Well, here we go. Just like that we end Prue’s run as a Halliwell, and we finally get to meet young half sister Paige. Season 4 was another strong season, maybe not as strong as the previous one, but it got the job done. I always feel like Charmed is told in two separate stories, the first being seasons 1 through 4, then seasons 5 through 8, which feel almost like a different series. Here we have a lot of stuff going on; Prue dies and new sister Paige (half whitelighter, half witch) arrives on the scene; Piper and Phoebe deal with their loss; they face their biggest enemy; and Phoebe loses Cole to the dark side (again).
The producers were left in such a shitty position at the end of the third season. One of their biggest stars had left, leaving them without their leading lady and searching for some way to fill the massive void she had left. One option that was discussed at the time was simply to hire a new actress to take over the role of Prue Halliwell. While this might have worked a little better (we could have seen what season 4 was supposed to look like without Prue’s death), it would have been met with so much more scrutiny than to simply introduce a whole new character.
Rose McGowan was a brilliant choice to fill that role. She fit in with the other two sisters so amazingly, not as well as Shannen had, but there was no denying that there was great chemistry in this group of sisters like there had been before. Given all that had happened, this was the only viable option, and I think that the situation was handled brilliantly by everyone involved. They managed to make use of previous stories, like Patty and Sam’s past romance, to tie the new character into the series without too much needing to be altered about all that we’d seen before.
The first half of season 4 really took advantage of its lighter (some might say filler, and in some cases I agree) episodes in order to introduce us to our latest addition to the Halliwell line. In episodes like ‘Hell hath No Fury’ and ‘A Knight To Remember’ we get a little glimpse into Paige’s life. It’s hard to introduce a new leading character who will have her own major stories going on throughout the series. Thankfully these episodes did so in a way that didn’t undermine the rest of the characters' positions in the series.
The new dynamic of the power of three was handled quite well actually. With the eldest sibling now gone, Piper has to fill that role. Imagine how hard it would be to have relied on someone for so long, and have to lose her and become that dependable for your other younger sisters. Phoebe had to give up her role as baby sister, and become the middle sister. Paige filled the fun youngest sister role fantastically, particularly in episodes like ‘Enter the Demon’. The sisterly element was still a major element of the series, but probably for the final time.
Our other characters weren’t ignored just to allow Rose time to settle in. Piper is given a lot of focus, particularly with her being the hardest hit by Prue’s death. It’s really easy to feel her pain, particularly because Holly lost a little something too with her best friend now kicked off.
Phoebe also dealt with her loss. Despite the fact that Alyssa was almost always brilliant this season, I found it hard to not think about how happy she probably was throughout the whole year. I’m not going to get into any of that business at all, it’s been discussed to death, but it really affected my enjoyment of a lot of those scenes. Phoebe also matured a lot, finally getting a job for one thing and making her the middle child really changed her as a character too, though I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or bad thing.
The second half dealt with the girls’ first battle with the Source, in the climactic and amazing ‘Charmed and Dangerous’, which was originally the planned season finale, and Cole being lured back into the dark side, which was going to be what the fifth season was about (which by all rights was an idea they should have stuck with, imagine how amazing it would have been?!). Although I enjoyed a few episodes in the first half, the great arc that led most of the second half was fantastic. I don’t think anything so serialised ever popped back up again.
In the second part of the season the show, now having established Paige, could get back to business. Phoebe and Cole became the biggest part of the series at this point, leading to some AMAZING hours but it made things more about how Phoebe and Cole affected the sisterhood, not the other way around.
Cole’s run should have ended after this season, rather than drag his character through the dirt during the shows fifth year. Charmed could very well have ended after ‘Witch Way Now’. They had faced their greatest enemy, come to terms with their huge loss and had a bright future ahead of them, the only thing really left open ended was Cole.
It wasn’t as mind-blowing as the previous season, but season 4 had a lot to offer. After this season, it lost a lot of what made it special. This type of format should have been stuck to, and the lighter episodes in the seasons after this abandoned.
Best Episode: Charmed and Dangerous and Long Live the Queen are such amazing episodes.
Worst Episode: Trial By Magic. It’s just so boring.
Best Character: Piper. Just seeing her dealing with her loss and jumping into the big sister role made me really start to like her. Prue leaving gave her the chance to evolve as a character a lot more than had she still been there.
Worst Character: Leo. Not because he annoyed me so much as he just became forgettable, just being used to help move stories along.
I re-watched and reviewed season four a couple of months back (I'm just staggering the posting), and I wasn't actually as huge a fan of it as I used to be. The sisterly interaction was universally great this year and they handled Paige really well, but I felt the middle of the season fell off entirely and the promising Seer/Source saga was wrapped up pretty badly in Womb Raider.
ReplyDeleteI think I actually missed Prue a lot, too. She really became my favorite character during my re-watch. Shannen was so good in that role, and the real-life friendship between her and Holly always showed on screen. Loved those ladies together.
Looking forward to your reviews.
It's funny you say that because I actually found it to be even more of an emotionally charged year, and loved it even more. I thought Womb Raider was a great finish to the Seer arc.
ReplyDeleteI really loved Prue this time around too, and her presence was really missed. I still love Paige though.
We start disagreeing during this season, Panda, but that's because I believe what Holly said as part of a TV Guide interview, that Shannen did *NOT* quit, but was indeed fired - given her pink slip via a phonecall to her agent when she was in Canada filming "Another Day" with Julian McMahon. Holly repeated this during her interview on the S8 DVD (which I saw on youtube - would *never* buy that DVD - and has since been removed for copyright reasons) and made it very clear how bitter she still was for the way it was handled. Maybe because I'd read that article, I could never feel any sympathy for the producers putting themselves into that "shitty position". Of course, if they had known that Aaron Spelling had put into Shannen's contract that *she* had control of her image, so the show could no longer show Prue, they may have handled it differently.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, I agree with a lot of what you said and disagree with others. I'll let my own review do the talking:
SEASON FOUR: Screwing up the Birth Order
This used to be one of my least-favorite seasons until 6 & 8 came along. Now it's just so-so.
For me, it's much too dark and doesn't have the humor that I love so much about Charmed. I also felt like Paige was pushed at us, the way Billie and Christy were in S8, and being a huge Prue-fan, didn't appreciate it. I'll admit I howled over her huge boobs (best bit of the season and the last time there was a backlash for using magic for personal gain!) and felt bad for her when she went into the past, but that was about it.
Piper was never meant to be the oldest and it shows. She's so busy with her own life with Leo, she can't keep her sisters out of trouble or under control, the way Prue could. Unlike Piper, Holly shone - her portrayal of the Fury her best acting jobs on the show because it wasn't acting - it's how she felt about how Shannen was fired.
As an only child and a social worker, Paige should've started caring for and taking care of her new sisters. Even tho the youngest, she could've done that, letting Piper and Phoebe still be themselves rather than forced into molds where neither fit. And she could've/should've done it in a totally different way than Prue - treating them as women, not as children as Prue did, allowing all three sisters to grow, not regress as they did.
Speaking of, I thought it would've been a lot better if Phoebe had realized what was happening with Cole and helped him beat it. Her becoming evil by choosing him over her sisters was way too much for me. And the fact that Alyssa looked her ugliest during Phoebe's wedding still makes me howl to this day! That dark hair with those spiky bangs!! UGH!!!
But the season *did* include the best mourning scene of the entire series, that of Phoebe's after vanquishing Cole/the Source when the sisters comforted her. Bringing Cole back in S5 was a HUGE mistake--they should've let him stay dead after this. But had it been Prue and Piper comforting Phoebe rather than Piper and Paige, how much better would it have been.
The worst part of this season was showing the original Source's face. He was *so* much scarier as just a hooded character with a deep resonant voice, who could possess anyone--something I felt they should've taken more advantage of. Never knowing who was possessed by him could've been terrifying! Once we saw his face, he was just another actor with a bad makeup job, the first of the many generic demons we'd have to tolerate for the rest of this series.
C-/4 out of 10 Stars/Mediocre
Here is the transcript of that TV Guide article that was printed between Season Three and Season Four. It tells the story better than any of us can:
ReplyDelete"AS ALYSSA MILANO AND HOLLY MARIE COMBS FINALLY COME CLEAN ABOUT SHANNEN DOHERTY, THE QUESTION REMAINS: CAN A RECONJURED CHARMED STILL WORK MAGIC?
Shannen Doherty may be long gone, but she hasn't been exorcised.
It's mid July, two months after the 30-year-old actress abruptly announced her departure from WB's Charmed, yet a giant poster featuring her still hangs in executive producer Brad Kern's office. The wayward with stands front and center between her original costars on the sisters-in-sorcery hit, Holly Marie Combs and Lori Rom. Rom, now on Sci Fi Channel's The Chronicle, was cast as youngest sib Phoebe in the pilot before producer Aaron Spelling replaced her—poof!—with his Melrose Place tenant Alyssa Milano. It's a striking image, impossible to miss, and Milano takes note of it the moment she arrives.
“Maybe witch No. 5 will be our lucky charm,” she jokes, referring to Rose McGowan, 25, Doherty's replacement of sorts, who joins the comely coven this fall (Thursdays, 9 P.M. ET) as spirited half sister Paige. Milano settles onto a black leather couch and tries to keep the mood as bright as the lemon-colored lace-up top she's paired with snug low-rise jeans.
“You know, I have a dentist appointment this afternoon,” she says. “I really wouldn't mind missing it, so feel free to keep me here as long as you'd like.” But one look at the way Milano, 28, is perched tensely on the edge of her seat, drinking coffee from a jumbo mug, and you'd think she'd rather have a root canal than enduring an interview.
And not without reason: When Doherty left her Charmed role as eldest sister Prue last spring after three seasons, it was amid rumors of a bitter rivalry with Milano, something Doherty has not denied. The tabloid magnet's hasty exit seemed like déjà vu—after all, it was the second time in a decade she had bid adieu to a Spelling show after reports of friction with costars. (The first was in 1994, when she left Beverly Hills, 90210.) Her departure has left the future success of Charmed—which returns with a two-hour premiere September 27—in question at a time when WB is counting on it to continue enchanting viewers now that crown jewel Buffy the Vampire Slayer has pulled up stakes and moved to rival UPN.
Charmed hardly seemed jinxed when it debuted in the fall of 1998. The publicity surrounding Doherty's reunion with former boss Spelling helped the supernatural soap conjure up the highest-rated series debut in WB's history, while its modern mix of glamour and girl power warded off Dawson's Creek and Buffy, making it the network's second most popular show (after 7th Heaven, also produced by Spelling).
By all accounts, things were down right sisterly off-screen as well. “This is the best job I've ever had because we bonded immediately,” Milano gushed about her costars in a February 1999 interview. “We have so much in common.” For one, all three had grown up bewitching audiences on TV: Doherty on the short-lived spin-off Little House: A New Beginning, then on 90210; Milano on the hit comedy Who's the Boss?; and Combs on David E. Kelly's quirky Picket Fences. When Milano married rocker Cinjun Tate in January 1999, Doherty and Combs even served as bridesmaids. (Milano and Tate have since split.)
“We were very close for the first couple of years,” says Combs, 27, who plays middle sister Piper. “It's not like we just worked together and went home.”
But trouble was undeniably brewing between Doherty and Milano by the time production started on the third season last summer. The fawning quotes to the press had stopped, as had the costars' time together away from the set. As Milano puts it, “I wasn't going to call [Shannen] on the weekend to go hang out.” "
To be continued...
Where can I find this interview now?
DeleteRumors quickly swirled that Doherty was resentful of Milano's growing popularity, which translated into several endorsement deals, including one with MCI. But those close to the situation claim it was more complicated than that. “There were no angels,” Combs says. “We all had our bad days. We all [got] stressed out.”
ReplyDeleteThat's hardly surprising, says executive producer Kern. “People on a TV set work together 12 to 14 hours a day, five days a week. Rarely have I seen cast members stay or even become best friends.”
Adding to the friction, says Combs, was the stars' growing frustration with the show's direction. “We were in [a] rut, where we felt like we were doing the same episodes over and over again,” she says.
Doherty, in particular, “wanted to make the show bigger and better and stretch her boundaries,” says Combs, who has been friends with the actress for eight years, and still speaks frequently with her. “I'd see her in the morning and she'd be like, 'OK, how are we going to fix this scene?' She was really dedicated and she didn't have a lot of patience for anyone [she felt] wasn't.”
Whatever broke the spell, “we definitely didn't get along,” admits Milano. “Shannen and I are very different people, and I think it's almost like a roommate. If you spend that much time with someone and there are differences anyway, you're not always going to get along.”
Both Milano and Combs deny tabloid reports that Doherty would only speak to them when the cameras were rolling. But Milano acknowledges that she and her former costar could get downright witchy: “There were times when I'd come in and say, 'Good morning, Shannen,' and she didn't say anything to me. And there were times when she'd come in and say, 'Good morning, Alyssa,' and I wouldn't say anything to her.”
In an attempt to defuse the situation, Paramount, the studio that produces Charmed, eventually sent a mediator to the set, something Combs said made things worse. “First of all, it was none of his business,” she says. “And we certainly didn't want him reporting our girlie problems back to Paramount.”
“The problems we had weren't things some big company mediator could fix,” Combs adds quietly. “They needed to be fixed between us [by] going into [each other's] trailers and saying, 'All right, I don't like it when you do this.' Or, 'I didn't like it when you said this.'“
That apparently never happened. Instead, according to several sources, Doherty approached Paramount executives last December and asked to be released from her contract. “[She] was like, 'This is getting too problematic. Just let me go,' “ says Combs. “She didn't want to be the bad ogress again. She wanted to exit gracefully.”
But the studio wouldn't have it. Continues Combs: “They stamped their feet and said, 'No, you cannot leave. We will sue you,'“ (Both Paramount and Spelling declined to comment.)
Doherty's eventual dismissal, then, came as a surprise. And the form Combs says it took—a phone call to Doherty's lawyer after the embattled actress had flown to Winnipeg, Canada, to start shooting Another Day, USA's upcoming Francis Ford Coppola TV-movie—still clearly angers her. “How do you go from directing the season finale to being [given] a pink slip over the phone, when [you're] in another country, at eight at night?” Combs says. “It was really a tacky way to go about it.”
“I'm sure I'm going to get many phone calls about this,” she adds, “but you know what? I don't care. [The producers] know I was not happy with how it was handled. You just don't do that to a person, [especially] a person who has basically created two hit shows for you.”
While no one's officially saying why Doherty was ultimately cut loose, a series insider says, “It eventually became clear that [either Doherty or Milano] had to go.” And Doherty may have been the safer choice, according to Stacey Lynn Koerner, an industry analyst with Initiative Media: “Alyssa is just as popular, if not more so, than Shannen. And when Shannen left 90210, the series did just fine.”
ReplyDeleteWhether Charmed can still work its magic without Doherty remains to be seen. But WB and Kern are putting on a brave face. “If we'd lost two girls, then I'd be nervous,” he says. “But nobody would've been OK with making the change if they were [worried]. That's why I keep that poster [with the pilot's original threesome]. I believe the show has become bigger than any one of us.”
Adds WB entertainment president Jordan Levin: “We've got two really great stars in Alyssa and Holly. Adding Rose to the cast brings a whole new dynamic that's edgy and compelling.” McGowan pops up in the season premiere, which includes a funeral for Doherty's Prue, who was left for dead after battling a demon in last spring's finale. Another plot twist: Julian McMahon, who plays Milano's baddie boyfriend Cole, has recently begun dating Doherty. But he shrugs off any awkwardness with Milano: “To be honest, I'm usually pretty oblivious to that stuff.”
Milano, too, claims she's put her issues with Doherty to rest. “I have a lot of respect for her,” says Milano of her former costar, with whom she has not spoken since their last day on the set. “I think she's incredibly smart and talented, and I wish her happiness, love, success.”
But closure hasn't come as easily to Combs. While she says she still has a good relationship with Milano, she felt “a definite sense of loss” when she returned to the set in July. “In a way,” Combs says, “I have to treat this as a brand-new job, a totally different show I'm doing, because if I [don't], it's going to be a really hard year.” "
Like I said before, if anyone has seen the interview with Holly Marie Combs on the S8 DVD (I wouldn't waste my money on that season, but I saw it on Youtube - it's since been taken down due to copyright reasons), you can tell she's still very bitter with the way Shannen's firing was handled. That, above all else, is what tells me that what she says is what actually happened, much more than any spin that Milano, Kern, Spelling Productions or even Doherty herself has put out.