Charmed vs. Shannen Doherty

This is one of those posts that I have had lurking about for quite some time. TNT rebooted the Charmed series from the beginning here a week or so back and I always miss it when they do that! But I caught the episode they showed today and it struck me once again why Alyssa Milano had every right to consider Shannen Doherty somewhat less than charming...

Have you noticed that basically every Charmed episode with Shannen Doherty focuses on... Shannen Doherty? Three-lead cast gives you A-C storylines, but TV episodes work on A-B storylines (for more writing technicalese, check the Writing department), so pretty much every episode from the first three seasons has Prue in the A storyline and one or the other in the B story. Sit down and check them out; of all those episodes, Piper and Phoebe have starring turns only a handful of times!

Now, to be fair, around the fourth and fifth seasons, Rose McGowan (Paige) took mainstage more times than not, but the spotlight was pretty evenly distributed, and the first three seasons are not without Phoebe- and Piper-centric arcs, but Shannen Doherty dominated early Charmed.

And let's call a thing what it is: Shannen Doherty has a really bad rep for being a really big bitch. She appears in the series debut of the new 90210, but she left that show in a huff before it ended. She left Charmed in a huff after the third season, prompting a pretty good - and very pointed - episode where Piper turned into a Harpie, seeking revenge on Prue for "leaving them." And she was the first hostess of Sci-Fi's Scare Tactics, lasting only a season, maybe two.

Somewhere in the midst of all this, she appeared in Mallrats and basically blew everyone except Joey Lauren Adams and that Affleck guy out of the water with her performance. It was a strong performance and she and Jason Lee (who was still finding his chops) played well off one another, but the movie was a real acting bomb. Decent script, killer dialogue, really poor acting, blocking, cinematography, and direction (and Kevin Smith will tell you that, himself). Still, I half-expected her to make the move to the Big Screen following that turn, but I honestly believe her reputation prevented that.

And, so long as we're putting it out there, I'll go on-record as saying it must be well-deserved: Doherty has managed to have beefs with nearly every project with which she has been involved, yet the ones with whom she has problems never seem to have problems with anyone else!

But here's the thing: Shannen Doherty can't really help being a bitch; she's a Memphian. And yes, pretty much everyone from Memphis, TN is at least a little bit of an asshole.

Still, she is pretty and quite talented (note several of her scenes in Mallrats are filmed differently - they have a more experienced pacing and framing - and I am certain that was her influence on Smith; I would say she directed and blocked many of her own scenes, or at least had more to do with them than the other actors) and if she can just simma down, she is a sci-fi kinda gal.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008