Body swaps in genre television work best when both actors take on the 'quirks' of each other's performances, showcasing their awareness of their co-star's skills, and replicating them in an absorbing way. Body swaps also work in exploring some kind of psychological trauma, the idea of a character wanting to 'become' somebody else in order to cover up their own shortcomings. Charmed's version, in which Phoebe and Paige swap bodies, is a little weak not only because their relationship hasn't reached that point where it's actually interesting to see them inhabit each other's bodies, but also because Alyssa Milano and Rose McGowan aren't great performers. Alyssa plays Paige with the same ridiculous baby voice she used in Once Upon a Time last season, while Rose displays the same tics and gestures she always has, even when playing a completely different character. Ugh. A story like this needs some extra attention from the actors, and they kind of failed entirely here.Enter the Demon's A-story is pretty much Charmed-by-numbers. It's filled with annoying Mulan-esque ramblings about 'true Zen masters' and 'keen warriors', and it's all shot in a stereotype-ville sound stage with a ton of bamboo. All the guest actors speak in that annoying 'reactionary statement' way where they're literally just reading from a script, not actually attempting to create an interesting 'being'. That faux-Michelle Yeoh (or should that be Michelle Faux? -Rimshot-) is the worst. Ugh.
I should also mention that Piper is a complete hag this week. Yes, she's in mourning. Yes, she's frustrated at having to suddenly be the responsible older sister in the Power of Three. But yeesh can she quit with the whining and yelling about 'almost getting killed'. She has a real bug up her ass.
Enter the Demon is the weakest episode so far this season, full of annoying characterization, weak demon filler and unconvincing performances. The latter affects the hour the most, since this is the type of script that, more than ever, needs performances with some conviction and drive. And Alyssa and Rose just didn't deliver. D
Credits
Guest stars James Hong (Zen Master); Jeanne Chinn (Anling); Daniel Dae Kim (Yenlo); Jacobi Wynne (Mason Cowan)
Writer Daniel Cerone Director Joel J. Feigenbaum
I think a lot of this episode is ripped straight out of 'Crouching Tiger' or 'Enter the Dragon', and as stupid as it was, I think the episode had a bit to offer.
ReplyDeletePersonally I think the body swapping thing came at the perfect time, since Paige didn't really know what her new sisters thought of her. I thought Rose was perfectly fine (not outstanding but it didn't really need to be) it was Alyssa who soiled it a little for me. As far as Piper I actually thought she was slipping right into the big sister role, and I really liked watching her here.
It's hard for me to ever enjoy body-swapping plots because I've never seen actors really pull it off. It takes true mastery to mimic another person's expressions, speech, way of carrying themselves, etc. to the point where it actually seems like they're *in your body*. For that matter, I've never really bought into characters being possessed by completely unknown people either because they still tend to do things that make it clear it's still them. They just need to stop trying to use this trope.
ReplyDeleteI get what you mean. The closest to perfection, for me, was Sarah Michelle Gellar and Eliza Dushku swapping bodies on Buffy. They just seemed to entirely inhabit one another's characters and their little physical tics and gestures.
ReplyDeleteWith Enter the Demon, both actresses seemed to leave it to the dialogue, since they sure didn't come off like they had literally swapped bodies.
Cole figured out the swap right away
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