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S01.E01: Pilot


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21 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

Actually . . . I spent the entire episode confused because I thought Harry was the one that had been accused of either sexual assault or harassment. I think it was the strongly antagonistic way Mel reacted to him at college that gave me that impression, followed by the next scene in which she is complaining about the guy her mother was going after while papering the billboard with flyers. It wasn't until the very end I realized it was the old guy they were talking about. 

Yeah, everything about the story line was confusing. Now I am wondering if the old guy even attack the girl who is in coma. He's a demon if he wanted to hurt her I could have just killed her. 

24 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

Was it though? The demon they vanquished said something like "You think I murdered your mother? You have no idea" or some such.

Good point. I forgot about that line.

29 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

It was actually 48 hours but . . . I'm not sure what the point of that was either. Maybe to give the show some suspense but, duh! There would be no series if they chose not to be witches. It occurred to me that it was sort of a callback to when they found Paige in the original series. There was said to be some kind of 48-hour window where a new witch can choose to be good or evil. It also reminded me of the original Season 4 finale when the Angel of Destiny offered to give them back their "normal" lives and they wouldn't have to be witches anymore.

Thanks, I fixed it in my post. 

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Screeching, preaching and assault. Oh, what have we done without this brand of faux feminism. 

OH and OF COURSE the sexist pig is a demon!

 

Reminds me of the episode with the sexist journalist who Phoebe turns into a turkey. His brand of sexism was forced, unnatural and cartoonish and this wasn't any better IMO. 

Edited by Lost
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19 hours ago, Primal Slayer said:

Having Mel move in at the end of the episode was wrong imo. The pieces of the puzzle were just to perfect with that whole relationship to her new sisters. I hope we see her dealing with "I've been an only child but now im not"

I think that's the biggest difference between Paige and Macy. 

Macy seems to have felt lonely and longed for sisters, whereas I think being an only child made Paige really independent and wasn't necessarily pining for siblings. 

18 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

I also gotta make sure I remember that Mel is the middle sister now and Maggie's the youngest because I keep defaulting to Mel as the youngest sister (more just the names, not the actresses, though I can't tell Sarah Jeffrey apart from Melonie Diaz yet).

That's amusing to me, as to my eye, Sarah Jeffrey looks about 21 and Melonie Diaz looks about 40. Lmao. 

18 hours ago, slf said:

Exactly? Your argument was that it wouldn't have been greenlit. The Secret Circle was terrible; typical case of finding ridiculously pretty, over coiffed teens (or actors in their early 20s) running around in ridiculous clothes. It was so generic I can hardly recall the plot. 

I disagree. I think it was very fresh and very new. I like the diversity, which the original lacked. It feels very modern but in a way that isn't overly dated (except the politics in Mel's scenes). I think the effects are overall much better than what we got in the original and I cannot say enough have grateful I am to not have to listen to that unbelievably stupid chime sound all the time. 

Which chime sound? 

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56 minutes ago, Lost said:

The acting is better than in the trailer. 

For some reason, every moment picked out for the trailer was the worst acted parts of the whole episode. 

That trailer is exactly why I had low expectations. It was a bad trailer.

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1 hour ago, janeta said:

i thought it was cute enough.  (never saw the other one; weren't they both based on a book/s?)  nothing much else on on sundays so i'll probably stick with it a while.

No. They released a series of novels based on the TV series, however. 

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Felt 'pretty' and very comedic, too much so that it made demon hunting Ghostbusters like. There needs to be more overarching story for me apart from Demons coming after them for the sake of coming after them.

 

Interesting angle with not trusting the whitelighter. Doubt they would do anything dark with that like Harry killed their original whitelighter because he wanted to prove himself as a whitelighter after being disgraced.

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16 hours ago, Lost said:

No. They released a series of novels based on the TV series, however. 

Ah, i see. Thought there was a book somewhere...

Edited by janeta
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I'm watching the pilot now. I wasn't a fan of the original show, but I did watch the first episode of the original, twenty years ago *sniff*. It got ridiculous, but I was interested at the time, and I like this, so far. 

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So, we finally get the much dreaded/anticipated Charmed reboot, and...it has its ups and downs. Honestly, as much as I have serious nostalgia for the original show, I think its a good candidate for a reboot. It had lots of potential and an interesting mythology, but it is very dated looking back on it, had tons of plot holes, and a lot of good ideas that never really went anywhere. This, however, is definitely going to need some work. 

On the good side, I do like the main actresses, and I think they have decent chemistry. Not as instantly great as the original sisters, but not bad at all. And having more of a social justice angle and a more diverse cast is certainly a solid idea (more on that later), and having the Paige character show up right away sets up some interesting stories to explore. Like, why did the mom leave her first daughter, and never reach out to her until now, and when she did that, be so cloak and dagger? Is her dad still around? Why did he lie about her mom? The effects are also pretty good, and I like that one sister is a scientist, who is using her science background to help with magic problems, which I think sounds cool. 

However, we do have some issues. First of all, the politics is so lacking in subtlety and nuance, you can almost hear the Supergirl writers saying "wow, that was super awkward" through the screen. I mean, working in current issues and feminist hot topics is just fine, especially in a show with a mostly female cast, but, oh my God, it was clunky as shit. I mean, a demon that specifically takes energy from strong woman, who does double duty as an evil old white guy? The "its obviously your current president!' line? I mean, its a pilot, so hopefully it still has time to figure out how to handle these issues in ways that seem organic and work well for the stories and characters, and not a really long winded Tumblr post that grinds the story to a sudden halt. You have to do more than just use buzzwords and phrases that people write on signs!

Really, this show is trying so hard to be cool and down with the kids and woke, but it still engages in the kind of patriarchal bullshit that it is clearly trying to fight. Not only do we get the awkward scene of a smarmy white dude tying down and lecturing our three heroic ladies on their powers and history, instead of them figuring it out themselves like in the original, but we have a seemingly endless parade of stereotypes. We have angry lesbian feminist stereotype, ditsy snobby sorority stereotypes (nothing more feminist than showing female organizations as two faced and shallow!) evil white guy stereotypes, snooty British stereotypes, and "but science!" stereotypes. Granted, like I said, its only the pilot, so hopefully they can play with and subvert some of those as the show goes on, but, I am kind of rolling my eyes at a show that is so dead set on lecturing us on its political views, while not noticing their own problematic elements. 

But, again, its just the first episode. There is a lot of potential here, and I liked the twist that the White Lighter might be shady (maybe thats why he doesn't orb?), and the growing relationship between the sisters seems interesting, and I am interested in seeing what elements they keep from the original, or what they add, or what trends in urban fantasy they have picked up (looking at you, Supernatural style demons!) or have not. 

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There was enough fun to be had here that I’ll stick with it for awhile. Definitely some awkward parts, which is to be expected in a pilot. And as others have said, the original had enough squandered potential that this could be pretty cool if it can pull it off.

My biggest complaint so far is that there was too much plot crammed into one episode, so they should have either extended it to two hours or split the script. Unfortunately character development took a backseat to all of the exposition. But what we did get to know about the sisters has me interested in seeing more, and I found them each relatable in one way or another.

I also agree that giving Harry a bigger role really did take away something from our three leads. Hopefully this won’t always be the case moving forward. I am curious to find out why Patty Detective Murphy Mom warned them not to trust him.

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I enjoyed it a lot. I watched every ep of the original but only because my partner liked it; I was never much of a fan. So far I'm enjoying this more. There's certainly some heavy-handedness but part of that is the nature of the tv pilot. The [paraphrased] "I have the right to revoke consent whenever I choose" would have been a great, Buffy-like line, if the rest of the episode hadn't been so inundated with similar-but-less-clever texts. I'll be tuning in for at least a few more episodes.

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Worse than I expected. The dialogue was heavy-handed. Everything was in your face: Strong women! Science! I despise Trump, but don't want it brought into fictional TV shows thankyouverymuch. I found the acting stiff. But the funniest thing was when the Big Bad devolved into the Night King from Game of Thrones. Make up your own effects!

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10 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

I like that one sister is a scientist, who is using her science background to help with magic problems, which I think sounds cool. 

I like that too.

 

10 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

First of all, the politics is so lacking in subtlety and nuance, you can almost hear the Supergirl writers saying "wow, that was super awkward" through the screen.

So glad I wasn't taking a drink while reading this. Unfortunately, I don't believe that's going to be toned down much since it's such a hot topic nowadays, but I can live with it. Although they could not use "woke" again, I just find that annoying.

2 hours ago, peggy06 said:

But the funniest thing was when the Big Bad devolved into the Night King from Game of Thrones. Make up your own effects!

True, but it was cool looking.

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It has potential.  I like the actresses but I agree it felt like it should have been a two hour pilot (does anybody do those anymore?) because there was a lot crammed in.  Mel came off as a little too much of the Angry Lesbian stereotype, but at least they explained why she was angry.  Maggie came off pretty well and the actress is really likable.  Macy was the least developed (and would have been better served in a two hour pilot) but her "science will explain everything" attitude could get really annoying really fast.

It did feel like they were trying too hard to be woke, and a lot of it felt clunky.  The fact that every man, with the exception of Fridge from Jumanji, was either a demon, possessed by a demon or ranged from kind of obnoxious to outright asshole did not help.  I don't have a problem with Harry explaining to them who they are, but knocking them out and tying them to a chair was a really bad way to go about it.

I did like little shout out with Melinda Warren in the Book of Shadows, and it would be cool to make her an ancestor of the sisters.  Also an interesting twist on the end when the sisters use the World's Largest Ouija Board where Mom tells them not to trust Harry (if it really was Mom).

One of my other problems is they seem to have carried over the dualistic witches vs. demons aspect of the original, even mentioning the Source of All Evil and gone for something a little less Manichean.  It would be cool if Harry turned out untrustworthy but still a reliable ally.  I also liked that their casting language seemed to be Latin.  And a small complaint is why are ravens always ominous?  They are revered in many non-Western (and even some Western) traditions.

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I watched this a second time. It seems like all network TV pilots suffer from being overly plotted. The entire premise has to be laid out in an hour so the network knows what the show will be about. But since this is a reboot that shouldn't have been necessary. The original series used the middle sister's boyfriend as the first Big Bad. That eliminated the need to introduce extra characters that were only going to be killed off anyway.

That's more or less where this pilot went wrong, IMO. Between the sorority girls, the guy who may or may not be Maggie's boyfriend, Mel's girlfriend, the guy who may or may not be Macy's boyfriend, the guy who was taunting Mel about the flyers and later showed up at the protest, and Professor Thane, there wasn't enough focus on the main characters. Not to mention their mother who was already long-dead in the original pilot. It's no wonder I was confused about who had been accused of sexual assault.  

In particular, I thought they did a really bad job of establishing Mel's girlfriend. We only saw a quick glimpse of her in bed when Mel got a text from her mother, so when she and her police partner were questioning Mel after she punched that guy in the nose, I totally missed the fact that it was the same girl. 

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Yeah, everything about the story line was confusing. Now I am wondering if the old guy even attack the girl who is in coma. He's a demon if he wanted to hurt her I could have just killed her. 

Yes, the professor was a demon who sucked the life force out of "strong women" which is why the previous victim was rendered comatose/brain dead. There should have been a follow-up where we found out she woke up after they vanquished him.

I think the next couple of episodes will be much more telling about whether this can be well written or not. 

Edited by iMonrey
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I liked it! Granted I have no knowledge of/allegiance to the first Charmed, but a weak spot for cheesy CW supernatural dramedies, so it wasn't gonna take a whole lot to reel me in. I think there was some rough dialogue/acting, but I tend to forgive pilot episodes since a show hasn't had a chance to find it's footing yet.

 

15 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

I like that one sister is a scientist, who is using her science background to help with magic problems, which I think sounds cool. 

I think this was a neat way to tie together the supernatural elements and the real-world to keep the show somewhat grounded - like there's a scientific explanation behind how this magic works but no one has thought to investigate it before because witchcraft isn't "real"

 

13 minutes ago, Lugal said:

It would be cool if Harry turned out untrustworthy but still a reliable ally.

I didn't like Harry being there from the get go basically being the Exposition Fairy AND directing them exactly how to save the day. I wish they had the chance to figure some of this stuff out on their own and more organically. Like the oldest sister reaching for the other two in the demon mist at the end - I wish they had figured that out on their own and not been told by him what to do. Thankful there was a bit of a twist at the end with Harry maybe not being who he says he is. I'm wondering if he only showed up when they said his name or he knew what was going on before that. I would love if they make him a morally gray/chaotic neutral character rather than a one-note good guy or straight up villain. 

 

Overall, I liked it enough to tune in next week! I think it makes sense being paired up with Supergirl for sort of a "Girl Power!" Sunday night

Edited by shantown
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I never watched the original so I had no allegiance to it nor any strong feelings one way or another about the reboot.  I went into with a 'this is a CW show' mindset and I mainly decided to catch it because I like Madeleine Mantock. 

I liked it.  From a plot/writing perspective, It was exactly what I was expecting.  The three actresses together were a pleasant surprise.  Chemistry is always an iffy thing.  I think they have it together and they seemed to have embraced the different personalities that the script calls for very well. 

I had read some of the comments before watching so I was braced for the 'Rah-Feminism' stuff.  But it wasn't as intrusive as I twas prepared for.  Some of it was said clearly tongue in cheek.  Some was serious (the intense sister).  And some was a little comedic. 

I do agree it was a little overstuffed.  Too many plot elements thrown i all at once.  And I do think Macy being accepted into the sisterhood was way to quickly and easily accomplished.  All three should have felt very betrayed by this big secret and struggled more than they did to reconcile this. 

But overall, this was rather fun.

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Thinking on this more, they definitely could have come up with a much better way to introduce the sisters to their witchy heritage without Harry the Exposition Fairy taking over the show. If the witch aspect had been couched as, say, a fairytale or bedtime story that Maggie and Mel had grown up hearing (maybe their mother always used to tell them the same tale of three witches who worked together to fight evil) then that way when they had to defeat the demons they could have A) figured out their destiny and powers themselves by realizing that the story was true and they themselves are the witches in question, and B) it would have been an organic bonding experience between the three rather than Harry ordering them to work together. He still could have Apparated in after the fight and filled in some gaps in their knowledge, but they would have been the catalyst for their own change and choices. If only. As it stands, having a man kidnap and tie up three female leads of a girl power womens' empowerment show to tell them of their powers is... not a great choice. 

I can understand that vanquishing a demon would bond the three together to some degree, so I can give them a pass for now. I just hope going forward it's not an immediate happy family, and we continue to see all three working to accept their new relationship, both the good and the bad. There's lots of potential to mine here, I just hope they do it justice.

I'm also hoping that we'll see more facets and traditions of witchcraft than just the bland pseudo-Celtic/European that most movies and shows skim the surface of. And why are the ravens always evil?

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Looking back on this, one thing the original got right was focussing on the leading three without distracting itself. We didn't need to meet Grams straight away so the story picked up several months after her death. The entire opening 10 minutes of this pilot were not needed. We could've picked up with the two sisters grieving, showing them in their habitats at the sorority house/activism etc and their love interests and then had the first act end with the third sister knocking at the door and claiming to be their sister, which would lead into them looking further into their mother's death. 

It was just too overcrowded and tried to do too much. A bit of everything, so then none of it was any good. Rather than focussing only on what's of paramount importance and doing it well. 

But I think that's symptomatic of any pilot in this day and age compared to the 90s. Shows nowadays don't believe the audience have an attention span and so need to hit them with story! plot twist! more story! another new character! every 10 seconds to try and stop them changing channel. 

 

It tried to do so much I think the writer actually knew all of the backstory but forgot to stop and let the audience in on it before blasting ahead. 

I mean, the long lost sister (Macy?) did she conveniently walk by their house and recognise it or had she purposely moved to the town because she had heard of her death? I struggled with that. Plus, I assumed the co-worker she was seen with twice was like a gay best friend type (he was so camp) but online everyone refers to him as her love interest so now I'm really confused. Lol

Edited by Lost
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9 minutes ago, Lost said:

I mean, the long lost sister (Macy?) did she conveniently walk by their house and recognise it or had she purposely moved to the town because she had heard of her death? I struggled with that. Plus, I assumed the co-worker she was seen with twice was like a gay best friend type (he was so camp) but online everyone refers to him as her love interest so now I'm really confused. Lol

 

Macy moved to town because it was practically orchestrated by their mother if I my member remembers this still from 2 days ago lol.

Edited by Primal Slayer
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Just now, Primal Slayer said:

May moved to town because it was practically orchestrated by their mother if I my member remembers this still from 2 days ago lol.

Now I'm even more confused. Lmao. 

But then again, it was only at the end of the episode I realised their mother worked at the school and it was her job Harry had taken. 

The show seemed to focus on so much but gloss over important details. 

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7 minutes ago, Lost said:

Now I'm even more confused. Lmao. 

But then again, it was only at the end of the episode I realised their mother worked at the school and it was her job Harry had taken. 

The show seemed to focus on so much but gloss over important details. 

Harry said the mother orchestrated the job for macy so if he's to be believed maybe she was gearing up to bring her back into her life.. But got murdered first.. As for macy's friend.. He seems like he wants more so whether she reciprocates or not I don't believe he's the GBF 

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I really liked it! I still can't differentiate between 2 of the sisters but I really liked the half sister. 

The show felt a bit darker than the original. I don't know if it was that stunning creepy attic or the overall dark-ish atmosphere but it was great. The actress were good. No whining, eye rolling, or annoying baby voice with boobs slobbering over a man. (Yes, I detest Alyssa and Holly)

I don't know why many people are complaining about this version not matching up to the original. The original was good for the time it was set in. It looked new in the 90's. Looking back, a lot of the things seems super outdated.

That being said, I reaaaally hope Shannen Doherty makes an appearance.

Edit:

Did anyone else notice how the youngest one looks so much like Rose McGowan?

Edited by K42
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9 hours ago, Primal Slayer said:

I know Henry said that she was in the process of unbinding their powers, are we to assume that happened when she called the girls home or before everything started happening when we started the show?

Harry made a comment something to the effect "So we finished the job" implying that the Whitelighters/Elders finished unbinding their powers (which, if true, I'm really not a fan of - they shouldn't have the ability to do something like that).

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11 hours ago, Lost said:

I mean, the long lost sister (Macy?) did she conveniently walk by their house and recognise it or had she purposely moved to the town because she had heard of her death? I struggled with that. Plus, I assumed the co-worker she was seen with twice was like a gay best friend type (he was so camp) but online everyone refers to him as her love interest so now I'm really confused. Lol

I think the mother orchestrated her getting the fellowship.  But IIRC, she saw the news report of the death of her mother and that included a shot of the house and that is where it stirred her memory.  And then she went and found the house.

Re her male friend, I got the impression he was trying to mack on her but she was totally friend-zoning him.  I felt no chemistry at all between them.  They felt way more BFF than possible love interests.

 

7 hours ago, K42 said:

Did anyone else notice how the youngest one looks so much like Rose McGowan?

Yes!  I meant to comment on this.  There was one shot in particular where they were outside walking and she turned to speak to the intense sister, her hair was down and her cleft in her chin just seemed extra prominent and I thought 'whoa' the resemblance was really strong there.

Edited by DearEvette
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It wasn't a great pilot. It felt overstuffed and a lot of it moved too quickly. However, this isn't the worst pilot I've ever seen. It was competent and fairly enjoyable.

"Something Wicca This Way Comes," the pilot for the original Charmed, is actually a very good pilot as is the season 4 reboot to add Paige. I think Veronica Mars has one of the best pilots ever made. I think The Wire is an almost perfect show, but the pilot is pretty darn terrible. It's ugly, flat, and workmen like. Visually it's the ugliest episode of the entire series. Buffy's pilot was pretty bad too. Roswell had a good pilot that they proceeded to squander almost immediately. I've seen good pilots from shows that would turn out to be mediocre or bad. I've seen bad pilots from shows that would later become good. I'll wait and see how this shakes out.

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Thinking on this more, they definitely could have come up with a much better way to introduce the sisters to their witchy heritage without Harry the Exposition Fairy taking over the show. 

It was a lazy short-cut to explain the premise. It's the main thing I objected to, even though I liked it overall.

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 I think that's symptomatic of any pilot in this day and age compared to the 90s. Shows nowadays don't believe the audience have an attention span and so need to hit them with story! plot twist! more story! another new character! every 10 seconds to try and stop them changing channel. 

In the case of a pilot, it's more about getting the network's attention so they'll buy it. They can't spend two or three episodes explaining the premise when they're trying to sell a pilot to a network. That's why pilots are so over-stuffed if they're being sold to a network or basic cable channel. 

What's baffling is why a reboot would need to do that. If the CW commissioned a pilot for a reboot of a known property, why on earth would the writers and producers feel the need to cram that much exposition into the pilot? The premise would, presumably, be already known to them.

It's possible some the pilot was re-written and re-shot, if the network was too worried the audience wouldn't understand the premise if they hadn't seen the original show.

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22 hours ago, DearEvette said:

I think the mother orchestrated her getting the fellowship.  But IIRC, she saw the news report of the death of her mother and that included a shot of the house and that is where it stirred her memory.  And then she went and found the house.

It was actually the opposite of that.  She was walking down the street with her friend when she saw the house.  THEN she was looking it up online and saw the picture of the mother who was killed.  My understanding was she had the photo of her mom holding her in front of the house, so when she saw the house, it stirred her memory because of the photo.  Her friend mentioned that it had been in the news because of the murder, so she looked up the murder and saw the picture of her mom in the news article.  That's how she realized it was the same house from the photo she has.  And then AFTER all that, she stopped by the house to introduce herself to Maggie and Mel.

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2 hours ago, HunterHunted said:

Played by Chris Pine's dad.

How did I not know this?!

Okay, it could have been worse. I felt like the feminist "WOKE"-ness of it was overdone, as stated by others. Especially when the professor/demon of the week preys on strong women and steals their strength. That felt a little too on the nose. Harry was more likable than I expected him to be. Laughed too hard at "I just wanted to show you the effect" and letting the girls be surprised by the demon confetti explosion. The man coming in and explaining their destiny to them surprisingly bugged me less in execution than it did in the promo, although I still think they should've discovered their legacy on their own first. Hate that we're immediately going with long-lost secret sister in the pilot. It's a bit much. Also, Flash did the time freeze in a cafe scene better.

It reminded me of the Vampire Diaries pilot more than Charmed. But Vampire Diaries improved significantly after their pilot (which is easily the worst episode of the first few seasons, imo), so maybe this will too. I won't be watching consistently. 

The casting is spot on for the younger two sisters. I can barely tell them apart. The house is adorable and so cozy and cluttered. I kind of love how packed they've made it. I would totally believe any time a magic artifact happened to be crammed into the living room bookcase as a plot point. I like that one of the sisters is a scientist who wants to win a freaky Nobel Prize and that after years of salt to fight demons we use baking soda. I'm easily amused.

Edited by bettername2come
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I watched the original Charmed, but I never had the same attachment to it as I did to, say, BTVS, so I didn't mind that they were remaking it. It's also been so long since I watched it live that I don't remember that much about it. I'm just viewing this show as its own thing, and I liked the pilot! I wasn't sure I would after the first couple of scenes, as the dialogue between the girls and their mom seemed clunky and they were all overacting a bit, but everything got smoother as the episode went on. There were some funny lines, the special effects were much better than I usually expect from a CW show (that purple smoke filling the lab was especially cool), and the sisters have good natural chemistry. I didn't care for the Trump crack so much (I'm not a fan of his, to put it mildly, but I prefer for my shows to not reference real-life politics), but I didn't find the feminist comments annoying at all. Sure, the first villain was a little on the nose, but this was a pilot, and pilots (especially supernatural show pilots) have to do so much... introduce the characters, give them their powers if they don't already have them, explain at least a bit about the universe, and give us a little taste of the formula of the show (demon of the week or whatever)... so I can understand simplifying the first mystery. I'm in, and I look forward to seeing what other stories the writers come up with.

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On 10/14/2018 at 10:38 PM, Keywestclubkid said:

Exactly it has already been done and better hell even the secret circle which they advertised pilot was way better then this ..... so it doesn't feel new or fresh the writing was horrible the acting was all over the place the effects feel like they haven't been updated at all and for some reason feel worse then what we got in the original ....all that could be forgiven if the actresses had any chemistry but they dont ..... 

I felt some nostalgic pangs when I saw the CW seed commercial for The Secret Circle. The CW did not do right by that show at all and while the quality did dip in season one, the ratings certainly warranted a second season. I would much rather have a witch show based on an original premise than this ill-conceived reboot that is hoping to bank on the trademarked Charmed name.

 

On 10/15/2018 at 12:38 AM, memememe76 said:

This is way better than That Stupid Circle. No love triangles. The women generally like each other. No one true love business. Loved this so much.

Oh yeah? It's a CW show so just give it time...

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On 10/17/2018 at 9:15 AM, AngelKitty said:

I could be wrong, but I think it's all Edgar Allen Poe's fault.

Nope, it goes a lot farther back than that.  I Googled it and this is what I found:

 

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In Greek mythology, ravens are associated with Apollo, the god of prophecy. They are said to be a symbol of bad luck, and were the god's messengers in the mortal world. According to the mythological narration, Apollo sent a white raven, or crow in some versions to spy on his lover, Coronis.

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My main thought in the first half of the episode was that it was very bland.  They seemed to be doing a checklist with the premise... mom dies, check; first sister inadvertently does telekinesis, check; second sister inadvertently freezes time, check, etc.

I agree that they tried to do too much, too fast.  I didn't realize it was 3 months after the mother's death (unless there was an on-screen indication that I missed).  They told us stuff about how they were acting but I couldn't buy it without seeing it (eg. why the younger one wanted to move out; the guilt they were feeling, etc.).  The introduction of the long-lost sister was abrupt.  

The Whitelighter tying them up and explaining everything brought the story to a standstill.  It didn't feel like natural storytelling.

The rapport between the sisters improved in the second half, so the episode got a bit better.  

The climax was underwhelming since all they had to do was hold hands?  And then after the fog, suddenly they had all memorized the spell on that scroll?  

I don't see much potential in this reboot, so overall I was just a bit bored.  I feel like I've already seen everything that could have been done in the first iteration.  I did like the incorporation of science knowledge by the long-lost sister.  That is something fresh, at least.  I'm also glad there is a mind-reading power instead of premonition, since that was played out.  The pilot wasn't great, but it also wasn't horrible, so I'll probably keep tuning in to see if it gets better.

Edited by Camera One
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On 10/14/2018 at 10:55 PM, Keywestclubkid said:

it was greenlit because of the name Charmed again it was soooo much like all the other shows that they had already done and Canceled and moved on from that it would have been passed over without a second thought had it not had the Charmed brand attached to it..the pilot was not a strong pilot to me and just shoving in topical references and Metoo seemed forced like hey we are "woke" watch our show and that in itself I feel like would have killed its chances again had the name charmed not been attached and the thought of a guaranteed built in audience .so yes my argument stands  

I couldn’t have said it any better. 

I didn’t watch the original until it was in reruns, but really enjoyed it. In fact, I binged watched it when recovering from my first hip replacement.

I’m a strong female who owns her own business and I’m all about powerful women. You can have powerful women on a TV show without throwing out EVERYTHING “feminist” in the first episode. To be clear, I’m fine with the one sister being a lesbian and with women empowerment. 

That at being said, I wanted a show/pilot that was about three sisters discovering their powers. For me, it was more focused on sending the message that we are feminists and we are “woke” than about 3 sisters discovering their powers - and their interpersonal dynamics.

I don’t expect it to the same as the previous “Charmed”, but I would like to find it charming. Maybe it will get that way eventually, but in IMHO the writing was not good,

Supernatural is one of my favorite shows - it has a lot of dark elements, but has a lot of humor and light moments, and doesn’t always take itself seriously - which I thought the original Charmed did. 

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2 hours ago, Camera One said:

I don't see much potential in this reboot, so overall I was just a bit bored.  I feel like I've already seen everything that could have been done in the first iteration.  I did like the incorporation of science knowledge by the long-lost sister.  That is something fresh, at least.  I'm also glad there is a mind-reading power instead of premonition, since that was played out.  The pilot wasn't great, but it also wasn't horrible, so I'll probably keep tuning in to see if it gets better.

I loved Phoebe's premonition power and the show sucked at developing it and making it powerful. Phoebe's premonitions should have advanced containing aspects of empathy and telepathy.  Phoebe was able to connect psychically with people. I hated that empathy was a separate power. 

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On 10/15/2018 at 4:10 PM, Dani said:

 

I didn't see it is mansplaining because Harry legitimately has more information than the sisters. I do thing the show is in danger of undermining it's own feminist message by giving them a crutch from the very beginning. I also thing it was a mistake to make the two creepy guys into the bad guys. It made it obvious who the demon was and it gave an excuse for the bad behavior.

 

They really should have had some seemingly respectful, gentlemanly guy be at least one of demons/demon possessed. And I’m not talking about a Nice Guy™️. But a normal seeming, ok, non-threatening dude. Like much of the topics in the pilot, “rapey man = demon” seemed a bit heavy handed. Like a hand-anvil to the head. Not to mention it is a cop out. Ohhhh, they can’t help being creepy creeps who creep—they’re demons!?

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On 10/16/2018 at 2:30 PM, Lugal said:

I don't have a problem with Harry explaining to them who they are, but knocking them out and tying them to a chair was a really bad way to go about it.

One of my other problems is they seem to have carried over the dualistic witches vs. demons aspect of the original, even mentioning the Source of All Evil and gone for something a little less Manichean.  It would be cool if Harry turned out untrustworthy but still a reliable ally.

I started watching it when they woke up tied to chairs and was hella confused when he came out as a Whitelighter. Umm, huh? 

I’d love for them to explore the grey a bit more (as it relates to this version). Are all demons inherently evil, destined for evil deeds? What about half demons? Are there after effects to being demon possessed? Are there witches who operate in the grey? That aren’t expressly Good Witches™️ Or Bad Witches™️? Subvert the tropes some! And definitely subvert the tropes with the sisters. As pp’s mentioned, there was so little character development. All I walked away with was Scientist Sister, Sorority Sister and Angry Lesbian Sister. 

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On ‎10‎/‎21‎/‎2018 at 8:18 PM, Apprentice79 said:

I loved Phoebe's premonition power and the show sucked at developing it and making it powerful. Phoebe's premonitions should have advanced containing aspects of empathy and telepathy.  Phoebe was able to connect psychically with people. I hated that empathy was a separate power. 

I didn't want Phoebe's power to develop that way, but then I never wanted any of them to get new powers - just better control of their original.  I wanted Phoebe's premonitions to continue to be the most important power by showing them the innocent who needed saving and the baddie who was after them.  Once it just turned into a way of identifying who would be Ladybug's sperm donor (who cared about love? Phoebe didn't!), I was thoroughly disgusted with her after her being my favorite sister up to 'Sleuthing with the Enemy'.

I'm hoping they do better with NuPhoebe.

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On 17/10/2018 at 8:58 PM, iMonrey said:

It was a lazy short-cut to explain the premise. It's the main thing I objected to, even though I liked it overall.

In the case of a pilot, it's more about getting the network's attention so they'll buy it. They can't spend two or three episodes explaining the premise when they're trying to sell a pilot to a network. That's why pilots are so over-stuffed if they're being sold to a network or basic cable channel. 

What's baffling is why a reboot would need to do that. If the CW commissioned a pilot for a reboot of a known property, why on earth would the writers and producers feel the need to cram that much exposition into the pilot? The premise would, presumably, be already known to them.

It's possible some the pilot was re-written and re-shot, if the network was too worried the audience wouldn't understand the premise if they hadn't seen the original show.

No, no. I'm aware the pilot needs to spell out the show's premise. 

I'm against them overstuffing the episode with extraneous characters and subplots and details that did not need to be there. 

Thus it becomes a mess and not a functioning episode. 

Edited by Lost
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1 minute ago, Lost said:

No, no. I'm aware the pilot needs to spell out the show's premise. 

I'm against them overstuffing the episode with extraneous characters and subplots and details that did not need to be there. 

Thus it becomes a mess and not a functioning episode. 

Exactly so.  Of course the pilot is for the network executives to try to sell it.  Such a shame that it's now too expensive to redo the pilot for the fan like they did in the '90's - hence "The Unaired Pilot" and "Something Wicca This Way Comes'.  Of course, we mainly got that due to Lori Romm becoming Alyssa Milano, but it was also a chance for them to do the premiere better than just "The Pilot".

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