This episode is fine, if a little over-familiar. It's, what, the fifth 'sister turns evil' story this season alone? Though Rose McGowan did look ridiculously hot in her vampire get-up, it's become the go-to plot device for most of the writers now. Introducing vampires to the Charmed mythology is interesting enough without having one of the sisters get 'turned', and it would have probably been beneficial for the show to ease back on that idea for a while. Then again, these 'evil sister' episodes were obviously popular, so maybe I'm just needlessly whining. Call me out on it if I am. Heh.The vamps themselves were a little melodramatic, but the show thankfully pursued an Anne Rice tone over a Whedon one. Everything here was pretty silly, though, from the scenery-chewing head vamp and the annoying underlings to the vaguely lesbian subtext of the Paige/Vamp Queen interaction. Gah. But Rose was convincing, and I've got to admit the storyline never bored me. Charmed-by-numbers, but fine.
Cole's continued exploits as the new Source remain a lot of fun, but I'm missing the Seer. She adds some campy hilarity to the whole arc, and Cole's skanky assistant is no match for her. I liked the depiction of various underworld factions all attacking each other, as well as the reveal that Cole becoming the ruler of all evil is a little more challenging than he had previously thought. Equally enjoyable were Cole's continued attempts to alienate Phoebe from her sisters. And she's knocked up now! That can't be good...
Parts of Bite Me are well-executed, but the feeling that we've seen this kind of storyline repeatedly already was about as distracting as Paige's nipples in those P3 scenes. Turn the heat up, girl! C-
Credits
Guest stars Samuel Ball (Rowan); Elizabeth Gracen (Vampire Queen); Deborah Kellner (Julie); Jay Acovone (Keats); Shishir Kurup (Doctor)
Writer Curtis Kheel Director John Kretchmer
While this episode isn't the strongest, it gives me the strangest cozy feeling when watching it!!! It's an amusing hour but nothing too special. The most memorable part of it is that it might be the only Charmed episode with an actually semi-long fight scene between 2 sisters! I REALLY enjoyed that and actually anytime the writers decide to prolong a fight for more than 3 seconds on this show!
ReplyDeleteCole's behind the scene machinations as always were a highlight.
That was a great fight scene! I probably should have mentioned that.
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting, Nad.