S01.E06: Kappa Spirit

[iMonrey]

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So I was super relieved when there was just a key inside as cliche as a mystery key plot usually is...

And their mother was wearing either that key or something very similar around her neck when Mel and Maggie went back in time.

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I'm not sure why we are supposed to be so invested in Maggie and Lucy's "friendship".

Yeah, the show is really over-estimating our investment in these characters. There's no way we could have ever been invested in Mel and Nico only five episodes in and there's no reason to be invested in a friendship that's only five episodes old either - especially one with someone so shallow and annoying as Lucy. For that matter it isn't clear why Maggie so desperately wants to be part of this sorority. We simply don't know enough yet about any of these characters for that level of investment.

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However when she came back after the party, that is when they kissed making it known she was indeed interested in him like that.   Two days later Galvin talks with her and says since she has been so busy since Halloween they have not had a chance to talk, so he asks her out to a Homecoming tailgate event that night.  Her response "I would love to, I really would.  It's just I have a thing, with my sisters"  He immediately gives her a very passive aggressive sounding "I understand" accompanied by a grumpy face where he looks to the side while like chewing his cheek.  Then looks at her and says "maybe another time" to which she nods as he instantly stalks away.  Next episode we found out that he hooked up with Summer at the tailgate party that night.  Seriously after only two days of being busy post kiss, since Macy did not immediately cancel her plans with her sisters when he gave her zero notice about going to the party, he dropped her like a hot potato and slept with another woman that night.   Yeah, he is a real great guy and not a giant horny douche.

Had to quote this whole thing because . . . so much this. And yet - I honestly don't think the writers understand how badly Galvin comes off looking. And that's rather alarming, if the show is that detached from the optics.

[Happytobehere]

On 11/19/2018 at 12:29 PM, rubyred said:

Can someone clarify: I've seen it mentioned in earlier threads that all three women have different fathers. This totally passed me by; was this addressed explicitly in the pilot? 

Regarding the sisters and their respective paternities:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2018/08/06/charmed-cast-and-producers-changes-holly-marie-combs-backlash/916844002/

Edited November 22, 2018 by Happytobehere

[ursula]

9 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Yeah, the show is really over-estimating our investment in these characters. There's no way we could have ever been invested in Mel and Nico only five episodes in and there's no reason to be invested in a friendship that's only five episodes old either - especially one with someone so shallow and annoying as Lucy. For that matter it isn't clear why Maggie so desperately wants to be part of this sorority. We simply don't know enough yet about any of these characters for that level of investment.

The word that summaries this is: Earned. Showrunners these days seem to forget that. You have to earn these storylines.

If Nico/Mel had lasted for the season or even two, imagine how powerful that episode would have been. 

Edited November 22, 2018 by ursula

[iMonrey]

Yeah, even when Andy died in the original we had him for a whole season.

[Esmeralda]

20 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Yeah, even when Andy died in the original we had him for a whole season.

And Prue for three...

[Cranberry]

I feel like some of the ostensibly-'80s slang in this episode was popularized by Clueless... in 1995. "As if," for example, is a phrase Amy Heckerling heard floating around the gay community in the early '90s. Straight white sorority sisters probably weren't saying it in the late '80s. Same with "buggin'," which Heckerling picked up from rap/hip-hop culture in the early '90s.

I also don't buy Maggie and Lucy's supposed friendship. Lucy has treated Maggie like an underling since the beginning of the series, holding Kappa membership over her head and threatening to yank it away if Maggie doesn't act exactly the way she wants her to. The writers are telling us they're good friends so the betrayal has more of an impact, but they're not backing it up.

Those nitpicks aside, I enjoyed this one. It was a good old-fashioned monster-of-the-week episode with some fun flashbacks and some good dialogue. I liked Macy's plot, too, and definitely picked up on some potential attraction on Harry's end, at least.

[owenthurman]

On 11/21/2018 at 11:06 AM, iMonrey said:

it isn't clear why Maggie so desperately wants to be part of this sorority.

I suspect these storytellers don't understand why anyone wants to belong to a sorority or a fraternity; they know these things only from the perspective of a distant outsider. But I know a woman -- a bestselling novelist -- who owes some of her success to her sorority sisters: when she was trying to find a literary agent, she wrote to one who was a member of the same sorority; the literary agent had contacts with sorority sisters in the publishing world; when the book was published, it was given publicity by sorority sisters, and other sorority sisters helped usher it to Hollywood.... This might sound like a conspiracy, but they are all so proud of her. I attended a dinner they held in her honor, and they were so tickled to be supportive of a sorority sister, they may as well have been kvelling. Many of the women in that room had never met before, but they all seemed to feel such a deep mutual affection. They seemed proud that they were part of a traditon with familial bonds stretching back over a century, and this one novelist's successes were something they all took pride in.

It was nothing like the representations I'd seen in movies. Granted, the movies show college girls and the women in that room ranged from 20 to 85, but the cinematic representations all seem to be storytold by people who don't even understand that a sorority can give a powerful sense of community, and I suspect the Charmed writers learned about sorority life from those movies. This leads viewers to ask "why the hell does Maggie want to join this dumb sorority anyway?" rather than feel torn by the dilemma; and since we don't feel the tension between Maggie's choices, we don't find ourselves identifying with her but judging her.

[Ceindreadh]

On 11/19/2018 at 4:37 PM, GreyWolf said:

Everything is possible in our days) And age different isn`t huge. Harry is about 9 or less years older (physically he died at 37) and Macy may be a bit older (Marisol has already been  pregnant in summer of 1989, that makes Macy`s file, where is told that she was born in 1990 fake news), so really she is 29.

When they said the mother was pregnant with Macy in 1989 I was wondering how old the other two were supposed to be if Macy was only 20...and then I realised that 1989 was 30 years ago and i'm suddenly feeling very very old!

[Chas411]

Pleasantly surprised by the Macy/Harry spark. I wasn’t expecting it but really want them to go there and forget about Galvin the dull. 

Glad the show called out Maggie on playing the victim. I was worried that they were actually unaware how awful she was coming across.

id forgotten who Nico was so was confused when Mel mentioned missing her. I certainly don’t.