Charmed : season 8 review

2004-2005

22 50 minute episodes

SF elements

urban witches

Review

The eighth and final season starts off in a pickle: at the end of the seventh season, the sisters had faked their deaths and donned alternate personae, to be able to live in peace. Then the series was unexpectedly renewed for a final season, and that ending had to be undone. So the new season starts off rather slowly, trying to untangle things -- but a few episodes of confusion later, everything is back to normal.

The second half of the season is a build up to the final final episode, with a desperate fight against the Ultimate Power, whilst simultaneously trying to get Paige and Phoebe happily married off. The twist of getting rid of Leo for a while, to give "incentive" for the final battle, rather weakens things, as Piper ends up more concerned about Leo than about the Greater Good.

But on the way to this battle, they end up doing enough vanquishing that it is going to take a generation for the demons to regain their strength, giving the sisters a chance for a normal life without the cop-out season 7 ending. So, despite a rather high dose of saccharine in the final episode, the season, and the series, ends satisfactorily.

Rating: 4.5

[ unmissable | great stuff | worth watching | mind candy | unwatchable | unfinishable ]

reviewed 16 December 2006