Charmed 1.17 'That 70's Episode'

In the series first trip through time, the sisters end up back in 1976, where they come face to face with their deceased mother. It resulted in one of the most special episodes the show ever had. You’ll find it hard to find anyone who can speak against this one.

Synopsis: The sisters travel back in time in order to stop a warlock from stealing their powers. Powerless, the sisters must turn to their own younger selves in order to fight him.

What I liked about this one is that they didn’t spend too long taking advantage of the 70’s element, since it wasn’t the most important element of the story. Their reunion with their mother was always one of my favourite Charmed moments. Finola Hughes is one of the best casting moves ever made on the series, since it was important that their mother have something special, and her interaction with them feel real. 

Unlike the awful episode when we met Victor at the beginning of this season, this reunion felt perfectly natural. Even though she came back a good few times throughout the run of the show, it was always great to see the girls with her since there was always such strong chemistry between them. We finally get to see Phoebe come to grips with her missed time with her mother. As the youngest child she had almost no memory of her, but here she got something she could finally hold on to.

Another casting gem was Prue and Piper’s younger selves. Both were perfectly suited to Shannen and Holly (Shannen in particular) and seeing them meet each other resulted in some fun moments. I’m glad Charmed didn’t go for the whole ‘seeing yourself will cause you both to die’ thing, that other TV series have done, Charmed did it a lot more straight forward and had more fun with it.

The warlock was pretty much a standard bad guy, after the girls’ powers. Here it wasn’t really the main focus. That being said, it always felt like a lot more was at risk when they were trapped in another time.

This was easily the best of the season, and a true classic. Perfect.

10/10

2 comments:

  1. This episode is definitely a highlight of the entire series for me. It's been a long while since I have seen it, but there are a bunch of stuff I remember loving;
    - Prue's time humour, not being able to understand tenses.
    - Prue commenting on how pretty her younger self is/was (didn't Piper throw a little 'really?' glance at her too?)

    I don't think Patty was ever used as well as she was in this episode, to be honest.

    Agree with everything you said, probably season one's greatest episode (well, tied with the finale for me).

    Great review!
    -tvfan332

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  2. Yeah, she was never dealt with as well as she could have been. Her appearances (except Just Harried) were never treated like they should have been.

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