Charmed Got a Wake-Up Call from Its Worst Episode Ever
Pretty much everything was wrong with this episode.
In episode 5 of its debut season, the showrunners of Charmed decided to shake things up and introduce a human villain rather than continue down the supernatural route.
The result? Massive criticism and the lowest ratings of the entire season.
But it wasn't the fact that the Dream Sorcerer was human that was the strangest thing about the episode. It was the introduction of science. Throughout its eight seasons, Charmed had a variety of villains. Most were ghosts, witches, warlocks or other supernatural beings. Others were human.
The Dream Sorcerer, a disabled man who killed women while they slept if they rejected him in their dreams, was definitely human. That much was made clear. How he got into people's dreams, however, was never really explained. It was as if the writers came up with the idea and then didn't bother to develop it.
In the show, he targeted Prue - not realising that she was a witch who would ultimately defeat him.
At that early point, it's natural for the showrunners to want to try different things and see what works. But their failure to properly think this one through doomed it.
While this poorly written (and acted) story was playing out, another new direction was introduced in the same episode.
While Prue was busy dealing with the Dream Sorcerer, Piper and Phoebe decided to use their powers to make themselves attractive to the men of their choice. It was a plan that backfired on them when they began to notice that they were getting attention from other men as well. And then it all got a bit stalkerish and creepy.
Yes, it was the 90s and before #MeToo, but even then, it felt a bit like the boundaries of consent were being crossed.
Clearly, the creative minds behind the show have learned from those mistakes. In the future, any attempt by the sisters to use magic for personal gain suffered more immediate consequences. And there were no more forays into sci-fi villains who operated in unexplained ways.
It was (and still is) a terrible episode. But it's good to see that showrunners can look at elements of a show that haven't quite worked and make amends to fix the series (Benioff and Weiss, I'm looking at you here).