Eva Marie

All the familiar face spotting is loads of fun on this show. I'm only 3 and a bit seasons in and already there's a long list: Billy Zane, Charisma Carpenter, Jon Hamm, Dean Norris, Amy Adams, Justin Baldoni (now there's an example of very pretty and decidedly UNsexy man), the principal and 'Liz' off GG, 'Amber' from House, Mad Men and Desperate Housewives. Someone said that the 4 leads + JM are some of the most gorgeous people Hollywood's produced. But it's interesting that, save for Alyssa, all of them are distinct-looking. Holly is your typical girl-next-door, but diminutive. Shannen has an asymmetrical Picasso face. Rose has the funny widely set eyes and JM has the bizarre brows (although they might be more normal if he eased up on the plucking just a tad!...and the botox later on. The same can be said for Rose). Alyssa's the only conventional beauty.

Oh yeah. In the Siren ep he makes out with a bit part actress we never see again and it's crazy hot. Like... too much for public network TV. Back then the guy could get it on with a pot plant and still steam up the screen. The effect was completely gone by The 7-year Witch though. I'd describe Cole as an opportunist: he gets bored with being a demon, so he gets distracted by Phoebe and decides to give humanity a shot. Then he gets bored by being a mortal, so he chases magical adventure and gets sucked back into being a demon again. Then he gets bored by the wasteland, goes back to humanity (but with demonic perks!) and demands his girl-toy back. He can't get her, so he gets bored by the human world YET AGAIN. Whichever realm he's in - the grass is greener on the other side and he wants power, thrill, a pretty woman and shiny suits. Unlike the 2 demons in S7 (Charisma Carpenter and Billy Zane's characters), he's never believable as having a genuine interest in being human and he's never likable like they are.

Or even Desperate Housewives.

Millennials would've already grown up watching the original - I'm one of them. Nostalgia for my teens and its pop culture is a big draw for me here. The new target audience would be Generation Z. I fell in love with Jane the Virgin S1, then it abruptly declined in S2 and I never bothered to go back to it since. It's an incredibly stylish and modern show regardless. It's also really high energy, which gets exhausting on a binge watch. Charmed, even with all its' demon vanquishings + special effects has a mellow tone which is really introvert-friendly. I'm baffled as to why WB treated Charmed as Buffy's poor cousin because Charmed had a strong international reach and fantastic lead actresses at the onset. Later on it had JM in his brief reign as the Brad Pitt of TV. I'm even more perplexed as to why the shows are compared at all - they aren't even apples & oranges, more like apples and dragon-fruit! I never connected with Buffy and really dislike the cult of personality around Whedon. Charmed succeeded on its quiet er, charm and heart. It has more in common with Gilmore Girls IMO.

I meant that I liked the actress. My problem is that the casting on the show was male by default: Darryl was barely there as a character too, but the actor at least had a job for 8 years. I would've much preferred to see Inspector Sheridan's actress in the same blank role. And there should not have been male witches at all - it undermines the whole concept of the show and the folklore.

More on the male casting front: I LOVED Inspector Sheridan - such a stunning, tall, imposing actress. Would've been great to see her in a big part on the show: she could've been a whitelighter, or a female Darryl, or a bad witch or demon in a long arc, or or even a love interest. Same thing with Bea the avatar, Phoebe's boss, the magic school librarian - too little of them. But no - let's fill the screen up with unremarkable dudes, dudes and more dudes; and waste compelling actresses in the process! This is an area that could see serious improvement in the reboot if it survives. You can't replicate the original 3 actresses and their chemistry, but everything else can be made better and I trust Jenny Urman - she has excellent cred: Gilmore Girls + Jane the Virgin. CW just got cocky and made a real boo-boo in regard to the marketing: they should never have called it Charmed and instead just made a witch show inspired by Charmed (really emphasizing the inspired part).

You can argue that Cole's wishy-washiness caused the sisters + Leo more pain than a quick death by full demon would've. It was 2.5 years of worry, an unwanted traumatic pregnancy, alienation of Phoebe, constant life risk + a string of troublesome episodes. Leo actually had to chase Phoebe around the seas while having a pregnant wife to deal with. Even poor Darryl got turned into a water-cooler for a moment :-) Darryl was right too: Cole's "love" was all about Me, Me, Me

He did however, drastically improve as an actor between Centennial Charmed and 7-year Witch. Nip/Tuck must've done wonders for him in that regard despite being the epic piece of chauvinist garbage that it sounds as being (won't touch the show with a barge pole to confirm - still recovering from my brush with GOT years ago...brrr). I'm shocked by how much I like S7: I'm actually invested in the Avatar storyline. The production values have improved, the clothes finally look remotely something like a grown woman's wardrobe. On the downside: what is with the ridiculous level of male domination on a female-led show? Why are the kids both boys for instance and the rare female demons all SEXXXXY? This coupled with The Crown is proof to me that you should not let a man run a female-centric show as a general rule. Especially not the creep that Brad Kern is.

More on Phoebe + Cole: I've just begun S5 and crikey, does it get worse... He actually strangles her almost to death! IRL strangulation by a male partner means a high likelihood of the female one being dead at his hand within 18 months. Never mind that he won't take NO for an answer even after she stabs him!! I've heard lots of talk on forums about how the sisters never find out that he didn't choose to be The Source deliberately. But ultimately - it doesn't matter. Cole's demonic nature is just like a mental illness IRL: the person can't help having it, but their ex-partner has legit reason for staying away from them if it causes the endless cascade of trouble and violence to her +her family that Phoebe's involvement with Cole did. Again - so freaking impressed with this show for being mature about the story and not ending it with a happily ever after with the bad boy being totally reformed.

Sex, power, arrogance + fine suits. Really does sound perfect for him. He could've made a solid Bond as well. Excellent comedic timing too.

I belong to the club of Rose-haters (on this show, not as a person). Robin Tunney from The Craft would've made a perfect Paige for me. In fact, she could've been Prue as well. Rose just never looked comfortable on the set, her delivery was stiff and the sister chemistry wasn't there with her.

Phoebe was also the most sexual of the original 3. She's one of those women who could stay drunk on good nookie for a solid while. They really lucked out with Julian's casting in that regard: there are an awful lot of blandly pretty men onscreen, but only a precious few that are this sexually charged. He really should've been around in the 50s - the age of steaming hot larger-than-life performers. I believe that's what used to be called It. When Phoebe starts shirking her duties and rejecting her sisters, she's not turning selfish - she's showing signs of abuse. I'm also really uncomfortable watching their size mismatch: she's pint-sized and doesn't have any combat powers, while he's a wardrobe. I completely agree that the other 3 sisters would've sent Cole packing mighty fast. Phoebe was the only susceptible one. As for the chemistry: Julian's aforementioned sexual vibe was so strong that no effort was required on the part of the actress. Alyssa looked like she just stood there and absorbed it - and it still worked. On Paige: I wish that they had cast Robin Tunney from The Craft. She also has that witchy quirky look, but can actually act! 'Cupid' would've been great as Leo too: gentle, but never bland. What on earth possessed the casting director to go with Brian Krause, I wonder? He's one of the most boring actors I've ever seen. Maybe that was deliberate to avoid taking attention away from the leads?

Yes - the problem with Cole isn't his supernatural evil side. It's that he was a clingy jerk in human mode. Even the suicide attempts are a classic abuser tactic as well: "I'll kill myself if you don't stay with me!". I find it so emotionally satisfying when Piper says: "You evil SOB" when vanquishing him.

Also, like that the demon baby plot was the thinnest of thin metaphors for reproductive control and the awfulness of pregnancy in physical and social terms. I clapped for every blunt reminder of it: Phoebe never wanted to be pregnant while Cole treated her like a vessel for a male heir, then there're lines about taking control of her body and the policeman actually calls Cole a deadbeat dad!! :-)

On Julian + Cole& Phoebe: He's a weird, WEIRD actor. At that age he was more like a traditional old Hollywood movie star than a TV performer: crazy amount of macho sex appeal, very dynamic (to the point of hyper-active), unexpectedly funny with non-comedic dialogue + an unusual, memorable sort of face. The cons: terribly smarmy and couldn't emote properly to save his life. Always overdid the anger big time. Was physically so imposing that it seemed like he was taking up the half the space on set and it felt intimidating on a female-centric show. Their relationship: I was impressed with how accurately it was portrayed as a toxic, abusive relationship - especially towards the end, and that Phoebe chose to slay that demon (literally!) and didn't give him the time of day after that (while he kept stalking her). Their bond was based on sex + obsession on his side and alpha male fantasy on hers. Hated how he totally violated sexual consent in Enter the Demon. There's a scene where he suspects that Phoebe & Paige have swapped bodies, so he decides to test it by... aggressively coming onto Paige's body until she defends herself with a body slam! Phoebe's soul is inside of it, but he never asked Paige whether he could make out with her body, which he proceeds to do AGAIN before the scene is over!! What the hell?? Couldn't he have kept his hands off both sisters till they changed back or figured out a more innocuous way of testing them? Seriously, seriously wrong. Kudos to Julian for making the whole scene funny & sexy, but the writing of it is just plain creepy.

I know practically everyone likes Julian as Cole, but I have an ambivalent relationship with his presence on the show. Firstly, he has a weird personal presence in general. Second, what he was doing on the show cannot be called acting: It was standing around reading lines while being himself. He just did it in a dynamic enough way so that it didn't look stiff and immediately identifiable as bad acting. It still breaks the 4th wall for me in a way not even Leo with his monotone delivery ever does.

Yes to Netflix being able to find an international audience- their global reach is unrivaled and their business model is all about the niche. They would just need a new show-runner, which I would actually dig. I'm big on all things lovably weird, but this specific mix isn't working for me. There's just too much nihilistic violence and no unified signature style. Wendimoore might've worked if they went all out on it being a medieval fantasy send-up, which they played with a little. Side rant: how much gay MALE romance do we need on TV?? Give me some goddam lesbians once in a while, TV gods! One offhand comment about Tina being bi doesn't count.

Farrah is a real casting misfire to me - the actress is just plain terrible. She somehow manages to make all the wrong acting choices all the time: makes her voice high when it should be low etc. She drags every scene down. LOVED Julian McMahon as Patrick and the hilariously dim military guy - they're an example of what good actors can do with small parts. The show feels like it was written by Jekyll and Hyde: equal parts warm to nasty. I had to skip too many scenes of dungeon torture, violence, kidnappings. Too many appealing people killed for no reason. The nerve disease made me wonder - did messing with the timeline give Todd the illness? Or was it just stress triggering the onset when he already had genetic predisposition?

"Chidi suffered from an obvious anxiety disorder that might have responded to psychiatric help." Anxiety at the least. Possibly high-functioning autism. The latter would explain his absolutism in other matters as well.

In regard to Florence Nightingale: she can't be judged on the same terms as modern women in a time where her only options were to be legally a man's property or a nun (the Church's property). In fact, neither can any female human born before very recent times. Florence was actually a HUGE rebel in her day by forging her own path, while also transforming both medicine and womens' 'roles' (AND inventing pie charts!). How on Earth did she not get into The Good Place?? 99% of big name philosophers were grotesque misogynists, so it makes sense why they didn't make it. Only Engels and John Mills would make the cut in that regard. Chidi never mentions that ugly detail about any of his heroes, so he isn't analytical about his life's passion AT ALL. He just treats everything they wrote as gospel.

The really dark side of abortion availability being slashed across the US in recent years is that this will translate into a lot more babies being suddenly available. This is essentially disadvantaged women being used as reproductive factories for the privileged wannabe parents, just like it already happens with surrogacy in 3rd World countries. REALLY ugly...

There was exactly the same foster WTF? character backstory on Rectify: it had a young lady (also healthy, white, blue-eyed + blonde and given up as a baby) who was never adopted!!! Maybe the demand for adoptive kids wasn't as strong 20+ years ago? Kudos to Desperate Housewives for being more believable with their adoption stories. They did acknowledge that there is a LONG waiting list for babies (including those still gestating), and that the mothers take their pick from from couples wishing to adopt. Pretty much the only way to adopt a kid straight away on that show was to find an older child (presumably among those just removed from parents at a later age). Does that hold true in the US?

Such "doctors" didn't just butcher the women, but also routinely raped them beforehand. Whats really tragic is that safe, painless abortions are actually one of the easiest medical procedures there when performed by actual medical professionals. Because she's the only Name in the show

"I would have loved to see Liz really understanding what she did to her kid. " Oh please...I hear this trotted out again and again as if Jess' behavior is 100% Liz' fault. There're also personality, choices and, when it came to Rory - male entitlement. There's this worrying undercurrent of "bad boys will be bad boys because they are oh so aggrieved" + a helping of "blame anything wrong with a male it on his mother" going on with fan perception of Jess. Of course it sounds like Liz was negligent. But we don't know enough of their background to judge how much of his "acting out" comes from nature and not nurture. He could've been a difficult kid to start with and really did drive her up the wall thus causing her to give him up. Their dysfunctional personalities might've fed off each other toxically. There are countless teens around the world who would kill to have the privileges Jess has and would be eternally grateful to people who help them. And there's his father. Why is no one consistently blaming him for running off? Liz at least put work into keeping Jess alive for 17 years. Men can abandon their children with far less social judgement than women who stay and raise them imperfectly because they're not given the social permission to walk away.

Here's what I don't get: why didn't Lorelei continue her education past the 7th month? Do US schools have legal right to expel pregnant students only for the pregnancy? Wouldn't that be grounds for a lawsuit? Couldn't she get home schooled after that or was that not doable in the 80s? Also, the parents and baby daddy's family were superwealthy. Why couldn't they hire a nanny so Lorelei could use the year after the birth to keep studying? Was not hiring one a punishment or something?