SERIES PREMIERE: One of the executive producers of this new remake of the popular (and, by TNT, endlessly rerun most mornings)
Charmed fantasy series was also behind CW’s
Jane the Virgin, so you’d expect a light and funny touch when remaking this series about a troika of wicca sisters. Instead, this 2018 version of
Charmed leans, and in its first outing falls, in the opposite direction. It’s so on point with its determination to cover everything from #MeToo and minority empowerment to bullying and the current White House occupant that all those boxes are ticked off in the pilot. And the three young sisters, once they learn of their latent witchly powers and the supernatural forces amassed against them, are ticked off too. Sarah Jeffery, Melonie Diaz, and Madeleine Mantock play the literally empowered siblings, and Rupert Evans plays their British guardian angel of sorts – the Giles to their coven of Buffys. It could lighten up, and be more subtle and more entertaining, in future episodes. But for now, for starters, it didn’t put a spell on me…
For a full review, see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower.