We cover so many current shows on Hypable, but what about the shows that don’t air anymore? Now we have a weekly feature that will make sure you get your suggested dose of nostalgia every week!
Fandom Flashbacks are a weekly Hypable feature that looks back at old shows (classic, vintage, and freshly dead) and takes our readers down memory lane as we express our favorite moments, characters, and plots. With so many new shows coming out and taking over the reins of television, it’s about time we take a moment to look back upon the shows that made us laugh, cry and pee our pants way back in the day.
This week Hypable writer Tariq Kyle reminisces about the old WB show Charmed; a show that’s not necessarily classic or vintage, but one that still holds true in our hearts, even if there is a reboot coming already.
Series spoilers ahead for those who have not watched the show.
Charmed was a show that aired on the WB, currently the CW, and focused on the story of three sisters – Prue, Piper and Phoebe Halliwell – who discovered they were witches in the late ’90s. When they were kids their grandmother bound their powers so they could live normal lives, but when she died, their powers returned, and so did all the demons that were after them and those powers.
Charmed followed these sisters through the years as their powers progressed and they discovered they were the subject of a prophecy that said they were the Charmed Ones, the most powerful witches that ever lived. Even when a horrible accident happens and the Charmed Ones were thought to be over, a discovery of a half-sister comes to light and the triple threat of the Halliwell witches lived on!
“WE’RE THE CHARMED ONES, PRUE. NOT THE DOOMED ONES.” |
Charmed ran for a total of eight years, and it’s seen the likes of almost every magical being you can think of. From leprechauns and unicorns to demons and angels, it brought us a supernatural world that was rich with content and also, admittedly, totally cheesy at times. But that’s one of the reasons we love Charmed, because since it started as a ’90s show it also had ’90s family values that made it a weird combination of Supernatural and Full House.
Not many television shows get to end their series the way they planned, but Charmed managed to end on one of the best notes we’ve ever seen a series end on. The plot lines were tied up, the characters were happy and we got to see the story that we’d watched for the past eight years come to a close. Even though we knew we weren’t going to see it again, we had the biggest smile when it finally ended.
Part of what made Charmed so amazing was the amount of well-written and developed characters. The sisters are a set of amazing, powerful women that blew us away from the get-go, and they’re joined by some fantastic supporting roles: Leo, their guardian angel; Cole, the demon who fell in love; Andy and Daryl, cops who helped the sisters when thing got a little illegal; and we can’t forget Grams, their dead grandmother who comes to visit every so often and offer grandmotherly advice!
There are so many other characters on this show that we love, and it’s sad that we’ll never get to see them on a weekly basis again. But hey, at least we get to reminisce about them, right?
Prue Halliwell Played by: Shannen Doherty The oldest sister, Prue, had the ability to move things with her mind. She was arguably the strongest of the three, and her big sister role manifested itself in their witchy battles quite often. |
Piper Halliwell Played by: Holly Marie Combs The middle sister. Piper’s power was the ability to freeze people and things in time, which manifested itself later in the series as the ability to blow up things. She’s married to Leo, their Whitelighter. |
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Phoebe Halliwell Played by: Alyssa Milano The second youngest sister, Phoebe, has the ability of premonition as well as levitation. She’s definitely one of the wild cards, and her love life is just everywhere. |
Paige Matthews Played by: Rose McGowan The youngest and newest Charmed one, Rose is only a half-sister. Half Whitelighter and half witch, her abilities include telekenisis via orb and orbing. |
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Leo Wyatt Played by: Brian Krause The sisters’ Whitelighter. Leo died in WWII and came back to guide young witches. He also married Piper, and served as a ‘guiding light’ to the sisters when needed. |
Cole Turner Played by: Julian McMahon Also known as Balthazar, Cole was a demon whose only error was falling in love with a Charmed one. He played a huge part in the sisters’ lives until he died in season 5. |
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The Source Played by: Actors The Source (of all evil) was a major player in the Charmed series. The driving force behind evil in the world, he’s definitely one of their biggest enemies. |
The Elders Played by: Actors There’s The Source, and then there are The Elders. The good people. Never identified directly as Heaven or God, they were still in charge of keeping the Earth balanced with good. |
It’s hard to choose just one character as our favorite, especially when Charmed is centered on three sisters who each has their own merits.
With that being said, we think Phoebe Halliwell is the best character on Charmed. In season 1, Phoebe is the typical younger sibling: she’s reckless, rebellious, and doesn’t get along with the older and more mature elder sister, Prue.
And Phoebe makes plenty of mistakes, not only with her life choices, but also when it comes to her relationship with her sisters. But all of that changes fairly quickly. She enrolls in schools, and despite not having an active power, Phoebe takes up martial arts lessons in order to better assist her sisters when they face their foes.
Phoebe Halliwell was played by Lori Rom in the unaired pilot of the episode, but when she left she was replaced by Alyssa Milano. |
After Prue dies around the middle of the series and the other two Halliwell sisters realize they have another sibling, Phoebe becomes the middle sister. She doesn’t just accept the title – she also accepts the role. Phoebe becomes more responsible and level-headed, and often plays referee between Piper and Paige.
Phoebe is by no means perfect, and she continues to make mistakes. Love him or hate him, Cole was one of her biggest mistakes. However, in the end, Phoebe made the tough decision and stuck by her sisters, even if it meant having to kill her husband.
We love Phoebe for so many reasons. She’s sweet and innocent in a lot of ways, but she’s also strong and realistic. She’s smart, but she’s relatable. She still fails and makes mistakes, but she constantly grows as she does so. As the youngest sister, the one with a troubled past, Phoebe had a lot of ground to make up for. But she was also the one that handed the Charmed Ones their new life, and although there were times when she doubted herself, and times when she was tempted down the wrong path, Phoebe always stayed true to herself and her family. –Karen Rought
Normally when someone is asked what their favorite episode of Charmed is, you’ll get something like, “The ones where they were mermaids,” or Greek Goddesses, or Superheroes. Seldom does anyone tell you their favorite episode is the series finale!
The series finale of Charmed season 8, episode 22, “Forever Charmed,” gave us so, so many feels. Yeah, we totally understand that there were other fantastic episodes in the show, but “Forever Charmed” was one of the episodes in the show’s eight years that combined a fantastic story arc, some fabulous character development, and tied up the loose ends that we’ve been wondering about for a long time.
“AND ALTHOUGH WE CERTAINLY HAD OUR STRUGGLES AND HEART ACHES OVER THE YEARS, WE’RE A FAMILY OF SURVIVORS AND WE ALWAYS WILL BE. WHICH IS WHY WE’VE TRULY BEEN CHARMED.” |
“Forever Charmed” was the episode where we laughed, we cried and we ended it all with a gigantic smile on our faces. It was the perfect way to end a series, and it’s a shining example of how any show (with the right direction) can end their series just as well.
Charmed almost ended with 7 seasons, but when the show got picked up for season 8, we were much happier with the lack of a cliffhanger and seeing all our favorite witches raising the children we’d heard and wondered about for so long.
This episode brought us comedy, it brought us drama, and it brought us closure. And while it was definitely a very happy ending, it still had some drama that left the sci-fi fantasy fans in us satisfied. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the perfect way to formulate an episode!
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