All Hell Breaks Loose is the finest episode this show ever did. It's an effectively chilling hour chronicling a real end-of-the-world scenario, at least in regards to the sisters. It perfectly captures what could likely happen if the sisters were exposed, and how the media would react if the secret got out. We at first witness the unfolding of the 'hero' narrative, the media casting the Halliwells as protectors of the innocent as they save the world every week. But inevitably, in their quest for ratings, the media turns on the sisters, treating them like villains and otherworldly menaces. As the hour unfolds, it becomes more clear that it's not just the media who target the women, but also the police and potentially the CIA. It's a sinister depiction of what could happen, and it's wonderfully played all round.The script unfolds beautifully, from the humor of deciding whether to appear on Oprah or Barbara, to the horror of Alice Hicks and her big gun. Equally effective is Phoebe's time in the underworld, especially the moment where she realizes something terrible must have happened 'up there' for the Source to think she'd agree to his plan. Finally, there's that cliffhanger, the horrible irony of Phoebe and Leo both disappearing, and Prue and Piper left pretty much defenseless.
Obviously, this is also the final Prue episode, Shannen smashing into the wall of doom, never to be seen again. It's a fitting end for the Shannen years, especially with her directing and all. Prue is kick-ass, emotional and heroic throughout this episode, putting the safety of her sisters before herself and attempting to save the day while under the microscope. Prue was such a strong character, and definitely played an important role in the group dynamic. In the end, Charmed became a show about two gaggling morons and their whiny older sister. Prue's presence always added some levity and seriousness, which I really appreciated.
Shannen gives one of her greatest performances here, along with Holly. Their scenes following Piper's shooting are heartbreaking, the two of them having so much chemistry together anyway, but being fueled this time by Piper's sudden knowledge that she is dying, and Prue's abject devastation. Shannen's direction is also gorgeous, especially in the visual flourishes of the slow-motion close-in of Prue's breakdown in front of the crowd at the house, and later the reverse-time bullet at the end. Shannen really held the show together, as evidenced by the numerous accounts in recent years where some of her co-stars claimed that she did a lot of overtime on the show, always there to try and make Charmed as great as possible. In the long run, the series did fall apart without her.
Phew. Sorry for sounding like an annoying fanboy there. Ugh. But All Hell Breaks Loose is pretty much a masterpiece, the perfect send-off for the show's strongest ever season. When the one negative thing here is Leo's weeping gorilla face, you know you've got something special. A+
Credits
Guest stars Matt Malloy (Dr. Griffiths); Mercedes Colon (Elana Dominguez)
Writer Brad Kern Director Shannen Doherty
Hey Max,
ReplyDeleteI've been reading your reviews for years (particularly on TV.com) when you first reviewed all the Charmed episodes. It's great to see you have your own site here now. I've been reading all the reviews as you rewatched Charmed and it's been awesome as you're truly the only person who I can almost 100% agree with everything you write! Just wanted to tell you that even though people aren't always commenting on your reviews, it doesn't mean we're not reading them!! Keep it up. And I hope you'll rewatch Alias again soon? Loved your reviews on that show as well.
Take care,
Nadim
Wow, thank you so much. It feels really great knowing that there are folks out there reading, especially somebody who's been following my stuff for so long. That's really awesome, so thanks again.
ReplyDeleteI'm actually planning an Alias re-watch at some time down the line, but probably not before 2012. I haven't seen most of that show since they first aired, and it'll be interesting to spot if the show really did go downhill like so many people said. Since I didn't really feel that at the time (but I was younger and probably paid less attention, heh).
Right now my plans are to review a couple of new shows this fall. I already feel like this blog is ridiculously outdated. Definitely Ringer, and I have my eye on a couple of others.
Again, thanks for the kind words.
OK, so you know I agree with this one!
ReplyDeleteShannen's presence was sorely missed after season 3. That being said I personally think that the fourth still had a LOT to offer, as did Paige.
The gaggling morons thing might be a little harsh though =P
I'm really looking forward to you tearing the show a new one during your reviews of seasons 5 -8. I'm cringing already...
I liked season four, too. I just thought it was a little underwhelming compared to my memory of it. The opposite actually happened with season five, which was a lot better than I remembered. Apart from, you know, the couple of straight-up ass shows that year.
ReplyDeleteWell, there were a few of those I'll admit...
ReplyDeleteJust read that this is Shannen's favourite episode of Charmed too. I'm glad she knows how amazing it is herself!
I honestly do really enjoy Alyssa Milano's Phoebe but upon rewatching these first few seasons I can't help but wonder what Charmed could have blossomed into had it been Shannen who was kept instead. While Phoebe added a bit of new age, free love whimsy, which was great, that humor and quirkiness was simply then doubled up on by Paige's character. We didn't need more free-spirited rebelliousness from another young & awkward sister. As mentioned in this review, we *did* need Prue's grounding seriousness. I think the best decision for the the show would have been to have Prue, Piper, and Paige, with Phoebe killed off (maybe tied in with her "dating a dangerous demon" storyline) if one of the two absolutely had to go. I really wish alternative TV universes existed.
ReplyDeleteLol. Great reviews!
Thanks a lot for reading!
ReplyDeleteI agree that Prue's death negatively impacted on the show in a major way -- but, at the same time, I really liked Phoebe in the early years. And Paige, outside of her first season, really bothered me, and I feel like she got increasingly terrible throughout her tenure. So, in a perfect world, I'd have preferred it if the original P's stayed intact.
We can all dream, right? Heh.
I definitely wish the original trio could have been kept too. But if it had to be Shannen or Alyssa to go and Rose coming in to pick up that 3rd spot no matter what, I would have preferred Prue stay.
ReplyDeleteYou have a point about Paige though. I don't know if it was Rose or the writing but she did definitely go downhill.
Personally I'm glad that Prue was the one who died, because seeing what Brad Kern thought the oldest should be like, I would've hated watching her character deterioate under Brad Kern's directions, the way Piper and Phoebe (and Paige) did. I would've preferred when Shax said "The End", it truly was, either that or when the Angel of Destiny offered them the chance to give up their powers, they had. Charmed was at its best when it followed Connie's original storyline, but had Brad Kern as executive producer (Seasons Three and Four) so it didn't follow Connie's boring "Demon of the Week" format.
ReplyDeleteI can't watch this episode, so no way I'd count it as one of the best hours on TV - I'll watch "Morality Bites" twenty times over and bawl my eyes out each time, but I can't watch this one.
First because of all of the problems which bug the tar out of me:
-Prue physically pushing the doctor out of the way when she usually saves innocents by telekinetically pushing them out of harm's way, which also would've allowed her to push away Shax.
- Piper doing nothing but standing in front of Shax when she could have frozen him or blew him up.
- The news crew and the news manger blatently ignoring one of the news employees who said that she thought Piper and Prue blowing Shax up was a hoax.
- Leo going to the Underworld to help Phoebe, even though either Piper or Prue said that Phoebe could take care of herself. He left his two charges vulnerable after being exposed, which was when they needed his protection badly.
- Alice just casually walking right into the Halliwell home without being stopped. There was definetely enough people outside to stop her fron getting in.
- Alice shooting Piper, when it was Prue who TK threw her out of the house, not Piper.
- Alice being able to shoot Piper with a shotgun while standing on top of a van. Once again, police were swarming the area, and should have noticed her getting on top of the van.
but especially Prue and Piper vanquishing a demon in the middle of the sidewalk, especially when they don't even vanquish him--that's just pure stupidity which doesn't fit either character.
I also hate having Prue's last episode including her acting that way. My guess is that if all three sisters had survived as was originally supposed to happen, this wouldn't even make most fans' top 25 episodes much less top ten.
What probably bugs me the most is that IMOHO, this episodes is when Phoebe chooses Cole over her sisters (which set her up to turn into Freebie/PhoeME in Season Five), and Piper ends up blaming Leo when she should've blamed Phoebe, setting up Piper to turn into Miss Whinealot at the end of Season Five and Leo into Piper's little errand boy in Season Eight. The end of the sisters as sisters who happened to be witches and turning them into demon-hunters, none of which would've happened had Brad Kern not taken over as executive producer and Connie Burge stopped consulting and Shannen Doherty not been fired.
No, I don't like this episode. I don't like it at all, because it's not the end of Prue; it's the end of Charmed as I knew it and loved it. I wish "Apocolypse Not" had ended with them sacrificing themsleves to save the world, like they appear to be doing in "Something Wicca This Way Goes?" but don't, and that had been the end of the series.
I can definitely understand your frustration with this episode, however, some of what you said may not be too valid.
DeleteI do agree that Prue could have moved him with her powers and Piper could have froze him.
The news manager ignored the woman claiming a hoax because at the end of the day, they want to make money from that, their news channel would become a huge success because of that story so of course he tried to get them to exploit it.
Leo didn't go to the underworld to help phoebe. He went to the underworld to get phoebe to help her sisters, also to get Cole to contact Tempus.
I do agree that the police clearly weren't paying much attention to Alice, in some shots you already see her screaming on the van, how did they not stop her, who knows.
Alice shot the sister she was best capable. If she could have shot Prue she would have but the angle must have been bad. Plus when you're standing on a van with a gun, you have to act quickly or you'll miss your chance to shoot as everyone will notice you.
It was definitely a stupid move on their part to go out into the street but Prue really felt the need to vanquish him because she knew he was wounded, it still doesn't explain the stupidity of going after him in the street. Though you could argue that they couldn't risk is random uncalled for entrance by throwing them on the floor again.
Ultimately, the show did go down hill after this season. The group dynamic and chemistry didn't work as much as the earlier cast's. The episodes changed completely by season 5 and by season 6, the show was a mess. They introduced way too many magical beings that the show's focus was all over the place. Overall, they should have kept the original cast, but since they couldn't, the show should have been cancelled after season 4.
Wow, controversial. Heh. There are a lot of plotholes, but I seriously consider this the show's finest work. I also think Phoebe was removed purely as a means to help fix the Alyssa/Shannen issues. This was before they fired her, but I imagine they wanted to have Phoebe more involved with Cole and leading a separate life to alleviate tensions, you know? But then they had to run with it after Prue's death, to keep up appearances.
ReplyDeleteBut, controversial definitely. I don't think I've ever come across somebody disliking it so much. Entirely valid reasoning, though, as much as I personally disagree.
Thanks for reading, Esmeralda.
Instead of Paige, I thought they should have recast Prue by having her spirit take over someone else's body (I was kind of weirded out they did that in the comic book, that someone else had the same idea, and later in Ghost Whisperer). But someone younger than the other girls, maybe even a teenager. Being the big sister and having Prue's personality, but looking 12 or something, you know?
ReplyDelete