Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Charmed: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman November 13, 2018

Magic in the real world where such a thing is not possible, or seems to be impossible, is not a new plot contrivance envisioned by J.K Rowling or Sera Gamble and John McNamara, creators of The Magicians. Dating back to I Dream of Jeanie in 1965 or Bewitched in 1964 and obviously well before in various entertainment venues, audiences have found humor and drama alike in the meshing of the real and magical worlds. Charmed, which debuted on the WB on October 7, 1998, brings its own unique twist to the the genre and quickly became one of the most popular shows to run on the now rebranded network. With a recent reboot on The CW driving popularity of the brand, CBS/Paramount has released Season One of the original show on Blu-ray, sure to delight fans and make many new ones, both of whom are undoubtedly crossing their fingers and hoping for a little Blu-ray magic to see seasons two-through-eight appear on Blu-ray in the near future.

Set in (then 1998) modern day San Francisco, Charmed follows the lives of sisters Prue (Shannen Doherty), Piper (Holly Marie Combs) and Phoebe (Alyssa Milano) Halliwell as they learn to mix their newfound magical powers with the everyday ebbs and flows of their regular lives. It sounds mundane, but the show juggles the juxtaposing material very well, painting a freshness and vitality through the beginning explorations of the girls' realization of powers against how they deal with their everyday lives, now with some magical support to make things easier, or harder, as the case often may be. It's driven by a blend of sisterly bonding drama, witty humor, magical action, and several well-realized storylines that put the sisters to the test early and often. Another of the show's strengths comes in its willingness to wait out the girls' full realizations of their powers. While season one is more about how they come to grips with their newfound powers and purposes and places in the word, future seasons see them expand and finely hone their abilities, creating new dramatic possibilities for both the individual girls and the sisters together.

But the show may be at its best on the home front. Like many shows and movies and books about the place and use of magic in the real world, much of Charmed revolves around the juxapostion of the magical and the nonmagical, how they interact, interfere, and intersect in a world where magic is otherwise fantasy, not reality. Love spells produce overly clingy boyfriends. Premonitions save lives. Time freezes to allow more time to perfect a recipe. Telekinesis is used to pay back a resentful ex. As the powers are explored, used, and the results not always as intended, can the girls learn to live their lives and maintain a public devotion to the mundane, non-mgiacal world while still using magic as it suits them, or as the situation requires of them? Must their world change now that they have? And do they have an obligation to use their powers for good or simply for their own amusement and benefit? Season one begins to answer these questions, but as with their power evolutions, deeper explorations of these questions are left to future seasons.

Any show is only as good as its lead characters and the actors portraying them. Doherty, Combs, and Milano excel in their roles, enabling the story through both their lifelong bonds and the explorations of their burgeoning powers. Each sister has different skills, talents, and insecurities. The interpersonal relationships reflect those of real sisters, and each girl's unique personality adds another diminsion to the show. Doherty shines as the OCD older sister who seeks to control all aspects of both her own life and her sisters', too. Her ability to move things with her mind reflects her controlling personality and her on-and-off romance with Inspector Andy Trudeau (Ted King) further refines the character's emotional state. Combs embodies the middle sister caught between perfection and ambivalence. Her magical power of freezing time compliments her own anxiety, allowing her to stop and breathe and reassess when she panics and feels overwhlemed. Her love life also reflects her personality as she sturggles to find a guy who isn't secretly out to kill them all, who isn't already dead, or who doesn't fall for her younger sister instead. Milano perfects the spoiled younger sister that doesn't care if she wreaks havoc on her sisters' lives, so long as she's having fun along way. Her power of premonition actually matures her character as she begins to realize the consequences of various actions, giving her, perhaps, the most dramatically fulfilling arc through the season. It is she who initially speaks the spell that grants each sister her powers. She initially seeks to use her powers for selfish purposes but as the season progresses Milano's character grows away from that and begins to seek ways to use her powers to help her sisters more than to help herself. Indeed, these sisterly relationships, not necessarily the magic in a vacuum, give the show its draw and prevent it from falling into repetitive monster-of-the-week doldrums, though the girls do battle a new evil in most every episode.

Charmed: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Charmed: The Complete First Season arrives on Blu-ray with a fine looking 1080p, 1.78:1-framed transfer. The show originally aired on WB at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. While the original broadcast presentation is always preferable, this new widescreen presentation is so good and convincing that most fans will probably forget the old framing fairly fast. It feels open, not stretched, and the resultant screen-filling image delivers a high quality, filmic presentation. Textural efficiency is very high. Facial textures, clothing lines and fabric density, and particularly environmental objects and notably those details around the girls' house bear the fruits of a thoroughly dense and sharp presentation. Exteriors fare well, from the mundane (pavement, chain-link fences) to larger elements like trees and cars and building façades around the city. Small examples of wear, lived-in details, and the general level of visible density and minute-detail accuracy across the season are very impressive. Colors are balanced, punchy and vibrant as necessary and low-key as the scene demands. Natural greens, clothes, cars, and objects around the house enjoy fruitful color depth and precision. Skin tones appear healthy and black levels are suitably dense and detailed. Artifacts and compression issues are few and far between, but a few upscaled standard definition shots are interspersed throughout the season, mostly establishing shots.

Charmed: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Charmed: The Complete First Season features a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. It fares rather well considering the technical restraints. The track manages to stretch wide across the sides, spreading music and sound effects fairly far, not leaving them cramped up the middle. The opening theme song is decently lively but not extremely energetic, suffering from the absence of a low end support and more verve. Effects like thunder, crashes, and other would-be hard hitting elements fail to elicit much of a sonic response beyond the foundational, identifying signature. Environmental din is nicely wide and effective across the front. Dialogue is clear and images nicely to the center. There are some one-off shortcomings here and there, like hollow-sounding dialogue early in episode two featuring Piper in a car speaking to a pastor. Otherwise the track is fairly good within the given parameters.

Charmed: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Charmed: The Complete First Season contains no supplemental content on any of the five Blu-ray discs. No DVD or digital copies are included, either.

Charmed: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

CBS/Paramount has a history of beginning, but not completing, vintage television shows on Blu-ray like I Love Lucy and The Andy Griffith Show and even newer shows like Hawaii Five-0, CSI, and NCIS. Of course, there are many that the studio has seen on through to completion: Star Trek, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Enterprise, Penny Dreadful, and Dexter. Charmed (and MacGyver, which released alongside Charmed), at eight seasons long (seven for MacGyver), has a long way to go to see the entire collection make it to Blu-ray. Hopefully the studio can see it through because Charmed is a fan favorite and there's definitely a demand for the entire thing in high definition on physical media. The season is a bit pricey, but the quality is, generally, very good. The release raises an interesting question, though: would fans trade quality for an assurance of a complete series release? Would fans take a high quality season one release without knowing the show's Blu-ray future or a lesser quality Mill Creek-style one shot full series dump? If prices remain and the entire series releases to Blu-ray one season at a time, one is looking well over $300 for the whole thing. Regardless of the answer, season one's Blu-ray, which is without supplemental content, does feature very good video and adequate two-channel lossy audio. Recommended, and keep those fingers crossed that all subsequent seasons are released in due time.