Obsessing Much?

So I'm talking to a female friend of mine the other day and I mentioned Charmed. Just a casual mention - okay, a few mentions - as to how I watch it everyday in the afternoons

And also in the mornings, if I'm up that early.

And also the mini-marathons on Monday.

Just casually mentioned I liked the show.

Anyway, she finally busted me out with a diatribe about how I need not mention the show to her again and how the dialogue wasn't any good, it was like Victoria's Secret models with superpowers, and I only liked it because the stars are so hot. I had to put down the phone because I heard electricity can travel through the telephone lines and she was tempting higher powers with her blasphemy. Once I was pretty sure no stray lightning bolts were coming from On High, I picked the phone back up and promised not to mention Charmed again for the length of our conversation.

Now, she was obviously suffering from nothing more than jealousy, but I have to admit that before I started watching it on a regular basis (and I literally only started watching last summer because there was nothing better on in its afternoon timeslot) I was inclined to agree with her.

I'd say Charmed has more basic drama to it than most similar shows - more interpersonal relationship-driven plots and storylines than others - but I don't know about that anymore. I mean, Hex was more true to the whole witchery angle and didn't shy away from religion and religious overtones, but it had a healthy dose of "mundane" drama, too. I've seen Angel more than a few times lately and it has a lot of interpersonal, relationship-based drama (though I must admit it keeps the fantasy elements firmly in place). X-Files is really the only show that didn't have so much of this, though it certainly came into play in the latter years of the series. I never watched Buffy, so I can't say how that worked.

Still, I don't think Charmed suffers from stilted dialogue, just rather "pat" relationships and storylines. I can appreciate the whole idea of their not really wanting their powers, so the focus is more on them as young women than their being witches; quite the opposite is true of Hex, in which the focus was rather solidly on witchery and witch-hunting. Dresden Files also focuses more on the spellcraft than on the characters and their relationships.

And I have to say, I tend to like those kinds of shows better, but Charmed was not targeted to appeal to me (excepting that the leads are gorgeous and they all wear skimpy and revealing clothing) - it was aimed at young and adolescent girls. I think it hit its mark well and really don't feel it suffers because of that. I understand and appreciate it for what it is: simple, basic fun.

The only real criticism I have of it is that it too often pandered to whatever was "hot and happening" at the time. For instance, when Pirates of the Caribbean came out, they did a pirate show; when Mr. & Mrs. Smith hit the box office (or right around then), they did a show where Paige's parents get possessed and become a married team of assassins; etc. Most of the shows where they did these things were obvious attempts at better ratings and just weren't that good.

Still, overall, I liked Charmed, but now that I've seen pretty much all of them twice (they still manage to come up with at least one episode I haven't seen every week or two), I would turn to check out other shows if there were anything good in its timeslot (sometimes I watch Gilmore Girls on ABC Family or something on the History Channel if it's one I've seen), so I wouldn't call that "obsessive."

Heh. Women. Can't live with them...