James L. Conway

For a show from 1998, with a procedural, monster of the week formula, the first season of Charmed holds up surprisingly well. It respects its own continuity, characters and viewer enough to briefly acknowledge the events of earlier episodes whenever it would be strange not to (a simple feat a very sad amount of similar shows ever manage), and the sisters' relationship mostly avoids cliches and farce, becoming something rather genuine and likable to follow.

There are, of course, holes. Most episodes have at least two or three obvious logical issues that if questioned even briefly would make the whole narrative fall apart, and there are larger, structural conveniences that are difficult to swallow (like how the same two homicide detectives are always assigned every single case relevant to the protagonists -- even when the case in question is not a homicide). But that's kind of baked in to this kind of series, and it would be enormously surprising to me not to find such irritations. The fact remains, rewatching this for the first time in two decades, I found myself liking it still, finding fewer flaws and forgiving more of the ones I do see than I expected to. My vague memory of the later seasons (I think I kept up with it until season 4, maybe?) is that it grows weaker, but for now, as low-attention TV, this is watchable and occasionally outright enjoyable, even in 2023.… (altro)