Charmed
Charmed is an American fantasy drama television series created by Constance M. Burge and produced by Aaron Spelling and his production company Spelling Television, with Brad Kern serving as showrunner. The series was originally broadcast by The WB from October 7, 1998, until May 21, 2006. The series narrative follows a trio of sisters, known as The Charmed Ones, the most powerful good witches of all time, who use their combined "Power of Three" to protect innocent lives from evil beings such as demons and warlocks. Each sister possesses unique magical powers that grow and evolve, while they attempt to maintain normal lives in modern-day San Francisco. Keeping their supernatural identities separate and secret from their ordinary lives often becomes a challenge for them, with the exposure of magic having far-reaching consequences on their various relationships and resulting in a number of police and FBI investigations throughout the series. The series initially focuses on the three Halliwell sisters, Prue, Piper, and Phoebe.
Charmed achieved a cult following and popularity on The WB with its first episode "Something Wicca This Way Comes" garnering 7.7 million viewers, breaking the record for the network's highest-rated debut episode. The show's ratings, although smaller than rival shows on the "big four" networks, were a success for the relatively new and smaller WB network. Charmed went through several timeslot changes during its eight-season run. During its fifth season, the show moved to the Sunday 8:00 pm timeslot, where it became the highest-rated Sunday night program in The WB's history. At 178 episodes, Charmed was the second-longest drama broadcast by The WB, behind 7th Heaven. In 2006, it became the longest-running, hour-long television series featuring all-female leads before being surpassed by Desperate Housewives in 2012.
The series has also received numerous awards and nominations. In 2010, The Huffington Post and AOL TV ranked Charmed within their joint list of "The Top 20 Magic/Supernatural Shows of All Time," while in 2013, TV Guide listed the series as one of "The 60 Greatest Sci-Fi Shows of All Time." Charmed has also become a source of pop culture references in film and television and has influenced other succeeding television series in the same subgenre. The show's success has led to its development in other media, including a video game, board games, [|soundtracks], novels, and a comic book series which served as a continuation of its narrative. According to data research from The NPD Group in 2012, Charmed was the second-most binge watched television series on subscription video-on-demand services, such as Netflix. A reboot series of Charmed, featuring different cast members and characters, premiered on The CW on October 14, 2018.
Series overview
The series starts in 1998 when Phoebe Halliwell returns from New York and moves back into the family's Halliwell Manor in San Francisco to live with her sisters Prue and Piper. When Phoebe discovers the family's Book of Shadows in the attic, she learns that she and her sisters are the most powerful witches ever known, destined to protect both innocents and the world at large from demons, warlocks, and other evil creatures. Phoebe, reasonably suspecting the book to be a novelty, reads its initial inscription—unaware that it also happens to be an incantation activating the sisters' supernatural powers once all three are reunited in their ancestral home.File:House at 1329 Carroll Ave., Los Angeles.JPG|thumb|left|The Victorian building filmed as the Halliwell Manor is located at Carroll Avenue in Los Angeles, California. In the series, the fictional manor is set in San Francisco.
By the end of the first episode, each sister learns that she has a unique magical power that allows them to cast spells and brew potions. Prue, the eldest, has the power of telekinesis, and in season two she develops the power of astral projection. Piper, the middle sister, has the power of molecular immobilization. As she grows more proficient, she learns how to freeze only certain people or objects or body parts, as she wishes. In season three, her powers evolve further, as she is able to cause evil beings or objects to explode using her hands as a development of her powers surrounding molecular movement. Phoebe, the youngest of the three, initially possesses the power of premonition allowing her to receive visions of the future and later of the past. She later develops the powers of levitation in season three, and empathy in season six, the latter allowing her to sense and tap into others' emotions and, sometimes, powers. In accordance with the series' mythology, witches' powers are tied to their emotions.
During the first two seasons, the sisters face various evil beings from week to week. However, in the third season, they discover that their ultimate enemy is The Underworld's demonic ruler, The Source of All Evil. Eventually, Prue is killed in the season three finale by The Source's personal assassin, Shax. While grieving for their older sister, Piper and Phoebe discover that they also have a younger half-sister, Paige Matthews, who had been the secret love child of their witch mother, Patty, and her "whitelighter" Sam Wilder. Paige's magical abilities represent her dual heritage as both a witch and whitelighter; like Prue, she possesses a form of telekinesis, but she has to verbally call for objects to "orb" them to their intended destination. As she attempts to control the two sides of her ancestry, Paige also learns how to orb herself and others, and to heal others with the touch of her hand; she eventually receives her own whitelighter charges to train and protect as they learn witchcraft. Paige can also "glamour", shapeshifting into a different human appearance.
The Source, responsible for the majority of attacks on the sisters, becomes the main villain during season four until he is finally vanquished. After his demise, an annual season-long storyline and several antagonists are introduced in subsequent seasons. These include Phoebe's demonic ex-husband, Cole Turner, until mid-season five; the scheming, misguided Elder, Gideon, throughout season six; The Avatars until mid-season seven; the demon Zankou until the season seven finale; and, in season eight, powerful sister witches Billie and Christy Jenkins, who fall under the influence of the demonic Triad. In addition to the supernatural themes explored in Charmed, the characters contend with serious issues in their day-to-day lives such as relationships, careers, marriage, childbirth, illness and the deaths of loved ones. The sisters also fight to prevent the exposure of the existence of magic to the human community at large, contending with several police, FBI, and Homeland Security investigations. Often through the assistance of their long-term ally, Darryl Morris of the San Francisco Police Department, they are able to avoid police suspicion, including the investigation of the most-recurring human antagonist, Inspector Sheridan, in the sixth and seventh seasons.
The sisters also face romantic storylines. Prue's love interests include her high school sweetheart, Inspector Andy Trudeau, who dies in the season one finale in an attempt to save the sisters, and a brief co-worker, Jack Sheridan, in season two. Piper's central love interest throughout the series is the sisters' whitelighter Leo Wyatt ; their early relationship is problematic due to the forbidden nature of witch-whitelighter relationships, and so in season two a love triangle forms with Piper, Leo and her neighbor, Dan Gordon. Eventually, the two manage to marry and consummate their union in season three, producing a son named Wyatt in season five. The couple separate due to supernatural circumstances at the end of the fifth season; however, they reconnect in the subsequent season, resulting in a second son named Chris. The final episode of Charmed shows them to have a daughter, many grandchildren, and to grow old together in the future. Phoebe's romantic history involves a tortured relationship with half-demon, half-human Cole Turner in the show's third, fourth and fifth seasons; they have a turbulent marriage in the fourth, and in the fifth, following their divorce, she is compelled to vanquish him. Phoebe has a number of multi-episode human boyfriends in subsequent seasons, including her boss, Jason Dean, before meeting a cupid named Coop in the eighth season, whom she marries. Paige, like Phoebe, has several multi-episode boyfriends, including fellow-witch and magic "addict" Richard Montana in season six, and an unstable FBI agent-turned-whitelighter Kyle Brody in season seven. In the eighth season, she becomes committed to a human parole officer, Henry Mitchell, whom she marries. The final episode's flashforward montage reveals Piper, Phoebe, and Paige to have three children each with their respective husbands.
Cast and characters
Main
- Shannen Doherty as Prue Halliwell, the eldest sister who initially receives the power to move objects with her mind by channelling telekinesis through her eyes. As the series progresses, Prue learns how to channel her telekinetic powers through her hands and gains the power of astral projection, the ability to be in two places at once. The evolution of her powers was explained by the theory that her ability to move objects with her mind evolved into the ability to move or transfer her own consciousness and astral body to other places. Prue also develops martial arts skills and becomes an effective hand-to-hand fighter. During her three seasons on Charmed, she is regarded as the strongest and most powerful witch of the Halliwell sisters. Prue initially works as an appraiser for an auction house, and later becomes a professional photographer for a magazine company.
- Holly Marie Combs as Piper Halliwell, the second-eldest sister who initially receives the power to freeze demons, people, and objects; and eventually her surrounding environment. As the series progresses, she also gains the power to cause evil beings or objects to spontaneously explode, with the explanation behind this being her power to freeze comes from an ability to slow down particles, and with combustion, the ability to rapidly speed them up. Piper is initially the middle sister of the family during the first three seasons, but later becomes the eldest sister after Prue dies. Piper's central love-interest throughout the series is Leo Wyatt, the sisters' whitelighter – a guardian angel for good witches. In season three, she marries Leo, and as the series progresses, they have two children; Wyatt and Chris. Piper initially works as a chef and manager for the restaurant Quake, but in season two she opens a nightclub called P3; in which Prue and Phoebe become part-owners. In a comic series, modelled after the show, she eventually opens a restaurant called Halliwell.
- Alyssa Milano as Phoebe Halliwell, the third-eldest sister who initially receives the power of premonition, the ability to see into the future and the past. To make up for initially only having a passive power, Phoebe develops martial-arts skills in order to better support her sisters when they fight evil. As the series progresses, she also gains the active powers of levitation and empathy. Phoebe is introduced into Charmed as the youngest and most rebellious of the Halliwell sisters. However, her progression as a witch helps her become more responsible and grow as a person. Phoebe later becomes the middle sister after Prue dies and the series introduces their younger half-sister; Paige. Phoebe was initially a college student for the first few seasons, and later becomes an advice columnist for the newspaper The Bay Mirror.
- Rose McGowan as Paige Matthews, the youngest sister, who initially receives the power to move objects with her mind by orbing objects from one location to another through a vocal command. She was the secret love-child of the Halliwell sisters' mother Patty and her whitelighter Sam Wilder, making Paige both a witch and a whitelighter. She was given up at birth and raised by her adoptive parents. Paige is introduced at the beginning of season four, where she goes on to help reconstitute The Charmed Ones by taking Prue's place in the "Power of Three". As the series progresses, Paige also receives the whitelighter powers of orbing herself and others; as well as sensing, glamouring, and healing.