Charmed: Crimes and Witch Demeanors (6.19)

Oof. It's another clip show, and one that doesn't even play around with the format like they did last season with Cat House. This episode pulls directly from standard clip show tropes, showing a whole bunch of old footage in some kind of trial scenario, while the series protagonists look on all pensive. What follows is probably the messiest episode in a long while, covered in plotholes and featuring clips that, most of the time, have nothing to do with the trial since they involve events that were already scrubbed from memory by convenient magic spells or weak excuses. Blah.

I guess there's an interesting angle to this episode, with the sisters finally getting called out on how they've become reckless and selfish. Phoebe, in particular, is still using her powers in her ugly quest to find a husband. With that in mind, I always thought it would have been interesting for the writers to explore this in better detail, actually exposing the side-effects of the Halliwells becoming overly reliant on spells and magic. Kind of like the 'magic addiction' Willow story on Buffy, only without the horrible junkie metaphors. But, then again, that would involve actual work, and the writers of this show clearly have no interest in that.

Crimes and Witch Demeanors strains from scene to scene, throws in a completely unnecessary Barbas appearance, features Gideon being more preachy and annoying than usual, and wraps Darryl up in the most illogical, ridiculous state execution in the world. Yeesh. Dumb as all hell. F

Credits
Guest stars Billy Drago (Barbas); Kirk B.R. Woller (Cleaner One); Sandra Prosper (Sheila Morris); Ian Abercrombie (Aramis); Ken Page (Adair); Christopher Cazenove (Thrask); James Horan (Crill); Jenya Lano (Inspector Sheridan); Keith MacKenzie (Detective Clayton); Esteban Powell (Phinks); Gildart Jackson (Gideon)
Writer Henry Alonso Myers Director John Kretchmer