Charmed 5.13 'House Call'

The first of ‘Charmed’s post-Cole episodes ‘House Call’ is a preview of the half-assed embarrassment that we will come to know over the next few seasons. After the big ending to Cole’s arc, this episode opts for a lighter story but, like a lot of other episodes of this kind will, it falls on its ass completely.

In 'House Call' the sisters summon a witch doctor after the manor becomes infested with old poltergeists as a result of the demons that have been vanquished in their home.

This episode sucked for a number of reasons. Its basic premise was forced and lazy, it’s demonic plot lacked anything concrete at all, and the development this episode does in the way of the sisters is minimal at best.

It played off flaws that felt contrived and made up to suit the plot we have here (and it’s a terrible one at that). Piper is suddenly a neat freak, Paige is a jealous ninny, and Phoebe is, well yeah Phoebe is the same really, just a little weirder. The series actually impressed me by keeping Piper’s cleanliness intact after this episode, but the fact that it’s a reason to celebrate is depressing in and of itself.

Although I do feel sorry for Paige here, finding out someone you thought could be something more than a friend is getting married is a major blow, but her reaction was a little petty and quite rude, characteristics Paige never exhibited pre-season 5. And that was before the curse was put on her.

I always thought of her as the laid back sister, with Piper so wound up and Phoebe engrossed in chasing ****, she was the grounded one, in a way. Take ‘Witch Way Now’ for example. She’s the sister who made them realise all that they were giving up in the name of keeping things a bit easier. Here, she’s nothing more than a narrow minded cow. It’s a shame.

While the foundations of this story lack any real power, the idea of Witch Doctors is executed in such a way as to create a story that is pretty much a non-event. The episode is filled with a few, well yeah partially funny, gags to fill up screen-time and like many other episodes do, it leads to very little payoff. The antagonists in ‘House Call’ exhibited the appeal of a raw onion, and basically sucked any energy this episode did have. Let’s move on?

There are a few episodes after this that got stories like this right but speaking as a hardcore fan, this episode is a poor effort after a surprisingly decent run.

4/10