‘Charmed’ Is Better Than You Remember

„Perhaps it’s my nostalgia-tinted glasses, but I can see why I chose to watch the show amidst The WB’s other offerings. I wanted to be enveloped in the world of Charmed because of its witchcraft (duh), but also because of the female bonding, the exploration of what it means to be a sister and to grow into adulthood with your sisters. Charmed ran for eight seasons. In that time, a main character was killed off and a new one was added. The sisters got married, had children, dated evil warlocks and demons, opened new businesses, started new careers, »found themselves.« They weren’t always perfect. Their power came with weaknesses. Their lives didn’t neatly wrap up at the end of each episode, but they were OK. They had each other.

As the show progressed, the Charmed Ones became more new-millennium fashionable: tighter clothing, fuller hair, glossier lip gloss. Descriptions of the show mentioned their sisterhood and witchcraft in the same breath as their cleavage. But something — maybe sentimentality — prevents me from calling the show frothy or reducing it to a mere Buffy-lite. You can’t ignore the power of having three female leads in one television show, none of whom greatly overshadowed the others. With three women kicking ass and looking good while doing it, Charmed naturally drew comparisons to Charlie’s Angels. The only difference is that the Halliwell sisters weren’t answering to a disembodied male voice. If there was any allegiance, it was to the wisdom of their matriarchal line. They loved guys, sure, but they loved each other more. There was never a question as to who was more important.”