I Just Can't Walk Away

Fair warning: Dead Man Dating still remains one of my favorite Charmed episodes ever. There was never a chance I'd be able to be unbiased about it so you might as well strap in for me squeeing over just about everything.

( sorry, not sorry. )

Also, Charmed does a pretty good of choosing songs for their funerals.

   So I wasn't exactly looking forward to watching I've Got You Under My Skin, which is the second episode of Season 1. It's funny because I kept thinking, "this one kinda sucks, no?" prior to re-watching it and no, past!me. It does not suck. I mean, yes, the things I remember sucking in particular do still suck. I still think it's weird that they keep going out of their way to make the first victim in any given episode a blonde and yes, the monster of the week, Javna, is still just as lame as he was 20 years ago, and yes, the special effects for this one are particularly not great. However one of my absolute favorite moments of the entire series takes place in this episode. For some reason I thought that came later but it actually makes way more sense for it to be in the second episode. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Again.



( Damn you, Kern. )
Join us next week as we confront serious daddy issues.

Ask and ye shall receive.

New Charmed trailer. I...

I think most people have their fandom of whatever shape or form that they are slightly insane for/about. Charmed is my fandom. It's one where I still have friends that I talk to (though not the only one, obviously) and one where I probably spent the most time debating and caring in general. I believe I've probably forgotten more about Charmed than the average person would ever care to know. I have opinions and if you don't want your eyes to glaze over it's probably best to not inquire because I can and will ramble for hours. Days, even. I wish I was kidding, but nope.

So the idea of a Charmed reboot is something that is both "ooh?" and "ohgod, why." They've discussed it various times throughout the years and honestly, I didn't think it'd make it off the ground this time either. But it got picked up and now I'm forced to decide how I feel about this.

However, there's no pilot to judge (yet?) so I'm left with the clips they've doled out and my feelings about this in general.

I get why people are pissed this has nothing to do with the Halliwell sisters. Thing is, I don't give two right royal damns about their kids. It was painful enough to have to live through the Chris and Wyatt years, I don't need that again. And while the reboot is taking a lot of things from the original, it's not taking Piper/Prue/Phoebe/Paige. And I'm probably okay with that.

I won't be okay if we have these new Charmed sisters existing in the same universe as the Halliwells, however. Not if this new set is also billed as the most powerful witches ever. There can be only one and that one has already been decided. So alternate universe, separate universe entirely, whatever. Again, it was bad enough having to sit through Brad Kern's weird fixation on the most powerful witches ever only being good enough to give birth to the actual most powerful witch ever, Wyatt. Because dude, right.*
Thing is, with that it kind of makes it impossible to have the originals pop in... unless you go the AU route or just have it as a wink to the audience.
So in theory, I am okay with a reboot.

In. Theory.

In reality, apparently the new cast has made comments or been busted liking things that call the original cast too old or that the original cast was all white the entire run and... y'know what? The cast for the show's run was basically three sisters (all white, it's true), their whitelighter (yup), and a cop (black). Not a stunning amount of diversity but an attempt was made. Like... there are a million things you could go off on the original for (see Kern's influence in the later years for the revolving door of horribly skimpy outfits for one, or the aforementioned fixation on Wyatt and all the guys in the sisters' lives at the expensive of the sisterly bond) - you don't have to make shit up. I promise, even as someone who loves this stupid show, there's plenty to attack. Which you shouldn't because it's not getting a reboot because people hated the original.
It's getting one because it's still ridiculously popular and it's about to have it's 20th anniversary this year so how's about you show some respect? On what planet does it make sense to antagonize the very people you're kind of supposed to be courting? Jesus.

The backlash has been so severe the head of the CW had to make a statement trying to placate the masses. When I said Charmed is my crazy fandom, I neglected to mention that it was also that for a lot of other people. :P

Other bits:
Kinda with the people rioting over the weird Leo/Giles amalgam going on there. The Halliwells had their book to get them through things... did we really need some dude kidnapping them to tell them "you're witches!"? Really?

Not sure how I feel about the power switch for the youngest sister. Premonitions have been replaced with telepathy. I didn't mind it as I watched it but since it seems to be touch activated, I'm wondering how useful it'll be.

Sigh. If this was just witches without the Charmed mantle, I'd be all over it, but the behind the scenes annoyance is killing any excitement I might be able to work up.



* - With news of Brad Kern being a horrible person and fired from his latest gig on sexist and racist grounds, I have never felt more vindicated in fandom. All my years of swearing when I said his name were right!

3. Your Favorite Episode
Okay, I could not cheat and give just one answer, but dude, I'm going for wordy and you're getting two answers. Yay!
( Any guesses? )

Mums 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.

As promised we bring you the Charmed comics covers for the upcoming releases. Well, some of them. Apparently some of the cover art isn't finalized. Go figure.

2A:

( Shhh. )

So, proving that I cannot get a break when it comes to ordering things online these days, I've had two more annoyances pile up. One was the middle of last month. I ordered pants for work because every time I tried to find them in the store, they only had petites or the wrong color. There was a sale and I figured what the hell. Ordered them on July 16. They said, since I had them shipped to the store, that I should expect an email around the 26th. Okay, fine. Around the 20-something-th I checked my email to see when I was supposed to be expecting an email because I didn't want to miss it, y'know? Turns out they'd been shipped and arrived July 20th. Awesome. Checked email. Nothing beyond the, "Please wait for us to email you when your order is ready to be picked up" instructions. Okay...

I wait. And the date passes. And then it turns into August. And NOTHING. You think to yourself, "But why didn't you just call or go?" Because they open just enough later than when I get off work so that by then exhaustion has kicked my ass and I am one of those people who avoids the phone like the plague. Plus Mums kept saying she'd stop by and see if the pants were in and then... she kept not doing just that. Grr. Argh.

Finally she swears that Saturday will be the day! THE DAY. Instead she sends my brother. WTF, man. WTF. Whatever. My pants are in their little Fed-Ex white plastic envelope thing. I check my email Sunday morning and what do you know, after he picked the pants up there's an email that says, "You can pick your stuff up now!"

Fuckwits.

And now to bring it back to Charmed. When I ordered my subscription (and if I'd been sober when I did this order I might have rethought the whole thing considering it cost just as much to ship it as it did for each issue. o_O) there was a little note that said if you want issue #0 you have to order it separately. I did. My email even tells me so. I get issue #1 on Thursday or Friday. Hunh. When I open it, I figure that 0 will be lurking with it and they just... combined shipping or something. Annoying since I'd paid (apparently) for them to send them as they came in but it happens.

No 0. So I email customer service after checking to make sure I truly did order the issue (I did) and whether the subscription included the other covers or just one. (Just one.) I get a very prompt email that says that if I wanted 0, I had to order it separately. I email them back and point out that I did catch that disclaimer way back when, which is why I did, in fact, order the issue. I get another email that says he'll check on it when there's actually someone working warehouse. All pretty impressive at 12-1AM.

Still, this and the insane shipping charges (they might not really be all that insane, but you see something literally doubled and you kind of freak out.) make it pretty likely that I will continue to default to TFAW as my primary online comic book dealer. Although this way I don't have to worry about a $5 charge every month. It's all paid for upfront.

And no, I haven't read the issue yet. The fear is strong.