Critical and Personal Ratings of Season 6

[rebooted]

1 low, 10 high

[zachary]

Booy, I'm glad you asked..

So I voted Critical 4, because it's undeniably unstructured at it's best. The direction of the character's seem strangely unfamiliar, and the writing is short of being a sitcom-esqu show filmed like a one-hour production; the dialogue is cheesy, the scenes are schemey, and the overall shot at creating parallel's between magic and real life was done wrong.

To break it down further of course: When I say unstructured, it's almost as if they had new show-runners that were trying to do their own thing as far as tone and plot direction; A new character was introduced at the season prior finale, and is then continued to be shown without any sort of diction to who are they, and he was poorly developed until his last 5-episode arc in-which he's killed off. I try not to blame them so hard, since it was the early 00's and they were probably just happy to be on the air, and maybe an executive or "the network" demanded they introduce a new character; to top it off, Holly was also pregnant mid-way which sucks for production, but was good for her of course.

The whole dynamic between Leo and Piper was dreadfully confusing as a child, and it wasn't until I read a post on a fandom page that I realized what he'd done, and yet it still makes no sense. So he took away her negative emotions, leaving her constantly preppy, and was initially going to give her little by little to make "the pain" easier to handle. That entire arc makes no sense, people grieve over losses and break-ups, Piper would surely handle Leo leaving a lot easier than most would handle other circumstances. Don't get my wrong, I'm not heartless. The thought of Leo leaving Piper and their child(ren) forever sounds undeniably depressing, but Leo never left for longer than a few months, and that was because Chris sent him to Valhalla. That's another structural issue; why send Leo away, only for him to return every single episode? If you're going to make him leave, make him leave and return at the season finale or something, or have him fall from grace sooner than he did. (Additional comment: That's also the reason I despise the "single mom" storyline, because Leo was literally there every other episode, it just didn't make sense for me.)

Don't get me started about the cleaners.

Paige and Richard's relationship was 8/10, but still contributes to why the my critical opinion is a 4. Richard is a well-developed individual with a powerful family. We hardly ever saw other covens or families of witches, so this was an amazing first. However, yes, thinking about it in retrospect, it may be a cool twist that Richard's addiction to magic can be connected to alcoholism or narcotic addiction. I just say the story wasn't assembled right. Him using magic 24/7 isn't bad... He's a witch. He conjured Paige an entire formal-wear gown with accessories, and she threatened to strip his powers. It's insane. Not to mention Phoebe oddly treating him like he's a problem during the Sword and the City episode, it just rubs me wrong.. Maybe she was projecting since she was in a relationship with a man who trusted her and didn't know her secret for a year and a half idk *sips tea*

Magic school... I'll make this one short. Hogwarts rip-off, no real title, not even "The elder's academy for gifted youngsters", if they're gonna rip something off, at least dive into it and copy a school name from somewhere. Also, no one can die in magic school but Gid killed Sigmund..

Gideon, however, was a well-thought character, and I absolutely had no idea he was the antagonist until he was revealed. I will add, though, that I wish it wasn't a revelation to us as so we could've experienced it with the charmed ones.

Phoebe losing all her powers was a terrible production move. Can't afford to levitate? Make it a plotline that Phoebe chooses to cherish her premonition power more this season- that would've been great!

Now, the reason I'd personally give it a 6, is because despite all of the above, season six provides a an interest oppositional tone to season 5, we get a bit more focus on wiccan things like evil witches, warlocks, it's less about the all-powerful Wyatt EVEN though the overarching plot is to stop him from turning evil in the future. We get a bit more development between the sister's and we get to see some harmonious growth of them as individuals; something that lacked a bit in season 1-3. It was interesting to see what the Manor looked like with just Piper and the children, Paige at Richard's, and Phoebe overseas with Jason. We also got to see if they could truly live apart, and they seemed to have managed it just fine for 2-5 episodes (with Phoebe getting dumped in Used Karma and Paige dumping Richard in I Dream Of Phoebe), and it could've gone on longer had their relationships worked out.

And Lastly, I love Chris. I don't know if it's because I grew up watching the show since before I could remember, but I feel like I've always had the suspicion that Chris was Piper's son. Not sure why, but it just made sense to me. Especially because he knew things only someone who lived in the manor would know. Like pages of the Book, where they keep potion ingredients and how long. Also also, it goes without saying almost, but I can pick any episode of season 6 to watch and it'll be entertaining.

✨If you made it this far, get a life, thank you for reading✨

[sonja]

I just finished my rewatch and I feel like I need to give it a few days for my feelings to "settle down" before choosing the critical (or personal) rating. Right now, I can't rate it higher than a 1. This season frustrated me so much, there was something I disliked in every episode, and there's so little redeeming qualities I can think of instantly. It just made me so mad and left a very bitter taste in my mouth. So I'm gonna come back to this thread with a more critical approach in a few days. I remember disliking this season before but I was hoping that it wouldn't be this bad...that I would find something to like about it..but there's nothing. I actually reached a point where I had to fast forward so many scenes because of the cheesy dialogue. I was mad about Phoebe's character being ruined before but this season absolutely butchers it, it breaks my heart. I miss the real Phoebe so much. Also, why is there so much Leo for a season where one of the storylines was that Leo was an absent father/husband. I will never understand. Anywayyy...this is just a raw first impression, maybe I'll find some positives after giving it some time.

[Sandra]

Aug 26, 2022 17:48:55 GMT -5 sonja said:

I just finished my rewatch and I feel like I need to give it a few days for my feelings to "settle down" before choosing the critical (or personal) rating. Right now, I can't rate it higher than a 1. This season frustrated me so much, there was something I disliked in every episode, and there's so little redeeming qualities I can think of instantly. It just made me so mad and left a very bitter taste in my mouth. So I'm gonna come back to this thread with a more critical approach in a few days. I remember disliking this season before but I was hoping that it wouldn't be this bad...that I would find something to like about it..but there's nothing. I actually reached a point where I had to fast forward so many scenes because of the cheesy dialogue. I was mad about Phoebe's character being ruined before but this season absolutely butchers it, it breaks my heart. I miss the real Phoebe so much. Also, why is there so much Leo for a season where one of the storylines was that Leo was an absent father/husband. I will never understand. Anywayyy...this is just a raw first impression, maybe I'll find some positives after giving it some time.

I agree completely with you Sonja. S6 is one of my least favorite. Far little redeeming qualities. There's only about 2 or 3 episodes I even can stand at all.

I never got why Leo had such a huge role. When him and Piper broke up, we should've seen less of Leo NOT more. If they really wanted us to see them separated. They needed to cut back on Leo's screentime. He's an Elder now, so he shouldn't have been in every episode.

I'm guessing Holly's pregnancy contributed to the increase in Leo's role.

[sonja]

Aug 26, 2022 18:31:44 GMT -5 Sandra said:

Aug 26, 2022 17:48:55 GMT -5 sonja said:

I just finished my rewatch and I feel like I need to give it a few days for my feelings to "settle down" before choosing the critical (or personal) rating. Right now, I can't rate it higher than a 1. This season frustrated me so much, there was something I disliked in every episode, and there's so little redeeming qualities I can think of instantly. It just made me so mad and left a very bitter taste in my mouth. So I'm gonna come back to this thread with a more critical approach in a few days. I remember disliking this season before but I was hoping that it wouldn't be this bad...that I would find something to like about it..but there's nothing. I actually reached a point where I had to fast forward so many scenes because of the cheesy dialogue. I was mad about Phoebe's character being ruined before but this season absolutely butchers it, it breaks my heart. I miss the real Phoebe so much. Also, why is there so much Leo for a season where one of the storylines was that Leo was an absent father/husband. I will never understand. Anywayyy...this is just a raw first impression, maybe I'll find some positives after giving it some time.

I agree completely with you Sonja. S6 is one of my least favorite. Far little redeeming qualities. There's only about 2 or 3 episodes I even can stand at all.

I never got why Leo had such a huge role. When him and Piper broke up, we should've seen less of Leo NOT more. If they really wanted us to see them separated. They needed to cut back on Leo's screentime. He's an Elder now, so he shouldn't have been in every episode.

I'm guessing Holly's pregnancy contributed to the increase in Leo's role.

I wish it contributed to the increase in Phoebe and Paige's roles at least. I love Leo, but I can't stand him taking all the spotlight, LOL.