Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Charmed: Imaginary Fiends (7.20)

They really exhausted the Wyatt character by this point, am I right? This is another story about Wyatt being taken over by evil, only this time Future Wyatt is dragged into the present day where he once again becomes that leather-clad mumbly-voiced villain with evil facial hair. It's interesting to see a show that explored moral ambiguity so successfully in the recent Avatar arc unsurprisingly return to obvious characterization. Like always, good and evil are treated as two vastly separate ideologies, awkwardly discussed by Wyatt as he whines at his parents for raising him 'good'. Ugh. It's ridiculously mundane.

I know I keep talking about Paige, but I think it's important to reiterate how repulsive she's become. She's just consistently argumentative and whiny, complaining about her new charges, complaining about her sisters. Thanks to Rose McGowan, there are no longer any levels to her performance, right from her first scene here she's confrontational and flustered, and that continues throughout the episode. I can't stand the girl anymore.

Brief word should be written about Phoebe's little encounter with her professor, in which she bulldozes the woman with questions just as she's leaving for home, and acts all wronged when the professor lady complains that she's been using her lectures for column fodder. I don't actually see a problem with what the professor was saying, especially when she recommends that Phoebe actually do some research herself instead of berating her once the class ends. But, being Charmed, professor lady makes some grovelling apology at the end of the episode for supposedly 'pre-judging' Phoebe, and the whole thing bugs. These hags frequently deserve to be called out on their bullshit, but the writers always cave. Ugh.

Imaginary Fiends is by no means terrible. It has some strong acting and I guess on an emotional level it may connect with certain sections of the audience, but I got tired by the Wyatt hijinks and related demon predictability. Charmed is crying out for some fresh ideas, and this episode didn't deliver on that front at all. D

Credits
Guest stars Wes Ramsey (Wyatt Halliwell); Marcus Chait (Vicus); Billy Kay (Hugo); Susan Santiago (Miss Henderson); Christina Carlisi (Professor Slotkin)
Writer Henry Alonso Myers Director Jonathan West

1 comment:

  1. As a New Zealander I found this episode kinda offensive. The Maori have never worn wooden masks like the one Paige had(I think it was actually new Guinean) and her attempts at speaking the language were so bad I was cringing. You think they could at least find someone to make sure they don't get these things REALLY wrong.

    ReplyDelete