Charmed : season 7 review

2002-2003

SF elements

Review

The seventh season starts off with an intriguing arc: the secretive Avatars are coming, feared by both demons and Elders alike. What are they up to? Are they the evil creatures Brody insists, or just misunderstood? The arc manages to keep the guessing going for quite a while. However, the resolution is typically too fast and too easy. The Elders, meanwhile, do not come out of these events as the sort of Higher Beings that you would want on your side in a crisis (and I don't think this is just John DeLancie "Q" resonances at work).

The second half of the season is a bit of a let-down, reverting to "demon of the week" on occasions. But it builds up to the big finale with Zankou.

The end of season episode was written thinking this was also the end of the series, too, and it wraps things up very neatly. Then the series was unexpectedly picked up for an 8th season. So they're either going to have to do some pretty fancy footwork at the beginning of the new season, or possibly just ignore the problem in a typical "with a leap and a bound he was free" solution. Anyway, I'm not too unhappy about that, since the ending here, although neat and tidy, is a cop out. Good doesn't just retire from fighting Evil.

Rating: 4.5