One of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to television is when death is treated so casually. This episode sees a friendly college acquaintance of Phoebe's being attacked and beheaded on campus, just hours after they strike up a conversation while studying. Phoebe is obviously shocked at first, but then quickly starts goofing around about the murdered girl's ghost. And, as the episode continues, little is said about her family, or the fact that a college student was horrifically murdered in one of the most brutal ways imaginable and nobody is charged or investigated. I get that this is a silly Aaron Spelling show, but it's pretty lazy storytelling.Unusual levels of casualness affect other parts of the episode, most notably Piper's meeting with Leo's first wife, a story lacking in any major weight when it's casually dismissed after one scene. I'm not exactly crying out for more Leo backstory, but why bring it up if you don't truly explore it? As a side-note to that subplot, Dan's rapid swing to 'bitter ex' was too jarring. I get that they have to keep him around contractually, but it's still lazy.
Phoebe and Prue's stories were fine, if underwhelming. I liked Rebecca Cross in the part of Charlene, but the show didn't follow through on how she discovered the existence of demons, or why demons were so antsy about being exposed. Both were annoying. At the same time, Prue's subplot felt a lot like one of those early season one Touched by an Angel riffs, with the innocent in need of salvation and a hammy bad guy to entrap. Meh. Meh all round, for this episode. C-
Credits
Guest stars Rebecca Cross (Charlene); Cleavant Derricks (Cleavant Wilson); Peg Stewart (Lillian); The Goo Goo Dolls (Themselves)
Teleplay Brad Kern Story Peter Chomsky Director Joel J. Feigenbaum
maxpower, nice to see your still reviewing these days. Got a bit nostalgic for the old tv .com days and checked profiles to see who was still posting, ended up here! Gonna be reading some of your previews reviews, but as you can remember, charmed would be the one thing I'd have an interest in reading! May start reviewing again myself in the future, been re-watching a few things lately.
ReplyDeletepandacharmed (what a dated name at this stage :/)
Pandacharmed! Thanks for stopping by! Surprised anybody is actually around over at TV.com. I'm still kind of mystified at how crazily awful that site became.
ReplyDeleteI'm re-writing all my Charmed reviews, since so many of them over at TV.com were pretty awful. It's a work in progress, but I'm enjoying it (right now, at least).
Again, thanks for finding this blog :)
:( I really like this one, i love your reviews!
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