Hello, hello!  Back in May, I posted about the upcoming Charmed reboot.  I had my doubts based on the advertising tactics and the push for the whole “feminist reboot” thing.  It all just felt over the top to me, but I said I would give it a try.  And I did.  The first episode aired this past Sunday, so I DVRed it and we (Dad and I) watched it on Monday.  I thought I would share my thoughts on it since I have nothing writerly to ramble about this week.

First off, my description of it based on the preview was pretty spot on.  The premise is basically the same as the original.  Three sisters find out they’re witches after their mother dies and they have to fight evil!  Okay, it’s Mom instead of Grams who dies and the long lost sister (Macy) shows up in the first episode instead of after killing off one of the others to bring her in, so I suppose it’s not entirely the same.  Also, their Giles (wait, wrong show)… I mean their Leo (known as Harry) appears and explains that they’re witches, which is kind of new.   Then it gets twisty and turny from there.

The plot was a fairly standard Charmed plot.  Bad things happen, the girls go after the suspected baddie who turns out to be just kind of a bitch, then they get attacked by a real baddie who is actually a red herring, then they find the big baddie and kill him.  But wait!  With his dying breath, the big baddie insinuates that he isn’t the BIG big baddie.  Dun dun dun… but that’s for the next episode or whatever.  Then there’s the whole thing with the Ouija board at the end that throws doubt on how legit Harry is.  Again, a story for the next episode.  And there’s a sprinkle of romance or something akin to it through the whole episode.

The episode did nothing to assuage my fears, though.  It was super heavy-handed with the whole feminist message stuff, which made the show groan worthy and not in a fun way.  I get it.  The writers are woke (or whatever the kids are calling it this week).  But there’s a difference between sharing your opinions with people and annoyingly shoving those opinions onto people.  There were a few spots where this episode did the latter.  Whether I agree with those opinions or not doesn’t matter.  It’s still annoying either way.  And it makes me wary going forward.

On the other hand, there was some of the good old-fashioned corniness.  I had a few chuckles.  I was able to sympathize with Maggie who just wanted to join a sorority and make friends and be normal.  Macy and her need to scientifically explain everything is someone I can get behind.  Even Mel was okay because she reminded me of people I know (people who will probably yell at me about my vague comments on feminism here, but I love them anyway).  And that’s why I said I was going forward with this show.

Overall, I still have doubts, but it was cute enough that I set it to record again next Sunday.  It’s one of those shows that could go either way.  I’ll either get fed up with the heavy-handedness after a couple of episodes and give up on it or things will even out and I’ll get into it.

What about you?  Did you watch the premier?  Are you going to keep watching?  Why or why not?  Feel free to share your thoughts and comments here or on my social media pages!