phoenix_809

Charmed was a brilliant series for most of its first three seasons, the on-screen (for want of a better word) chemistry between its three main stars was excellent, and the show itself provided laughs, action, and the occasional lesson (like when they were sent into the future to see the effect of using magic to punish the guilty rather than protect the innocent for even the most insignificant act).

Sadly, the season 3 finale, was very ordinary (the plotline had to be there because at the time the series had not been picked up for a fourth season and they had to leave it in a position whereby it could be a passable grand finale for the series).

However, the fact is it is back for a fourth season, however the entire premise of Rose McGowan's character being a "long lost sister" seems awfully contrived. First thing I can think of, is how are they going to justify that both the Haliwell sisters' mother and grandmother, knowing anyone born of their line would be a witch, and for some reason abandoned or lost this child. On top of that, it puts pay to the prophecy in the pilot about the arrival of THREE sisters. That's right, three. Not four. Kinda throws the whole premise of the show into chaos. Especially if Rose McGowan's character is going to be a younger sister. If she's of the Haliwell line then that means she was born very soon after Phoebe, because it's constantly put forward throughout the series that Phoebe was very young when their mother died, so she never really knew her. You can't throw another sister into that line and have it make sense with the established chain of events. Besides, I somehow get the idea that Piper will have no idea who she is either. And for her to be one of the charmed ones, she has to be born of their mother - without another heavily contrived plot gimmick she can't be born to their father and another woman.

It would have been better to try putting an actor (not necessarily McGowan) in to replace Shannen Doherty (who I personally thought was just as important to the show as Alyssa and Holly) as Prue. All this considered, I can't see a hope in hell of this series getting bought for a fifth season.

I'll stick to watching reruns. Anyone who wants to see Charmed at its best will be well advised to do the same. The whole premise of season 4, sadly, just reeks of one word:

Contrived.

What can one say about this movie, which wrapped up one of the longest running television series in history? Admittedly it was much darker than most of the episodes were, but Alan Alda did it all in this finale: wrote, directed, and starred in a powerful and fitting finale to this immortal show.

In case there are still people out there who are yet to see it, I refuse to give anything about the movie away, save for the fact that Alda's performance as Hawkeye in the first half of the movie is absolutely brilliant, as he takes the character in a direction seldom, if ever, seen in the series.

While there are still laughs in this finale, the laugh track is conspicuously absent, as the focus here is more on the characters and their reaction to the end of the war and the breakup of the 4077th MASH family and a focus on the issue that's been sublime in the series since 1972: War is Hell. We see it as Major Winchester, who has tried every trick in the book to shut out the war around him, finally has it broken through his defensive wall. The goodbyes at the end of the film, between Hawkeye, BJ, and Colonel Potter, and between Hawkeye and BJ, followed by the last, slower (almost haunting) playing of the MASH theme as a chopper flies Hawkeye away from the 4077th forever, provide a befitting swansong to the greatest television show ever. No show will ever outperform MASH. Ever.