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| News > DVDs > | Charmed Season 1 review | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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By Hock Guan Teh (February 1, 2005) Popularly known to fans as The Charmed Ones, the three Halliwell sisters from the television series “Charmed”, Prudence (Prue), Piper and Phoebe, played by Shannen Doherty, Holly Marie Combs and Alyssa Milano respectively, certainly live up to that title both on and off camera. Before “Charmed” made its successful debut back in October 1998, the three main stars of the show did not gain any measure of success in their career following the end of each of their own breakthrough hit television shows. For Shannen Doherty, it was her role as Jason Priestley’s twin sister, Brenda on “Beverly Hills, 90210” that brought her untold fame and notoriety while Holly Marie Combs found her first supernatural calling on David E. Kelley’s Twin Peaks-esque series “Picket Fences”. As for Alyssa Milano, who can forget her role as the maddeningly cute and syrupy sweet Samantha, opposite Tony Danza in the 1984 sitcom, “Who’s the Boss?”? Although Milano later went on to star in the “Beverly Hills, 90210” spin-off, “Melrose Place”, she never quite gained the same level of attention she received in the 80’s until “Charmed” came along. Now in its 7th season, “Charmed” is a major component of the WB television network’s teen-oriented TV series onslaught. Together with “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, “7th Heaven”, “Dawson’s Creek” and “Felicity”, “Charmed” formed a formidable programming line-up in the late 90’s that was aimed directly at the keenly sought after teen demographic. At present time, only “Charmed” and “7th Heaven” have managed to survive the programming changes throughout the years on the WB. The rest have been swapped with more than able replacements like “Gilmore Girls”, “Smallville”, “Everwood” and “One Tree Hill”, which continue the WB’s ongoing tradition of catering to a younger audience. For the fans of “Charmed”, who have been loyally following the supernatural exploits of the Halliwell sisters since Day One, there is certainly no need for any introduction or to convince you one way or another about its quality. For many others who have either only heard about the show or have perhaps caught several episodes every now and then, you might want to find out if “Charmed” is really as good as some of your friends might have you believe. Well, let’s find out, shall we? “Charmed” tells the story of the three Halliwell sisters, who unfortunately do not get along very well with one another. The first episode, titled “Something Wicca This Way Comes”, provides an explanation about how our three heroine witches came to be and firmly sets the tone for the rest of the series. Prue, the eldest of the three, and Piper, the middle sister, just recently moved into their grandmother’s gorgeous Victorian house in San Francisco after her death about six months before. Phoebe, the youngest of the three sisters, who had a falling out with Prue earlier and moved away to New York City, has just returned to live with her sisters after losing her job there. The tension between Prue and Phoebe are still simmering when Phoebe chances upon the Book of Shadows in the attic, presumably a book of spells belonging to their grandmother. The book foretells a prophecy about the Charmed Ones, three sisters in the family who will be the strongest witches of all and who will use their powers for good to battle evil warlocks and demons. Upon finishing speaking an incantation from the book, Phoebe accidentally unleashed a spell that bestowed unique magical powers to each of the three sisters. Pru can now move objects with her mind; Piper can freeze time while Phoebe has premonitions about the future. Together, the sisters must now use their combined powers to combat evil each week. Certainly, “Charmed” has its own unique char....er...allure. First, it is hard not to take instant notice of the show’s three very attractive lead actresses. Like most, if not all, of WB’s other shows, “Charmed” features attractive young stars that appeal directly to its intended teen and young adult audience. Couple the show’s eye-catching stars with a weekly array of sexy designer wardrobe, together with a wide choice of hit songs from Warner Bros.’s music label, and you will have the secret formula for the WB network’s success down cold. In the television business, image is everything. While CBS is known to cater to an older demographic and Fox is famous for churning out quirky shows, the WB primarily sticks to attracting the younger, hipper set, who in turn, attracts flocks of advertisers trying to capture that lucrative market. Second, “Charmed” has an uncomplicated storyline that is easy to follow and does not need its audience to know every nuance or subplot in order to keep in touch with the general comings and goings of the show. It is somewhat like a “procedural” cop show where every episode can more or less stands alone on its own without having to know what happened previously. This is good news for the casual viewers. However, there is a caveat to this. As the show is currently in its seventh season, some major changes have occurred over the years, including the departure of Shannen Doherty (replaced by Rose McGowan) after the third season and Piper’s and Phoebe’s marriages. These character evolutions aside, each episode of “Charmed” remains a standard story arc that gets resolved in its usual 42-minute runtime. “Charmed” is not as dark or as serious as other paranormal shows like “The X-Files” or “Millennium”. As it is catered for a younger audience, the demons and warlocks that our good witches encounter on the show are simply banished rather than killed. One convenient thing about this is that many of these bad guys can be accorded recurring roles and a few have even become dangerous nemesis for the Halliwell sisters. Humor is used frequently and to great effect. The interactions between the three sisters, especially the often-contentious relationship between Prue and Phoebe, are very effective in giving the three main characters a distinct sense of individuality and well, charm. The first season of every television series is almost always an ever-evolving exercise in trying to find a good balance for the show. “Charmed” is certainly no exception to that rule as it went through some growing pains of its own. In this first season, there were just too many strikingly similar stories of other supernatural beings attempting to either steal the Charmed Ones’ powers or pilfer the coveted Book of Shadows. To the show’s benefit, this aspect is probably its only failing. The show’s three main stars, Doherty, Combs and Milano are able to establish an uncompromising and realistic bond (with all the flaws and joys of sisterhood) that serves the show very well through its first season, paving the way for the show’s continued renewal. The first season of “Charmed” consists of 22 episodes that are spread out over six DVDs in the following fashion: Disc Content: Disc 1: “Something Wicca This Way Comes”, “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”, “Thank You For Not Morphing”, “Dead Man Dating” Disc 2: “Dream Sorcerer”, “The Wedding From Hell”, “The Fourth Sister”, “The Truth Is Out There And It Hurts” Disc 3: “The Witch Is Back”, “Wicca Envy”, “Feats Of Clay”, “The Wendigo” Disc 4: “From Fear To Eternity”, “Secrets And Guys”, “Is There A Woogy In The House?”, “Which Prue Is It Anyway?” Disc 5: “That ‘70s Episode”, “When Bad Warlocks Turn Good”, “Out Of Sight”, “The Power Of Two” Disc 6: “Love Hurts”, “Déjà Vu All Over Again” Video: Preserved in the show’s original broadcast aspect ratio of 1.33:1 or fullscreen, the video transfer is a tad disappointing. For a show that is only seven years old, the video images are mostly soft and somewhat grainy. Speckles and some presence of dirt on the print are also visible, leading me to speculate that no clean-up work was done on the original print. No subtitle options are provided on the DVDs. Audio: The audio presentation fares much better, with the English language 2-channel Dolby Surround track providing a spacious sound field in the front. The dialogue portion is clear without any hint of distortion and the background music is easy on the ears. No other language tracks are provided on this DVD set. Extras: I am very surprised and annoyed at Paramount for choosing not to include any bonus material on this DVD set. As the show is still on the air, it would not have been that hard to get the stars of the show to record some audio commentaries or to do an interview or two. Packaging: Like all of Paramount’s television series DVD releases, all six DVDs in this set are packaged in slim THINpak cases and encased in an attractive hard cardboard box that features attractive artworks of the three stars set against a lilac-colored background. Film Value: “Charmed” has been on the most wanted TV-shows-on-DVD list for some time now. However, the excitement of finally having the release of the show’s first season episodes on DVD in my hands is tempered with deep disappointment due to the lack of any bonus material and a lackluster video transfer. Talk about a bare-bones release. As a TV show, “Charmed”, especially in its first season, has yet to find a comfortable place with which to tell its stories. It is, however, a fun distraction for those boring nights. Fans of the show will definitely tell me otherwise but hey, one thing’s for sure, I would take Alyssa Milano any time over any other actresses on television today. But of course, that is just me. Source: DVDTown
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