Charmed 6.08 Sword and the City

A common thread of the later years of Charmed is this blatant use of classic tales, with very little left to the imagination. There’s nothing new or exciting to give these worn stories some extra life, nor is there any alteration to the Charmed universe, save for the appearance of a few magic creatures here and there. It’s getting tired at this point.

Paige really seems to be clashing with her siblings this season. First she struggled to get away from magic, then Phoebe butt’s in when she tried to save Richard solo, then both Piper and Phoebe butt in when she tries to save an innocent by herself. This episode took the sibling rivalry that had been slowly building over the course of the season, and instead of dealing with it in a confrontational way, Charmed took a surprisingly mellow route and used Phoebe’s position as a cautious older sister as a way of tackling this slow-burning familial antagonism.

Both Paige and Phoebe’s arguments here had merit, but I liked that it was dealt with so subtly. Now that Phoebe’s old role of younger sister has been changed, it’s interesting seeing her passing on wisdom to her younger, less mature sibling, now that she’s seen similar situations play out badly. She was a little out of line taking Richard at face value, but it’s all in the name of love. It’s the fun realisms of this part of the episode that I enjoyed the most.

It’s the Camelot shit that I could really have done without. I liked that it tied in with Wyatt’s role as this huge and powerful force in the magical world, but there’s so much to overlook here that it’s hard to see where most of the logic is coming from. It did take Piper some interesting places though, since she’s been stuck in a rut this season. She lost her husband to the Elders, she has to face being a single Mom, and in this episode she has to run the house solo; it’s a thankless role and at least there’s recognition there of what different lives her two sisters lead to her.

There are some fun side stories here that could have been given a better run, but were overshadowed by the showy, medieval stuff. I liked the action, and some of this episode’s demony stuff was fun enough, but it’s all just so messy that I really can’t take it too seriously.

5/10