Charmed: The Devil's Music (2.4)

Aaron Spelling became notorious throughout the 1990's for forcing his shows to introduce a night-club hot spot for the characters to hang out and therefore listen to a popular band who just so happen to eschew major venues and perform at some low-rent Peach Pit instead. As a result, Charmed, through P3, welcomed onto the show an array of one-hit-wonders over the years. This, the first episode featuring a 'musical guest', features an elaborately contrived story involving Dishwalla, a name which creates a resounding "who?" nowadays. Away from the constant name-dropping of the band, The Devil's Music is still pretty darn awful, from its vaguely sleazy demon storyline to the various annoying subplots.

Jenny Gordon continues to be the show's most hellish creation so far. Anybody who makes klepto-era Dawn Summers seem appealing deserves to be banished to hell for all eternity, and The Devil's Music is truly the nadir of her brief time on the show. Whining about how she's treated, falling into a trap by a potential sex predator, getting fashion advice from Brooke Shields circa Pretty Baby, she's just completely, reprehensibly awful here.

Elsewhere, Prue's subplot just isn't interesting, while Piper's annoying love triangle with Dan and Leo (stuck between a hunk of wood and... a hunk of wood) is about as scintillating as a toaster-oven. Throw in numerous scenes of Piper histrionics and it's by far the worst episode in a while.

Okay, to give the hour some credit, the Masselin costume was pretty great, while the idea of sleazy music producers in cahoots with a demon is admittedly interesting. Unfortunately, it isn't so great on screen. D

Crimes of Fashion The Eilish monster strikes for the first time this season, and it's a triple whammy! There's Prue's weird green fishnet outfit in the teaser, Jenny's Chris Hansen special in the club scenes, and of course Phoebe's horrifyingly backless I Dream of a Skanky Jeannie ensemble while under-not-a-whole-lotta-cover.

Credits
Guest stars Brian Krause (Leo Wyatt); Larry Holden (Jeff Carlton); David Haydn-Jones (Chris Barker); Dishwalla (Themselves)
Writer David Simkins Director Richard Compton