Primal Slayer

General 4A review....while its a good season, it is definitely under season 3. The writers didn't seem like they were able to properly handle the introduction and development of Paige along with setting up the big showdown with The Source. S4A has A LOT of stand alone episodes and subplots that pertain to the sisters individual lives like Piper/Leo having a baby, Phoebe/Cole getting married. They fail to have the sisters deal with demons that are a threat to them that prepares them to go up against The Source like they did in s3. We just jump into Charmed and Dangerous out of nowhere. The previous episode states that The Source has body guards that are fire starters....where are in C&D? Why doesn't he have any body guards? He has assassins that are...MIA. Even the storyline with demons challenging The Source is suddenly dropped. We started the season w/The Source being red and this menacing voice to this white demon w/an annoying voice and questionable facial hair. They failed to treat The Source being vanquished as an event and more like a regular episode compared to S1&3 finales. They seemed like they just grew tired of the storyline and had to find a way to make Cole evil again. All of this should've been pushed to at least the finale.

Owo was allowed off the ship and got a slew of lines? WHAATTTT. It was very refreshing. Hope we get more of this in t he backhalf of the season. Didn't make much sense to me why Bernham became an announcer at the game? But....ok I guess.

It's always funny that since Piper got Molecular Combustion she was afraid of accidentally blowing up a mortal. Each power has limits, she cant freeze witches so I would suspect that she cant blow up mortals/witches.

Hell Hath No Fury is a great episode and Piper having to deal with her anger with Prue at the end was of course very good. I think they probably should've pushed that out a couple of episodes though instead of doing it so soon. I also wish that they had dealt with Piper partially putting some blame on Phoebe like Phoebe says when shes defending herself from Fury!Piper "you blame me for Prues death". Phoebe running after love is partially what got them all separated. And its never addressed that Cole was willing to practically kill Piper out of anger.

Watching Charmed Again....again. Anyone who calls Charmed on their many faults can not deny that this is probably one of the best wrap ups to a cliffhanger that resulted in a main character being killed off screen. It is a shame that they wrapped up Cortez in the premiere instead of making it an ongoing storyline that have the sisters afraid of another AHBL situation. They kind of went back to normal after the premiere with how they acted in public. The sisters treatment of him was not a good look and also could've been the start of their journey towards Morality Bites. They send him off w/a spell and dont even care about what happened to him until Daryl reminds them of him. It definitely shows a road that the sisters start to go down without Prues guidance. Not to mention that Grams could've informed them of a little spell that she used to use on them to make them forget magical moments.... The Shax of it all....confuses me every.single.time. What the hell happened between AHBL and CA that the makeup artist failed so miserably in recreating his look? And even the special effects have a change. In CA his "wind" is minimal and now has some type of ball appears. vs When it comes to Prues things...I kind of get why Phoebe wouldnt be interested in Prues car but I also dont know why they didnt just have her take the car. She's spent the last 3 years without a vehicle of her own. She drove Prues car A LOT so take it and treat it with care. there's memories there. They couldnt show Shannen but Prue had a lot of clothing, a necklace, a lot of things that they could've incorporated into Piper/Phoebe that kept her "alive". Seeing Piper wear the Prue necklace throughout the years would've been so sentimental. Grams talking about Paige and making it very known that she is their half-sister always intrigued me. Part of me thinks that she had amphrensions about Paige and didnt view her as a true Halliwell. I dont think they ever really touched on it. The Oracle was a nice addition to Team Source. To bad they never really used her to any big potential. Speaking of The Source....when we see him in AHBL he's a red guy with wings, very much of a "fallen angel" and now he's a red guy in a black cloak with no wings. And of course when they reveal him he's not even red!

Its still crazy that Spelling and co. Let a few momths of bad blood influence such a big decision. Especially when both were under contract and returning for a 4th season. If Shannen were the big bad like they tried to play it off as why let her direct 2 season finales, 1 regular episode and choreograph an episode? Abd they didn't pull back on the Prue/Phoebe scenes, if anything they seemed to increase in s3.

Some old Charmed articles from S3/4. Its always interesting to go back and read bits about it, shame most of its been lost. And of course this little quote about S4 from a certain guest star

I believe its been stated that Alyssa was dealing with depression during s3 and im sure that made things worse between her/Shannen. While neither rarely talks about the feud in depth, Shannen alluded to Alyssa complaining about the hours and not wanting to be there and taking the show seriously. Shannen was heavily involved with the show, even moreso than Alyssa/Holly when they became producers. I think that also made it easier for Kern and co. To get rid of her so they can take full control and run it into the ground. I'm always 50/50 on some of Roses statements regarding Alyssa bts since im sure their feud has made her look back at things differently. Im sure Alyssa wasn't an Angel everyday but Rose didn't like the amount of work that went into shows and thought the show would be over by s5. But it does suck that Shannen took the brunt of the drama and let go when she shouldn't have been. To be a fly on the wall back then...

I dont remember hearing anything. Surprisingly after S4 I dont think there was any talk about how everyone was getting along and we assumed it was one big happy family. Of course Rose states differently now that Alyssa was an apparent nightmare to work with in later seasons so...who knows.

Exit Strategy is another one of those: good ideas that should've been a bigger story. We have witches who are sworn to use/protect these powerful amulets but the amulets cant fend off Balthazar and the witches have no extra umph to fend off a demon like him. This could've been a whole arc within itself. Even introducing witches who come against TCO while hunting down and trying to vanquish Cole themselves.

I love Pre-Witched. Getting to spend so much time with Grams was always a treat. It's always interesting that she was willing to stop them from becoming Charmed. She wanted them to come together naturally instead of thinking of telling them the truth and training them herself. Her telling the girls that the attic is sealed off for 20 years...she must've been really good at sneaking in/out of there lol. Piper thinking of moving out was a good subplot, only makes Phoebe look even worse come a year later where she is willing to move out when Prues death is still fairly fresh, not even a year out. Had Prue not died it would've been interesting to see them tackle this storyline again.

Id say a corrupt witch isn't necessarily the same as an outright evil witch. For all we know there was a Warren witch somewhere that wrote some harsher spells and really tip toed the line between good/evil.

Im actually on Bride and Gloom in my rewatch so seeing this conversation is funny. I really wonder what the writers were thinking in terms of Prues love life this season. They gave like 4 different love interests. 1 was this great connection from the past. One she kept standing up. Then there's Justin who gets a 3 episode arc and I liked Justin. And of course the bad boy that Astral Prue gets with that goes nowhere. Were one of them supposed to stick had Shannen not get fired during the hiatus? Piper attempting to have a normal wedding, with actual guests, planners was a good change of pace as we know none of them ever have normal weddings. Shame it couldnt happen though. This season is definitely the strongest in terms of continuity. They reference past events A LOT throughout the season. Sometime, I'll have to look at the writers from S3 compared to other seasons.

That definitely would've been a much more interesting season and it is a shame that they didn't think to do something like that. Season 1 brought us Melinda, S2, the cousins, S3 Charlotte, they were filling in the gaps little by little. We know about Brianna Warren who was the strongest Warren telekinetic. The Warren line had a lot of story potential and I always found it weird that it seemingly stopped after S3. After Prue died they basically said F-it now that Paige was in the picture. She would've totally interested in finding out about her Warren lineage. I'm rewatching S3 for the first time since it was remastered (I refuse to watch the episodes on Peacock since I like the OG music) and the fight scene in The Honeymoon's Over is probably one of my favorites. It was very rare we got to see all 3 sisters in physical fights at the same time and they stayed pretty true to their styles. Piper is on the defensive for most of it with the police baton, just trying not to die. Phoebe is fighting 2 "demons" at once and since its still relatively new, they allow her levitation to be put into her style. Prue is punching and using her TK to deflect fireballs. All very fun. Not to mention that I thoroughly enjoyed the Prue/Phoebe dynamic while Piper is MIA. I wish we could've got some flashbacks to them in between S2/3 as the dynamic power of 2 and Phoebe dealing with Prues obession with the Triad. It's a fun season power wise as well since everyone is trying new things with their powers. Prue is trying to use her TK in her astral form, Piper is learning she can selectively freeze certain body parts, Phoebe is...flying sometimes. I know that Alyssa really wanted Phoebe to have an active power and really liked flight from S2 finale but I wish they hadn't given into her wishes to incorporate it full time. I know levitation is the most controversial power in the show since it doesnt really pair well with Premonitions but it is funny that Phoebe went from having the cheapest power to getting the most expensive power and of course it got phased out as the show went along. But they could've been more creative in her 2nd power. Also a shame when they allow her premintions to really advance in S5 it is quickly forgotten about and not used. I just noticed that Daryl is largely absent in the middle of S3. They had seemed to set him up to be buddy buddy with Leo and then he just is nowhere to be found. Though looking at Wiki, after S1 coming in at 13 appearances, he is reduced to roughly 7-8 episodes/season before being entirely written off and forgotten about in S8.

They did steal his soul without his permission so....I think he had a right to grow bitter towards them.

TCO were still new to the world and probably thought having even 1 still alive would be a threat. After various years and seeing how their connection works, they grew to know that all 3 were needed.

These writers even trying anymore? Marquis is allowed to just waltz into Arkham and release anyone he wants? How does that make sense? Who is he to those in Gotham? Marys arc really was for nothing except to make her feel bad for killing a guy was it? It didnt really serve her character for her own development. Is she not going to have any side effects from being Ivy jr? Turn her into Red Thorn or something like that. Did not miss Luke speaking to an AI that he treats as his father and acting like it's healthy. I wish they would've ripped that thing to pieces. Why does Alice think she needs a good buzz to the head? What is Jokers buzzer going to do that some electro "therapy" wouldnt? Could care less for the knock off of Sophie/Kate.

I always feel weird when they use Ryan for things like these. It seems a bit of cop-out since she isnt Batwoman in the comics. Though at least this time a lot of these characters are actually being used on the regular compared to previous years.

I laughed at how they touched Whoopis absent. "Sure you saw the news.....and lets get into hot topics!"

It's still so weird that they put The VIew under the news division when none of them are journalists. I know others are jealous of the interviews the show gets but...come on now.

2 will become the power of the 3 again....clever.

A fairly meh conclusion. Really not Ryans finest moments in this episode with her acting like a teenaged girl with Sophie and then putting multiple people in danger trying to get to Mary. Ivy needing Mary as a battery was a storyline that just didnt make much sense, especially now that she magically discovers an island where plants are worshiped and she is off to live her happily ever after. The way they treat the trophies just are very weak, and now here we are again with the public just taking a random word that Batwoman is this big bad because she didnt do as good as Batman? The writers really arent being that creative in the middle of the season.

It was an ok episode, very boring middle, and ok end. They introducing a lot of relationships and I could care less about any of them. Ivy/Renee? Meh. They are trying to make them this epic love but....I'm not feeling it. I was kind of wanting Ivy to just vine Renee and send her away and move on. Ivys entire storyline has been surrounded by Montoya since we've been physically introduced to her and I'm already tired of the drama. Ryan/Sophie? Hated it since they introduced Ryan. The writers dont know what to do with Sophie so they just continue with their original plan they had with Katae. Sophie is really Batwomans biggest fan, she'll have dated both of them. Ryan has been very....whats the word? She acts as if she is better than some of the people around her and its very annoying. Girl you are not flawless so why are you constantly judging everyone else while you make the SAME.EXACT.MISTAKES? While I doubt it'll work, the fact that the writers really brought in the whole "Maybe if Marquis is shocked by Jokers shocker again it'll reinstall his empathy!" huh? That's what you bring us? What is so special about Jokers shocker? Did he use some alien tech so it shocks people differently? And why would it magically reset Marquis's brain when he's probably always been psycho. Alice/Mary remain a dynamic duo. Luke monologuing to his dead father who created a suit for a child and acting like the voice in his suit was his fathers essence that was still alive or wahtever...dude just put on the suit or dont. I am much more interested in Ivy returning and her taking in how much has changed in 10 years in Gotham. Where are all of her former bad guys? How she feel about that?

Their mother died while they were children and their grandmother died when they were young adults, it's very believable that either you have major resentment (Prue) or you overlook the bad because you so desperately want that connection with your parent who is your last living relative outside of your sisters (Piper/Phoebe)

Rewatched S2 which I really loved. S3....is so bad. It has its highlights here and there but anything involving the new kids on the block..so boring.