Soooooooo...Season 6 of Charmed. From my many years of Charmed fandom, this seems to be the only controversial season of Charmed. People either seem to truly hate this season or truly love it. This also seems to be the only season that really brings out the factions and hostility among Charmed viewers. That being said, I guess I'll go ahead and state my side of this contentious argument just so everyone knows where I stand. I hate Season 6 of Charmed. I sometimes waffle between this and Season 8 as my least favorite season of Charmed. I think that's for five reasons.
1. This is the first season of Charmed that truly disappointed me in real time.
2. Chris is by far my least favorite character in the series
3. I hate the inclusion of Wyatt into the main storyline, and the added mythos that he, somehow, is more powerful than the Charmed ones. That brings me to point 4
4. This season outright scoffs and assaults the very foundational premise of Charmed. Piper, Phoebe, and Paige somehow become supporting players in their own show.
5. Which brings me to point 5, the almost nonexistent character development for the sisters' relationship. This is the first season where I struggle to think of any major bonding moment between the three. The bonding moments shift to Leo/Chris to the detriment of Piper/Phoebe/Paige. The main relationship this season also seems to be Leo/Chris even before the audience, the characters, or even the writers know they are father/son. Technically, I could add the nonsensical writing as point 6, but I'll stop here.
Major Bonding Moment: I'll start here. P3 becomes much less of a setting in this season. While I understand some Charmed fans never particularly cared for P3, I did love that it allowed for us to see the sisters in a different setting which naturally changed the dynamics of the relationships and the expectations for their interactions. Their home demands a certain formality and conformity of their expected familial roles. P3 allows for a casual bonding and more flexibility in those roles. In Season 2, we see the sisters dancing with each other in a way that just couldn't be done in the manor. in Season 5, we see the sisters sleeping on each other peacefully as a party happened around them. Again, I can't imagine that being done at home since they would be the hosts of such a party. There's very little P3 this season, and I honestly don't know if all three characters are even there together. As a result, the only "big moment" between the sisters is in Chris Crossed. This occurs when Piper/Phoebe/Paige discuss the sisters moving out, so they can all explore their individual paths.
I actually don't have the issue with that moment that a lot of Charmed fans have. Hear me out.
1. Piper is married and divorced and the mother of a small child. She must also be in her 30s by now. Phoebe is either in her 30s or very close to it. Paige is in her late 20s. I do think that's a natural conversation to have, and it's a conversation that would have occurred even if Prue was there. Technically, a version of this conversation was held with less stakes in Prewitched. I also don't have an issue with the idea that Season 6 was to explore the sisters' separate lives, and I think this moment and conversation could have been a beautiful moment if it were the climax of such an exploration. I actually still think it's a beautiful moment and well acted. My problem is that it's not the climax. It just simply occurs. Chris Crossed isn't even an episode that's about the sisters. It's about Chris and somewhat about Wyatt.
2. The episodes before aren't actually exploring how the sisters' individual lives are separating them or impacting innocent lives. I guess an argument could be made for My Three Witches. I don't know if separate lives is actually the reason they were placed in those separate dimensions. Chris was directly at fault for that. On the other hand, I can at least see how someone can make a strong argument for that episode being about their separate lives and how it impacts them as sisters.
However, when separate lives come up in this season, it's mostly Piper/Phoebe being upset with Paige for going off on her own. Loves a Witch and Soul Survivor would be the two examples. The Power of Three Blondes is another strong episode about the importance of sisterhood. However, the Stillman sisters' dynamics are explored more than the Halliwell dynamics. I guess someone can make an argument that living separate lives is why the Stillman sisters almost succeeded in their plan. I guess I would somewhat agree as their professional lives is what got the Halliwell sisters out of the house. I still would argue that there's not really an exploration of the sisters' individual lives in that episode and how it impacts them. There's no discussion about how they are drifting apart. There's no discussion about how its impacting their powers. There's no discussion about the loss they feel not being able to depend on each other.
There are also very few episodes with actual innocents that the sisters must protect. Loves a Witch, Soul Survivor, Little Monsters are the episodes about innocents. In two of those episodes, Paige is the only one who actually cares. In Little Monsters, Piper is the one who cares. Again, there's no exploration of how the changing dynamics affects how they operate as a team. So the moment in Chris Cross is great in isolation, but it ultimately comes without buildup and leads nowhere.
After that moment, we get some discussion of Phoebe or Paige missing vanquishes. This is odd in Paige's case, but Phoebe had been missing vanquishes since Season 5. We get a "funny" moment with Phoebe/Paige discovering their rooms have been repurposed. However, it mostly doesn't even seem like they left the manor. The two still spend a lot of time there. In Used Karma, Phoebe/Jason and Paige/Richard are having a double date there even though none of them live in the house at the time. Richard literally has his own mansion, and I assume Jason has a condo. Piper isn't even there; she's in the underworld. Phoebe just lives there again with no explanation after the end of the Jason relationship. The same happens with Paige. There's no big moment with the three celebrating living under the same roof again, how it impacts their bond or their powers, or even Piper having a moment in her room where she hears Phoebe and Paige arguing, and she smiles because she's just happy to have them in the manor again.
I actually do think an exploration of their separate lives could have worked this season, but that's not what the season is about. This season isn't even about them. That brings me to...
Chris Halliwell - No offense to the actor. I'm certain Drew Fuller is a nice man in real life. I also never watched Army Wives or any other work he's done. This is not an attack on his personal character or his craft because I do not know either well enough to make an assessment. That being said, on Charmed, I find the actor to just be terrible. His character is whiny, bitchy, poorly written, lacks inflection for proper emotions, inconsistent, has a perpetually blank countenance, and is given absolutely no motivation for half the season. The actor is obviously lost and so is the character. For a show with only 5 main characters, the show does a terrible job of actually connecting Chris to the main characters. Making him Piper's son is supposed to be all the connection we need as the audience and the characters need.
However, Chris spends no time actually getting to know the sisters. Most of his important moments as a character are with Leo, Victor, Wyatt, and Bianca. In It's a Bad, Bad, Bad, Bad World, Phoebe laments that she and Paige barely know him, and they are losing him before they get a chance to. This is a statement I agree with, but why do the Charmed ones not know Chris after an entire year. I almost said after living with him an entire year, but the show never actually makes it clear if Chris lives with them or not. In Forget Me Not, he seems to be sleeping in the storage room at the club. I never realized this, but Paige and Chris don't even seem to like each other by the end of the season. In Spin City, A Wrong Day, Witch Wars and Bad World, they spend a lot of time sniping at each other. In A Wrong Day, she asks Chris do they even like each other in the future. Granted, that could be Paige joking, but they are constantly opposing each other. This brings up something else I realized I disliked about Chris in this rewatch. Leo/Chris often team up against Paige. So now, we have Piper/Phoebe against Paige and Leo/Chris against Paige during disagreements.
Also, just because of HMC's real life pregnancy, we actually don't get a chance to see Piper/Chris' relationship grow. Piper seems mostly indifferent to him in the beginning of the season. Of course, Piper seems indifferent to most people by this point in the series. In Prince Charmed, she outright loses trust in him. She doesn't spend any significant time with him between Used Karma and Courtship. So by the time she knows Chris is her son in Hyde School Reunion, the show focuses on Chris' relationship with her mostly absent father, which confounds me. I know the show tries to explain Chris' hesitation to building a relationship with Piper in this episode, but Chris seems to barely care about Piper before this moment. He had a bigger response to meeting Paige the first time in Oh My Goddess, than any response or interaction he's had with Piper. I just think it was important for the show to allow us to see their relationship grow. It also doesn't help that Piper is completely absent from the moment of Chris' death. His death is mostly between Leo and Paige. Even Daryll gets a bigger reaction than Piper. Again, I understand HMC's real life pregnancy impacted a lot of these decisions, but it doesn't help how I see the characters' relationship.
Lastly, I just don't think the actor can handle even the basics. I cut him some slack as it's obvious the show has no idea what it's doing with Chris, and Chris often comes off as an idiot. He often must state some "thing" from the future at an inopportune time to raise the stakes. In Witch Wars, he "remembers" that Wyatt turns evil before he's born. Isn't this crucial information. Why would you just forget this? Again, I know the writers are making things up as they go along, but the character suffers for it. The actor also never gives these emotions any type of gravitas. I think he's trying but he comes off disengaged and disconnected. Somehow the entire season ends up revolving around his future, and I truly hate how his inclusion changes the Leo character.
Leo: Because this season is the Piper Halliwell family drama, sans Piper Halliwell, Leo somewhat becomes the main protagonist. Based off my previous post, I'm sure you've ascertained that I do not think the actor is particularly good nor do I like Leo. With HMC's real life pregnancy, she's an extra in her own story. Leo must take the lead. While I like, It's a Bad World, I've always hated that Leo is the person who commits the ultimate evil to save both worlds. I hate how Leo is suddenly super powerful with lightening abilities, and he randomly has Paige's telekinetic orbing ability. While I do think Krause does a better job, I also just hate how this season and half of next season centers around him and his decisions. I watch for Piper/Phoebe/Paige. A year and a half of the Leo drama is just not what I care about. Leo, Wyatt, and Chris ultimately become their own Charmed ones. Not literally of course. But the show changes course in a way that it does not redirect from until later Season 7 and Paige and Phoebe suffer from it.
Paige and Phoebe - Because of HMC's real life pregnancy, the two share a lot of time together. I honestly did not mean to bring up HMC's pregnancy as much as I have so far. Anyway. I know the actresses have issues with each other, then and now. That being said, I actually don't think it's obvious on screen. I think the two still have great chemistry as their characters. Love's a Witch is actually one of my favorite episodes of the season. I think this episode and Witch Wars do the best job at showing what the Phoebe/Paige dynamic should have been. Similar to late Season 4, the two work best at odds with each other. The show wanted the Prue/Phoebe dynamic with Piper/Paige, and it correctly realized that dynamic didn't work in early Season 4. However, late Season 4 showed that Phoebe/Paige should naturally butt heads. Both are stubborn. While in Used Karma, the shows seems to think Phoebe is conflict avoidant. I couldn't disagree more. Phoebe has no issue with leaning into conflict similar to Prue and Paige. Piper is the conflict avoidant one, which is why she just is not a good choice for such a relationship.
Similar to the Piper/Paige dynamic, which I discussed in my Season 4 and Season 5 posts, Paige disrupts the natural order. She is the youngest sister, but she's also the most natural leader. In a lot of ways, Phoebe is still the baby sister personality wise in the new dynamic. I thought Love's a Witch and Witch Wars explored the possible conflict that could arise between Phoebe/Paige as a result. Phoebe, on some level, I think wants Paige to be the young screwup that she(Phoebe) used to be; this way Phoebe can be the Prue to Paige's Phoebe. In Witch Wars, she tells Paige she(Paige) is the baby sister when Paige shares legitimate concerns about Phoebe's lack of an active power. This is obviously a power move on Phoebe's part. Phoebe outright calls Paige her mom at one point in this disagreement. We know Phoebe has issues with authoritative figures like Grams and Prue, which Paige has become for Phoebe. In A Wrong Day, Phoebe expresses some resentment that Mr. Wrong underestimates her, and Phoebe shares some pain because she understands that Paige underestimates her. In this same episode, Phoebeis moved to here from Mr. Right that Paige looks up to her as a role model.(I'm honestly not sure if that's true, but I guess Hyde School Reunion can be evidence for that being true. Although, I would argue that's Paige just wanting to understand Phoebe more than her looking up to Phoebe. I guess both could be true.
In Witch Wars, Paige underestimating Phoebe comes up again, and Phoebe again spends a great deal of the episode expressing her displeasure - I think it almost borderlines on rage - that Paige thinks so little of her. In Sword in the City, Phoebe passively aggressively attacks Paige's relationship with Richard because Paige again is showing a lack of little sister respect for Phoebe and her opinion. In It's a Bad World, Paige is the one Piper calls when she goes into labor and not Phoebe. Both Phoebes actually seem hurt by this. I said in my last post, that I would like to find Phoebe's sisterly role in her dynamic with Piper and/or Paige. While I'm still not sure how to define Piper/Phoebe, I actually do think there's something deep with Phoebe/Paige. I think the bigger issue is how the show frames their dynamic. Most of these are framed as comedic relief and wacky hijinks. Witch Wars ends with Paige stabbing Phoebe as Phoebe is deriding her about seeing her as weak. The show went for wacky hijinks instead of the much more interesting exploration of Phoebe still being seen as the weakest and by extension, the youngest sister. Paige, like Prue, is the sister everyone depends on in emergencies. Piper is the oldest and the most stable. Phoebe, even with all her success as Ask Phoebe, is still the one people feel they have to protect. This even includes little sister Paige. On some level, I wonder if that's why Phoebe got so involved in Paige/Richard's relationship. It makes Paige the screwup and not Phoebe. However, unlike Phoebe/Cole, Paige actually is responsible enough to bind Richard's powers and leave Richard to have a peaceful life. Paige is the one to push Phoebe to tell the truth to Jason in Used Karma. If this show took those actions in a more serious and grounded light, I think there could have been a lot of character and relationship dynamics explored. Sadly they don't make that decision.
Gideon and Wyatt - I think the thing that angers me most about this season is that I do think the idea of a trusted loved one turning Wyatt evil is rich. I just don't think the show did a good job showing Gideon as a trusted loved one. He's introduced in episode 14 of a 23 episode season. We, the audience, discover his nefariousness in episode 16. We never see Gideon and Wyatt alone until the season finale when Gideon is attempting to kill Wyatt. Wyatt also immediately puts up his shield when alone with Gideon indicating that Wyatt does not trust Gideon. This also implies the two have not spent a lot of time alone as Wyatt does not put up his shield with that one preschool teacher in Witch Wars when she takes him for a walk. This is even after Piper accuses the teacher of somehow mistreating Wyatt. The actor also plays Gideon in a dastardly way that makes it entirely too obvious that he has schemes up his sleeve. I also hate that Gideon opens the door for the elders to somewhat be the big bads for the first half of Season 7. Gideon and Leo also change the role of the elders and their abilities. In Season 5, it's outright stated that they only have mental based powers - levitation is seen as a mental based power for whatever reason - and they do not have offensive powers nor can they orb. Now, every elder can orb, Gideon has telekinesis, they can become invisible, they apparently can heal - the sisters suggest to Darryll that Gideon can heal his wounds - they can shoot lightning, they can telekinetically orb, and they are supposed to be precogs as seen in Witches in Tights. They can apparently create time portals at will now since several episodes mention whether they will send Chris back to the future or not. With that much power, why do the elders even need the Charmed ones?
The Charmed Ones - Which bring me to another thing I dislike about the season. The Charmed ones seem like the least powerful witches of all time this season. Wyatt as a small infant has displayed: orbing, telekinesis, telekinetic orbing, healing, a force field, a blinking explosion power, thought projection, bringing the dead back to life, switching powers, the owner of Excalibur, I'm honestly not sure if I listed all the powers he's shown at like one year old. Richard, a regular male witch, has a ton of powers including teleportation, energy balls, telekinesis, and some power to drain pipes. The Stillman sisters seem to have telekinesis, shapeshifting and conjuring. Demons seems to have an unlimited supply of powers this season, there's a Warlock who can freeze good witches. Chris has telekinesis, orbing, an ability to move people between worlds, etc. What happened to witches having a singular power. I don't think it was ever outright stated, but it seemed witches had a singular ability. It seemed that Melinda Warren was the only witch to have three powers, but even then, her descendants each inherited a singular ability. It seemed that the Charmed ones growing new abilities was a Charmed one thing. Now, every witch seems to have three abilities, minimum. Telekinesis seems to be a really common power all of a sudden. The Charmed ones have somehow become the least impressive magical beings on their own show.
I promise I tried to post that as two different replies, but it merged into one.
ETA: I tried to post three different replies. Anyway, I don't want this to be even longer. I do have a wish list for what I wish Season 6 was. However, I'll wait a few days, as I don't want this to become even more unruly. I apologize for the long post, I really did send this as two / now three different posts.
Edited January 29, 2022 by 4evaQuezncG1vNJzZmien6fCrr%2BNqamipZWptq6x0WeaqKVfqbyxtcJoaGlrZ22Bbq%2FHmqmmnZRitKa6xKuYpWWUnsCkwdKsoKimX6WuqLGOa2Y%3D