CHARMED REVIEWS
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"I say, baby give me one little chance Not all women hate men – granted there is a moment or two in life where a
woman may want to hate a man simply because her heart is broken, but ultimately
there comes a point when a woman finds her true love and vanquishes the hatred
... well at least until the first fight. Grams' dislike of men is actually an intricate piece of the Charmed puzzle
when examining the sisters' love lives. Time and again the girls have had
heartache and joyous moments, but mostly heartaches. Prue always had a superiority complex, she even acknowledge that fault. Her
love for men didn’t run towards the strong "alpha" male, but towards
the more passive type. Prue needed to be the one dominating in the relationship.
Andrew was the only strong man, mentally, that even marginally matched Prue, and
of course, Prue fought that relationship up to the end when it was finally too
late. Phoebe has always sought out the stronger "alpha" male, and really
is best when she is the "damsel in distress" needing rescuing. She has
an innate need to be watched over, her own self-assurance was very low when the
audience was introduced to her five years ago. Over the years her confidence
grew, only to be beat down after Cole’s second turn to the dark side. Yet, her
self confidence has been getting stronger and stronger this season after
fighting and vanquishing Cole and, of course, her success in the business world.
However, this episode only showed how much further she has come in shying away
from dependency. Instead of taking Jason’s offer, she realizes that she can
exist on her own and still be a strong woman and witch. Piper’s experience with men has been much more turbulent and problematic.
As mentioned in an earlier episode this season, Piper’s luck with men hasn’t
been the greatest (demon, ghost, white lighter). Piper and Leo’s relationship
has been the biggest challenge that Piper has dealt with regarding men. First
she falls for Leo not knowing he was a white lighter, then she is told that she
cannot have a relationship with Leo because it is against the rules. Finally,
they are blessed to get permission to marry (but only after attempting to marry
by breaking rules). If any of the sisters should be a "man hater" it
would seem to be Piper. Yet, through all the turmoil she has stayed strong and
loved the same man. While Grams didn’t raise Paige, it seems that she did, at the very least,
pick up one of Grams' habits regarding men. Since the introduction of Paige the
audience has viewed Paige running through men like they are water. Yes, she was
serious about Glen, but in the end she knew it wasn’t meant to be and her
calling was as a witch. While it is by no means her fault, Nate turned out to
another dud as well. It was unfortunate that Paige turned to vehemently hating
men until she cooled off some, though it will be interesting to see how long
before she has another boyfriend. Understandably the writers don’t want to tie down all the sisters with men
(then viewers wouldn’t get the very tasty male guest stars) it would be
acceptable to have some guests stay for more than one episode. Mr. Jason Dean is
a prime example of keeping around the men for more of a few episodes. Who would
have thought any viewers would enjoy or welcome any person as Phoebe’s
romantic interest so soon after the departure of Cole, yet the audience seems to
enjoy this character and even clamoring to see him again in the future. While it is plausible for Grams to dislike men, it was a little forced to
have Penny dislike Wyatt, her great-grandson. First it seemed odd that Grams
wouldn’t have known that Piper had a boy. Since the entire underworld knows
about Wyatt and his powers, it would seem to reason that other
"spirits" would have known as well. Then throw in the fact that Grams
has had nothing but love for her family, making her not wanting to touch or bond
with Wyatt seem abnormal. Finally, just knowing how much power runs in the
Halliwell line, it would reason that Grams would be interested in Wyatt’s
powers and hopefully seeing what he can already accomplish. Once again, the storyline wasn’t about saving an innocent or vanquishing a
demon, it was about furthering the girls’ storyline. It helped a few more
pieces of the Charmed puzzle fall into place. Every time the viewer gets more
explanation all of the past storylines or actions of the sisters seem to make
more sense. In reality it seems like the writers are giving the viewers more respect and
credit. In the past viewers accepted certain things at a face value, now that
faith is being rewarded by the writers. The writers are re-examining stories of
old and finally giving reason why something happened or played out like it did.
For loyal viewers the reward has been worth the wait. This-and-That:
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