Charmed: Deja Vu All Over Again (1.22)

Time loop episodes are almost always guaranteed to be fun. Pretty much every fantasy series has played around with that formula, and this is one of the best variations on the idea. By turns, Deja Vu All Over Again is entertaining, enlightening and pretty darn heartbreaking. Plus it features the first use of that old Charmed stand-by: when in doubt, send characters flying into random glass objects located in the Manor. For real, they always do that.

Charmed: Love Hurts (1.21)

In the rush to the season finale, we have an episode where a lot of interesting stuff happens, only none of it is given the considerable weight it probably should have deserved. Power switching? Cool. Piper desperate to save Leo? Romantic. Darklighter stalking? Internal affairs? It's all pretty great, but a little rushed when condensed into forty minutes. It's also annoying that the Piper and Leo story didn't really drive the episode. I don't know if the writers hadn't figured out how important their coupling would be to the entire series at this point, but it's disappointing to see such a huge chapter in their relationship get the screentime brush-off.

Charmed: The Power of Two (1.20)

It's a little frustrating that an episode centered around Prue and Phoebe's relationship doesn't result in any real surprises. Prue's mad at Phoebe's lack of responsibility and the fact that she hasn't got a job while Prue's job is hanging by a thread due to all the demons they're constantly battling. And that's pretty much it. You would have thought the show could have created some differing dynamics between them, but it turns out there isn't a whole lot to explore. It's all pretty one-note.

Charmed: Blind Sided (1.19)

It's funny seeing all these episodes featuring the first use of a notable plot device, all of which would end up getting run into the ground over the following seven seasons. But, when this show was young, fresh and new, something like the sisters being threatened by an outsider who wants to expose their powers is remarkably effective. And it's also interesting to see the show coming up with some neat resolutions to the story, instead of pulling a ridiculous slice of retcon from their butts to wiggle the storyline away from a dead end.

Charmed: When Bad Warlocks Turn Good (1.18)

This was an episode that always sent me to sleep when I was a kid. Watching it over again, I realize that it wasn't just my immaturity that stopped me from actually enjoying the thing. After a run of great episodes, Charmed delivers its first real disaster in a while, with an episode featuring guest characters about as interesting as a box of hair, and a mystery that is almost shocking in how ridiculously uninteresting it is.

Charmed: That '70s Episode (1.17)

Charmed was always a series which bathed in its own sincerity at times. This is especially true whenever the Halliwell's long-gone mom is brought up. In later seasons, it was an excuse for Rose McGowan to do that annoying 'talk-really-slowly-and-shed-a-tear' thing she does. It's always been an odd dichotomy in Aaron Spelling series. You have the boobs and the hot chicks and the sexy outfits, and then the most-of-the-time undeserved moments of cynical weeping or trite 'messages', like the show has completely bypassed the boundary-pushing escapism of late-'90s WB TV and settled into Touched by an Angel territory.

Charmed: Which Prue Is It, Anyway? (1.16)

This is a great Prue episode. Rewatching Charmed, I've come to the conclusion that she's probably the least likable of the sisters, and comes across as both overly controlling and uncontrollably bitchy and annoying. It also bugs that at this point in the show she's ostensibly written as the 'lead' and gets total story dominance most of the time (the same happened with Phoebe right after Shannen's departure). However, an episode like this explores the different facets of her personality, and goes some way in explaining exactly why she is the way she is.

Charmed: Is There a Woogy in the House? (1.15)

This is one of my favorite episodes, and it may have something to do with how simple, almost cliched conceits were made fun, intriguing and pretty ingenious. For one, we have yet another hour in which a Halliwell sister is possessed by evil. At the same time, the episode hinges on the oldest of sitcom-style storylines: "the boss coming round for dinner". As a result, Is There a Woogy in the House? (extravagant title and all), is a wildly uneven but most importantly an entertaining thrill-ride of a Charmed hour, and one of the best of the first season.

Charmed: Secrets and Guys (1.14)

Leo, as a character, never worked for me. Ostensibly, he's the show's version of a "get-out-of-jail-free-card", somebody the writers can turn to when they're painted into a corner, a character who can heal/teleport on outta there and save the day. This always bothered me. Now we have a show where nobody is truly dead or truly in danger, unless of course the actor involved got fired or alienated themselves so much from the rest of the cast and crew that they'd never be asked to set foot on the Charmed set ever again. It's a little frustrating.

Charmed: From Fear to Eternity (1.13)

The strongest episodes of Charmed usually contrast a ridiculous demon/warlock/witch storyline with a human 'issue' that the sisters are experiencing. From Fear to Eternity, another surprisingly decent season one hour, explores the long-lasting after-effects of a tragedy. In the case of the Halliwell sisters, it's the demise of their mother. Prue not only faces her greatest fear, but also finally tells her sisters that she loves them. It's not the most complex of problems, but it makes for an intriguing episode grounded in a kind of emotion that the show deserted later on.

Charmed: The Wendigo (1.12)

The first of many, many, many episodes about one of the sisters becoming possessed by something demonic, The Wendigo is nowhere near greatness, but it is an atmospheric little mystery. It's by turns fun, exciting and ridiculously contrived (all ingredients that create the best Charmed episodes), and there's enough here to make it one of those early classics. This is mostly down to Holly Marie Combs, who has so far created the most vivid of the three sisters, and who gets a real showcase here to display her versatility as well as Piper's neurotic charm.

Charmed: Feats of Clay (1.11)

This should have been an interesting episode from a Phoebe stand-point, but unfortunately too little time is given to her history, or her own feelings of personal growth since her return to San Francisco. Instead, most of the script's attention is given to her dull-dull-dull love interest Clay, his ham-fisted proclamations of having 'gone straight', and a flat mystery involving a cursed urn. Throw in a couple of dull subplots and yet another superfluous Andy appearance, and it's no surprise five writers are credited to this mess.

Charmed: Wicca Envy (1.10)

Re-watching the early episodes, it's pretty great to see a story arc involving villains that aren't just reduced to the whole "crush, kill, destroy" method of dispatching the Charmed Ones. The show's villains eventually became so shrill, flat and one-note that seeing Rex and Hannah forming this elaborate plan is actually pretty refreshing. Wicca Envy is occasionally both melodramatic and ridiculous, but it's probably the strongest episode of the series so far, and a benchmark for what the show would eventually become.

Charmed: The Witch Is Back (1.9)

Another vaguely flat early season one episode, this does at least advance the show's mythology a little, even if it is contained in an episode full of obvious humor, obvious characterization and generic plotting. Nobody ever said Charmed was subtle, but this episode essentially smashes you over the head with a sledgehammer, in terms of both the writing and the acting, the latter presumably performed by a bunch of daytime TV actors and ex-models. Essentially, Aaron Spelling-types.

Charmed: The Truth Is Out There... and It Hurts (1.8)

This episode's subplot was pretty fun, featuring the aftermath of an ill-advised truth spell. So far, so Sabrina. However, the show puts enough dramatic weight behind the storyline to increase its power, in particular where Andy and Prue are concerned. While it's a little silly that Andy discovers the secret, thinks it over, and eventually decides he's against the whole "witch" thing in less than a couple of hours (with few questions asked), I'm excusing it. Everybody's allowed at least a little bit of artistic license once in a while.

Charmed: The Fourth Sister (1.7)

Season two saw the introduction of Jenny Gordon, a neighborhood girl who (in her brief tenure on the show) asked about tampons and sex and threw herself into dangerous situations. Then she vanished. It was never explained what the writers had intended for her, or why anybody thought she would be an asset to the series. Watching The Fourth Sister, I can almost see what the show may have had in mind. Here we have a lonely teenage girl, desperate for some kind of acceptance, turning to the Halliwells for wicca-related guidance. While the character bugs at times, her presence isn't entirely reprehensible, and I'm a little surprised that they never asked Danielle Harris back. Which leads me to thinking that maybe Jenny was supposed to be a new incarnation of the same character?

Charmed: The Wedding from Hell (1.6)

One of the funniest things I have ever read online is the Television Without Pity recap for this episode. The comedic genius over there, Demian, entirely tears this god-awful episode to pieces, saving his most intense derision for Sara Rose Peterson, an actress who briefly popped up on a host of '90s shows, in roles which proved strangely memorable. There was Elizabeth Hornswoggle on Friends, Jerry's girlfriend with the hellooooo belly button on Seinfeld, and here as the ridiculously named Jade D'Mon. I always wondered if Demian's recap, in which he dubbed Peterson a 'cancer' upon acting, was responsible for her swift retirement from the industry. She hasn't worked since 1999, and maybe there's a recap-related reason...

Charmed: Dream Sorcerer (1.5)

Weirdly for this show, Dream Sorcerer works better visually than it does everywhere else. I'm a huge fan of dream sequences on film (especially when they're done well), and the dreams depicted in this episode are gorgeous. The moody red coloring, the cold Garbage song playing. They're atmospheric and pretty darn sensual. It's unfortunate, however, that the reality-based scenes aren't so great. The idea of Whitaker Berman and his dream factory is surprisingly straight for such an eccentric fantasy show, and it's something that wasn't repeated too often. You can kind of see why, though, since icy laboratories and test facilities don't have the same visual impact of an underworld lair or whatever.

Charmed: Dead Man Dating (1.4)

I remember years ago posting something on a message board about how Charmed never really represented the diversity of San Francisco. Where were the gays? The Asians? It's no big deal, but the Halliwells did always seem to exist in their own little bubble of white folk. And the writers rarely attempted to reflect varying lifestyles or cultures throughout the show's eight-year run. Dead Man Dating is one of the only episodes I can remember which actively reflected another culture, and in doing so created one of the first hours which signposted that the show could be something pretty great.

Charmed: Thank You for Not Morphing (1.3)

Victor was always kind of a question mark, mainly down to the writers. He is, in essence, one of those ancillary characters that isn't important enough to give a consistent personality. It's a little like Buffy Summers' father, originally shown to be pretty low-key and protective, then written as a heartless, child-abandoning sociopath when the scripts called for it. The same happens on Charmed. Played by a different actor here, Victor is depicted as a sleazy, heartless abandoner; something entirely flipped in later appearances, Victor eventually appearing worlds away from the kind of person who would ditch his entire family at one point or another.