About Charmed

Charmed is an American fantasy drama series which has come in two iterations. The first one is the original series which premiered in 1998 and lasted until 2006 on the now defunct The WB television network. The second one is the reboot series which premiered in 2018 and currently has finished its second season with the third one confirmed on The CW television network. Both iterations revolve around the story of three sisters who happen to be The Charmed Ones - the most powerful trio of witches in the world dedicated to protecting innocents and vanquishing evils. The original series was an inseparable part of my teen years as I was a big fan of it. I even dreamed to possess Wiccan power like the sisters and wondered about things that I would do with that. Hence, it's a no-brainer that I decide to follow the reboot one as well, which I will delve more in this post.

Although sharing the same premise and borrowing many elements from the original, the reboot has established its own set of characters and its own world building. Unlike in the original series where there is only one set of The Charmed Ones, the reboot series develops a different mythology where there are multiple incarnations of The Charmed Ones since the beginning of time. Each incarnation is always a set of three sisters of witches. Though each one has her own unique powers, it is the magical bond between them - known as The Power of Three and represented by an ancient symbol of triquetra - that makes them special. The Power of Three is an extremely powerful form of magic, if not the most powerful, that allows The Charmed Ones to collectively achieve supernatural feats that not even the most powerful witch can do. However, this power is proven to be too immense for humans to handle, and as a consequence, every incarnation of The Charmed Ones has been destroyed with one of the sister always ends up dying - a nod to one of the major plot of the original series and a big question that looms over the future fate of the reboot's protagonists.

The current incarnation of The Charmed Ones and the focus of the reboot series is the Vera-Vaughn sisters which consists of eldest sister Macy Vaughn, middle sister Mel Vera, and youngest sister Maggie Vera. The three are daughters of a powerful witch named Marisol Vera, though they share different fathers. They were initially unaware that they are witches, let alone The Charmed Ones, until three months after the death of Marisol. Under the guidance of a magical being called whitelighter, the three were suddenly thrown in the world of magic where they become protectors of the innocents from the constant threat of various evil forces.

The eldest sister Macy Vaughn is the daughter of Marisol and her mortal lover Dexter Vaughn. As a scientist, she often prioritizes logic over emotion. A special demonic circumstance during her birth has forced Marisol to leave her with Dexter who moved to other town and raised Macy alone with no knowledge of her mother and her sisters. It's not until three months after Marisol's death that Macy returned to her birthplace town after accepting a job as a lab supervisor at Hilltowne University's Department of Genetics. There, she finally discovered her sisters which ignited their beginning as The Charmed Ones.

As the "Sister of Space" her unique powers are connected to the movement of objects. Her primary power is telekinesis - power to move objects and individuals with one's mind - and later she also develops telekinetic immobilization - power to create a field of telekinetic energy that can immobilize other beings.

The middle sister Melanie "Mel" Vera is the daughter of Marisol and her mortal ex-husband Ray Vera. She was originally a teaching assistant for Hilltowne University's Department of Women's Study until a history changing spell caused her to lose that job. As such, she later took a job as a bartender at a local bar. Openly lesbian and outspokenly passionate about feminist activism, Mel is the definition of a true blue social justice warrior. This passion also led her to be the one most enthusiastic about becoming The Charmed Ones, seeing witches as supernatural representation of women empowerment.

As the "Sister of Time" her unique powers are connected to the manipulation of molecular speed. This comes in two opposite forms, molecular acceleration - power to speed up molecules and cause them to become disordered and rapidly heat up - and molecular inhibition - power to completely stop molecules and cause them to solidify into ice.

The youngest daughter Margarita "Maggie" Emilia Vera is the daughter of Marisol and Dexter and the adopted daughter of Ray. She has always assumed Ray as her biological father and was deeply hurt when Ray suddenly left when she was 5 years old. She later found out from Macy through a DNA examination that both of them actually share the same biological father. A student of Hilltowne University majoring in psychology, she's a social butterfly and heavily involved in many activities. Out of the three, Maggie was initially the most reluctant to embrace her destiny as The Charmed Ones, as she wishes to lead a normal life.

As the "Sister of Emotion" her unique powers are connected to the psychic perception and feeling. She has the prophetic ability of foresight - power to perceive events in the future before they happen - and empathetic ability of emotional inception - power to project one's own emotions into other beings and cause them to feel the same emotions.

Branded as a "fierce, funny, and feminist" spin of the original series, this reboot has mixed fantasy elements and current issues to deliver a plot that mostly stays in line with the original premise of supernatural battle between good and evil, but adds a contemporary touch of this era. The reboot also tackles the issue of representation, making one of the sister as a lesbian and casting three actresses of color to play the leads. If you're interested in following their magical adventure, there's good news for you. Both seasons of the series has been picked up by Netflix so you can binge-watch it now!