Charmed: 1998 VS 2018

Hello everybody! Today we're going to compare the original series "Charmed" of 1998 to the reboot of 2018. As you may or may not know yesterday (October 14th 2018) the first episode of the infamous Charmed reboot aired on The CW. Whereas to the original series the reboot got a lot of hate from fans and even from the original series' actors and actresses too. For months Holly Marie Combs, who portrayed Piper Halliwell in the original series, was arguing about the reboot. So today let's sit down and compare the two shows and I'll give you my honest opinion about both.

WARNING! If you haven't watched the original series and the first episode of the reboot, we suggest you don't read this article because HUGE SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!

I recently watched the whole original series for the first time and to be honest I was thrilled. I literally want to watch over and over again. I fell in love with the plot and the characters. Before the summer I didn't even know this show existed but I always liked everything about witches: I love witch movies, series, books, witch history etc. So when I found out that there's a show full of witchcraft and magic with eight seasons it didn't even take me a second to start watching it.

Let's start with the fact that when a series becomes so popular and it builds such a huge fandom, it's really hard to make a reboot or a spin off or anything and not compare it to the original one. So let's start with the plot.

In the original series, Patty Halliwell gave birth to three daughters: Prue, Piper and Phoebe. A few years later she dies and their grandmother, Grams as they call her, takes care of them and bounds their powers. Years later when their grandmother dies the spell breaks and Phoebe returns home after being in New York. Suddenly, she finds a strange strange book in their attic and after reading and incantation in the first page, not knowing what it is or does, the Halliwell Sisters gain their powers and become The Charmed Ones, the most powerful trio of witches. Later on in the series Prue, unfortunately, dies and the long lost half-sister, Paige Matthews appears and reunites the Power of Three.

Instead in the reboot their mother is alive and has bound their powers since they were babies so they can have a normal life. She also hides her firstborn daughter, Macy, from the others, Maggie and Mel. But one night while in the process of unbounding their powers she gets murdered and 3 months later Macy discovers her true mother and long lost sisters. They suddenly discover they have powers and that they are witches. And the show will continue on.

I didn't really like the dead parent cliche. In numerous television shows the parent dies and the main characters try to find the murderer to bring justice. We've had enough!

Furthermore, let's talk about the claiming of their powers. I loved the fact that in the original series we got to see the moment when Phoebe reads the incantation and releases their powers. Instead in the reboot, the powers are just given to them out of nowhere three months after their mother's demise.

Let's move on to the characters.

PRUE HALLIWELL VS MACY VAUGHN

Macy is clearly the 'Prue' of the reboot because she's the oldest of the sisters and she has the power of telekinesis. In the original series the oldest sister is supposed to be the most powerful one when Prue dies in the end of season 3 and Paige appears in the beginning of season 4, Piper becomes the oldest sister and we all noticed Piper becomes more powerful after season 4.

Prue also gains the power of astral projecting which turns out to be very useful when fighting demons and saving innocents.

In the reboot, the sisters' mother never told anyone about her firstborn Macy. She abonded her with her father when Macy was just a baby. Three months after her mother's death she appears outside her sisters' home and claims to be the long lost sister. That reminds as of Paige from the original series.

Paige Matthews appears on the first episode of the fourth season of Charmed. She grew up with foster parents, not knowing about her supernatural abilities. After Prue's demise in the finale of season 3, she discovers her abilities as a half-witch and half-whitelighter. In the series she has the powers of orbing (basically teleporting), telekinetic orbing and healing.

PIPER HALLIWELL VS MEL VERA

In the original series Piper is the middle sister with the power of molecular immobilization, which is basically freezing people and time. She later on discovers her other power molecular combustion, in other words blasting objects and living things.

At least everything is the same with this sister because Mel has the same powers and is also the middle sisters. I also liked the fact that both Piper and Mel are kind of control freaks.

PHOEBE HALLIWELL VS MAGGIE VERA

Now I was truly offensed when I saw Maggie because I felt like they were mocking Phoebe. Firstly, Maggie and Phoebe don't even have the same powers. Phoebe has the power of premonitions, meaning she gets visions about future events so she can stop them or make them happen. She later on discovers her other powers, levitation and empathy (which is feeling other people's emotions).

Whereas Maggie has the power of reading minds and as we noticed to do it she needs to touch the person first.

I didn't like at all the fact that they changed one of the powers because if the Halliwell Sisters had the power of reading minds, they would have figured things quicker. Whereas not having that power the original storyline kept you waiting and really anxious about what was going to happen. I truly believe the storyline in the reboot is not as boring as it seems to be for now.

LEO WYATT VS HARRY

In the original series, Leo was the sisters' whitelighter. Whitelighters are guardian angels who are sent by a group of very powerful magical beings, called The Elders, to guide witches and help future Whitelighters. They have numerous powers but their main ones are orbing and healing.

Leo appears in the show as a handyman helping in the sisters' house. Later on he is revealed as a whitelighter and helps the sisters fight demons. He is also a very loved Charmed character due to the fact that he and Piper are the 'forbidden love' couple because witches and whitelighters are not supposed to be partners. Finally, we also learn that Leo became a whitelighter after he dies in World War II.

Harry has numerous differences with Leo. He seems emotionless, unrelatable and very strict. He kidnaps the sisters in order to take them to the attic and tell them the truth about witchcraft, magic and their destiny. He is also the one who gives them the Book of Shadows.

Another thing I wanna add here is that I didn't really like the fact that the Charmed Ones in the reboot are really young. I get that in the original Phoebe was very young too in the first season but at least she seemed like a woman. In the reboot they all look like high school children except from Macy who seems like she's going to college.

Now that we're done with the plot and characters let's move on to the review of the first episode.

To be honest, I've never seen such hate for a show that hasn't even aired yet. Once I watched the whole original series and learned about the reboot, I wanted to see the first episode so I can judge and compare them. Before saying anything else I want to say that nothing will ever reach the love I have for the original Charmed.

Well, the first episode was not as bad as I thought. It didn't even came close to reaching the original one but I can say that it was not awful. There were numerous nice moments, but also very cringy scenes too. For example when Maggie says "I'm not a witch. I don't even like wearing witch costumes on Halloween. Not even slutty ones." which was supposed to be funny...I honestly have nothing to say about that.

The first think I noticed that I didn't like was this scene:

Once I saw this I can say that I paused the episode for some minutes so I can relax.

Melinda Warren was the first witch of the Warren Witch family which includes the Halliwell Sisters. She was an exceptionally powerful witch who possessed the powers of telekinesis, molecular immobilization, and premonition. She started the line of Warren witches which, as prophesied by Melinda herself, culminated in the arrival of the three (actually four) most powerful witches of all time: the Charmed Ones.

The reason why I didn't like this is the same why I didn't really like the idea of this reboot. The producers of the show said that they didn't want to connect the reboot to the original show at all, which made a lot of Charmed fans, including me, very pissed.

Well, after accepting the fact that there would be no connection, suddenly this appeared.

If you don't want to connect it, then do it properly. They cannot just make Melinda the sisters' ancestor because then that means that the Vera Sisters are relatives with the Halliwell Sisters, who do not exist in this storyline. They could easily just figure out another name for an ancestor and everything would be fine, but they went on and did this. Clearly they have no idea what "no connection" means.

What I also didn't quite like was this:

Well, as I mentioned before in the original Charmed they had a special word and way for teleporting. It was called orbing because only whitelighters could do it and the effect was that small blue orbs appeared. And I didn't quite like the fact that they didn't use that, but they used other things...

*coughs* Melinda Warren *coughs*

Orbing may be a whitelighter power but general teleporting isn’t. In the show we see demons teleporting (I don't quite remember how their teleportation is called..sorry) and warlocks blinking (another form of teleportation).

Moreover, I didn't quite enjoy the lesbian cliche. In the episode we saw Maggie having a relationship with a character not known to us from the original series, Nico. I really like when a network makes a series and truly supports the LGBTQ+ community, but in this series it really seems like they just put one of the sisters to be a homosexual (or bisexual, we don't know), only to attract more audience. I'm not saying that's how it is, maybe they truly support the community, but in my opinion it doesn't seem like they do.

Finally, I was not fond of the special effects in this episode. Even though the original series aired in 1998, it is my firm belief that it had nice effects for its era. I didn't really enjoy the first episode's effects and the demons seemed really boring and not having great power, even though the cold demon (don't really remember his name) was an upper level demon. I also wanna add here that we learned about upper level demons and the whole demon hierarchy later on in the original series whereas in the reboot it is mentioned in the first episode.

In conclusion, I didn't really like the first episode of the reboot but I didn't hate it. It cannot be compared with the original (says the guy who wrote a whole article comparing them) and nothing will ever cover or fulfill the love I have for Charmed and the Halliwell Sisters. I will consider if I should continue watching the reboot just because I didn't hate it and I respect their work trying to make a reboot but let's be honest it's basically a rip-off #sorrynotsorry

Written by: Angelo