Charmed: The Bare Witch Project (7.2)

Jesus. Try and be serious sometimes, sure, but don't try and lecture about feminism, show. It only comes off as crass and cheap in equal measure. The Bare Witch Project is an asinine hour already, but what really destroys any potential merit is the script's attempt to discuss important issues. This is an episode where Lady Godiva is depicted as the defining female voice throughout the history of time, every act of femme power somehow tracing back to her. In the minds of the writers, this ends up meaning that women are only listened to when they're naked, one of the weirdest 'messages' this show has ever put across. Even weirder, Phoebe herself takes all her clothes off in protest -- instead of using her celebrity or city-wide readership to make a stand. It's one of the stupidest episodes of Charmed.

The story comes about as a result of one of the students at Magic School, and while I like seeing Paige with some kind of direction in her life once again, it bothers me that the kids are all jackasses. Shooting spitballs at Paige when she's in the middle of trying to save your future? Why does this show insist on making adolescents so freaking awful? Ugh.

Outside of the hideous feminism junk, the Lady Godiva plot goes nowhere fast. There's a scenery-chewing demon, a ridiculous alternate dimension where the entire future of female empowerment hinges on some naked floozy on a horse, and annoying CGI light-shows at the end. Just bad through-and-through.

You can see that Jeannine Renshaw wanted to make some kind of grand statement here, but The Bare Witch Project instead ends up cheap, exploitative and ridiculous, undermining any potential it could have had at one point. F

Credits
Guest stars Nick Lachey (Leslie St. Claire); Kristen Miller (Lady Godiva); Maury Sterling (Lord Dyson); Blake Bashoff (Duncan); Elizabeth Dennehy (Sandra); John De Lancie (Odin)
Writer Jeannine Renshaw Director John Kretchmer