Charmed: Season Three

For television beautiful women and magic seems to go hand in hand. After all, there was Samantha the witch on ‘Bewitched’ and the ever popular Genie on ‘I Dream of Genie’. To take this proven formula and multiply it by three is a sure fire success for television producers. The third season of Charmed is now on DVD and as fans will tell you this was a critical season for the series. The three Halliwell sisters; eldest Prue (Shannen Doherty), middle sister Piper (Holly Marie Combs) and youngest Phoebe (Alyssa Milano) continue their battle against evil as the most power good witches, the ‘Charmed Ones’. Prue is able to move objects with her mind, Piper can freeze time and Phoebe has premonitions of future events. The third season focuses more on how the possession of these abilities would take a difficult toll on the lives of these young women. Piper has fallen in love with their ‘White-Lighter’ Leo (Brian Krause), a guardian angle assigned by the good powers that be to protect and guard the Charmed Ones. Since a relationship between White-Lighers and their charges is forbidden the pair must defy the Elders in order to fulfill their love and wed. In the first episode of the season the pair is away leaving Prue and Phoebe alone to help their friend Detective Darryl Morris (Dorian Gregory) of the San Francisco Police. As a result of rescuing Darryl from the demon of the week, the girls find themselves faced with testifying in court. Since most courts do not expect testimony about good witches and demons the ladies are in a bit of a quagmire. The most important thing about the court appearance is Phoebe meets and falls in love with the new district attorney Cole Turner (Julian McMahon). It turns out that Cole is actually a powerful demon, Belthazor. Since the Elders where unhappy about a witch in a relationship with a White-Lighter imagine their ire over this love affair. This romance and the dark secret that Cole harbors would become a major plot point for not only the remainder of the season but will also carry over throughout the rest of the series.

This season helps to continue the mythology of the series with a better look at the organization of both the good Elders and the demon community. The Charmed Ones are not only caught in the middle of the classic fight between good and evil but find themselves facing administrative red tape on both sides. The family dynamic that drove the first two seasons is expanded here. Prue as the eldest is still nominally in charge of the Charmed Ones. She focuses on becoming the most powerful witch possible, an extension of her somewhat compulsive personality. Prue also gains another power this season, the ability to astral project herself permitting Prue to literally be in two places at once. Phoebe as the youngest is the most head strong. She is a bit jealous that she is the only sister without an active power. This drives her to train in the more human martial arts. Piper is still the level headed mediator between her two extreme sisters. All she wants is to marry the man (angel) she loves and raise a family. After her marriage the former arrangement of all three sisters living in the mansion is strained. The newlyweds want their privacy but to be fully effective the sisters must be together as the power of three.

Season three does have some interesting episodes. One is a take off of the film Ladyhawk where the sisters must break a curse that turns a young man Owl by day and his girlfriend by night. While the plot is directly from the aforementioned film the treatment is pure Charmed. The sisters are moved by the intrinsic romantic situation and compelled to take action. There are also a few nods to popular movies from the previous year. The makeup used to depict Belthazor is directly from Darth Maul in Episode One of Star Wars. In another episode when Prue gains superpowers her fight scene is choreographed in a fashion similar to the subway brawl between Neo and Mister Smith in the first Matrix flick. The young witches also face more organized villains that previously seen. There is the triad, a group of demons that want Cole to return fully to his demonic personae and destroy the Charmed Ones. There is also the Brotherhood of Evil, a group of demons intent on wiping out all vestiges of good in the world. This set the stage for growth out of the old format of vanquishing the demon of the week.

Once again Holly Marie Combs provides the emotional center of the series. As the middle sister she is literally caught between things. She must broker a peace between her more volatile sisters as well as work out some compromise between her desire to wed and the all mighty powers that be. As an actress Combs is very talented. She can convey a full range of emotions with realism. This is vital to a series that depends so much on magic. Combs’s talent is part of what makes this series more than a magical gimmick. Alyssa Milano instills a lot of fun in her character. With this season Phoebe is permitted a long term relationship which gives Milano a lot more to work with. While previous seasons had Phoebe as the irresponsible one in the family Milano continues to allow her character to grow emotionally. Shannen Doherty gives consistently strong performances here. She gives Prue a growing sense of being the head of the family, responsible for everything around her and her sisters. Every female oriented story needs a leading man, a role nicely filled by Brian Krause. As Leo he is torn between love and duty, a perennial theme in literature. There is almost a Gilbert and Sullivan feel to how Leo must live between the woman he loves and his superiors. Julian McMahon adds a nice sinister touch to the series. He plays Cole as charming, intelligent and successful, the perfect candidate for a relationship. His tragic flaw is he is initially trying to fight his dark side to be with Phoebe. This thread is so strong in the series that it lays the foundation for plot lines for years to come.

This was also a season of major changes behind the scenes. Series creator and executive producer Constance M. Burge found herself at odds against another executive producer, Brad Kern. In this year Burge left leaving the reigns in Kern’s hands. Burge brought a more feminine direction to the overall threads of the show. Her direction was more inclined to examine the affect the powers had on these three young women. Once Kern gained greater control the more puerile male aspects increased. Costumes became rather abbreviated showing off the more physical aspects of the actresses. There was also growing troubles with one actress, Shannen Doherty. She was written out of the series in the last episode where Prue dies.

Paramount provides this third season pretty much along the same lines as the previous two. It is a basic, plain vanilla DVD box set with no extras provided. The full screen video is good, little to no signs of dirt or artifacts can be found. The Dolby Stereo audio is reasonably good over the audio spectrum. The low end is a bit light though. For fans of the series this is a most have because of the many transitions that take place here.

Posted 11/18/05