Charmed (2018)

The Charmed reboot is indeed funny and fierce, with a political edge that places the show firmly in 2018.

The power of three still packs an entertaining jolt in The CW's reboot. The characters are new, but the fundamentals remain intact. [12 Oct 2018, p.44]

For a network where youthful heroes and battling the supernatural often go hand in hand, Charmed casts a breezy spell.

Unfortunately, it feels as if the new writers have outright disdain for the source material, so arbitrary and widespread are these changes. ... Not all of the changes are problematic. Matching the sisters' fight against demons with the #MeToo movement and other feminist protests against the patriarchy is a smart move, if executed with a heavy hand in the premiere. Setting the series on a college campus is an ideal way to bring those social and and supernatural issues together.

The “Charmed” redo is stronger when it goes for a laugh--at moments the style of humor brings to mind “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”--than when it goes all-in on supernatural theatrics involving its three sister lead characters.

Despite the timeliness of this dialogue, Charmed plays like a throwback to the schlocky original, which aired in the 1990s and to which it is surprisingly faithful in spirit. ... Charmed is more supernatural procedural than serial drama.

Figuring out how to make Mel, Maggie and Macy more fully inhabited characters and tapping better into their witchy powers and their big, mythology-driven mission is the next step that made me wish I'd been able to watch a couple more episodes. It's rare to see a show of this type that puts so much effort into nailing down the subtext only to leave the text and its execution so frequently limp.

The first episode of the new “Charmed” is clunkier than Rose McGowan’s late-‘90s shoe game. That said, a pilot’s job is to clearly let viewers know what the series is going to be about.

The deluge of empowerment is relentless, repetitive, and boring. The supernatural elements of the plot seem borrowed from old episodes of Supernatural and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The special effects are super-cheesy, not much better than an old episode of Bewitched.

This Charmed has its sights set on the Emmy for "Most PC Cliches Packed Into One Oppressively Long Drama Ever," and I think it might even win the lifetime achievement award the first season.

The actresses at the center of the series lack the chemistry necessary for their bond to have gravitas, and the writing has a clumsy, faux-feminist political bent that undercuts the show’s desire to provide an empowering message about female power.