Some people who actually like Charmed will get mad but

[omri]

Did any body noticed about the similarities in buffy and charmed? NO i don't mean it in the good way. It's like the writers in charmed actually took some ideas from buffy!
Like the whole Angel/Buffy story is pretty much the same with the Cole/ Phoebe
Story. There's tons of other things!.
think you could mention them?

[Salvation]

I was actualy thinking about the same thing bcuz my tv is reairing the show & yesterday episode was Cole/Phoebe wedding which it didnt happen bcuz something happend,& yah Cole was evil all over again but the difference that Phoebe didnt know that yet.

They got the same thing that happend with Willow when she turned dark & start to use the magic for bad things the same happend once with Pru & later on with Phoebe.

[Valyssia]

Sorry this is a bit OT. Not trying to hijack your thread... Just supporting the hate.

<hops on soapbox>

There are tons... I hated Charmed with an unbridled passion. It lacked one of the major themes that BtVS had going on in spades...there were no consequences to their actions. In the Charmed universe...the sisters could have turned all of the people on the planet into sheep and gone out for mutton chops with 0 consequences.

The other Charmed stumbling block was the fact that they had a Godmode. IDKFA in Charmed was "The power of three will set us free..." Every time the writers would find they'd painted themselves into a corner they'd IDKFA. That happened once or twice and I said, "PPPFFFFFTTTTT!!! You guys inhale sharply!" and moved straight on.

I watched it a few times in later seasons and it half killed me. They ripped off Jo with their Magick School garbage. Talk about dead desperate.

It was a stupid show...may it rest in pieces.

</falls off soapbox and staggers away>

Val

[omri]

And there more things to consider!
White Lighter=Watcher... and such.
Charmed is so stupid. I mean it has it's own story line that sometimes hold on it's own... but common.

[SarahRegi]

man you guys baged up the show lol.
but yeah it was a bit too childish at some points. i mean i loved it once it aired and everything but now that i look back and see some re-runs on TNT i sometime think wow this stuff is so old school compared to Buffy, but i still like some of it. the only reason i started watching it a long time ago was because of Alyssa and Shannon.

[Valyssia]

man you guys baged up the show lol.
but yeah it was a bit too childish at some points. i mean i loved it once it aired and everything but now that i look back and see some re-runs on TNT i sometime think wow this stuff is so old school compared to Buffy, but i still like some of it. the only reason i started watching it a long time ago was because of Alyssa and Shannon.

*blush*

*hands Sarah a cookie*

Val

[scarybunny]

I actually made a list about all the similarities between the shows and the episodes and I even found that the Buffy episodes aired waay before charmed aired their own mellowed out version of the episodes... I've forgotten most of the list (very long list)... Plus I wrote it down when the shows were still airing and i probably have it at the bottom of a box or something...



Don't get me wrong I like Charmed, it's okay cause you don't have to think about anything, its' all just there for you (actually another reason why i don't love it) great for when you're half-asleep.
Plus, Charmed introduced me to the whole supernatural genre of shows, but then one night i changed the channel and voil?! Buffy Season Two "Halloween"!!
I had watched Charmed from the beginning so i kept on watching it and Buffy at the same time. And I was like "Wow, you know, the Charmed stories are a hell of a lot like the Buffy stories that aired before this Charmed story!!"

[Project]

Sorry this is a bit OT. Not trying to hijack your thread... Just supporting the hate.

<hops on soapbox>

There are tons... I hated Charmed with an unbridled passion. It lacked one of the major themes that BtVS had going on in spades...there were no consequences to their actions. In the Charmed universe...the sisters could have turned all of the people on the planet into sheep and gone out for mutton chops with 0 consequences.

The other Charmed stumbling block was the fact that they had a Godmode. IDKFA in Charmed was "The power of three will set us free..." Every time the writers would find they'd painted themselves into a corner they'd IDKFA. That happened once or twice and I said, "PPPFFFFFTTTTT!!! You guys inhale sharply!" and moved straight on.

I watched it a few times in later seasons and it half killed me. They ripped off Jo with their Magick School garbage. Talk about dead desperate.

It was a stupid show...may it rest in pieces.

</falls off soapbox and staggers away>

Val

You are right on, I think.

I liked Charmed when I was like 12 and didn't know any better. The writing in Charmed is just horrendous many times. And I feel like towards the end, the main point of most of the episodes was to get the girls in some sort of skimpy outfit. I hated how each episode had like a marketing title (Charmed: valkyrie vixens or some other such porno sounding nonsense)

They had some good arcs (Cole and Chris were pretty compelling) but the execution was terrible, there seemed to be very little continuity... it's like you'd think everything with Cole would have affected Phoebe a bit more? It REALLY makes me mad that Charmed was renewed and Angel was cancelled.

It really just goes to show how awesome Buffy is when you compare it with a show like Charmed. It's like comparing a well-done primetime drama with a soap opera.

[KingofCretins]

"Charmed" has three big problems -- continuity editing, Alyssa Milano, and continuity editing. It did rip off several Buffyverse story lines -- The Avatars were obviously Jasmine, Cole was obviously Angel. It does stand as an entertaining series in its own right, and I think it has some episodes that are up to top 25 Buffy episode caliber, like "All Hell Breaks Loose" (Shannon Doherty's last episode). There's nothing wrong with enjoying "Charmed" for what it is.

There is even an episode, by the way, that pretty much rips off Buffy herself -- it's about Pandora's Box, which has a guardian, one chosen everytime the previous guardian is killed. And the guardian? Short, blonde student

[Cinderela]

"Charmed" has three big problems -- continuity editing, Alyssa Milano, and continuity editing. It did rip off several Buffyverse story lines -- The Avatars were obviously Jasmine, Cole was obviously Angel. It does stand as an entertaining series in its own right, and I think it has some episodes that are up to top 25 Buffy episode caliber, like "All Hell Breaks Loose" (Shannon Doherty's last episode). There's nothing wrong with enjoying "Charmed" for what it is.

There is even an episode, by the way, that pretty much rips off Buffy herself -- it's about Pandora's Box, which has a guardian, one chosen everytime the previous guardian is killed. And the guardian? Short, blonde student

Only three big problems? Like scarybunny, I also watched them at the same time. There were so many similarities I wondered if lesser Buffy writers went over and wrote for Charmed! The "no consequences" issue always bugged me, too! On Charmed, they actually had a SPELL to erase anyone's memory at will. It didn't seem to bother the Charmed crowd like Angel S5 did with the Angel crowd!

However, there were some fairly imaginative story arcs - on more than one occasion, one of the sisters actually BECOMES the Angel of Death. I was attracted to the whole "greatest magical power ever" arc - it was actually interesting to see the issues involved in raising a great magical power from birth.

I think a lot of the continuity problems came from so much time traveling and/or traveling to alternate realities. I can see how it would be hard to have much contiuity when you are going forward or backward in time almost every week!

And it wasn't only the "Power of 3" spell they could fall back on - they could summon the ghosts of all the witches in their bloodline! Oh, and you can't forget the "Cleaners" that literally come and "clean up" (read: alter reality) any magical messes they make. And I can't even get started on the "Book of Shadows" - I'd never get off my soapbox!

[SarahRegi]

*blush*

*hands Sarah a cookie*

Val

what kind of cookie

*sorry going a little off-topic here, but didn't Shannon once admit that the reason she left the show was because of all the reasons you guys are saying? looks like she had a point... really all this cracks me up

[omri]

Ummm i think it was a fight between her and Alyssa Milano....

[SarahRegi]

Ummm i think it was a fight between her and Alyssa Milano....

yes that too, but she also criticized the show's arcs like if it was too little or cheap worth keep doing.

[Risa]

I like the show Charmed but I am gladly willing to admit they "borrowed" so many plots from the world of Jossverse and others. They had an episode where Piper was in a mental institute. The dillusions were caused by a demon...sound familiar? Cole comes back from hell or whatever they want to call that demon holding ground. So many plots...so little originality. But I think the show was still worth watching.

[Mr.Pointy]

I remember when the first season of Charmed was on, I saw bits of it and would laugh at it cos I saw it as a bad, cheap, rip-off of Buffy but then around the 2nd season I started to become a fan after I stopped comparing it to Buffy. But it is true how the writers would blatantly rip-off Buffy storylines. Their was very little originality and the Buffy cast knew about it too. I remember reading Joss and/or Sarah mentioning how they would do something on Buffy then a month or so later Charmed would do it lol. IMO though it was a good show for what it was but IMO it was nowhere near the same league as Buffy.

[Ahm Shere]

I like Charmed, I do, but I also have to admit that the storylines are too much alike. Like on Buffy, Season 3, there was Balthazar (Or however you say it) for an episode, then Charmed went in and called Coles demon alter-ego Balthazar...You know what I mean. I was sitting there thinking...wasn't that on Buffy?

Also, I noticed quite a few actors from Buffy appeared on Charmed. Like 'Luke', Brian Thompson 'Principle Snyder', uh...Armin Shimmerman or something Charisma Carpenter...yada, yada ,yada.

In season 1, I think they were hunting vampires or a demon, and Phoebe says 'Where's Buffy when you need her?'

Charmed lacked originality, granted, but I still liked it.

[Calum]

well granted i do like charmed more than buffy, but charmed only started a season and a half after buffy. and it was last in that group of shows like roswell, angel etc, so it was always going to be compared. and did'nt buffy get all magical later on, couldn't one argue that buffy took that from charmed.

both shows had there own originality , thats why they both lasted so long

[sherrilina]

"Charmed" has three big problems -- continuity editing, Alyssa Milano, and continuity editing. It did rip off several Buffyverse story lines -- The Avatars were obviously Jasmine, Cole was obviously Angel. It does stand as an entertaining series in its own right, and I think it has some episodes that are up to top 25 Buffy episode caliber, like "All Hell Breaks Loose" (Shannon Doherty's last episode). There's nothing wrong with enjoying "Charmed" for what it is.

There is even an episode, by the way, that pretty much rips off Buffy herself -- it's about Pandora's Box, which has a guardian, one chosen everytime the previous guardian is killed. And the guardian? Short, blonde student

Yeah, I just watched two epps (and the beginning of a third) or Charmed season 1--one in which Clay comes to visit Phoebe to sell a cursed urn, and one in which Piper is attacked by a weird variation on a werewolf (why is it no one considered the possibility that it was a werewolf?!) which looked like it borrowed Oz's wolf-suit, lol! From those two epps, I get the feeling that Charmed is okay as far as the interaction b/t the sisters (though I find Phoebe to be kind of an annoying ditz, and Piper too sometimes--the only one I really liked was Pru!), but the MOTW are incredibly cheesy and silly--I mean, the woman who was the Windebango or whatever (werewolf thing) was so hammy and obvious I was cringing, and Piper's supposedly "dark" outbursts....kind of as dark as Peter Parker gets in Spiderman 3!

So yeah, I think Charmed is pretty lame compared to Buffy, or in its own right even--I'd have to see more though I suppose.

[vampmogs]

well granted i do like charmed more than buffy, but charmed only started a season and a half after buffy. and it was last in that group of shows like roswell, angel etc, so it was always going to be compared. and did'nt buffy get all magical later on, couldn't one argue that buffy took that from charmed.

both shows had there own originality , thats why they both lasted so long

No one is comparing it in terms of its worth but rather that it seems to steal many storylines from Buffy, evidently the writers couldn't think up of anything on their own. Furthermore, we had magic on Buffy's third episode and late into s1 Joss had intended for Willow to become a witch.

Didn't Charmed start when Buffy s3 aired?

I don't think Charmed had originality at all, aside from stealing Buffy storylines it repeated the same stories over and over again and as others have mentioned used conveniant plot devices to get out of any situation.

[Salvation]

In season 1, I think they were hunting vampires or a demon, and Phoebe says 'Where's Buffy when you need her?'

I know it i was thinking when i heard it & in which show.