I've been watching Charmed for a while now. At first, I thought the show was decent. Not brilliant, not the greatest show ever, and not even great. Just decent. The stories were rather well written, and the acting wasn't bad. Of course, I was also younger when I started watching, and my tastes have developed a good deal since then. In looking at the more recent seasons, and looking back at some of the worst parts of the older ones, I have come to this conclusion: Charmed is a rather bad show. The main reasons, I think, are:
1) The over abundance of campyness. Now, this was not as much of a problem in the earlier seasons. Back then, the episodes were rather grounded and serious. However, as time went on, the plots degraded more and more into campyness. Plots began centering around leprechauns and other such silly aspects of mythology. And they didn't even try to handle them in an interesting or original way. The leprechauns were simply short men with lucky gold. Story lines included characters' breasts enlarging several sizes or the characters turning into super heroes. All in all, things got increasingly silly, and not in any way that was funny.
2) The villains. They were the worst part of the series. All of the villains were one dimensional. They all had the same personalities. They never had any real motivation. They simply prattled on about how evil they were, laughed manically for a while, and then tried to kill people for no real reason besides the fact that they felt like it. They never gave a motivation for the characters. They never really explained why they were the way they were. They simply said "they're evil." Which brings me to another, related point. The villains openly admitted that they were evil. They gave that as their reasons for doing what they were doing. All they wanted to do was "spread evil." I heard such lines as "I'd never work with someone who was good." This, to me at least, seems like very simplistic writing. As Willem DaFoe said, everyone thinks they're righteous. No one does things because they're evil. Everyone has some sort of motivation. Even if they're so crazy that it only makes sense to them.
3) The mythology. The use of mythology in the show was just clichéd and boring. They made no attempts to put a new spin on the mythologies they were using. No attempt to make it into something at least somewhat original. Every mythological figure was a stereotype of the culture he or she originated from. Asian mythological figures all new martial arts and spoke with "zen" wisdom. Leprichauns, as I said earlier, were simply as every leprechaun has ever been portrayed. They never once tried to adapt the mythologies into something new or interesting.
4) Bad continuity. Things would happen, and never be referenced at all again when it was needed. One question that crossed my mind a few times was that, if witches can simply make something happen by speaking a rhyme, why don't they do it more often? Why go through all the trouble of hand to hand combat and psychic powers if you can kill people with bad poetry? On another, related note, there was an episode where they introduced "The Cleaners." Beings who rewrite reality so magic isn't exposed to humans (although I never understood why everyone was so afraid that humans would find out. I mean, it's not like we could hurt demons very effectively). And yet, there was a later episode where the Witches were exposed, and the cleaners were not mentioned once. Also, there was an early episode that said "blinking" (a form of teleportation) was a power a Warlock stole from a witch. And yet, in all later episodes, it said that blinking was a power inherent in all Warlocks.
All in all, the show kind of sucks. I think. But hey, if someone else likes it, that's their porogative.
1) The over abundance of campyness. Now, this was not as much of a problem in the earlier seasons. Back then, the episodes were rather grounded and serious. However, as time went on, the plots degraded more and more into campyness. Plots began centering around leprechauns and other such silly aspects of mythology. And they didn't even try to handle them in an interesting or original way. The leprechauns were simply short men with lucky gold. Story lines included characters' breasts enlarging several sizes or the characters turning into super heroes. All in all, things got increasingly silly, and not in any way that was funny.
2) The villains. They were the worst part of the series. All of the villains were one dimensional. They all had the same personalities. They never had any real motivation. They simply prattled on about how evil they were, laughed manically for a while, and then tried to kill people for no real reason besides the fact that they felt like it. They never gave a motivation for the characters. They never really explained why they were the way they were. They simply said "they're evil." Which brings me to another, related point. The villains openly admitted that they were evil. They gave that as their reasons for doing what they were doing. All they wanted to do was "spread evil." I heard such lines as "I'd never work with someone who was good." This, to me at least, seems like very simplistic writing. As Willem DaFoe said, everyone thinks they're righteous. No one does things because they're evil. Everyone has some sort of motivation. Even if they're so crazy that it only makes sense to them.
3) The mythology. The use of mythology in the show was just clichéd and boring. They made no attempts to put a new spin on the mythologies they were using. No attempt to make it into something at least somewhat original. Every mythological figure was a stereotype of the culture he or she originated from. Asian mythological figures all new martial arts and spoke with "zen" wisdom. Leprichauns, as I said earlier, were simply as every leprechaun has ever been portrayed. They never once tried to adapt the mythologies into something new or interesting.
4) Bad continuity. Things would happen, and never be referenced at all again when it was needed. One question that crossed my mind a few times was that, if witches can simply make something happen by speaking a rhyme, why don't they do it more often? Why go through all the trouble of hand to hand combat and psychic powers if you can kill people with bad poetry? On another, related note, there was an episode where they introduced "The Cleaners." Beings who rewrite reality so magic isn't exposed to humans (although I never understood why everyone was so afraid that humans would find out. I mean, it's not like we could hurt demons very effectively). And yet, there was a later episode where the Witches were exposed, and the cleaners were not mentioned once. Also, there was an early episode that said "blinking" (a form of teleportation) was a power a Warlock stole from a witch. And yet, in all later episodes, it said that blinking was a power inherent in all Warlocks.
All in all, the show kind of sucks. I think. But hey, if someone else likes it, that's their porogative.