Charmed 6.09 Little Monsters

Little Monsters is an episode that works in spite of its flaws, of which there are many; too much nagging Chris; other characters acting like fools to mention but a few. The story of this episode is one that actually hit home, especially considering how strong a connection it has to Piper, who shares something similar to this week’s “monster”, a son.

One of my smaller criticisms of the later seasons of Charmed, and pretty much everything post season 2, was that demons just didn’t look like demons anymore. I get that there’s budgetary concerns and they have to be careful with what gets spent on special effects and prosthetics, but grating, vacuous guest actors don’t really outweigh the benefits of having an antagonist that inspires fear, like Shax for example. Little Monsters was the first episode in a while that actually had prosthetics worth a damn, and the episode had fun with the ridiculousness of it all.

Considering Piper is a single mom, desperate to keep her son safe, it makes sense that she would almost immediately have some sort of a connection with Derek. It’s one of the few occasions where a spark actually lights between one of the sisters and a random guest star, so it’s a shame that it wasn’t pursued further, especially since Piper’s separation could have been the perfect stepping stone for such a relationship. Regardless of the overlooked possibilities, the ending was still satisfying.

Paige’s job this week...giving Dorian Gregory something to do. It was kind of funny, but it was the filler-iest plot I’ve seen in a while, and that’s saying something. Phoebe was equally annoying, treating Jason like dirt, when she so obviously made him uncomfortable, and put him in one of the most awkward positions in the entire universe. And why does she feel the need to berate him for travelling? Didn’t he travel all the time anyway? Whatever...

There’s a decent message at this episode’s heart, and it’s one that I kind of liked, but the silliness elsewhere was its downfall.

6/10