Kill Billie. No, seriously. Kill her.
Apr. 13th, 2013 04:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
impyMums has been watching Charmed (on WE maybe?) at dinner time for the last few weeks. On the one hand, I love Charmed. It was my big fandom. I have probably forgotten more about Charmed than is healthy for most people to know in the first place, and yes, that does sound super weird no matter how you say it.
I thought, a few years ago, that I would be able to rewatch some of the seasons that enraged me at the time, and that with enough time between us I'd be able to handle the little disappointments like a sane, rational adult. I'm not really sure why since I'm not known for my ability to be sane, rational, or adult. But I think it had something to do with taking a huge break from Charmed in general and sometimes distance gives one a perspective that is most needed.
Tonight was the series finale. I missed most of the second half of it, but I made sure to watch Piper beating the shit out of Billie because it was about the only thing that made season eight bearable for me.
This also means that I was there for when the Manor went kaBOOM and Piper flips out over Pheeble dying and doesn't even think to look for Paige until she hears coughing, assumes/hopes it's Paige, finds out it's Billie and attempts to kill her with her own bare hands. When Leo stops that mess, they just leave without once discussing looking for Paige again.
What the everlovingfuck, show. It's been YEARS and this still pisses me off to this day. So much about this show. SO MUCH.
So I wandered off, figuring the spike to my blood pressure should probably be avoided. Wouldn't get out of my head.
Towards the end of Charmed (so, probably around S5 if not earlier), I'd been openly hoping for the anti-Charmed ones to appear in a better form than the dudes who appeared earlier in the series. I wanted evil sisters to go up against my precious Charmed Ones (and Pheeble) because I was tired of the bad guys being horribly written women who were mostly just a first course before the Men Folk appeared to be the bad guys. I know, I know. I wanted a lot from a show that had a lot of problems keeping itself on the air in the first place.
But I was still hopeful.
And then Billie happened. And as soon as she refused to shut up about her sister, I rejoiced (as much as one could since this whole thing was fumbled right from the start) because of course a kid kidnapped by demons and thus raised by them was going to be EVIL. And then she'd sway Billie and BAM. I'd get what I wanted!
Yeah. Not so much. Christy's less evil badass and more brainwashed annoyance, and I could've stood that, I suppose, but it was just... you had a chance to make your big bad, your final big bad, a strong (if damaged) woman and instead she's some puppet for a dude with bad taste in shirts. WHY?
Any affection I might've harbored for Billie (not likely) died when she used Wyatt in their plan to murder his mother. The line, Billie. THE LINE. You crossed it and you crossed it willingly. You do not deserve future!babysitter status. You deserve the asskicking Piper tried to give you.
So when the show ended, I was basically done with it. I missed it when it was good, I might've cried a bit when TS3 disappeared because for all its faults, I loved that little gloom cloud, but I never tried to replace it with another Charmed board (of which there were still many then) because I was done. I loved certain things and people involved, and I would gladly golf-clap if certain people fell off the planet into the abyss. (Brad Kern, always forever looking at you with this sentiment. You fucked up my show so badly that I cannot ever forgive you. And it's been years, so assume this will be true forever.) But I needed time to recover from loving a show so damn much that every time it broke my heart, it broke it in a big way. I simply needed to not care all that much. And I can honestly say that since Charmed ended, I have yet to find a show that I have loved in nearly the same way.
Eventually I'll be able to form a proper and semi-coherent thought about this and you can bet your arse it'll hit the 100 Things. But for now just have my still seething rage over bits of the series finale.
But to temper that rage with something cute: Mums was railing against the not looking for Paige thing too, and how she could've bought it if she'd immediately gone looking for her kids but didn't so... and I argued (sleepily and with it having been damn near 8 years or something since I watched this thing) that as far as she knew they were safe and sound (...yes.) elsewhere and Paige was so obviously NOT, and Mum counters that Wyatt had been there earlier and Widget comes in and his eyes widen and I gather he's been paying attention when Mums watches. Why? Because he says in the most serious voice ever: "Wait, wait. Is Wyatt dead?" In that tone of voice all TV addicts know. He had to know, tell him now. I died on the inside of the cute.
I thought, a few years ago, that I would be able to rewatch some of the seasons that enraged me at the time, and that with enough time between us I'd be able to handle the little disappointments like a sane, rational adult. I'm not really sure why since I'm not known for my ability to be sane, rational, or adult. But I think it had something to do with taking a huge break from Charmed in general and sometimes distance gives one a perspective that is most needed.
Tonight was the series finale. I missed most of the second half of it, but I made sure to watch Piper beating the shit out of Billie because it was about the only thing that made season eight bearable for me.
This also means that I was there for when the Manor went kaBOOM and Piper flips out over Pheeble dying and doesn't even think to look for Paige until she hears coughing, assumes/hopes it's Paige, finds out it's Billie and attempts to kill her with her own bare hands. When Leo stops that mess, they just leave without once discussing looking for Paige again.
What the everlovingfuck, show. It's been YEARS and this still pisses me off to this day. So much about this show. SO MUCH.
So I wandered off, figuring the spike to my blood pressure should probably be avoided. Wouldn't get out of my head.
Towards the end of Charmed (so, probably around S5 if not earlier), I'd been openly hoping for the anti-Charmed ones to appear in a better form than the dudes who appeared earlier in the series. I wanted evil sisters to go up against my precious Charmed Ones (and Pheeble) because I was tired of the bad guys being horribly written women who were mostly just a first course before the Men Folk appeared to be the bad guys. I know, I know. I wanted a lot from a show that had a lot of problems keeping itself on the air in the first place.
But I was still hopeful.
And then Billie happened. And as soon as she refused to shut up about her sister, I rejoiced (as much as one could since this whole thing was fumbled right from the start) because of course a kid kidnapped by demons and thus raised by them was going to be EVIL. And then she'd sway Billie and BAM. I'd get what I wanted!
Yeah. Not so much. Christy's less evil badass and more brainwashed annoyance, and I could've stood that, I suppose, but it was just... you had a chance to make your big bad, your final big bad, a strong (if damaged) woman and instead she's some puppet for a dude with bad taste in shirts. WHY?
Any affection I might've harbored for Billie (not likely) died when she used Wyatt in their plan to murder his mother. The line, Billie. THE LINE. You crossed it and you crossed it willingly. You do not deserve future!babysitter status. You deserve the asskicking Piper tried to give you.
So when the show ended, I was basically done with it. I missed it when it was good, I might've cried a bit when TS3 disappeared because for all its faults, I loved that little gloom cloud, but I never tried to replace it with another Charmed board (of which there were still many then) because I was done. I loved certain things and people involved, and I would gladly golf-clap if certain people fell off the planet into the abyss. (Brad Kern, always forever looking at you with this sentiment. You fucked up my show so badly that I cannot ever forgive you. And it's been years, so assume this will be true forever.) But I needed time to recover from loving a show so damn much that every time it broke my heart, it broke it in a big way. I simply needed to not care all that much. And I can honestly say that since Charmed ended, I have yet to find a show that I have loved in nearly the same way.
Eventually I'll be able to form a proper and semi-coherent thought about this and you can bet your arse it'll hit the 100 Things. But for now just have my still seething rage over bits of the series finale.
But to temper that rage with something cute: Mums was railing against the not looking for Paige thing too, and how she could've bought it if she'd immediately gone looking for her kids but didn't so... and I argued (sleepily and with it having been damn near 8 years or something since I watched this thing) that as far as she knew they were safe and sound (...yes.) elsewhere and Paige was so obviously NOT, and Mum counters that Wyatt had been there earlier and Widget comes in and his eyes widen and I gather he's been paying attention when Mums watches. Why? Because he says in the most serious voice ever: "Wait, wait. Is Wyatt dead?" In that tone of voice all TV addicts know. He had to know, tell him now. I died on the inside of the cute.
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(no subject)
Date: 2013-04-13 04:17 pm (UTC)I remember when it was first on TV I stopped watching after season 4. I caught a few episodes of season 5 here and there but I think it was starting to get weird and not like the Charmed I knew and loved, plus they kept changing the day and time it aired which made it really hard to remember when to watch (ah, the days before DVR). So when the show came out on DVD I eagerly bought all the seasons and watched them. Season 5 isn't so bad. I know I really disliked what they did with Cole, making him so evil again. I really loved his whole season 3 arc where loving Phoebe redeemed him and he gave up his demon half...*swoon* Yeah, I'm a dork, but I ship Phoebe/Cole big time and hated what the show did to them.
I can't even remember what happens in seasons 6,7, and 8 though I do remember weirdness involving time travel and Piper's future son coming back to stop something from happening...it's all fuzzy and confusing. It was established I think in season 1 that Piper and Leo were supposed to have a daughter. I know that the future is malleable and subject to change, but the whole thing with the Halliwells is this long line of strong women who happen to be witches and that line was not supposed to be broken, damn it. Wyatt was cute and all, but he was supposed to be a girl. Rrebber.
Still, I'll start rewatching and then you and I can chat about it. It'll be nice to have somebody to talk to about the show again! :D
(no subject)
Date: 2013-04-13 04:44 pm (UTC)I was shell-shocked for a good chunk of S4, but when S5 debuted their new look (which sounded good in theory, but it looked like an entirely different show 90% of the time and not always in a good way) and... then the Cole thing. I was fine with P/C in Season 3. I could handle parts of S4 where things went off the rails, but by the end I wanted to strangle people. Also, I can't lie. I'd have traded Phoebe for Cole by the time he left. :p
I got a little tired of my girl show being invaded by dudes, cute as baby!Wyatt was, though for a little while the Cole/Leo scenes gave me life. Just the randomness of them all. I could forgive the lack of Melinda but all the "little girl!" comments made it really, really obvious they'd be genderswitching the kid. Or maybe it was just super obvious because I'd been spoiled?
Heh, I wish I could forget Billie. I forgot a good chunk of S7 (Mums would ask me questions during her rewatch and I'd stare at her blankly. "Mums, I saw this episode like, once. I can tell you who ends up dead if you'd like, but beyond that...")
So many Charmed thoughts, so little space!
I do wonder if the later seasons are better if you didn't have to wait and get your hopes up from week to week and instead just binge on the show at your leisure. Because I watched most of the show as it happened (exceptions made for S3 and the first part of S7) and holycrapmuffins, the bitterness.