amensisterfriend

JaggedLilPill, that is one of the most interesting, insightful, potentially perspective-altering analyses of Lorelai that I've ever been lucky enough to read!

Random question (I don't know where else to ask it!): If you had to name just seven favorite DA characters, who would they be---and why?! Needless to say, these are just your personal favorite DA characters to watch, analyze etc., not necessarily people you'd love in real life :)

So are there any formerly held opinions about the show that have changed for you guys??? I'm finding that I'm loving the much derided later seasons more than most seem to and loving the very popular earlier seasons a little less. And in case y'all didn't already know that I have the weirdest taste ever, I actually kind of love S6---as long as I fast forward through some of the endless, repetitive blathering about the hospital, that is :) Another is that even as someone who was always on board with Isobel ending the series contentedly single, I seem to have fallen in love with Lord Merton and really like the idea of he and Isobel together now. She makes him care, encourages him to stand up for what he believes in etc. while he kind of mellows her out a little without trying to change her in any way. I never liked Dr. Clarkson much. There's no rational reason why. He just didn't do it for me, for lack of a better way of putting it! I absolutely love exuberant, energetic Rose and actually wish she'd been there from the beginning as the 'Sybil' of the group---as I've confessed here before, the real Sybil didn't quite work for me as the passionate character we were supposed to see her as. She just came across as flat and dull to me. I'm so conflicted about Edith. In many ways, I get her and relate to her more than almost any other character, and I did root for her ultimate happiness. I actually respect the writers for showing us how someone's deep insecurity can manifest in really unpleasant ways---it's not just 'adorable' social awkwardness and sweet shyness like many romantic comedies would lead one to believe, but can lead to jealousy, pettiness, self-pity and really poor, impulsive choices. So I don't mind that Edith was flawed in those ways. The issue with Edith is how much of a victim she makes herself out to be through pretty much the entire series. Don't get me wrong---she did have some legitimate complaints and some bad luck, but something about the acting and writing just combined to make her so simpering and whiny, even over situations that she did/could have total control over.

---So now that a lot of time has elapsed, how would you all rank the six seasons from your personal favorite to least favorite? I'm liking the later seasons more than I'd remembered and loving the earlier seasons a little less than most do, but I'll come back once I sort out my own weird rankings :)

Hmmm...a three-way tie with no one to break it! I'll switch one of my votes from 5 to 1 just to move us along, but I adore 1 and am sad to see it go! This is the last time we're voting against TWO :) My votes: 5 and 17 2. Piper, Prue, and Phoebe go to the year 2009 to stop Future Phoebe's death from coming true (Mortality Bites) 3. Phoebe travels back to the 1920s to stop her past life from killing her (Pardon My Past) 4. Piper, Prue, and Phoebe get summoned to the 1600s to save Melinda Warren's life (All Halliwell's Eve) 5. Prue and Cole enter a time loop in the 1800s to save Phoebe's life (The Good, The Bad, and the Cursed) 7. Paige and Leo go back to Paige's teenage years to help Paige's guilt (A Paige From the Past) 9. Chris travels back to the future with Bianca (Chris Crossed) 14. The whole time travel mess from the series finale (Forever Charmed) 15. The Witch is Back (Matthew Tate and Melinda Warren come to modern day San Fransisco) 17. All Hell Breaks Loose 18. Centennial Charmed

I haven't rewatched (clearly I have to rectify that!), but the funny thing is that I remember thinking S7, while not perfect, had more energy than any other season! I felt like Mulder and Scully were more smiley, animated etc., and the storytelling and overall tone just seemed livelier to me somehow.

1. Piper, Prue, and Phoebe get sent back to the 1970s to prevent the pact between Nicholas and Patty (That 70s Episode) 2. Piper, Prue, and Phoebe go to the year 2009 to stop Future Phoebe's death from coming true (Mortality Bites) 3. Phoebe travels back to the 1920s to stop her past life from killing her (Pardon My Past) 4. Piper, Prue, and Phoebe get summoned to the 1600s to save Melinda Warren's life (All Halliwell's Eve) 5. Prue and Cole enter a time loop in the 1800s to save Phoebe's life (The Good, The Bad, and the Cursed) 7. Paige and Leo go back to Paige's teenage years to help Paige's guilt (A Paige From the Past) 8. Piper has to go back in time to save her sisters' lives (A Witch in Time) 9. Chris travels back to the future with Bianca (Chris Crossed) 14. The whole time travel mess from the series finale (Forever Charmed) 15. The Witch is Back (Matthew Tate and Melinda Warren come to modern day San Fransisco) 17. All Hell Breaks Loose 18. Centennial Charmed I'll go against 6 and 10 too, and the next round is open! My votes: 5 and 8

1. Piper, Prue, and Phoebe get sent back to the 1970s to prevent the pact between Nicholas and Patty (That 70s Episode) 2. Piper, Prue, and Phoebe go to the year 2009 to stop Future Phoebe's death from coming true (Mortality Bites) 3. Phoebe travels back to the 1920s to stop her past life from killing her (Pardon My Past) 4. Piper, Prue, and Phoebe get summoned to the 1600s to save Melinda Warren's life (All Halliwell's Eve) 5. Prue and Cole enter a time loop in the 1800s to save Phoebe's life (The Good, The Bad, and the Cursed) 6. Paige, Piper, Phoebe, and Leo go back to Medieval Times to stop the Evil Enchantress (A Knight to Remember) 7. Paige and Leo go back to Paige's teenage years to help Paige's guilt (A Paige From the Past) 8. Piper has to go back in time to save her sisters' lives (A Witch in Time) 9. Chris travels back to the future with Bianca (Chris Crossed) 10. Paige, Piper, and Phoebe travel back to Grams' hippie days (Witchstock) 14. The whole time travel mess from the series finale (Forever Charmed) 15. The Witch is Back (Matthew Tate and Melinda Warren come to modern day San Fransisco) 17. All Hell Breaks Loose 18. Centennial Charmed Happy 2017!!! 12 and 16 are history, and the next round is open :) We're still voting against two!

*deep breath* I love Ghost Whisperer. It's to the point where I'm considering using my Amazon gift card to buy the full series on DVD and am genuinely disappointed that we don't have a Ghost Whisperer thread on this forum! I'll take it a step further and add that I think there's something incredibly likable about Jennifer Love Hewitt and never quite got the widespread hate for her. There are a lot of actors and actresses that are FAR worse IMO, both on and off camera :) Ghost Whisperer can be extremely cheesy, but somehow that's part of its charm :) I love the premise behind it and just how I feel while watching it. In a TV world where grim and bleak often seem synonymous with high quality TV, there's a real pleasure for me in just watching an unabashedly uplifting, sappy, inspirational show filled with less complex but genuinely likable (to me) characters.

I always felt like this episode was very underrated and am glad to see it here! It wouldn't make my top 10, but it's definitely in that 'episodes you love way more than most others seem to' category for me :) And, wait, how does no one have Summer listed among their seven all-time favorite episodes??? I can only assume this was an accidental oversight ;) (Kidding, kidding...I deal with my disappointment over the revival with bitter sarcasm!)

I haven't managed to narrow down my list yet, but your lists so far are reminding me of how much I always loved S2. I hope a rewatch of it will help me fall back in love with the show :) And, Taryn, you know that I am SO with you on Double Date. It may have become my number one 'go to' episode when I just feel like a feel good rewatch. Don't even ask how many times I've watched it! And even as a non-LL fan, I really love their chemistry in this episode. Okay, THIS may be the only episode of the series I've watched more often than Double Date! The Rory/Lorelai relationship was always the heart of the show for me, and their scenes here get me every time. I've kind of overdosed on it to the point where parts annoy me now--the scenes with Luke and the lawyers, the endless blathering about the infamous mattress---but it will always be a sentimental favorite for me.

So are you a Lana fan, GH? I can't tell by your posts ;) Seriously, I'm not overly pro-Lana, but it's always interesting to me that she generates such all-consuming hatred. I can't imagine even rewatching this show if I hated a main character as ferociously as a couple of people here hate Lana, at least not without fast forwarding through most of her scenes---which is how I plan to deal with most of the Lois scenes when I get to later seasons :) Maybe if I'd remained a big Clark/Chloe shipper I'd resent Lana too (not at ALL implying that's the only reason why people dislike Lana, by the way!), but I'm noticing that I'm less into the idea of Clark and Chloe romantically as I rewatch. I still think they had a better connection than either Clark/Lana or (especially) Clark/Lois and that Chloe is the one who would have best been able to embrace both Clark AND Superman, but as I rewatch these first few seasons I'm finding myself wishing Chloe would move on. Don't get me wrong---I DEFINITELY relate to how hard it is to get past romantic feelings for someone, especially if that someone is one of your best friends who you're in constant contact with. But while her feelings weren't totally unrequited---you guys are right that Clark did occasionally indicate he could or even did feel more for her than strictly platonic friendship---it was REALLY lopsided overall, with Clark very clearly always a million times more in love with Lana than he ever was with Chloe and always kind of making it clear that Lana is his top priority. And being stuck pining for a guy in love with another woman who viewed her as just a friend the vast majority of the time did Chloe (who you guys know I genuinely love) no favors, IMO---it reduced her to being jealous, bitter etc., and while all that was completely understandable, her character deserved more than that IMO. I wanted her to have more storylines and relationships--not even necessarily romantic ones---of her own, outside of her crush on Clark. All just my opinion...obviously :) ITA with you here. Their friendship always felt painfully forced for me. I'm a huge fan of female friendships on TV, but in this case I wish they had either taken time to SHOW them becoming actual friends or just not bothered trying to make us think they were suddenly 'close'!

I don't get why you keep calling him Bo Kent...? Also, I actually disagree about Tom Welling being a chemistry magnet. He's a great looking guy, but for me his performance was usually way too wooden to generate much chemistry with whoever he was acting with at the time. For me, Alison Mack and Michael Rosenbaum were the two actors who had chemistry of one form or another with pretty much everyone and just kind of automatically made anyone else in the scene seem more interesting to me, but obviously this stuff is very subjective!

---ETA: Rue, as always, I really enjoy your analysis! I guess for me Jonathan's excessive pride and borderline ridiculous degree of stubbornness are somewhat acknowledged flaws that keep him from coming across as obnoxiously and dully perfect to me. If I'm being charitable to the writers, I would even say they deliberately tried to show how that's the one thing Clark didn't take from Jonathan---Clark learned (or at least was supposed to have learned, lol) to let himself rely more on others, to change his mind and come up with a new plan when necessary, etc. Martha is actually the one who bordered on too boringly and unrelatably perfect for me in earlier seasons, though her whatever-that-was interactions with Lionel always made her more intriguing and interesting to me. That seems to be a clear pattern for me: characters (Lana, Martha, Clark himself, etc.) are invariably more interesting when interacting with the Luthor men :) And I'm not sure I'll ever forgive you for getting me thinking way too hard about Lexana :)

1. Piper, Prue, and Phoebe get sent back to the 1970s to prevent the pact between Nicholas and Patty (That 70s Episode) 2. Piper, Prue, and Phoebe go to the year 2009 to stop Future Phoebe's death from coming true (Mortality Bites) 3. Phoebe travels back to the 1920s to stop her past life from killing her (Pardon My Past) 4. Piper, Prue, and Phoebe get summoned to the 1600s to save Melinda Warren's life (All Halliwell's Eve) 5. Prue and Cole enter a time loop in the 1800s to save Phoebe's life (The Good, The Bad, and the Cursed) 6. Paige, Piper, Phoebe, and Leo go back to Medieval Times to stop the Evil Enchantress (A Knight to Remember) 7. Paige and Leo go back to Paige's teenage years to help Paige's guilt (A Paige From the Past) 8. Piper has to go back in time to save her sisters' lives (A Witch in Time) 9. Chris travels back to the future with Bianca (Chris Crossed) 10. Paige, Piper, and Phoebe travel back to Grams' hippie days (Witchstock) 12. Paige and Kyle travel back in time to find out the truth about Kyle's parents' deaths (Ordinary Witches) 14. The whole time travel mess from the series finale (Forever Charmed) 15. The Witch is Back (Matthew Tate and Melinda Warren come to modern day San Fransisco) 16. Deja Vu All Over Again 17. All Hell Breaks Loose 18. Centennial Charmed I'll go against 11 and 13 too, and the next round is open! We're still voting against two :) My votes: 12 and 16 Gah---this one is already so hard for me! I have an irrational love for pretty much all elements of time travel/alt universes on this show :)

Dead Man Dating (my current obsession!), The Painted World (I seriously can't even explain my love for this one---I just find it eminently rewatchable for some reason, and it seems to contain so much of what I love most about the show at its best), Chick Flick, Sin Fransisco, Lost and Bound, Long Live the Queen, Centennial Charmed These are just the ones I think of as 'go to' episodes that I watch most, but if you asked me 10 minutes from now, I could very easily pick all new ones except for Long Live the Queen, which is pretty much my perennial favorite :) Runners up: That 70's Episode, Morality Bites, P3H20, Astral Monkey, All Halliwell's Eve, Pre-Witched, Brain Drain, We're Off to See the Wizard, Sympathy for the Demon, The Day the Magic Died, Forget Me...Not, The Power of Three Blondes (yes, you may feel free to mock!), Chris-Crossed, Witchstock, It's a Bad Bad Bad Bad World, Payback's a Witch and Forever Charmed...and this is the edited list of my runners up; I could have named many, many, many more :) It's funny, because I really do like s1 A LOT as a whole and think Piper and Phoebe are both more likable for me that first season than almost any other (except maybe S2 for Phoebe and parts of S6 for Piper for me), but whenever we do these lists it reminds me that I have surprisingly few all-time favorite, standout episodes from S1. Conversely, I have issues with S2 as a whole, but it has a disproportionate number of my special favorites. S3 seems to have come down in my estimaion overall---it was once my very favorite, and now it's somewhere in the middle of the pack. S4, meanwhile, seems to be my favorite---it always has the greatest number of episodes that I love. And kudos to S6--after my most recent rewatch, I love it far more than I used to and was surprised by how many S6 episodes I would have taken to my desert island if we'd been allowed 15-20 episodes overall :)

I actually really like this episode a lot, so they'll be no suing from me ;) I'm so impressed that you were able to pick just seven! I struggle to narrow my list of favorites to fewer than 25, but I'm trying.

Okay, so you're banished to an island for the rest of your life---but, lucky for you, it's one that happens to be equipped with a DVD player :) You're allowed to bring just SEVEN episodes of this show with you. Which do you pick?!

Okay, so you're banished to an island for the rest of your life---but, lucky for you, it's one that happens to be equipped with a DVD player :) You're allowed to bring just SEVEN episodes of this show with you. Which do you pick---and why?!

Okay, so you're banished to an island for the rest of your life---but, lucky for you, it's one that happens to be equipped with a DVD player :) You're allowed to bring just SEVEN episodes of this show with you. Which do you pick---and why?!

Okay, so you're banished to an island for the rest of your life---but, lucky for you, it's one that happens to be equipped with a DVD player :) You're allowed to bring just SEVEN episodes of this show with you. Which do you pick?!

I'm blaming you guys for the fact that I've been rewatching S1 all morning :) Is it genuinely good or am I just sentimentally and emotionally attached to it?! For whatever reason, I'm loving it this time around. Nearly all the characters are more likable to me, there's just this energy and freshness and sense of possibility and wonder that I love, Lex and his relationships with Clark and Lionel are already fascinating... I'm seriously addicted and can't stop rewatching this freaking show. "Somebody saaaaaaave me" from this obsession! ;)

It's funny, because I see Clark as potentially more 'blandly perfect' than Lana who, as we've talked about here, can at least potentially be seen as genuinely having issues with her identity, insecurity as to who she really is outside of how she's always allowed herself to be perceived, how as much as she wants to be viewed as incredibly sweet she can be ruthless, manipulative, self-interested, ethically 'flexible', etc. And there's something kind of doomed about her, like she seems perfect on the surface but real happiness (due to her own actions, not just fate) is always elusive. But I love this comment... ...because that explains some of the wooden affect. Like maybe it's not just awkwardness---maybe he genuinely struggles to feel and comprehend emotions as deeply as humans do?! See, this is why I'm obsessed with this show---it's just good enough to hook me, make me feel invested and stimulate my imagination, but flawed enough to trigger awesome discussions and 'what if...?!' theories and analysis since there's often not in any single clear answer as to what the heck the writers were trying to do ;) By the way, I rewatched parts of S3 last night, and suffice it to say that Magnetic is a new candidate for my list of least favorite episodes :) On the other hand, Phoenix was a million times better than I'd recalled!

I am just loving that people still have amazing discussions about this show! Not at all! I like S6 a lot (more than most, I'm guessing), and Lexana is one main reason why :) I would love to hear more! What about Lex and Lana's personalities do you see as similar and different? What do you think they did/could have offered each other? I feel like both Lex and Lana would have been sorted into Slytherin, for lack of a better analysis :) Both are cunning survivors who are willing to bend the rules and the usual ethical codes to protect themselves and those they love, both are driven/pressured to excel and be 'perfect' in certain ways, and even though they can be engaging and even chase affection, they often don't know how to connect with people in healthy ways. I see them both as users and manipulators, though obviously that doesn't mean they're not capable of real kindness and feelings. Both are fairly introverted and deal with a certain amount of darkness, loneliness, ruthlessness, questions about who they are and what they're truly capable of, a need to prove themselves etc. I'll also be super unpopular and say I also see both as more introspective and emotional than someone like Clark, but that could relate to the fact that as much as Tom Welling seems likable and happens to be ridiculously gorgeous, he could often be kind of wooden and one-dimensional :) Lana is softer and nicer than Lex, at least on the surface, but it's fair to wonder whether some of her 'good girl who does the right thing' stuff is an act (even she kind of wonders it!) Both are genuinely insecure and vulnerable in many ways and entitled in others. So, anyway, I do see Lex and Lana as far more similar to each other than either is to Clark, and I definitely prefer the above version of Lana---the more dysfunctional, seriously/tragically flawed and therefore potentially complex and interesting Lana---that IMO her relationship with Lex came closer to bringing out. I see Clark/Lana as each idealizing the other but not ultimately ever being able to embrace who the other truly is. Lana seems to love Clark's stability, the loving family and more traditional upbringing he represents, the fact that he's the sweet, earnest, helpful Boy Scout guy next door...who happens to be awfully easy on the eyes :) I feel like he represents the grounded normalcy she wants out of life or at least wants to want---only it turns out he's actually the very NOT normal superhero who she would need to share with the world, which just wouldn't work IMO. Meanwhile, I feel like Clark is invested in viewing Lana as the perfect, sweet ideal---and he's awfully reluctant to see and accept her flaws when she inevitably falls short of that glossy image he has of her. Lexana took a weird turn but could have been a 'best' for me, and even as is I found it interesting. And you guys know I would have wanted to see what Chloe/Clark were like in a relationship as well, (though I did like Chloe/Ollie as well) but that's just me :) What other real or potential romantic relationships rank as bests and worsts for you all? And on a totally different note, during which season did you love Chloe's hair the best?! I need to know these things ;)

Beginning of Series Clark really is so much more likable to me than Last Few Seasons of the Series Clark, but then I guess that's often the case when it comes to characters on a show that ran this long...?! I'm trying to narrow down my favorite, most rewatchable episodes of the series. Be forewarned before you see my list that I have a soft spot for cheesy 'freak of the week' stuff, especially if there's some element off mystery involved. And I also love pretty much any episode that has a high quality Lex/Lionel or Lex/Clark scene, but that's kind of a given ;)