To this day, the series Charmed is still at the top of my list of favorite TV shows. The original series, launched in 1998, was a brilliant combination of the supernatural and the every-day world with three spirited sisters we loved to watch battle through it – whether these battles be with warlocks or love.
Alyssa Milano, Holly Marie Combs, and Rose McGowan. Image Credit: Spelling Television.
Don’t get me wrong, reboots can definitely be great, but there is definitely a right and a wrong time for them, and the this reboot in particular has not chosen its timing well. There are also some things so wonderfully made it might be better to just leave them alone – to me, Charmed is one of these things. Whilst the news of a reboot may be exciting to some people, there are many others, myself included, who can’t help but feel the premise of it is also a little insulting to the original show. Actress Holly Marie Combs, who played the main character of Piper Halliwell in the original series, is one of these people.
The CW network, who announced the pilot order for the new series, revealed the official synopsis of the new series as:
This fierce, funny, feminist reboot of the original series centers on three sisters in a college town who discover they are witches. Between vanquishing supernatural demons, tearing down the patriarchy, and maintaining familial bonds, a witch’s work is never done.
Because we definitely didn’t see anything ‘fierce’, ‘funny’ or ‘feminist’ in the original show.
Combs certainly has her own point of view on this, as she took to Twitter to express her issues:
Guess we forgot to do that the first go around. Hmph. https://t.co/kDXLBefuSG
— Holly Marie Combs (@H_Combs) January 26, 2018
While some may not get why I take issue with the network that didn’t want to renew Charmed 12 years ago ‘reimagining’ it now let me just say I understand it perfectly. Also this kinda stuff given all that Rose and Alyssa have done lately…um no. Just No https://t.co/Vp2htLtdbR
— Holly Marie Combs (@H_Combs) January 26, 2018
Alyssa Milano and Rose McGowan, who accompanied Holly Marie Combs in making up the Halliwell sisters in their respective roles of Phoebe Halliwell and Paige Matthews, have been strongly involved with the recent activity on sexual assault in Hollywood, both speaking up about their own experiences and supporting the #MeToo campaign. To ignore their work, of both the present and of their hard work in the original ‘Charmed’ series, is in the least extremely discrediting, and to claim the original series didn’t already aim to “tear down the patriarchy” is simply wrong.
