Broken Families: Charmed Season 6, An Overview

And so begins the great downfall of Charmed. Season 6 is a year that’s filled with lame plot twists, character contrivances and just a general sense of “who gives a fuck” on behalf of Kern and his team of 10 year old writers. Most of this year’s awfulness was on behalf of Chris, but all of the inconsistencies and general stupidity he brought with him rubbed off on almost every other character and storyline. OK, that’s a tiny bit of an exaggeration, but this season really was when things fell apart, and it’s sad that nothing was done to stop it. It’s a year of major change in the Charmed universe: Piper and Leo are separated; Phoebe battles to balance her secret life with her budding romance with Jason; and Paige fills up the void with a few random jobs and a good whine every now and again.

Just to get it out of the way, I’m gonna start with this season’s biggest issue, and I’ve talked about it briefly already; Chris. The way he started out the season was surprisingly interesting. Despite Drew Fuller's lacklustre performances, I sort of bought into him as this morally gray guy, trying to save the future. As the season wore on though, and his story faced a number of re-writes, it all grew to be a bit too much, and as a result, the season fell apart. Maybe Holly’s pregnancy was to blame, I dunno, but the end result was just this sloppy, inconsistent fumble of plot threats, lacking any form of coherency. I liked the way it wrapped up, and this season did end on a high, but it was one that didn’t satisfy as much as it could have, had this season been written by people who had a clue.

There were a few shining moments, mostly in the form of standalone episodes, that showcased the writers still breathing talent for creating some great light hearted fun, and more heavy family drama. ‘The Power of Three Blondes’ and ‘Love’s a Witch’ being the prime examples of both of those types. Unfortunately, the season had its fair share of doozies (‘Prince Charmed’) that out weighted a lot of this season’s positive attributes. The season’s major stories, as discussed, were riddled with contrivances and inconsistencies, but the writers’ attempts at a more serial narrative didn’t go unnoticed. Despite Gideon's irritability, I liked the presence of a major antagonist, even if his reasoning was flimsy as hell.

All of the girls were strangely unlikable this season. Phoebe spends the majority of her on-screen time whining over Jason, being an annoying busy body thanks to her new power, trying to steal random guys’ sperm, and just being a general idiot. You know, typical Phoebe stuff. I didn’t care too much for Paige either but some of her temp jobs, despite being filler material of the highest order, led to some interesting conflicts between her and her sisters, and also produced a number of decent stand alone plots. The less said about the dog walking the better. Thanks to her contrived break-up with Leo, Piper spends a lot of this season being a cranky whinge, but she’s easily the most likable (not a difficult feat this year, don’t let it get to your head, Piper). Leo’s constant presence didn’t make a lot of sense, especially since his new position was what drove them apart in the first place, but you’ve got to feel for this woman, giving up a lot to let her husband fulfill his destiny. I enjoyed her single mother troubles, when she wasn't acting like a total rhymes with witch.

It had it’s moments, but on the whole Season 6 is one of Charmed’s worst years. The fact that it’s not the bottom of the heap is even more depressing. Dealing with this downfall would be so much easier if I didn’t love this show so much. God help me.

Best Episode(s): ‘Forget Me...Not’, ‘Love’s a Witch’ and ‘It’s a Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad World’.

Worst Episode(s): ‘Prince Charmed’, ‘The Sword and the City’ and ‘The Legend of Sleepy Halliwell’ to name but a few.

Best Character(s): Piper. But let the record show I bestowed this title begrudgingly.

Worst Character(s): Chris. You'd be hard pressed to find someone who disagrees.

6 comments:

  1. I absolutely love love LOVE reading season overviews and your Charmed ones are particularly awesome and entertaining! I agree with practically everything you wrote! I too hate how much I love this show because it can be SO crappy sometimes. And then they throw us a great episode or moment and it just keeps us hooked. Even at its worst, there was always something so damn charming about it.

    And yes the saddest thing of all is that season 6 was NOT the worst season. I can't wait to start reading your ( as well as Max's reviews) for Season 8. My lord what a tragedy! Oh and season 7 sadly wasn't that good either :( Oy.

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  2. Great review, agreed with literally every point you made... besides the Three Blondes love, but everybody goes insane sometimes :D

    What really bothered me with season six was just how boring it was. It felt so slow-paced and lethargic, everybody going through the motions with absolutely no glimmers of subtlety or interest. At least season eight (in all its awfulness) could actually provoke some kind of reaction, I found season six... dead.

    It's also interesting that Nad mentions disliking season seven, because I get mightily praising of certain stories that year. It actually blew my mind how strong some of the arcs were during my recent re-watch.

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  3. Nadim: Thanks Nadim =)
    Yeah, Season 8 is pretty awful, but season 7, despite broing me to tears sometimes, was actually surprisingly well written, for Charmed anyway...

    maxpower03: I actually thought it was a lot more entertaining than season 7. Sure, it was in a messy, embarrassing kind of way, but it at least held my attention. Season 7 IS kind of better, but it got a little predictable at times, and I got bored more than once throughout the 22 episodes.

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  4. YAY! Back to agreeing with everything you said! Well, except for thinking it ended on a high note, since I, for one, was very disappointed when Leo became a murderer for someone who technically wasn't *his* son, but the son of a Leo our Leo never became - IF we believe Chris, which I never did.

    Personally I liked Season 7 better than this one, but only the last half of it and not counting the girls and Leo glamouring and going off on their own, leaving their magic kids behind with non-magical Grandpa. It just felt more like the first three, which this one definitely didn't.

    Here's my review for this one:

    SEASON SIX: Upstaged by a couple of cute upstarts

    I HATE CHRIS!!!

    I think he's the worst thing that could've happened to the series (I consider HIM the true Big Bad of Charmed for how badly he screwed up his mother and her sisters!) and as such, I consider S6 my least-favorite of all the seasons. The *only* saving moment was in Spin City when Paige said, "Bug spray! We should've used Bug Spray!" Amen! Then Chris would've been gone!

    Why do I hate Chris? Because he was a lying, murdering, whining brat who never apologized for his lies and who I thought was going to kill Wyatt up until the moment *he* died (I cheered!) and who turned my favorite male character (Leo) from my wonderful pacifist angel into a murdering Elder by vanquishing him to Valhalla, where Leo was forced to hate and kill!

    And why does Chris hate Leo? Because he wasn't around for him! OH, POOR BABY!! Leo is out saving the world and his son is pouting and whining coz he doesn't have time for him!

    To top it off, thanks to his obvious belief that ends justify the means, he taught his family to feel the same way besides getting them to stop worrying about innocents and just concentrate on their family--they became self-centered bitches from then until the end of the show--and as proven in “Imaginary Fiends,” he didn't really save Wyatt--Wyatt's still just as prone to becoming evil since, like Phoebe, he was born in the Manor, so Chris did all that for nothing, as far as the series is concerned!

    Even Chris saving Wyatt didn't do anything--after all, it was his coming back that ended up with Wyatt almost dying, since Wyatt was still alive in Chris-Crossed.

    The other worst part of S6 was Phoebe going on that visionquest, where from then on, finding the father of her child (to hell with love!) is all that she was interested in. And I actually liked that part at that time.

    I read somewhere that this season, Kern wanted to show Piper as a single mom, trying to raise a magical kid. Well, Wyatt never did much magic after the first couple episode and Piper dating so soon after Leo left was totally disgusting and showed no respect for the man she professes to love so much. Not that I blamed her--thanks to Chris, that wasn't the Leo she & I love.

    In this season, Phoebe became a combination of Freebie/PhoeME, disgusting. Paige became a totally dumb clutzy Valley Girl--just as disgusting. Piper became as whiney as her son. There was no longer a Charmed One to like. And Leo was totally disgusting, looked fat and ugly and was nothing like the angel I loved and missed. The Elders were more demonic than the demons! And not once did the Charmed Ones try to save an innocent that wasn't family, except when Chris wasn't around--my favorite eppis.

    No wonder they tried to make Chris be the hero. Too bad just being cute and being a member of the family didn't cut it.

    And since Chris dominates the season so much, I hate the whole season! The only good episodes are ones that don't include him. The bad ones are the ones that do.


    F-/0 out of 10 stars/ATROCIOUS!

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  5. Her Esmerelda!

    I only just noticed all your comments now, and they make for a great read! You should start up your own blog.

    And I hate Chris, too. But I think you can gauge that from the rest of my season 6 reviews!

    Thanks for stopping by!

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  6. Oop. Many people disagree with you about Chris. He was literally the only reason I watched Charmed again after Prue's death.

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