 18, 2018 20:53:41 GMT -5 summerreading said:

Oct 18, 2018 20:25:13 GMT -5 Sasha said:

Great work, RB! I loved reading this, it gives a more positive review on the reboot. If it is a reboot of S4-8, then that might be the best way of doing it. 

Truly doing a better job with the half-sister, they already did something right not making her a hybrid with all sorts of powers.

I hope when she does run into NuCole, that it plays out like a few of us members have speculated it could in another thread. 

I ran across a screeners/early critic review of episode 2, and they said it is better than the pilot, and the pacing is better. I might post it in the spoilers thread now. 

I remember reading those theories, and that certainly could be how NuCole plays out. It was really great. I'll be keeping my eyes on that once I hear and read they have introduced him. 

We'll have to wait and see. I'll be interested to see what happens if and when they introduced a NuCole.

[cyma]

Oct 18, 2018 1:30:07 GMT -5 Reality Bites said:

Unlike most here, I'm holding off my full judgement until a couple more episodes air. The pilot wasn't as good as Something Wicca This Way Comes, but it definitely wasn't as bad as say anything from Season 8 of Charmed.

The pilot wasn't better or equal to the best of Charmed, but definitely agree it was better than the absolute worst of Charmed.

Honestly, pilot episodes I've found interesting are of Fringe, Sleepy Hollow, Game of Thrones and Justice League animated series, all non-CW shows.

Also after watching Legends of Tomorrow, Arrow, Flash, Jane the Virgin, Supernatural, Originals, Vampire Diaries, Riverdale, iZombie, I've noticed that season 1 is just okay at the beginning and middle but gets good near the end. Season 2 gets extremely interesting.

So I'm definitely sticking around

I personally don't have anything against Macy moving in so quickly. Plus, all three realize that with demons around they'll be safest and strongest together. So, it's both sweet and practical to let her move in with them.

Besides all of them are new and experiencing the dark side of the magical world for the first time which almost got them killed as a reason to stick together, Macy has offensive powers and scientific knowledge which she wants to use to study magic and their powers. The safe place to experiment would be at the Manor.

Macy also saved Maggie from her possessed boyfriend with baking soda and then saved her again along with Mel from choking on the icy smoke form of the demon with her power. So Mel and Maggie kind of owe her their lives. Plus there’s some guilt over their mother abandoning Macy and raising them, so I don’t see a problem with letting Macy move in so early.

The problem is that three to five episodes worth of material stuffed into one makes it feel like it’s happening so quickly.

This is NOT the same situation with Piper, Phoebe and Paige. Macy is not replacing a dead sister. When Paige found her sisters it took a while for everyone to warm up to each other because it would seem like she was only around to replace Prue. Something Paige herself didn't want as she expressed to Leo.

I'm surprised there even is a comparison of letting Macy move in situation to letting Paige move in and then concluding it's too soon for Macy.

Macy didn't drop in right after their mother's funeral and announce “I think you're my daughters” or “I think I'm your mother.” The ghost of Mel and Maggie's Grams didn’t show up and tell them their biological mother is still out there.
Mel, Maggie and their mother were not part of Power of Three which Macy will reconstitute. None of them knew about the existence of magic until now.

Prue was this awesome character we've known for 3 years and still miss terribly but Patty 2.0 was this not so great acting cameo I feel nothing for who died before the opening credits.

And I just can't imagine Macy vs. Patty 2.0 discussions like there are Prue vs. Paige ones.

I don’t believe Macy moving in means full and complete acceptance of her by her half-sisters and there’s happily ever after and rainbows. CW shows love to make a big deal out of the characters moving in or out and adjusting to newcomer. Recently watched an episode of another CW show dealing with moving in situation using a time loop  I hope the reboot does something creatively too.

[cyma]

So some future predictions after watching the pilot:

-Macy took the picture of her mother holding Baby Macy when she time traveled to the past.
-Another reason Mel is always angry is perhaps she has a demonic side inherited from her Dad who's a demon or Source of all Evil. That is also the reason why her good witchy powers work when she's calm.
-Nico is gonna get killed
-We'll see an episode where women rule the world and men don't

[prudencehalliwell]

Oct 19, 2018 7:05:58 GMT -5 cyma said:

So some future predictions after watching the pilot:

-Macy took the picture of her mother holding Baby Macy when she time traveled to the past.
-Another reason Mel is always angry is perhaps she has a demonic side inherited from her Dad who's a demon or Source of all Evil. That is also the reason why her good witchy powers work when she's calm.
-Nico is gonna get killed
-We'll see an episode where women rule the world and men don't

Nice predictions, I wouldn't be surprised one of these sisters did have a demon for a father. Maybe Macy is the only one to have a regular non-magical father, Mel has a demon father, and Maggie has a witch or warlock father?


I hope they don't kill Nico, who I believe might be the Andy right? Don't let history repeat itself. 

Maybe they'll kill off Macy's love interest/lab partner instead? Unless I'm wrong from what I read and he is working with her too.

[Sasha]

Oct 19, 2018 7:11:58 GMT -5 prudencehalliwell said:

Oct 19, 2018 7:05:58 GMT -5 cyma said:

So some future predictions after watching the pilot:

-Macy took the picture of her mother holding Baby Macy when she time traveled to the past.
-Another reason Mel is always angry is perhaps she has a demonic side inherited from her Dad who's a demon or Source of all Evil. That is also the reason why her good witchy powers work when she's calm.
-Nico is gonna get killed
-We'll see an episode where women rule the world and men don't

Nice predictions, I wouldn't be surprised one of these sisters did have a demon for a father. Maybe Macy is the only one to have a regular non-magical father, Mel has a demon father, and Maggie has a witch or warlock father?


I hope they don't kill Nico, who I believe might be the Andy right? Don't let history repeat itself. 

Maybe they'll kill off Macy's love interest/lab partner instead? Unless I'm wrong from what I read and he is working with her too.

All three do have different fathers, I wouldn't be surprised. But since they are keen to dabble in other Wiccan cultures (hopefully if they do they do proper research if they are serious). I wouldn't be surprised if all three fathers were witches or warlocks and from a different witch tradition. I know they want representation.

I wonder if Macy's father who raised her and made her believe her mother died when she was two is a witch or not? But we do not know if he is her biological father, it does appear so right.

But three sisters who each have one demon father, one witch or warlock father, and one non-magical father. That I could see?

What do others speculate?

[irishpendragon]

I watched this pilot on Wednesday and I wish I hadn't. Here are my stats:

Positive sides

• the powers look much better in my opinion, thanks to our annoyingly slow progress with science and technology.
• Harry's accent and his ridiculous new array of power that whitelighters didn't have in the original Charmed.

Negative sides

• The pacing is ridiculous. A four-year old could've done it better. No tension is built during so-called dramatic scenes. It's almost comical to watch, which is a disgrace, considering what is Charmed.
• The dialogues are forced, lack any appeal and have a low continuity factor. Scene that should be serious, it seems like they are making comic relief because of the poor acting abilities of the sisters.
• Beside the dialogue lines, even the rest of the acting appears really forced. Movements, expressions, emotions...

Conclusions
This was a disastrous reboot. It's not even a reboot in the first place but something entirely different. It looks like they mixed Witches of East End, Charmed, Teen Wolf, Supernatural and The Flash, then added poor acting from the leads on top of that. I wanted to give it a chance because, who knows, they could've pulled off. Instead, I'm sorely disappointed as this appears to me as an attempt to capitalise (make money) on the good name of the previous show. I will keep watching to see it somehow improves but my expectations are very low. It's more likely it will be cancelled before reaching the end of the season, due to low audience. (I don't remember how is this said in English). I wish Holly and the rest of the cast filed a lawsuit against who created this.

As you can see, when quoting the negatives, I didn't even go into the plot, the political propaganda and so on. This is what happens when you fail at the basics. It's true that the quality of shows has been ever-decreasing, at least since since 2012 if not before, but this is such a record low as I've never seen.

[witchapostate]

Hello new here!

How nobody is talking about how they pretty much confirmed that multiverse is a thing with the spell Marisol did in the beginning of the episode? 


"Quod potentia in tribus ejus egredietur protegens terrae, huius regni in via lactea, et universam multitudinem quae perpetuumque multiverse"



"The power of three will go into protecting the earth of this kingdom in the Milky Way, and the vast permanent multiverse" (thank you google translator)

Sad the original actresses are not willing to crossover in the future, but I'm kinda hyped about this

[Esmeralda]

One of my friends who is a professional blogger/TV show reviewer (yeah, she gets paid for doing this) and an occasional member of the Cafe wrote a couple of articles on the reboot pilot and gave me the links and said I could share them here.

Here you go:

Charmed reboot: 9 top throwbacks to the original series
by Alexandria Ingham 11 hours ago

The Charmed reboot debuted well, drawing in new and some old fans. There were plenty of Easter eggs and throwbacks to the original series for the veteran fans. Here are the top nine.

While the Charmed reboot has been faced with hate from the original fans, the series premiere debuted with strength. Already the best-rated freshman on The CW (okay, there’s only been two so far, so it wasn’t hard), the reboot has shown that people are interested in it. Whether for good or bad reasons, people definitely watched.

And those who did watch got the chance to see the Easter eggs and throwbacks to the original series. Sure, there was already one that we knew about, as one of the trailers gave us Melinda Warren’s page in the Book of Shadows.

There was the mention of “whitelighters” (by the way, the term clearly comes from the white light used to heal) and, of course, the term “Charmed Ones” instantly made us think of the original series, but there were many more. Here are the top nine throwbacks to the original series, some of which you may have missed.

9. The use of mom’s spirit board

At the beginning of the Classic Charmed series premiere, the sisters found Grams’ old Ouija board. It was clear that this was something they would play with as kids, never really understanding the truth behind it. They were only messing around when Grams sent them a message to go up to the attic.

In the reboot, we got to see mom’s spirit board. This time it was at the end and the three sisters immediately chose to try to contact their mother. Whether it was Marisol or not isn’t up for debate right now (but I will debate it). What’s more important is that it was a throwback to the original series.

Not only did we get the use of the spirit board and the use by the sister, but we got them contacting someone on the other side. Both times we saw them contact (or in this case potentially contact) the person who had raised them. Prue, Piper, and Phoebe contacted Grams while Macy, Mel, and Maggie contacted Marisol. It was a beautiful and subtle nod.

8. The decision on whether to keep their powers

I know there were some complaints about the point Harry made that the three sisters have to agree to be witches. This wasn’t something thrust upon them in the way that it was in Classic Charmed. However, this was a throwback to a Season 4 storyline.

Remember when the Angel of Destiny told the sisters that they had the opportunity to give up their powers? Their destiny was to stop the Source of All Evil and they’d done it. With that over, they had the chance to live normal lives. However, they didn’t get a limited amount of time from what I can remember.

This time, the three Ms got 48 hours to make their decision–sort of a throwback to Charmed Season 4 when Paige had 24 hours to use her powers for good or evil. They all had to make the decision to either be witches or not be witches. This wasn’t a majority vote, adding a twist to the Easter egg that I loved.

The difference with the throwback is the consequences. When it came to the three Ps, there wouldn’t be consequences except for not being able to save innocents in the future. With the three Ms, they would end up losing each other.

7. Macy’s high IQ

I’ll admit now that Macy is my favorite sister, with Maggie a very close second. Why Macy? Well, she reminds me a lot of Prue and Prue will always be my favorite sister in Classic Charmed.

And this is the throwback here. Macy is very much like Prue in the sense of her smarts. While Phoebe was always street smart (and I’m guessing Maggie will be too), Prue was book smart and that’s just what Macy will be.

Prue was smart in things like Latin, history, and artifacts, which came in handy for the classic era. Macy is smart in science, which is going to come in handy for this show. After all, she’s said she wants to figure out the science behind the magic. She started showing that with the baking soda–still not sure about that.

6. The free-spirited youngest sibling

Maggie Vera is extremely free-spirited. She’s also family orientated and an extremely lovable character, but it’s the free-spirited element that is a throwback to the original series.

Phoebe Halliwell was the free-spirit. The one that had nothing to tie her to one place and wanted to be free of her sisters, the past she had (never knowing her mother), and the knowledge that her father abandoned her (and find him). Okay, so that’s what I took from Phoebe’s character in the earlier days.

The light-hearted, free-spirit character is a necessary one in this Charmed reboot. Mel is an extremely passionate feminist (one I certainly wouldn’t get along with) and Maggie helps to balance that out. In a way, their relationship is a throwback to Prue’s and Phoebe’s in the way that they would balance each other out.

5. The need for a normal life

And it’s another Maggie moment that is a throwback to one of the sisters. This time the throwback is to Piper.

All Maggie wants is a normal life. She wants to go to college and be in a sorority. Maggie wants the chance to have friends and a social life. In short, she’s a very normal college freshman. I can’t blame her! She doesn’t want to deal with magic and demons.

Piper didn’t either. Her personality was a little weaker than Maggie's, but even as she grew, she always wanted that normal life. She tried to force friendships in her life and avoid the magic. It never happened, of course, but it wasn’t for lack of trying (or whining).

4. Macy’s father raising her

We now know that all three sisters are half-sisters. They all have different fathers, but only Macy knows that her father is different right now. Maybe that will change in Charmed Episode 2.

That’s not the point here (although it is definitely a throwback to Paige’s storyline). The throwback here is how Macy’s father raised her.

Wait, neither of the fathers raised the sisters in Classic Charmed. Well, that’s because they didn’t get the chance. Ignoring Sam, Victor wanted to raise his daughters. When their mother died, he wanted to take them away from the magic.

There are plenty of fan fictions about what could have been. We all wonder what could have happened if the sisters never lived with Grams, but that storyline never happened. Now it has the chance. We see what happened if one father had the chance to raise his witchy daughter.

3. Maggie’s pilates kick

“Ooo, pilates.” That has to be one of my favorite lines from the episode and it was a throwback moment.

Maggie is Phoebe. There’s no denying that. While I can see Mel being like Prue and acing her kickboxing skills, it’s Maggie that I can see taking up the mantle as the hand-to-hand combat sister. She does have the passive power, after all.

The “ooo, pilates” and the kick was the throwback to Phoebe’s kickboxing skills. She was always able to fight off a demon by fighting back. Maggie is hopefully going to be the same.

2. Mel’s anger and need to let go

Mel was angry at the start of the episode and understandably so. She’d lost her mom and felt like nobody was doing anything to find her killer. And that’s because they weren’t. Nobody believed that Marisol had been killed.

Mel’s anger in this moment was reminiscent of Piper’s anger in Charmed Season 4. The anger nearly destroyed Piper, turning her into a fury at one point. It was close to destroying her relationships. That’s just what Mel’s anger nearly did for her.

Due to the anger, her girlfriend broke up with her and her sister didn’t want to be around her. It was only when she found out the truth about Marisol’s death and her magic that Mel was slowly able to let the anger go. And with that, she was able to master her powers.

While the end results were slightly different, the use of the anger and the idea of emotions controlling (or affecting) powers was a throwback.

1. Macy in the middle

When it came to the vanquish, there’s no denying that it was a throwback to Classic Charmed‘s series premiere. As the sisters recited their spell (I love the use of the Latin), Macy stood in the middle holding onto her sister’s hands.

Everyone knows that Classic Charmed moment at the end of the series premiere. Prue held onto Piper and Phoebe as they all recited “The Power of Three will set us free.” It was enough to vanquish the demon.

In the reboot, they didn’t need the rhyme (and I’m glad that wasn’t used) but they did need each other. They needed to accept their destiny and combine to kill this upper-level demon (another throwback, especially with Mel unable to completely freeze him). Macy was bang in the middle as the eldest sister, even if the personalities of the sisters are different.

By the way, there was another connection with Maggie in the middle when they learned about their powers. Like Phoebe in the original Charmed, it was Maggie holding the Book of Shadows in the reboot.

What throwbacks did you notice in the Charmed reboot? What did you think of the new series? Share your thoughts below.

Charmed airs Sundays at 9/8c on The CW.

And here's the second article:

Charmed: Did the sisters really contact Marisol?
by Alexandria Ingham 10 hours ago

During the Charmed reboot premiere, the sisters used a Ouija board to contact their mom. But was it really their mom they contacted?

Charmed opened with a strong start. Okay, there could have been better pacing and it didn’t quite hit the mark in certain places (that CGI demon?) but there were some good moments and it was a promising start. The ratings have been good. But there’s one moment I want to touch on from the series premiere.

At the very end, the three sisters used the Ouija board to contact their mom. Let me start by saying that when using a Ouija board, you may hope to contact a specific spirit but there’s no guarantee. Of course, these three sisters wouldn’t understand or know that, so it wasn’t surprising.

What they may also not understand is that a spirit can pretend to be who they want to contact. In this case, someone else could have pretended to be their mom. After all, nobody asked this spirit to prove they were Marisol, right? What’s to say they definitely contacted their mom?

Why would it matter? It all points to this warning about Harry.

(Note from Es: She includes a video clip here, but the link didn't copy. For those who like me, didn't watch, you can see it via the source link that I'm including.)

I’ll be honest and say I rolled my eyes at this moment. Making the whitelighter a suspicious character is the cheapest trick in the book. It was obvious.

For one, Rupert Evans is British and he’s playing a British character. Why is it that British characters are almost always the bad guys? Or the suspicious guys? Let’s look at Supernatural‘s British Men of Letters, for example. Making Harry into the bad guy or the manipulative guy was a cheap trick and there just has to be something else to it.

What could that be? My thought has to go back to the spirit board. What if something on the other side is making the sisters doubt their whitelighter. Break them from him when they’re just learning the truth about their magic and their heritage could leave them weakened. That makes them easier to kill.

It doesn’t take a Macy to figure that one out!

If it is Marisol, that doesn’t mean Harry is definitely evil. There could be a much bigger backstory but my thoughts are still curious on who the sisters really contacted on the other side.

Do you think it was really Marisol? Would you trust the spirit board or Harry? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Charmed airs Sundays at 9/8c on The CW.

SOURCE: hiddenremote.com/2018/10/20/charmed-sisters-contact-marisol/

What about you guys? Do you think it was Marisol? Do you think the sisters should trust Harry or will he end up being (as I'm calling him for now) NuGideon?

[summerreading]

I do not think it was Marisol who sent the message. As for Harry, it is possible he might not be who he says he is, but I'd imagine if he was the bad guy, they wouldn't lead the sisters to be suspicious so soon, they'd want the audience to find that out later.

However, it is also possible, if he is not to be trusted, he did that on purpose, to get a target off his back. Possibly wanted a demon to use the spirit board, Harry can point say he is to be trusted, and a demon used the spirit board. That way he'll be able to do shady stuff in the future. I don't know.

It is fun to speculate.

[pheebs]

Anyone think Harry might pull a Chris and block the Charmed Ones from reading him if he isn't revealed to be good? I could see that. Otherwise, I think it will turn out it wasn't the mother, and he is just their whitelighter after all.

I just think the writers did that cliffhanger on purpose to get people to tune in next week, and all this hype, it will turn out a demon was behind the message. Like Alexandria wrote in her review, it is a cheap trick and so obvious. As I said, I think it was just a cliffhanger stunt and nothing more.

[prudeau]

All is too much in the pilot : too fast, too charged, too complicated.

Episode 2 is significantly better.

But, I really liked four things in this pilot :

- alchemy between Marisol and Mel/Maggie; I see really a mother and her daughters ;
- spell declamed in latin ; it's different, and I like it. It gives solennity to the chant ;
- Nico ;
- and mostly : when Marisol tries to activate charmed ones powers, hostile crows and scary fog which progresses, and then... I have Threeeeeee  ^^ Crows and fog disappear immediately. Very cool. Excellent way to show how the power of Three is feared in the underworld.

[gzv969]

What I don’t get is Maggie’s powers. What good is her premonition and how can it effectively help her sisters if it’s only going to let her hear others thoughts and not see future events? Any of the sisters could cast a simple spell to have that ability.