| 1 | !YMMV tropes for the ''Series/Charmed1998'' series |
| 2 | !!YMMV Tropes with Their Own Pages |
| 3 | [[index]] |
| 4 | * [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation/Charmed1998 Alternative Character Interpretation]] |
| 5 | * [[Monster/Charmed1998 Complete Monster]] |
| 6 | * [[EnsembleDarkhorse/Charmed1998 Ensemble Darkhorse]] |
| 7 | * [[HarsherInHindsight/Charmed1998 Harsher In Hindsight]] |
| 8 | * [[HilariousInHindsight/Charmed1998 Hilarious In Hindsight]] |
| 9 | * [[NeverLiveItDown/Charmed1998 Never Live It Down]] |
| 10 | * [[RetroactiveRecognition/Charmed1998 Retroactive Recognition]] |
| 11 | [[/index]] |
| 12 | ---- |
| 13 | * AccidentalInnuendo: |
| 14 | ** Piper's line about Wyatt "corrupting himself" in "Imaginary Fiends". |
| 15 | ** In a season eight episode, Phoebe calls Piper's [[TheMasquerade glamour]] "hot," prompting Piper to jokingly remind her that they're sisters. Phoebe's response is to point out that, according to their identities, they're not sisters anymore, but cousins. Which is still squicky for [[SiblingIncest obvious]] [[KissingCousins reasons.]] |
| 16 | * AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: Despite beliefs that ''Series/Charmed1998'' was created to follow the popularity of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', Constance M Burge has said that the network had very little faith in the show when she first pitched it. They ''didn't'' think the witchcraft concept was a good sell and only relented when she made the protagonists sisters. Even so, the network kept demanding 'more skin' and marketing around {{Fanservice}}, feeling it couldn't stand on its own. Needless to say it lasted eight seasons and was the longest running TV show with female leads for a while. |
| 17 | * AngstWhatAngst: |
| 18 | ** You'd think Victor would be a ''little'' more upset that [[spoiler:his new bride was actually an evil demon who tried to kill his daughters and kidnap his grandson]]. He gets a little bit of a pass since [[spoiler:his daughter was in the middle of a difficult labor that was bringing his first grandchild into the world,]] so maybe he decided to push it aside until he could process it properly. And being that he was a recurring character as opposed to a regular, that's plenty of time for him to do so offscreen. |
| 19 | ** Phoebe shows no emotion to her baby's death, even if it was a FetusTerrible. |
| 20 | *** She actually expressed relief of being rid of its influence but, on the other hand, in the subsequent seasons she was literally obsessing over newborn Wyatt (initially) and fulfilling her motherhood premonitions. Perhaps it was a combination of internalized angst and bad writing. |
| 21 | * ArcFatigue: |
| 22 | ** Cole and Phoebe's drama in Season 5. It doesn't help that the show can't seem to decide if Cole is trying to win Phoebe back or seek overall redemption. Likewise, DependingOnTheWriter it's either Phoebe being justified for being suspicious or being a bitch for not understanding. This is partly due to the original idea being for Cole and Paige to fall in love instead (the episode "Sympathy For The Demon" certainly hints at it) but both actors protesting against it - and Julian [=McMahon=] opting to leave to do ''Series/NipTuck'', meaning Cole had to be quickly written out. |
| 23 | ** Piper's reaction when the Angel of Destiny takes Leo away again in ''Forever Charmed'' is only mild resignation, and doubles as a subtle [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] on how much trite and repetitive their constant cycle of separations and reunions had become by that point: not even the characters themselves are surprised anymore. |
| 24 | * AssPull: |
| 25 | ** There was no mention of this before by either side but in Season Eight, there seemed to be the Ultimate Power that is more powerful than the Charmed Ones and they are a pair of sisters. |
| 26 | ** Every new big threat after the Source could count, really, seeing how the Source was set up to be THE GreaterScopeVillain of the show. Although this mainly applies to the Ultimate Power - as Zankou and the Titans had the justification of having been sealed away (Zankou was sealed away by the Source himself), while the Avatars worked on their own. The Ultimate Power is given a hand wave, with Christy's kidnapping being so secret that the demon who did it is shocked that someone else knows about it. |
| 27 | ** Not just major threats, but many things about later seasons just came out of nowhere when, in the context of the show, should have shown up much earlier. The Cleaners and Magic School are two such things that are brought up. |
| 28 | ** Magic School is a particularly bad offender that not only clashes with the show's (initial) focus on traditional witchcraft passed down by family line or through covens but makes no sense with the very premise of the series: the sisters awoke as witches in their twenties because their powers had to be bound to protect them from a warlock. Now, [[DidntThinkThisThrough if only there had been a completely evil-proof, death-defying place to safely raise magical children in]]. With Patty dead, Victor out of the picture, and the girls' lives on the line, there's no way Grams wouldn't unbind their powers and send them over there, especially since she never showed concern about them leading a normal, magic-free life. Season 7 hand waves it by having the Elders point this out to Paige, and she argues that the school is mainly for children who don't have families that can teach them. |
| 29 | ** The reason given to why Prue's ghost couldn't visit her sisters was that it would prevent them from being able to move on with their lives. However, every other deceased member of their family is free to visit them whenever they want. In fact, it was their dead grandmother who explained this to them during one of her many visits. (Granted, the real reason Prue's ghost can't visit is that her actress left the show and refused to allow the producers to use her likeness afterwards.) |
| 30 | ** In Season 8, the Cleaners couldn't help the sisters with the reporters accosting them due to too much time having passed and because the sisters have "burned that bridge." This not only implies that there was a previously unmentioned time limit in which the Cleaners could act but it also means that they let their dislike of the sisters overshadow their duty to protect the magical world from exposure at any cost. |
| 31 | ** And for that matter, the entire "Homeland Security knew about magic all along" subplot from Seasons 7 and 8. Not only does it cheapen Darryl's ''entire'' tenue on the show as the law enforcement insider secret keeper, and takes away any sense of threat from Inspector Sheridan, it also makes no sense with many previously established characters (such as the already asspull-y Cleaners) and events: if HS was already in the know, why didn't they intervene with a cover-up when Prue and Piper got caught vanquishing a Demon on camera, or when Phoebe was exposed and imprisoned as a witch in a bad future? |
| 32 | ** The very existence of Simon Marks in Season Eight. Seasons Two and Three made such a big deal about the Elders forbidding Piper and Leo's relationship because Witches and Whitelighter shouldn't be together, not to mention it being the reason why Paige had to be hidden away and her sisters never knew about her until after Prue's death. And yet, there it is, another Witch-Whitelighter hybrid (one year older than Paige, at that!) created solely as an easy obstacle for Paige and Henry's relationship to overcome, all the previously established lore be damned. |
| 33 | ** Surprisingly {{averted|Trope}} with the introduction of [[LongLostRelative Paige]], in no small measure thanks to a fortuitous InnocuouslyImportantEpisode establishing that Patty had an affair with her Whitelighter Sam already in Season 2, way before it could become vital for the continuation of the series. And even before that, it had been established that Witch-Whitelighter hybrids are possible and that the Power of Three doesn't distinguish between half and full siblings. |
| 34 | * AwardSnub: |
| 35 | ** Despite delivering consistently great performances across the entire series, Holly Marie Combs was never nominated for an Emmy once. The SciFiGhetto (and arguably the GirlShowGhetto) likely had something to do with it, but her work in "Hell Hath No Fury" in particular went completely unrecognised. |
| 36 | ** Shannen Doherty delivered probably the best performance of her career in "All Hell Breaks Loose", not to mention directing herself, and she too never received any nominations. |
| 37 | ** Rose [=McGowan=]'s work in "A Paige From the Past" went without recognition as well, despite being considered her best across the series. |
| 38 | * SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The opening theme "[[Music/TheSmiths How Soon Is Now?]]" covered by Love Spit Love. Also "Blame It On The Weatherman" by B*witched from the end of the fifth season premiere. |
| 39 | * BaseBreakingCharacter: All the Halliwell sisters to some extent. |
| 40 | ** Prue is either the best character on the whole show for being a badass who stops at nothing to save innocents and keep the family together, and therefore the show suffered by her departure, or else she was a SpotlightStealingSquad who overstayed her welcome and losing her allowed the others to actually develop as characters. |
| 41 | ** Piper is either a selfish, whiny harpy who treats her husband and family terribly and never stops going on about wanting a normal life, or the powerful matriarch of the Halliwell family and ultimate MamaBear who won't let anyone hurt those she loves. |
| 42 | ** Phoebe is near universally loved up until Season 3, where her behaviour towards Cole either "ruined her" for choosing him over her sisters or brought her to interesting places in seeing the good in people. By Season 5, she became extremely divisive, with some fans feeling her behaviour makes her the true villain of the show, and others feeling that Cole defenders merely make her out to be worse than him. In Seasons 6-8, it's up for debate whether her selfish use of magic, punishment and subsequent redemption are character derailment or an arc that suits her well. |
| 43 | ** Paige is the one sister who doesn't tend to draw polarizing reactions, which is ironic, since she was the replacement for Prue. Aside from occasional dislike for BloodKnight tendencies and her attitude towards Cole, she tends to be the least divisive of the sisters. |
| 44 | ** Billie was originally just TheScrappy for many fans when the last season aired but has been seen in a better light by a portion of the base as years have gone on. To a lot of fans, she's a CousinOliver who represents everything wrong with the final seasons (and Kaley Cuoco's acting is divisive). To others, she was a fresh addition who represented a different perspective and had an interesting story arc. |
| 45 | ** Kyle Brody was either a toxic boyfriend who Paige shouldn't have trusted and couldn't let go of a grudge, or else an antihero who was more interesting than the string of generic love interests in the previous seasons and was believably ProperlyParanoid even if he was RightForTheWrongReasons. The fact that he kept Inspector Sheridan comatose in a psychiatric facility for weeks is similarly divisive; on the one hand, it's extremely dark, but on the other it was done to an AssholeVictim who did nothing but try to expose magic. |
| 46 | ** The jury is out on Christy as well. One camp finds her an irredeemable HateSink, while another finds her a sympathetic AntiVillain. And then there's those who feel she's presented as one but comes across as the latter. Even her death at the end of the series is contentious - some feel she had suffered such a TraumaCongaLine and was an even bigger victim than Billie and deserved a redemption. Others feel she'd crossed the MoralEventHorizon and deserved to die (since her last action is trying to kill her own sister when she realised she could no longer use her). Some of this has changed as the years go on and with greater awareness of emotional abuse, which is what Christy's behaviour amounts to. |
| 47 | ** Inspector Sheridan is starting to get this as well. While there are plenty who take her as the insufferable HateSink she was intended as, some do sympathise with her for being kept in the dark about the existence of magic, and Agent Brody keeping her in a coma for weeks. |
| 48 | * BestKnownForTheFanservice: |
| 49 | ** Overall, this is best known as that show with the three sexy witch sisters. It's sometimes talked about as though the sisters were {{Stripperiffic}} in every episode, when even in Season 6 (the season known for being skimpy), the sisters always had a mixture of modest outfits to revealing ones. |
| 50 | ** "Coyote Piper" is named for the one {{Fanservice}} scene where a possessed Piper does a sexy table dance in a ShoutOut to the movie ''Film/CoyoteUgly'' - which is almost a BigLippedAlligatorMoment. |
| 51 | ** "Ms Hellfire" is remembered for being the episode where Prue walks around in sexy black leather outfits to impersonate a hitwoman. |
| 52 | ** Quite a few episodes were marketed around the fact that there would be {{Fanservice}} in them. "A Witch's Tail" for Phoebe's skimpy mermaid outfit, "I Dream of Phoebe" for the genie costume, "Valhalley of the Dolls" for the valkyries' {{Chainmail Bikini}}s. "The Bare Witch Project" even made a big deal about Phoebe being nude doing Lady Godiva - when it's a two-minute scene at the end of the episode. |
| 53 | ** "Battle of the Hexes" has Billie in a sexy Wonder Woman-inspired outfit and something about a gender equality lesson. |
| 54 | * BrokenBase: |
| 55 | ** The infamous feud between Creator/ShannenDoherty and Creator/AlyssaMilano still causes heated debates among ''Charmed'' fans to this day, despite the fact that the two actresses seem to be at peace with one another now. In 2023, after Shannen Doherty's podcast shed new light on her departure from the show, it ignited the rivalry between the fans all over again despite both actresses wishing to move on. |
| 56 | ** The Aesop of "Morality Bites" - is it CantGetAwayWithNuthin and ridiculously anvilicious? |
| 57 | ** And for that matter, which era is better? The Prue years or the Paige years? A lot of it can depend on when someone first started watching the series. Living TV in the UK originally could only air Seasons 4-8 for ages due to the same rights issues that prolonged the first three seasons coming out on DVD. As one would expect, it all depends on how the viewer feels about Prue as a character. People who prefer that era tend to also prefer her as a strong lead character who helps ground the show alongside the other two, while people who prefer the Paige Era tend to prefer its more ensemble nature and therefore dislike Prue for being the SpotlightStealingSquad. |
| 58 | ** Was Billie the CreatorsPet or the CreatorsPest? Sure she was shoehorned in by ExecutiveMeddling wanting a YoungerAndHipper character, as well as a new MsFanservice (as the three leads were getting fed up with the skimpy outfits) - and her arc about finding her sister took over the main season's plot. But then again, the writers resented having to get rid of Leo because of budget cuts (and even took pay cuts to allow for him to appear in the series finale) - and it's possible she was written to be particularly obnoxious in the middle of the season for these reasons.[[note]]She actually gets several episodes that are {{Take That}}s - notably where her reckless demon hunting puts her in danger, and she has to suffer BreakTheHaughty with regards to her misandry.[[/note]] By the end of the season, she's essentially lost everything and given a depressing ending - with the only glimmer of hope for her character is Phoebe forgiving her in the DistantFinale. |
| 59 | ** There's also the GenreShift that started around Season 3 but became very noticeable around Season 5. Season 1 was LowFantasy, with Season 2 downplaying the magic into an almost SliceOfLife formula. Seasons 3 and 4 made things more action-packed but still to a tone resembling the first two. By Season 5, more overt fantasy elements like mermaids, leprechauns and unicorns were introduced. Some fans of the first seasons didn't like this, feeling the show got away from what made it special. Others welcomed the change and enjoyed the more fantastical elements (some in fact feel the first two seasons are too mundane). A lot of this has to do with the SciFiGhetto - where fantasy was seen as incredibly childish in the late 90s and early 2000s, not becoming a more acceptable mainstream genre until the successes of ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' and ''Film/HarryPotter''. |
| 60 | ** The ''Charmed'' comics definitely fall under here. Some people like them for continuing the series, bringing back old characters, and re-establishing the Charmed Ones as the most powerful witches. Others, however, dislike them for the treatment of old characters, the fact that they've used Shannen Doherty's likeness against her wishes, the fact that they whitewashed Darryl Morris, and the way they've twisted Charmed canon. |
| 61 | ** Which sister [[SpotlightStealingSquad hijacked the show for herself]]? Was it Prue, who always had to be the one to save the day lest we forget she's ''The'' Superwitch? Was it Phoebe, with her never-ending drama with Cole, their endless trips through the HeelFaceRevolvingDoor, and later her string of boyfriends? Was it Piper, with her cyclical marital problems and her most special child in the world whom everybody in the magical community was after? Ask any fan and you'll get a different answer – usually the sister they like the least. (The only consensus is usually that Paige got the short end of the stick in terms of screentime and main plot relevance). |
| 62 | ** The outfits from Season 2 onwards. Many fans bemoaned the sisters becoming HotterAndSexier, especially Phoebe having a ShamelessFanserviceGirl persona and the resulting CuteMonsterGirl costumes, with one of the head writers even leaving after Season 5 because of it. This camp finds the attempts at sexiness more degrading or amusing than titillating. But there are just as many fans who like the clothes, pointing out that the sisters' wardrobes were essentially mainstream fashion for twentysomething women living in 90s and 2000s San Francisco, and there were always a mix of modest and revealing outfits. It's also worth noting that Piper was usually the most modest sister, and Shannen Doherty has spoken about how that was because Holly Marie Combs tended to wear whatever the wardrobe department picked for her, while the rest of them had more of a say in what they wore - she herself often going shopping with the wardrobe mistress to pick her own clothes. |
| 63 | * CharacterRerailment: After Phoebe spent Seasons 5-6 becoming much more selfish, unlikable and obsessed with finding 'the one', Season 7 and 8 restored her to a much kinder presence while also deconstructing her SerialRomeo behaviour (showing that she was badly affected by so many failed relationships) - and having her do more selfless things such as willingly putting her life on the line when she knew she was on Death's list. Basically she was her same self from the first four seasons, just with more CharacterDevelopment. |
| 64 | * ClicheStorm: The episode "Chick Flick" parodies all the typical slasher movie cliches when a demon releases psycho killers from horror movies and sends them after the sisters. Since their powers don't work on the killers, the sisters have to follow the typical cliches. And there's a nice little shout out to ''Psycho''. |
| 65 | -->'''Piper:''' I'm being stalked by psycho killers and I hide in the ''shower''? |
| 66 | * CriticalBacklash: With the overwhelming hatred directed to the later seasons, some fans have come to their defence in recent years, and pointed out that they have their good qualities, that the early seasons aren't exempt from [[FranchiseOriginalSin those same criticisms]], and that the quality of the show is still quite high. There are many fan favourite episodes to be found in the later seasons. |
| 67 | * CreatorsPet: All the sisters except possibly Paige have been accused of this at some point. |
| 68 | ** Prue in her tenure is known among her detractors as the ultimate SpotlightStealingSquad, who redirects all storylines back to her, including most glaringly an episode about Piper's wedding ("Just Harried") being dominated by another Prue storyline, is favoured by the narrative for misusing her magic when the others are criticised for the same things, spends every season except the third with more powers than her sisters and even demonstrates skills she shouldn't feasibly have - in "Wrestling With Demons", she pulls off SheFu moves with just her telekinesis, and outperforms Phoebe who has both levitation powers ''and'' martial arts training. While she's not immune from needing to be rescued ("Ms Hellfire", "Sin Francisco", "Sight Unseen") and does suffer BreakTheHaughty from time time, it's still noticeable. |
| 69 | ** Phoebe is frequently accused of this in Seasons 5-6. Some other seasons also give her priority in the storylines. One of the things fans find positive about Season 8 is that this levels off, though it took awhile for fans to start noticing that it had really begun in Season 7. There are several reasons to call this favoritism into question, though: for one, Phoebe is the only sister ever shown to suffer serious and long-lasting consequences for abusing her magic, something all the sisters tended to do more and more as the seasons went by. Also, in the last three seasons, not only is she increasingly OutOfFocus, relegated to her own side-plots with little bearing to the general storyline, she's also the only one with no full resolution to any of her character arcs: finding love and starting a family get at least a rushed mention in the flash-forward scene, but balancing personal and magic life, as well as gaining all her active powers back are both left completely hanging. So much for favouritism! |
| 70 | ** A strong case could be made for Piper in the last few seasons. Season 5 still managed to keep a good balance among the sisters, but come Season 6 and the show starts revolving entirely on Piper, her sons and her husband. Paige becomes even more out of focus than Phoebe, goes from one dead-end subplot to the next and is often just used as a cosmic taxi for her sisters. It gets to the point that the series finale is all about Piper's time travels and hardly features Phoebe and Paige at all (though that's partly due to RealLifeWritesThePlot and WrittenInAbsence); even the very last scene of the show is not the three sisters together, but Piper, Leo and their grandchildren. |
| 71 | * DesignatedHero: |
| 72 | ** The Charmed Ones by Series 5, with Phoebe and Piper being the worst offenders. They spend most of their time complaining about and shirking their responsibilities, ignore saving innocents to focus on their own petty problems and use their status as the Charmed Ones to act like [[EntitledBastard entitled bastards]], believing that the world ''owes'' them for saving it a few times! The "heroes" also spend their time condemning Cole as irredeemably evil from the moment he returns despite forgiving (or flat out ignoring) Phoebe constantly being in identical situations. It only gets worse from there before it gets better, what with Phoebe's utterly shallow approach to men (especially after being dumped by Jason Dean), Piper's zeal for a normal life overtaking both hers and Leo's duties, Paige's penchant for violent solutions to problems even when it's unnecessary, the girls' thankless habit of enlisting Darryl to risk his life to bail them out of situations, and even Leo subtly absorbing some of the worst "ends-justify-the-means" traits from the sisters, the Elders, and BadFuture [[KidFromTheFuture Chris]]. |
| 73 | ** Penny Halliwell is touted as a badass matriarch of the Halliwell line. Yet she is a StrawFeminist of the worst degree, ready to disown her own great-grandson just because he's a boy - because she believes that all men are inherently evil. Rather than outright showing how horrible these ideas are, the show tries to play her sympathetically - which certainly ''wouldn't'' be the case if she [[DoubleStandard were a man]]. Even though she does learn AnAesop, she occasionally reverts back to her old attitude. |
| 74 | ** Paige in the latter half of Season 4. Her mistrust of Cole is presented as a CassandraTruth when she's actually RightForTheWrongReasons. She simply believes Cole has made a FaceHeelTurn of his own free will because he ''used'' to be a demon, despite his demon half getting vanquished before her eyes. She never once considers the possibility that he's being manipulated - which he actually ''is''. She just decides he's evil and tries to convince the sisters of it. |
| 75 | ** Piper in Season 8. Her attempts [[spoiler: to get Leo back]] result in her driving Billie as far away from the sisters as possible and make it easy for Billie's sister to corrupt her and successfully turn her evil. She does this on the ''suspicion'' that the two are the evil they need to fight (and everyone - even the Elder she asked - noted it was only a possibility). |
| 76 | * DieForOurShip: Dan is widely disliked because he existed as an obstacle preventing Piper from getting together with Leo, with one post from the day calling him a "[[BigStupidDoodooHead a greasy butt-crack poo-flap!]]" |
| 77 | * DracoInLeatherPants: |
| 78 | ** Cole Turner, big time. He does become a DesignatedVillain and UnintentionallySympathetic in Season 5, but a lot of his fans tend to play up those aspects while glossing over his [[StalkerWithACrush stalkerish]], [[EntitledToHaveYou entitled]], {{Yandere}} behaviour in the face of Phoebe's clear, unambiguous rejection. On the magical side of things, he's undeniably a victim of circumstances, but that still doesn't excuse his disregard of Phoebe's boundaries, feelings and desire to move on with her life. |
| 79 | ** Phoebe herself in the same situation, where she's sometimes touted as a victim of abuse who never did anything wrong and was ProperlyParanoid, thereby justifying her treatment of Cole. This is ignoring that Cole only became the Source because he was tricked, and became so literally jumping in front of a fireball to save Phoebe's life and those of her sisters, and Phoebe herself is the one who torpedoed his attempts to get rid of the Source's powers and refused to help Cole in the wasteland when he was facing CessationOfExistence. And after Cole returns, she decides to blame him for any and every demon that comes after them, even physically assaulting him twice when he'd done nothing wrong - one of those times being when he was trying to warn her that she was about to leave with the demon of the week. While his actions towards the end of his arc make her [[DamnedByFaintPraise look better by comparison]], she is far from sympathetic in the situation. |
| 80 | ** [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] with Chris in that he was ever only shady at worst, not truly evil, but most of his die-hard fans, who clamour that the Charmed Ones and Leo "mistreated and ignored" him before they found out [[spoiler:that he's Piper and Leo's second son]], seem to forget that he spent the entire first half of season six manipulating and lying to literally ''everyone'', and some of his ends-justify-the-means actions include colluding with demons time and time again, letting some into the Manor with no warning to the Sisters, disrupting Piper's family life, kidnapping Leo, and even one on-screen murder of a Valkyrie (with another two implied off-screen) to get the sisters their Valkyrie pendants. Even though his motives turned out to be noble, his actions still left plenty of reason for the sisters and Leo (and even the audience) to suspect, mistrust and keep him at arm's length. |
| 81 | ** To those who don't consider her an irredeemable HateSink, Christy Jenkins can get this, due to her very sympathetic backstory - abducted from her room as a little girl and raised among demons for fifteen years. She's shown capability for love, such as being genuinely heartbroken over the deaths of her parents, and appearing to love Billie in her own twisted way. However, it's often forgotten that she spends most of her screen time {{Gaslighting}} Billie and forcing her to use lethal force against the Charmed Ones - and at one point Billie is horrified at the idea of killing Piper and leaving her children without their mother, but Christy doesn't care. [[spoiler: Her death]] is also brought about by [[spoiler: being offered the chance to start over, [[RedemptionRejection and she just tries to kill her sister in response]].]] A TragicVillain yes, but one who was fully aware of everything she was doing, and was given multiple chances to make a HeelFaceTurn that she happily rejected. |
| 82 | * EvilIsCool: The series' evildoers have awesome abilities like throwing energy balls and fireballs, among other powers. They tend to be decked out in awesome black clothes and are played by top-notch actors, like Creator/TobinBell, Creator/RonPerlman, Creator/DavidCarradine, Creator/BillyDrago and Creator/OdedFehr among others who frequently steal the show. |
| 83 | * FairForItsDay: |
| 84 | ** "Charrrmed!" from Season 7 is the only episode in the series to feature a lesbian couple (in a show set in San Francisco!) and one is [[BuryYourGays killed off]] as a SacrificialLamb (they're also not seen interacting). However, neither are portrayed stereotypically, their sexuality is incidental and not used for a GirlOnGirlIsHot moment and Paige is extremely determined to rescue Brenda from the demons - treating her the same as any other innocent. |
| 85 | ** "The Eyes Have It" has a surprisingly positive depiction of Romani, in contrast to ''Series/The10thKingdom'' (which villified them) and ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' (which had a sympathetic but still very dark portrayal). While they are MagicalRomani (and considering it's a FantasyKitchenSink show about witches, magic was probably going to be baked right in to any portrayal regardless) and the unflattering slur 'gypsy' is used, they're shown to be sister species to witches, the HotGypsyWoman trope is averted with powerful matriarchs like Teresa and Lydia (and while Ava is certainly attractive, she's not exoticised). |
| 86 | ** The storyline with Paige being tempted to the dark side involves her being tempted into killing an abusive father. And the end of the story, after the man is spared, it's revealed he was actually innocent and was covering for his wife.[[note]] He threatens his wife at the end if she continues mistreating their child, implying he might not have been aware of the abuse until he was blamed for it and wasn't passively allowing it, either.[[/note]] On one hand, the abusive mother is never punished, suggesting child abuse isn't serious if a woman does it, especially since the child is still in her care at the end. On the other hand, the story does subvert AllAbusersAreMale and acknowledging that someone accused of a horrifying crime can actually be innocent is also a decent Aesop. |
| 87 | * {{Fanon}}: |
| 88 | ** Fans have a quote that's often attributed to Piper that goes "Life ain't a garden, so quit being a ho". While it is something she probably would say, [[BeamMeUpScotty she never says it at any point in the series]]. |
| 89 | ** Likewise fans assumed that Piper's unnamed third child in the finale is named Melinda — after the daughter that she had in the alternate future in "Morality Bites". This usually ignores that when Wyatt was thought to be a girl, Piper mentions that she was planning to name the daughter after Prue, though the fact is sometimes accounted for by calling her ''Prudence'' Melinda. This eventually became AscendedFanon in the comics where the child is named Melinda. |
| 90 | ** Despite the fact that no organized LaResistance is ever even mentioned, fans often have Chris be the creator and leader of a resistance against Wyatt in the unchanged future. |
| 91 | * FanPreferredCouple: |
| 92 | ** Despite Phoebe ending up with Coop, Phoebe/Cole is far more popular, due to the LoveRedeems nature of it — and Creator/JulianMcMahon really making Cole into quite TheWoobie. |
| 93 | ** In terms of same-sex pairings, Phoebe is shipped with Kyra the seer from Season 7 quite often, due to their close friendship in the episode "Witchness Protection" and both admitting that they care about each other. |
| 94 | ** Although Prue's recurring love interests are Andy Trudeau and Jack Sheridan, her most popular pairing is with Bane Jessup from "Ms Hellfire" and "Give Me A Sign", due to the intense chemistry between Shannen Doherty and Antonio Sabato Jr, and him being [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys a bad boy]] with plenty of redeeming qualities. |
| 95 | * FanPreferredCutContent: The episode "Morality Bites" supposedly had ten minutes' worth of deleted scenes, and fans have been clamouring for them to be made available for years. |
| 96 | * FanonDiscontinuity: A small but vocal subsection of the fan base (the Prue-leaning side) choose to pretend that the show ends before her death. But given that the Season 3 finale "All Hell Breaks Loose" is a cliffhanger with all three sisters facing certain death, some will tacitly acknowledge Season 4 and pretend that it ends with "Witch Way Now?" - which has a hopeful enough ending of the sisters deciding to keep their magic, and Piper discovering she's pregnant. Some Cole fans will choose to end at "Charmed & Dangerous", ignoring the final twist of him being infected by the power of the Source so that he and Phoebe can have their happily ever after. |
| 97 | * FandomRivalry: |
| 98 | ** Back in the 2000s with those of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', sparking CommonKnowledge that ''Charmed'' was created to piggyback off ''Buffy'''s success (ignoring Constance M Burge saying that the networks didn't think the witchcraft was a good sell until the characters were made sisters). This has largely died off over time, and there are multiple fans of both. |
| 99 | ** Likewise with those of ''Film/TheCraft'', since a spin-off TV series of that was planned but didn't happen largely because of ''Charmed''. Actresses Robin Tunney and Rachel True even called it a rip-off. Again, these days there are fans of both. |
| 100 | ** With the [[Series/Charmed2018 reboot]], of all series, fuelled also by the online feud between the old and new casts and crews. Fans of the original are outraged that the network would piggyback off the recognisable name after all the ExecutiveMeddling and [[NoBudget budget cuts]] the series had to endure, resent that none of the old personnel were involved at any point, were alienated by the radical changes in lore / lack of continuity, and found the initial press release describing the reboot as a "fierce, funny, feminist" take on the original as disrespecting and missing its entire point and legacy. Fans of the reboot retort that the original was not FairForItsDay in regards of inclusivity or minority representation, and often accuse the old fans of disliking the reboot out of sheer racism / not wanting to let [=PoC=] audiences have their own ''Charmed''. The reboot ending with [[spoiler:the Vera/Denso Charmed Ones travelling to a parallel universe only to find themselves at the doorstep of Halliwell Manor, thus establishing that the two shows take part in the same multiverse (without consulting any of the original producers)]], escalated the feud and wrecked any hopes of reconciliation for the majority of both fandoms. |
| 101 | * FandomSpecificPlot: |
| 102 | ** Since Prue and Paige never interact on screen, one of the most popular plots for fan fiction is to have the two meet; usually as a ghost or through some form of time travel. There's also the popular AU story in which Prue survives, and the four sisters exist together. [[spoiler:The comics cover this subject quite extensively.]] |
| 103 | ** A subset of fanfics are known as "Chris revelation fics", which alter how his true identity is revealed, invariably in ways which increase the drama and/or angst level compared to canon, and sometimes even alter what his true identity is. "Almost obligatory" for a writer in the fandom to have written such a story. |
| 104 | * FranchiseOriginalSin: |
| 105 | ** Seasons 6 and 7 were criticized for Phoebe's SerialRomeo tendencies and an excessive focus on her love life (though it did mellow off in season 8), with ShowRunner Brad Kern in particular taking the heat for it. But the show had previously endured a RomanticPlotTumor back in Season 2 with the LoveTriangle between Piper, Dan, and Leo. That love triangle gets far less fan hate, however, as it was finished by the end of the season, and Piper stayed with Leo for pretty much the entire series afterwards. It also helps that Creator/HollyMarieCombs definitely had the chops to make a poorly-written storyline work. |
| 106 | ** Later seasons' criticisms of episodes getting DenserAndWackier can also be traced back to season 2, which had plenty of silly episodes (girls transform animals into their dates, an evil Cupid splitting up couples) and a heap of {{Narm}} ("That Old Black Magic" in particular). Writing and production values got better in season 3, leading to the show GrowingTheBeard -- making the later SeasonalRot that much harder to take. |
| 107 | ** The shameless {{fanservice}} the show got attacked for in later seasons (to the point where even the show's stars pushed back against it) was there as far back as season 1 in parts, with Prue wearing some very inappropriate clothing in her office, and the sisters were getting dolled up for nights at P3 as early as season 2. But the {{stripperiffic}} CuteMonsterGirl costumes didn't really surface until season 5. |
| 108 | ** Some fans hated the GenreShift towards more overt fantasy elements in season 5. The episode "Once Upon A Time" in season 3 is the first of these, but it isn't disliked by fans too much, mainly because it's only one episode in an otherwise dark season, there is some worries involved to keep the episode in tone with the rest, and there's no blatant {{Fanservice}}. Phoebe and Prue just act like children when they're hit with fairy dust. Had this episode been made two seasons later, they probably would have shoe-horned a FairySexy costume in. |
| 109 | ** While there was a unfavorable change in Phoebe's character in Seasons 5-8 a large portion of fans have marked Season 3 where Phoebe's character began the decline. While season 3 is highly regarded as the best season its generally agreed Phoebe's character derailment is the worst part. The episode "Sleuthing with the Enemy" particularly gets noted as the start of this where she suddenly grows a self centered personality (dumping her responsibilities onto an already stressed Piper and throwing Prue's distrust of Cole in her face) Phoebe also becomes obsessively lovestruck with Cole to the point where she's choosing her love for him over her sisters which began the birth of her later season counterpart. |
| 110 | ** In the same season, Piper's "I want a normal life" wangst begins to worsen. In the episode ''Once Upon A Time'', she indirectly puts ''a child's life'' in danger by going on a strike to get her boyfriend back from the Eldes. However she doesn't get it as bad because her scenes with Leo don't take up a large portion of this season, and she still has her occasional snark. Plus the Elders being JerkassGods against Piper all season helped more in her favor. In Piper's defense as well, she simply didn't believe there were any trolls because they couldn't be seen by adults, and once she's given definitive proof (via being attacked by the trolls herself) that they do, she joins them with only a little bit of a bad attitude that disappears when they initially fail. What's more and unlike in later examples, Piper actually has a HeelRealization that she uses to convince the little girl to not run away like she had been, showing far more emotional maturity than she would have in the latter half of the series when faced with similar situations. |
| 111 | ** In ''Charmed and Dangerous'', the sisters create an explosive potion as a last resort to mimic Piper's stolen power. Come Season Six, just throwing random explosive potions at demons becomes the default way of vanquishing them, a far cry from the creative methods from the earlier seasons. |
| 112 | ** The ProtagonistCenteredMorality the Halliwells were accused of in later seasons can be traced right back to Prue. She was frequently put on the moral high ground compared to her sisters, the narrative would bend so that Prue would be either right or otherwise justified, and she would never be called out for her actions like the other two. A lot of the criticisms hurled at Billie's character were pretty much the same flaws that Prue had in her earliest persona - being a SpotlightStealingSquad, impossibly overpowered, the narrative favoring her viewpoint over the others. Kaley Cuoco however didn't have as big a fan base as Shannen Doherty, and Prue had the benefit of three seasons' worth of CharacterDevelopment - making this an early problem that was eventually fixed more or less. |
| 113 | ** The controversial scene in "Hyde School Reunion", where Phoebe and Paige set up a human to be killed by demons is reminiscent of Season 2's "Astral Monkey", in which Dr Williams is killed fighting the sisters likewise in a situation where other options were probably available. The difference there is that Dr Williams was BrainwashedAndCrazy and died in self-defence, with Piper trying to prevent it for as long as she could. And even when Prue and Phoebe act rather blasé about the whole thing, Piper has a scene where she reminds them that he was a person who lost his life because of them, and the episode has one of the only {{Downer Ending}}s in the series - so the tragedy of the situation isn't ignored. |
| 114 | * GirlShowGhetto: Broke out of it, despite executives worrying. Even with all the excessive {{Fanservice}} to draw in male viewers, the show was a ratings hit and lasted for eight seasons. It was even the longest running TV show with female leads until ''Series/DesperateHousewives'' broke its record. |
| 115 | * GrowingTheBeard: |
| 116 | ** Season 1 is viewed as flawed, but decent. Season 2 is highly divisive, but most fans agree that Season 3 is where the show really got good. That and Season 4 are viewed as the two strongest seasons. |
| 117 | ** Within Season 1 itself, creators point to "Dead Man Dating" as the episode where they properly found their feet. |
| 118 | * HamAndCheese: The villains, particularly in later seasons. And almost any time the sisters were turned evil. |
| 119 | * HeartwarmingInHindsight: A slightly weird one. In Season 8 Paige glamours herself into Janice Dickinson to publicly cry at her fake funeral. When the press were trying to discredit Janice Dickinson for accusing Bill Cosby of raping her, Rose [=McGowan=] publicly came to her defence. |
| 120 | * ItWasHisSled: Chris is [[spoiler:Piper and Leo's KidFromTheFuture]]. When the show first aired, his identity and intentions were a mystery for nearly the whole season. |
| 121 | * JerkassWoobie: Cole. For the most part, his story is pretty tragic and sympathetic and he comes across as a bona fide [[TheWoobie Woobie]]: he starts off as a seasoned demonic assassin who [[HeelFaceTurn turns good]] because he [[LoveRedeems falls in love]] with Phoebe Halliwell. After a [[EarnYourHappyEnding great deal of work]], he becomes a normal human and we watch him struggle to adjust. He then gets corrupted by the powers of the Source of All Evil in order to [[HeroicSacrifice save the Charmed Ones]], and even then, he tries to fight through the evil influence for the love of Phoebe, especially once she gets pregnant. It's Phoebe herself who precipitates the situation (albeit under the Seer's manipulation and the influence of her demonic pregnancy), leading to him being vanquished by the Charmed Ones. After he manages to comes back, the sisters just [[HeelFaceDoorSlam flat out dismissed him as evil]], refuse to acnowledge that most of his past circumstances where out of his control, and just watch him spiral into suicidal depression and utter insanity, with Phoebe especially acting disproportionately mean to him. However, the jerkass part comes from his refusal to respect Phoebe's boundaries when she unambiguously refuses to get together with him, no matter his current alignment, and the fact that he goes off the deep end in his {{Yandere}}-ish pursuit of her, even trumpling all over her deep bond with her sisters when he directly endangers them in his pursuit of her. His EntitledToHaveYou attitude has aged rather poorly, pushing him into jerkass territory with more current audiences. |
| 122 | * JerksAreWorseThanVillains: |
| 123 | ** Prue's detractors will hold up her cold demeanor and aloof behaviour in Season 1 against her far more, even though much of this is borne out of discovering that she's a witch and therefore she and her sisters now have a target on their backs (in the first episode, her first worry is about "centuries of evil" coming after them) and fearing that her irresponsible youngest sister is going to expose them by misusing their magic. Her KnightTemplar behaviour in Season 3 is also stemming from knowing about demonic organisations that are trying to kill them. The actual villains Rex and Hannah, and the Triad are ruthlessly evil and don't care about the numerous innocents they slaughter in trying to get to the sisters. |
| 124 | ** Cole Turner tried to kill the sisters multiple times in between having a HeelFaceTurn in Season 4. He gives in to villainy in Season 5 when Phoebe continues to reject him, and this results in him doing several things to try and kill the Charmed Ones. But because Phoebe TookALevelInJerkass too that season, she tends to get as much hate; since she refuses to help him at first and doesn't accept any responsibility for her own actions in the previous season, some fans tend to sympathise with Cole. Phoebe was never more than a little self-centered, got frequently called on her actions and was actually punished for a while by being de-powered - but she was one of the most despised things about Season 5. |
| 125 | ** Season 7 features Zankou, a powerful and evil demon who sacrifices his allies to get ahead. He was beloved by fans for his badassery, charisma, and intelligence. In contrast, fans hated Inspector Sheridan from the same season, an InspectorJavert trying to expose the sisters' magical abilities, for being annoying and jerkish. |
| 126 | ** In contrast between the Jenkins sisters, Christy was the irredeemable BloodKnight who WouldHurtAChild. Billie was the AntiVillain who was misled and pulled a HeelFaceTurn at the last minute. Billie is hated more for being considered annoying, selfish and occasionally obnoxious. In this case, Billie was around for more episodes. |
| 127 | * JustHereForGodzilla: A lot of fans watch "The Good, The Bad and the Cursed" solely for the ShipTease between Prue and Cole. |
| 128 | * LauncherOfAThousandShips: Given Darryl was the one prominent male character who wasn't paired romantically with any of the sisters, he's a fairly popular choice for shipping with them. The most popular choices are Prue - usually spurred on by the scene in "Witch Trial" of the two bonding over Andy's death - and Paige, given their backgrounds in similar fields. |
| 129 | * LGBTFanbase |
| 130 | ** Given that the series is about three (eventually four) beautiful women in increasingly fashionable clothes, has a CastFullOfPrettyBoys as their love interests, plenty of equal opportunity {{Fanservice}} and generous doses of {{Camp}}, the show has a significant queer fan base. |
| 131 | ** The comics also have a notable queer fanbase thanks to one-shot character Tyler Brunsun becoming an AscendedExtra, and his relationship with his boyfriend is treated both in and out of universe just as seriously as any other relationship. |
| 132 | * LesYay: The lesbian vampires. Paige gets a couple, like being kissed by nymphs and mentioning how cute Darryl's wife is. Also, there isn't quite as much IncestSubtext as you would think (a lot less in ''Charmed'' than there is in ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', for example), but there was an episode where Phoebe was channeling a guy's lust towards Piper. Both sisters are [[{{Squick}} a bit creeped out]]. Phoebe and Kyra, almost to the point of Lampshading. |
| 133 | * LoveToHate: |
| 134 | ** Debbi Morgan was in a unique role as the Seer, contrasting with the EvilIsHammy of most demons. Her conniving, menacing performance makes the Seer both unnerving and kind of brilliant. Some fans would have preferred for her to have been introduced earlier. |
| 135 | ** Oded Fehr helps make Zankou one of the best received villains on the show, all thanks to his charismatic performance. |
| 136 | * MagnificentBastard: In their battle against the forces of evil, the Charmed Ones have faced some truly genius and charismatic foes. These are the most brilliant that the forces of evil have to offer against The Power of Three: |
| 137 | ** [[BeingEvilSucks Kyra "The Seer"]] is introduced as a DeadpanSnarker psychic demon KnowledgeBroker who's just as comfortable helping the heroes as she is giving a demon-human hybrid the information necessary to murder his entire family. Kyra shows a knack for avoiding harm from unsatisfied clients due to seeing their attacks coming. When one of her visions reveals that the Avatars are on the verge of wiping out demonkind, Kyra wants the Whitelighters to make her human to escape that fate. She bargains with a vision that she's seen of the Avatars' game plans while misleading them on how dire it is so they'll be willing to accept her deal. Yet pragmatism isn't Kyra's only motive for wanting to become human, secretly being sick of the centuries she's spent abetting evil and feels a sense of loss in being biologically incapable of feeling love and other emotions that visions let her see others experiencing. Kyra's desire to become human for the right reasons quickly becomes her defining trait. While she ultimately is killed by a demon unhappy by her betrayal, it's due to circumstances no one could have seen coming, and in the sequel comics [[EarnYourHappyEnding is resurrected and made human just like she wanted to be]]. |
| 138 | ** Season 1: "[[DirtyCop Inspector Rodriguez]]" is an upper-level demon posing as a police officer to investigate the deaths of his brethren at the hands of the Charmed Ones. Discovering the Charmed Ones' identities, Rodriguez kills his human police partner and then frames their ally Andy Tredeu for the murder. Rodriguez uses the framing to manipulate Andy into getting the Charmed Ones into one place by playing on his love for Prue Haliwell to ensure she brings all her sisters to help confront him as planned. Getting help from the demon Tempus, who locks the Charmed Ones into an endless GroundhogDayLoop, Rodriguez is able to use it to recover and improve ways to kill all of them for good, leading to a NearVillainVictory for the forces of evil. Calm, badass and giving the Charmed Ones their first major defeat by killing Andy permanently, Rodriguez would ultimately show the true power of the Underworld. |
| 139 | ** "[[Recap/CharmedS1E22DejaVuAllOverAgain Déjà Vu All Over Again]]" : [[TimeMaster Tempus, the Demon of Time]], is a charismatic, laid back upper-level demon with the ability to control time. Tempus contacts and makes a deal with Inspector Rodriguez to have the Charmed Ones gathter in one place, telling him he has a way to "allow him to improve from his mistakes". Tempus creates a GroundhogDayLoop which resets upon Rodriguez's death and sets time to earlier on in the day, and uses it as a way to contact and help Rodriguez improve his method for killing the Charmed Ones. Tempus ensures that each loop stays exactly the same but for the way that the Charmed Ones are killed, to ensure its effectiveness and lead to victory being only one loop away. |
| 140 | ** "[[Recap/CharmedS8E13RepoManor Repo Manor]]": [[WellIntentionedExtremist Savard]] is a crafty demon who will go to any length to free his species from horrible slavery at the hands of the powerful demon the "Slave King". Knowing that only the "Power of Three" can defeat the Slave King, Savard trains [[TheWeirdSisters three apprentices]] to try to copy it by learning the motivations of the Charmed Ones and eventually comes up with a scheme to drain their powers using a magic dollhouse. Eventually Savard kidnaps Phoebe Halliwell and [[CaptureAndReplicate replaces her with one of his apprentices]] to discover if the Power of Three would still be in effect with them. When it succeeds, he does the same with Paige Matthews. Having his apprentices manipulate Piper Haliwell into finding the Vanquish potion for the Slave King by preying on her wanting her lost husband back, Savard is able to defeat the Slave King and free his people. |
| 141 | ** "[[Recap/CharmedS8E21KillBillieVol2 Kill Billie Vol. 2]]": [[VisionaryVillain Nomed]] is a snarky and cunning lower-level demon who desires to vanquish the powerful, demonic Triad to allow the new generation of demons to finally arise from the shadow of the old. Manipulating the Charmed One into an EnemyMine and correctly deducing their whereabouts from their behaviour, Nomed helps reveal the survival of The Triad and convinces them he will act as their spy to discover the plans of the Triad to use the power draining Hollow. Convincing the Charmed Ones to use the Hollow themselves, Nomed gives them information on the whereabouts of the Triad and sends them there, leading to the end of the old generation of demons. One of the show's most successful villains, Nomed ultimately helps to usher in the rise of the new generation of demons and achieves everything he wants. |
| 142 | * MemeticMutation: Prue's "they think we're the demons now" is one of the most remembered quotes from the show. |
| 143 | * MisBlamed: Brad Kern is blamed for a lot of problems with the show, due to him taking over after creator Constance M Burge left. This is quite ironic, as Burge left over Kern's decision to introduce Cole - who is a fan favourite. While Burge gets no backlash for being responsible for the much-loathed Piper and Dan romance, Kern is usually blamed for the focus on romance, vampy outfits and a LighterAndSofter tone in the fifth season. |
| 144 | * MorePopularReplacement: |
| 145 | ** Paige was brought onto the show to replace Prue but she was fleshed out into a completely different character than Prue and is quite popular among fans. Most people who say they prefer the episodes with Prue and dislike the later seasons don't have a problem with Paige herself but rather the difference in tone. In fact, Prue herself is a polarizing character, and Paige is the least polarizing of the sisters. It's quite telling that most fan fictions will actually try to incorporate all four sisters, speaking to how beloved Paige is. |
| 146 | ** Henry is considered the best of Paige's recurring love interests - and he shows up in the eighth season to [[spoiler: marry her for good]]. |
| 147 | ** Kyra is actually the third demonic seer to appear on the show; the previous two filling similar roles as fortune tellers for the Source. While initially a SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute, she soon became a fan favourite for her redemption in "Witchness Protection". |
| 148 | * SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound: |
| 149 | ** The sound of a whitelighter orbing. After Paige joined the show, the sound usually meant that she was about to use her powers to kick someone's ass. |
| 150 | ** All three sisters chanting "the Power of Three will set us free". It never failed to sound badass or epic. |
| 151 | ** Whenever Piper says "oh my" in an adorably precocious way. |
| 152 | * OnlyTheCreatorDoesItRight: While Constance M Burge actually wasn't the showrunner for the two most popular seasons (3 and 4), she was still Executive Consultant until Season 5, with many fans feeling the show went downhill once she wasn't around to offset some of Brad Kern's worse ideas. The departures of Nell Scovell and Krista Vernoff around the same time didn't help. |
| 153 | * OutOfTheGhetto: While the network treated the show like it was in the GirlShowGhetto, ''Charmed'' was consistently popular with both male and female viewers and drew consistently high ratings. |
| 154 | * QuestionableCasting: |
| 155 | ** Tony Denison was recast with James Read as Victor for this reason; namely that he looked far too young to be their father, and the network thought he came across as a simply older love interest. |
| 156 | ** Kaley Cuoco as Billie. Why would you give the comedic hip young actress the inconsistently-written melodramatic role from hell? |
| 157 | * RealismInducedHorror: Christy Jenkins is a disturbingly accurate example of an abusive sibling. She poses as a helpless victim to gain people's trust, and then sets about isolating Billie from her friends and turning everyone against her just so Christy is the only one she can depend on. The {{Gaslighting}} she resorts to is disturbingly realistic, as well as the way she manipulates Billie to bend to her will. |
| 158 | * ReplacementScrappy: |
| 159 | ** Surprisingly averted by Paige (except to Prue fans), her first season is considered to be one of the best seasons of the show (see SeasonalRot below). People don't seem to have a problem with Paige the character but rather some of the seasons she was in. |
| 160 | ** Billie in an odd way. She debuted in Season 8 not replacing anyone, but at the same time that Darryl was PutOnABus and Leo was eventually written out for ten episodes. This is one of the reasons her character was so badly received. |
| 161 | * RomanticPlotTumor: The love triangle between Piper, Leo and Dan in Season 2. Given that Leo already knew Piper was a witch and that she had saved his life in "Love Hurts" - as well as AnAesop at the end of "Morality Bites" that they should try to make their relationship work despite all obstacles - there was never any doubt in the fans' mind that Piper would choose anyone but him. The plot was stretched out across an entire season. It may have eventually been disliked by the creators themselves - as Constance M. Burge protested against Cole's introduction, not wanting another long running love story. Ironically Cole's story (which also had actual relevancy to the plot) was much better received than Dan's. |
| 162 | * RonTheDeathEater: |
| 163 | ** Phoebe in particular gets this worse than the other sisters, with her moments of selfishness being held against her; such as drifting away from her Charmed responsibilities, and obsessing over dating and finding the father of her baby. In actuality, her actions are shown as bad in-universe - when she loses all her powers as punishment for shirking her duties, gets dumped by Jason for not coming clean about being a witch, and is usually the one to suffer the most consequences from misusing her powers. She's also the only sister to be sympathetic to Billie even when they find out she's the Ultimate Power, and the DistantFinale shows she forgave her and dedicated her life to helping others find love. This is especially evident when she's pitted against Cole's DracoInLeatherPants: it's not uncalled for, as she is exaggerately harsh and distrustful of him before he even does anything wrong after he comes back, but the boundaries she sets, namely her final decision not to get back together with Cole, get regularly trampled over by him. It's hard not to sympathise with her frustration at her ex still acting [[EntitledToHaveYou entitled to have her]] on a good day, or plotting to destroy her whole life to get her back on a bad one, when she's trying to move over with her life. |
| 164 | ** Piper is often painted as a ruthless, vindictive harpy who abuses Leo and doesn't care who she hurts in her quest for a normal life. Any time she's particularly aggressive going after evil is usually when her sisters, children, husband or other innocent people are threatened. As for 'abusing' Leo, sure she has blown him up on occasion, but most of those instances were when she was under an evil spell - and when the spell wears off in "Bride & Gloom" and she thinks he's really dead, she's so horrified she becomes hysterical. Her actions in Season 8 are also all born out of a desire to keep her family safe and bring Leo back so their children can be reunited with their father. And while she complains about wanting a normal life, she will always help an innocent, and even tells Leo in "Malice in Wonderland" that she can't just ignore teenagers being attacked. |
| 165 | ** Cole on the flipside of the DracoInLeatherPants treatment he often receives for his Season 5 behaviour is sometimes painted as even worse for actions he did while infected by the Source. These tend to vilify him for not doing enough to fight off the corruption and claim he really knew what would happen when he absorbed the Hollow - when in the show itself, the Seer lies to him that he'll return to normal when the Source of vanquished, and he only does it knowing that it'll save Phoebe. This camp conflates Cole and the Source's actions as one in the same, when in actuality there are moments where Cole briefly fights off the influence, such as letting Paige be healed from the demonic power brokers, and nearly giving up the powers to the wizard. |
| 166 | * RootingForTheEmpire: Cole was treated as an outright villain when he returned in season 5 despite wanting to be good. It was just that Phoebe suddenly decided it was his fault for everything bad that had happened to her, ignoring her own mistakes and refusing to take responsibility for her own actions in the previous season. Many fans felt she treated him unfairly and applauded when he punched her in an alternate reality and when she was killed off briefly in another episode. It didn't help that Phoebe got some really heavy CharacterShilling in that season. |
| 167 | * TheScrappy: |
| 168 | ** An especially obvious example in its eighth and last season with Billie Jenkins, the main reason why the large majority of fans dislike the last season of the show. While the character had potential, her obnoxious qualities and PlotTumor of a storyline didn't endear her to many. She has been somewhat VindicatedByHistory (see below). |
| 169 | ** Phoebe also was hated after her treatment with Cole. Many fans called post Season Five Phoebe '[=PhoeMe=]'. She was somewhat redeemed in the eighth season for a few fans, her bitchy tendencies lessening, her SerialRomeo lifestyle getting Deconstructed and her outfits becoming less revealing. |
| 170 | ** Billie's sister Christy was this for a while, though she was somewhat RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap via AlasPoorScrappy. |
| 171 | ** Inspector Sheridan rapidly became this. Aside from her endangering TheMasquerade and the sisters both, thus showing the problems with bringing law enforcement into the supernatural realm, her ArbitrarySkepticism and [[InspectorJavert fanatical pursuit of 'justice' because she believed the sisters were criminals and killers]] made less and less sense as the series went on. At least the FBI agent pursuing the sisters in the first season had a good excuse (he was a demon). Granted, Sheridan did get put in mortal danger (though it was her own fault) and get her memory wiped for a long time, but by the time she remembered everything and could be said to have a valid reason for disliking the sisters, she was so detestable it was bordering on LaserGuidedKarma when she walked in on [[BigBad Zankou]] and got herself vaporized. Self Disposing Scrappy? |
| 172 | ** Dan and Jenny in Season 2. The first by way of DieForOurShip, as he was an obvious RomanticFalseLead for Piper - and had no personality other than being hot and occasionally jealous. Jenny mainly because she's in four episodes, gets put in the credits, and is then PutOnABus before she could do anything. |
| 173 | ** Leslie isn't necessarily ''hated'', but the character was so obviously there to hype up Nick Lachey guest starring that he doesn't have too many fans. Not to mention that his first episode states he'll only be in San Francisco for two months, meaning it's practically a ForegoneConclusion that he and Phoebe won't last. |
| 174 | * SeasonalRot: Fans are divided on where the show started to go downhill, although there is a small subsection of fans who still enjoy the later seasons, as seen by several good points listed about the lesser liked ones. |
| 175 | ** A lot of fans [[SophomoreSlump dislike Season 2]] for its episodic nature, emphasis on the non-magical lives of the girls, and the love triangle between Dan, Piper and Leo. However, it’s been partially VindicatedByHistory and is now considered classic ''Charmed'' thanks to its strong characterisation, the emphasis on the family bond, the amount of positive character growth for all three sisters, and the great number of very well-written individual episodes that make up for the lack of a wider-scope storyline. |
| 176 | ** Many hardcore Prue fans vilified every season after the third for not having her. However, Seasons 3 and 4 are generally accepted to be the best of the show. |
| 177 | ** Season 5 is arguably the most despised for the return to episodic storytelling after two seasons of arc-driven stories, the obvious GenreShift towards LighterAndSofter fantasy that [[FantasyKitchenSink throws in any fantasy element on a whim]], Phoebe [[TookALevelInJerkass taking a level in jerkass and selfishness]], contrived situations and [[CuteMonsterGirl cute monster girls]] being written in solely for {{Fanservice}}, and the mishandling of Phoebe and Cole’s storyline (which featured the fan-favorite Cole being written as a DesignatedVillain). It does however have some defenders and supporters for the higher production values and some solid standalone episodes ("Sense and Sense Ability" is actually considered one of the show's best), and those who found the [[NarmCharm sillier aspects part of the show's charm]]. |
| 178 | ** Season 6 is highly polarising: some loved it for returning to the arc-based storytelling, for having fan-favorite [[PrettyBoy future Chris]], a powerful WellIntentionedExtremist villain, and for an epic finale that [[SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct showed off Brian Krause's acting chops]]. Others despised it for a number of reasons: the Piper/Leo drama, the [[DenserAndWackier too light and childish storylines]], the [[{{Fanservice}} skimpiness]] spilling into the sisters’ everyday clothing, the number of continuity errors spiralling out of control, and a severe case of WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants about the nature of Chris's mission that was made worse by [[RealLifeWritesThePlot having to write Holly Marie Combs’ real-life pregnancy in]]. The characterisation of Phoebe and Paige was also [[{{Flanderization}} terrible]], with the former [[TookALevelInJerkass solidifying her jerkassery and selfishness]] and the latter [[AesopAmnesia throwing away]] a season-worth of character growth and going back to being reckless and insisting on flying solo. On top of that, fans of Phoebe and Paige were disappointed that [[SpotlightStealingSquad Wyatt took over the entirety of the storyline]] leaving his aunts with little to do, while Piper fans were frustrated by her decreased screen time to accomodate Holly’s pregnancy. |
| 179 | ** Season 7 is much like Season 6 in terms of reception, with many lamenting the ongoing {{Flanderization}} of the sisters, one too many {{Aborted Arc}}s and unnecessary {{Romantic Plot Tumor}}s, over-reliance on big name guest stars, [[ArcFatigue even more emphasis on the Piper/Leo drama]], and continued sidelining of Paige and Phoebe. It is however praised for MagnificentBastard BigBad Zankou, one of the best received villains on the show, several of said guest stars such as Billy Zane's Drake and Charisma Carpenter's Kyra being fan favourites, numerous {{Continuity Nod}}s that almost feel like an apology for the goofs in the previous season, a return to the darker procedural format resembling Season 1, and a season finale so epic that many fans would have been content with it being the ''series'' finale instead. Closer inspection also has shown that the {{Flanderization}} actually peters off for characters like Phoebe, with her becoming more consistent with the first four seasons than the previous two. |
| 180 | ** Season 8 suffered from all the typical afflictions of a PostScriptSeason: ExecutiveMeddling, a severely slashed budget, rehashing of past storylines and plot points, an especially the inclusion of [[SpotlightStealingSquad Billie]], a new YoungerAndHipper character mandated by the studio who took the focus away from the sisters and caused several historical fan-favourite characters to be PutOnABus. It is however praised for some much needed CharacterRerailment of the sisters, toning down their wardrobes' skimpiness, a very likeable end-game love interest for Paige, and an excellent, almost universally-praised series finale. |
| 181 | * SugarWiki/SheReallyCanAct: Each of the actresses achieved this at various points in the series. |
| 182 | ** Shannen Doherty was felt to be rather wooden in the first season - thanks to Prue's default expressions being sniffing and scowling. The Season 2 premiere where Prue has to deal with the full extent of Andy's death is held up as a turning point for the character and actress. It's the first time in the series that Prue actually deals with the trauma in a realistic way. |
| 183 | ** Holly Marie Combs was the unknown of the group - as the other two were reasonably known beforehand. Within the second episode - where Piper worries about whether she and her sisters are evil or not - she immediately showed what a talent she was. And in Season 4's "Hell Hath No Fury", Piper's furious breakdown at [[spoiler: Prue's grave]] left no doubt in the fans' minds that she could carry the show as the lead witch. |
| 184 | ** Alyssa Milano was held up as the weak link of the cast for the first two seasons - mainly because they didn't play to her strengths with Phoebe. Come Season 3 and the character became more of a GenkiGirl, matching Alyssa's gift for comic timing better than drama. But Season 3's "The Good, The Bad and the Cursed" is held up by a lot of fans as a great dramatic moment for her; Phoebe is psychically linked to a man from the past, and feels his pain when he is whipped is genuinely frightening. |
| 185 | ** Rose [=McGowan=] had some ReplacementScrappy heat to shake off when she joined. But come "A Paige From The Past" when Paige has to admit what her past was like, and relive the death of her parents again, and many of her detractors were silenced. |
| 186 | ** For some, Kaley Cuoco redeemed herself with Billie's reaction to [[spoiler: having to kill Christy]] in the series finale. Earlier in the season there's "Mr and Mrs Witch", where she's able to appeal to her parents for keeping Christy's existence a secret from her. |
| 187 | ** Brian Krause was viewed as the weakest of the main cast members - with most of his attempted dramatic moments resulting in {{Narm}}. Come the Season 6 finale when [[spoiler: Chris dies]] and Leo's subsequent RoaringRampageOfRevenge? SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct. |
| 188 | * SophomoreSlump: Season 2 is regarded as the weakest of the Prue seasons for its lack of focus on magic, a RomanticPlotTumour involving Leo, Piper and Dan and no season-long overarching storyline to connect the single episodes. Within the Paige seasons - 4 to 8 - Season 5 is also criticised for a sudden return to standalone episodes, LighterAndSofter tone and HotterAndSexier outfits. |
| 189 | * SpecialEffectFailure: |
| 190 | ** Some of the "valuable" items that come into Buckland's look more like cheap import shop goods than priceless old antiques. |
| 191 | ** Interestingly enough, the visual effects themselves are not all that bad, especially when compared to most of the props. Not only are the above-mentioned ‘antiques’ often off the mark, but also the magic items. Most egregious examples are the 'Fearsome Plastic Falchion' of the evil Warlord, the hundreds-of-years old 'poignard' with a laser-sharp engraving, and 'Melinda Warren's blessing cup' - a rather tacky piece of colored glass. |
| 192 | * StrangledByTheRedString: |
| 193 | ** While there's nothing really ''bad'' about Paige and Phoebe's eventual husbands, they were introduced extremely late in the game (about one-third through and two-thirds through season eight, respectively), so it was kind of obvious that the writers were just trying to get Paige and Phoebe hitched before the end of the show. Coop and Phoebe especially, given that it had to be blatantly stated exposition that he was the love of her life. |
| 194 | ** Phoebe and Jason also got together incredibly quick. They've been together two episodes (one of which Jason wasn't even in) and all of a sudden he's asking her to move to Hong Kong with him. |
| 195 | * TakeThatScrappy: The episode "Repo Manor" has a scene where demons pretending to be the Charmed Ones insult Billie and say mean things to her as an obvious nod to the fan dislike. |
| 196 | * TestosteroneBrigade: As ''Magazine/{{MAD}}'' pointed out, ''Charmed'' is a show about witches starring Alyssa Milano and two other hot chicks as sisters. The vampy outfits, fantasy plots and action-packed nature attracted copious amounts of male viewers. |
| 197 | * TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: |
| 198 | ** Jenny Gordon was important enough to get a spot in the Season 2 opening credits - before getting written out after only four episodes. WordOfGod is that they realized she served no purpose. That could have easily been changed though, as Jenny's role could have served as a way to give Dan some more characterization beyond Piper's SatelliteLoveInterest. |
| 199 | ** Paige is an interesting case in that she wasn’t really underdeveloped and was still a main character by all means, well-written enough to avoid the ReplacementScrappy hell, but many fans agree she was underused and didn’t reach her full potential. For one, she was the only sister not to get a focus season in which she was the main driving force for the overall plot (Prue got Season 1, Phoebe Season 3 as well as the second and first haves of Season 4 and 5 respectively, Piper got all the rest). She did have some traction in early Season 7 through her romance with [[WellIntentionedExtremist Kyle Brody]], but that was ancillary to Piper’s husband becoming an Avatar; later on, technically the main driving force of the Season 8 plot, Billie, was introduced as Paige’s charge, but she ended up having more scenes with Phoebe, and the Charmed Ones-side of that storyline was soon taken over by [[SpotlightStealingSquad whether Piper and Leo would reunite yet again]] anyway. In short, Paige is generally agreed to be the sister with the most lost potential. Season 8 ''does'' make her more of a driving presence with regards to combating the press and her relationship with Henry at least. |
| 200 | ** Darryl is a main character for seven seasons, but doesn't really get his own arc until the tailend of season six, and even then, it's primarily about the sisters. Darryl's primary purpose is to be the sisters' FriendOnTheForce throughout the show. There could have been more done with Darryl's response to Andy's death, his marital issues with Sheila (which were only mentioned when Piper and Leo began having issues, along with the fact that he wasn't even mentioned to be married for a few seasons), or his father being a criminal (at least in the 70s) while Darryl's a cop. He sadly doesn't even get to come BackForTheFinale due to budget cuts. |
| 201 | ** Sheila Morris could have been a great recurring character and friend to the sisters, if the series wanted to do anything with her. She somehow learns about magic entirely off-screen, with the sisters not even realizing until she casually tells them not to worry about talking about it in front of her. She apparently is like family to the sisters, but we've barely seen her on-screen before this. Then she completely switches the little personality the show gave her to give Darryl more conflict about helping the sisters in season seven. For a character that could have really helped with the sisters' complete lack of friends, it's disappointing how underutilized she was. |
| 202 | ** Sam Wilder was Patty's lover and Whitelighter and Paige's father, but only appears three times throughout the series, three years apart each time, with basically the exact same plot. He'd have been a great foil to Leo, Victor, or Henry throughout the show, along with, y'know, being Paige's father! He could have been an interesting alternate Whitelighter perspective. The show also tells us nearly nothing about him, such as his backstory and time as a Whitelighter. |
| 203 | ** Charlene from "Ex Libris" is a CuteGhostGirl with an interesting backstory of being a WellDoneDaughterGirl who is killed by demons for researching their existence and nearly proving it. She's only in one episode, but feels like she could have been kept around for a while in a recurring role. |
| 204 | ** "Repo Manor" features a trio of female demons and their master, who want to take the power of the Charmed Ones to free their people from slavery. They could have been interesting recurring characters and formed and/or inspired some feelings of respect or empathy with the heroes. Instead, they're just {{One Shot Character}}s whose motives the heroes learn little about and never fully appreciate as they fight each other. |
| 205 | ** The CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass PsychoRangers Stillman sisters are decently entertaining villains who survive their debut in the show but never show up as recurring foes. |
| 206 | ** Kyra the seer is a delightfully funny and conniving WildCard demon who is played by Creator/CharismaCarpenter. Her goal to become human and experience the things she sees in her visions firsthand is surpassingly cute and moving. She only appears in three episodes and a few comics, but many fans think she had great main character potential. [[spoiler: The Season 10 comics bring her back]]. |
| 207 | ** Bianca, a time traveler from a BadFuture and the fiancée of an adult Chris, only appears in one episode, when fans would have loved seeing either her adult self travel back again after the timeline changed and/or have her FutureBadass child self get to know the Halliwells. |
| 208 | * TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: |
| 209 | ** The AssimilationPlot / TheEvilsOfFreeWill storyline with the Avatars [[spoiler:was abandoned after an episode and a half of Utopia with the Avatars letting go of their perfect world on the Charmed Ones' say-so]]. Might count as a case of PragmaticVillainy considering [[spoiler:they live to try again]], but almost makes you wonder if they could ever truly get it to last. |
| 210 | ** Witches are a rare species with magic that expresses itself as unique inherited abilities. Despite the potential for a wide array of interesting powers, most witches we see besides the Charmed Ones either have telekinesis or fire-throwing powers. |
| 211 | ** In regards to Phoebe's powers in later seasons. While she wasn't as strong as Prue or Piper, the early seasons did at least put in the effort to showcase Phoebe was strong in her own right. For instance Phoebe would use martial art skills and did her best in the spell and intuition department. She'd use her intuition to at least try and help prevent the outcomes of her premonitions, her powers would always make sure they tried to do something. (In fact the Season 2 episode "The Painted World" is a good example of this) In fact in Season 3 Phoebe and Prue were the two sisters who did most of the fighting while Piper mainly froze things until getting her Molecular Combustion power. After Season 4 however Phoebe's powers stop being as active, only happening once in a while and occasionally kicking an enemy. Then after Season 6 she stops being proactive in general having to rely on Potions or hide behind Paige or Piper as they did all the work. The key difference is the early episodes used other ways to make Phoebe involved with fighting demons, even proving herself useful, in later seasons it's like she doesn't have powers at all. She never regains her levitation powers or empathy either, although some feel that's actually a fitting consequence for her repeated selfishness in Seasons 5 and 6. |
| 212 | ** In general, Phoebe's character derailment in the later seasons is a result of the show failing to acknowledge her TraumaCongaLine in Season Four. Her behaviour includes: distancing herself from her sisters and magical heritage, [[TookALevelInJerkass becoming increasingly self-centered, jaded]] and [[BrokenBird less bubbly]], being obsessed with her sister's baby first and having her own baby at all costs later, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking becoming disillusioned about love]]. This is pretty consistent with depression over losing her sister, her love/husband and her unborn baby in a short span, as well as her guilt over betraying her family and frustration over her dead husband trying to force his way back into her life. Jason breaking up with her because of magic not long after was the final straw, seeing how faster and further her derailment went afterwards. Had the show truly addressed her mental state, Phoebe would have come off as more sympathetic and could have had a character arc about healing, redeeming herself, reconnecting with her sisters and magic, and balancing her new-found maturity with her earlier optimism and carefreeness, rather than just focussing on solving her "love block" by [[StrangledByTheRedString shoehorning a love interest at the eleventh hour]] as if ''that'' were the solution to everything. |
| 213 | ** The sisters struggle to keep friends throughout the series, which is especially an issue for Piper continuously in later seasons, but the series never really resolves it. It's just Piper complaining about it over and over again, which becomes annoying as the show brings it up without doing anything about it. It also would have been interesting in of itself to see the sisters have to deal with lying to their friends or becoming more involved in the magical community if they became friends with witches. Instead, the series ends with the sisters' only friends as their family, husbands, the Morris family, Elise, and Billie with the Morris family being on the other side of the country, Elise unaware of magic, and Billie having just tried killing the sisters. |
| 214 | ** The series really dropped the ball when it came to the fallout from Cole becoming the Source. While Cole returning after the Source was vanquished at least meant he didn't have to die because of being manipulated by others, the result is Phoebe and the others blaming him entirely for his actions as the Source - even when the Seer outright told Phoebe that Cole's love for her helped him fight the Source's power corruption for longer than she expected. They do seem to be setting up ''Phoebe'' being the one who has to learn not to blame Cole for her own actions - "A Witch's Tail" is only resolved when she admits she still loves him, "Happily Ever After" has her grudgingly apologising, "Siren Song" frames her as bringing out the worst in him - "I Am Sam" does an about face to have Cole being framed as a complete villain and Phoebe as a complete victim, forcing Cole into the DesignatedVillain to make Paige and Phoebe look justified in their pursuit of him. Cole is essentially a victim of everyone from the Seer to the Source to eventually his wife and in-laws, with everyone else shunning him for actions that were not his fault. His return in Season 7 doesn't real make things better either, since he's given a VillainsDyingGrace which still treats him as a willing villain rather than a victim of emotional abuse. |
| 215 | * TooCoolToLive: Several characters end up dying to ThePlotReaper over the course of the show. |
| 216 | ** Prue, the oldest and most powerful sister, was [[ActorLeavesCharacterDies killed off thanks to backstage drama]]. |
| 217 | ** Cole had to die in order to allow Phoebe to have more love interests once it was clear she and Cole were done. |
| 218 | ** Chris had to go back to his own future eventually, but dying was done to set up Leo's StoryArc in season 7. |
| 219 | ** Drake was only supposed to live long enough to help the Charmed Ones out of their collective funks. |
| 220 | ** Kyra's death was the final push the sisters needed before they could agree with the Avatar's AssimilationPlot. |
| 221 | * TrappedByMountainLions: |
| 222 | ** Phoebe's sabbatical from her advice column to "relax and recharge her batteries". Instead, she spends practically every waking moment complaining about it, obsessing over her column and hanging out at the office, making the entire subplot ultimately ''pointless''. |
| 223 | ** Leo's arc in Season 2 involving clipping his wings. For starters, he's punished for extremely silly reasons (healing a Charmed One when she's on the verge of dying). Then he just hangs around [=P3=] as Piper's romance with Dan fails, until "Murphy's Law" when he suddenly demands his whitelighter powers back in a SkywardScream and is awarded them back instantly; giving the impression he could have just asked the whole time. And the situation he becomes a whitelighter again for is one in which his involvement was barely needed - orbing onto the top of a bridge to tackle a demon whose manipulation Prue had already fought off. |
| 224 | * UnintentionallySympathetic: |
| 225 | ** Victor Bennett is considered the ultimate deadbeat dad and Prue is extremely cold to him for leaving the family. Except the reasons he left were far more nuanced than simply not wanting to be in their lives; he married Patty and had children with her not knowing she was a witch until after Prue was born. He understandably wanted his girls to have normal lives, but was constantly at odds with his cantankerous mother-in-law. The marriage fell apart because Patty had an affair, and it's shown that he still tried to be involved in their daughters' lives, but it was Penny who kept rebuffing him (in the finale she seems quite proud of chasing him away). And even then, Phoebe and Piper were still in contact with him. Granted a lot of this Prue couldn't have known, but Victor gets a raw deal. |
| 226 | ** Cole Turner, to a degree. This is mostly due to the actor being Julian [=McMahon=] who greatly [[MrFanservice appeals to the predominantly female audience]], but his character arc does genuinely invoke sympathy even when it doesn't mean to, as detailed in the DesignatedVillain and JerkassWoobie entries above. |
| 227 | ** Darryl Morris in Season 6 and 7. It’s pretty clear that the show tries to frame his refusal to help the sisters anymore, especially when he won’t help drop the charges against Chris for stealing a car in a demon hunt, as irrational stubbornness – they go as far as having his wife Sheila argue with him for not helping the Halliwells out. Fans however don’t blame him, considering his close brush with death when the Cleaners tried to scapegoat him to protect magic from exposure, and the sisters taking him for granted over and over again, from stealing his soul to enter Valhalla, to forgetting to reverse a half-baked spell they put on him (which they never get called out for). In Season 7, when he partly comes around, he swaps roles with Sheila, who is now presented as a bitch and fake friend for demanding that he stop helping the sisters. Again, fans sympathise with her, considering that Inspector Sheridan flat-out tells her that Darryl’s career, life and freedom are at stake if he continues covering up for whom she suspects to be serial killers. Can you blame either of them for putting the well-being and unity of their own family first? |
| 228 | * UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: |
| 229 | ** Leo hasn't aged particularly well in the first two seasons. He's introduced seemingly just as a love interest for Piper, before being revealed as a whitelighter in "Wicca Envy", and he later tells Phoebe to keep it secret from the others when she busts him. That means he still slept with Piper under false pretences, which she justifiably let him have it for when his secret was exposed. Then in Season 2, despite her being with Dan, he outright says he intends to fight for her. One wonders if ''that'' is the behaviour the Elders are so disapproving of. |
| 230 | ** Paige in the second half of Season 4, where she decides she doesn't trust Cole and tries to repeatedly convince the sisters that he's made a FaceHeelTurn. She knows first-hand that supernatural influence and possession is a thing, because the Source did the same to her boyfriend to manipulate her and she was almost tricked into using an evil power to kill an innocent man. Cole had proven repeatedly across the season that he wanted to be good, and repeatedly laid his life down for the sisters, including Paige. Not once does she entertain the idea that he could be possessed or corrupted, nor suggest that to the others (which would likely not have put Phoebe on the defensive against her). It seems to be more her own prejudices in assuming Cole freely became evil, which requires her to forget significant things he'd done that should have told her otherwise. |
| 231 | ** Phoebe takes the cake in Season 5, where she accepts no responsibility for her part in Cole having to be vanquished and sent to the wasteland, outright telling him he should have stayed dead when she knew he was being condemned to no afterlife and still refused to help. She continually tells him he's evil and will never be anything else, even when it's revealed that her actions are a result of her still loving him and being conflicted about it. Even when she's proved wrong about him multiple times, she only ever apologises once and extremely grudgingly. Even with his actual FaceHeelTurn, a lot of fans still found Phoebe extremely hard to sympathise with as a result. |
| 232 | * ValuesResonance: One of the reasons the show continues to be popular well beyond its ending is that it features powerful, independent women who are [[RealWomenNeverWearDresses conventionally feminine and don't have to trade it in for strength]], as well as strong themes of sex positivity and positive messages about gender roles (the longest running couple in the series had the wife as the breadwinner, while the husband was happily in the role of the healer and caregiver). |
| 233 | * VindicatedByHistory: |
| 234 | ** The show had a hatedom while it was airing for seeming like a ''Buffy'' rip-off, the major cast changes and people who were annoyed at the [[SexSells marketing focusing on Fanservice]]. These days the show is fondly looked at as setting a benchmark for witch themed TV - and many other short-lived witch shows have been compared to ''Charmed''. In 2012 it was reported that ''Charmed'' was the most binge-watched show on VOD. |
| 235 | ** The final two seasons have been receiving more recognition and reappraisal as the years have gone by, with Season 8 even getting [[https://collider.com/why-charmed-season-8-is-good/ an article]] written about why it's actually one of the show's best. Even the divisive Billie has been seen in a better light. |
| 236 | * VocalMinority: No, Prue is not a universally beloved SacredCow among the fandom, but her fans tend to be the most vocal, giving the impression that she is. |
| 237 | * WinBackTheCrowd: Despite the tepid reception to the show killing off Prue between seasons, and having to explain it offscreen before introducing a half-sister out of nowhere - the fourth season ended up being critically acclaimed. It helped that the show fully acknowledged how big a loss Prue was, and incorporated that into Piper and Phoebe grieving for her in such an effective way it was basically LeaningOnTheFourthWall. Paige's introduction likewise felt organic to the show's mythology; since Patty and Sam's affair had already been established and could feasibly have resulted in a baby, with it being perfectly reasonable that the child be kept hidden. Paige herself was a well-liked character who even frequently compared herself to Prue and worried she'd be living in her shadow. The dark storyline involving the Source and the Seer just helped breathe new life into the show. |
| 238 | * WTHCostumingDepartment: |
| 239 | ** Many of Phoebe's outfits (including the CostumePorn of the week) fall into this category, like wearing skimpy clothes not appropriate for workplace, several mismatched pieces or even dresses or blouses that border the ImpossiblyTackyClothes and RummageSaleReject territories. Alyssa Milano herself hated these outfits and one of the conditions of returning for Season 8 was for Phoebe's clothes to become more modest. |
| 240 | ** Phoebe's hair in Season 4 goes through a bizarre cycle, where it changes three times across three episodes, the worst of which is midway through the season, where she opts for a shoulder-length cut with absurdly short baby bangs that do not do Alyssa Milano's face shape any favours. Understandably, she grew the bangs out in Season 5. |
| 241 | ** Chris's messy curtains do in Season 6 also deserves a mention - especially considering how [[NinetiesHair outdated the style had already become by 2004]]. |
| 242 | * TheWoobie: All the main cast, to some extent. |
| 243 | ** Prue was the only one of the sisters to witness their mother's death, and the flashback to the event shows her child self calling out "mommy!" as Patty's body is wheeled away in a stretcher. And she had to essentially sacrifice her own childhood to help Penny raise the other two. While she seems to have made it to adulthood okay, the others recall an incident with an abusive boyfriend as a teen and the first episode has her dealing with the fallout of her fiance cheating on her by making a move on her younger sister. That's not to mention that in her first year as a witch, she has to bury her childhood friend. |
| 244 | ** Piper was the eternal middle child, constantly having to mediate between Prue and Phoebe, and often forgotten. Take the "Pre-Witched" flashbacks to after Grams's death - where Phoebe moves out and Prue leaves her alone to see her fiance. She falls for Leo...and has to endure an uphill struggle of their love being meddled with. Then she loses her older sister (and obviously takes it worse than Phoebe) and has to confront the reality that being a Charmed One means missing out on so many simple pleasures that she took for granted. She has to deal with her and Leo repeatedly being separated, having to raise two children that are constantly being hunted by demons, and all the other losses over the years. |
| 245 | ** Phoebe was slut shamed repeatedly in high school and, while she's happy and well-adjusted by the third season, she discovers that the boyfriend she'd come to love was sent to kill her. And then it turns out he ''loves'' her for real, making her even pass him off as dead and lie to her sisters. She has to lose more than any of the others, considering everything that ultimately happened with Cole. Remember that she's the one who has to get a premonition of all the losses in "Charmageddon". And all the failed relationships left her broken and terrified of love by the final season. |
| 246 | ** Paige could never know her real parents, because their love that produced her was forbidden. While she was raised by a lovely set of adoptive parents, she had to lose them in a car accident that she blamed herself for. It's clear that she still carries the guilt of her teen delinquency years later. |
| 247 | ** Leo especially in Seasons 6 and 7. He discovers that one of his trusted friends and mentors has been plotting to kill his son, and he actually murders his other son's future self and has to watch him die. Then he has to kill said mentor, and deal with the trauma of that. He wants to remake the world into a utopia with the Avatars, but then realises that too can no longer be. |
| 248 | ** The entire eighth season seems to conspire to make Billie Jenkins's life miserable. The girl had to witness a demon breaking into her room and kidnapping her sister when she was only five. She grew up with parents who refused to even mention the sister or her witch heritage. Then when she finally finds Christy...she resorts to brainwashing and manipulation to turn her against the only friends she has. And her parents get murdered just to sway Christy properly to evil. And once she's been alienated and isolated by literally everyone she knows, she has to kill her own sister in self defence. |
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