CHARMED

Charmed is an American television series that ran for eight seasons on The WB. It was produced by Aaron Spelling and is about three sisters who are the world's most powerful good witches, known throughout the supernatural community as "The Charmed Ones" but known to everyone else as the Halliwells. Each sister possesses unique magical powers that grow and evolve over the course of their lives. The Charmed Ones live together in a manor and use their supernatural abilities to battle the warlocks, demons and other evil forces that populate San Francisco, California.

The show was the last in its generation of supernatural-themed shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Roswell. It is also noted for its mixture of multiple genres (from horror and fantasy to comedy and even soap), as well as continuing after a number of archetypal jump the shark moments, most famously the departure of one of the leading actresses at the end of season three. It also had the highest rated debut (until the debut of Smallville at 8.40 million), for the WB Television Network, with 7.70 million viewers tuning in for the series premiere, "Something Wicca This Way Comes".

On January 15, 2006, with the airing of "Payback's a Witch", Charmed became the longest running show with all-female leads, surpassing Laverne & Shirley. The series ended its run on May 21, 2006 in the US.The Charmed series finale, "Forever Charmed", pulled in a season high of 4.49 million viewers.

The theme song for Charmed is called "How Soon Is Now?" by Love Spit Love, which was originally recorded by The Smiths and previously used in the film The Craft.



PREMISE
The story of Charmed begins with the three Halliwell sisters — Prue, Piper and Phoebe — coming together six months after the death of their grandmother. Moving back into the family Manor in San Francisco, the youngest sister, Phoebe, discovers an old book — the Book of Shadows — in the attic. Reading an incantation from it, she unwittingly sets in motion events that fulfill an ancient prophecy. Strange and harrowing occurrences begin which eventually leads the sisters to realize that they are witches.

They discover that not only do they possess supernatural powers, but also come from a long line of powerful witches. The first in the line, Melinda Warren, who possessed three powers; the power to move things with her mind, to freeze time, and to see into the future, was burned at the stake in the Salem Witch Trials. However, before she died, Melinda prophesied that each coming generation of Warren (later Halliwell) witches would grow stronger and stronger, culminating in the arrival of three sisters -- the strongest good witches the world had ever seen; the three sisters would form The Power of Three, the most powerful magical force ever.

Prue Halliwell, the oldest sister, develops the power of telekinesis and can move things with her mind. Her telekinesis was triggered by anger, and was first channeled through her eyes. She was later able to channel her telekineses through her hands like her ancestor Brianna and her Grams (she first does this in season one's episode, "Out of Sight"). She later gains the power of astral projection, where she can make a "copy" of herself appear wherever she desires by projecting her consciousness, while her physical body is left standing there unconscious. In the season three episode, "Primrose Empath", one of the last times she is shown using her astral projection power, she was able to project her "clone", while her physical body stayed conscious. Her power of astral projection developed (in season two's episode, "Ms. Hellfire") from her power of telekinesis when she felt an overwhelming need to be in two places at once.

Piper, the middle child, receives the power to freeze or stop time or objects, Temporal Stasis (Time Freeze) also known as Molecular Immobilization. At first, Piper's control of her powers was very weak. Her range was not very far, and she could not keep demons and objects frozen for very long. As her powers grew, she was able to expand her range. She was able freeze entire rooms, or direct her freezing powers only at certain objects or people without freezing everyone and everything. She could also later keep demons or people frozen while unfreezing only certain body parts such as demon heads which came in handy when she was questioning them. Piper could also keep people frozen for very long periods of time without her having to be in the room to "hold the freeze". It is later revealed that her power to freeze worked at a molecular level in which she is able to slow molecules down to the point where the object she is directing her powers at is frozen. This power later evolves so that instead of slowing molecules down to freeze them, she is able to speed them up and blow things and objects up; this was called Molecular Combustion. Her freezing powers were triggered by fear, panic and surprise, while her exploding powers (before she had full control of them) were triggered by anger.

Phoebe, the youngest sister, receives the passive power of premonition, which allows her to see see future events (and later past events as well). Her power is triggered through touching people or objects, as well as if the psychic residue of an area is strong enough. Her powers of premonition later grew stronger in which she was able to feel the emotions in her premonition; such as when she felt her mother drowning when she received a premonition of the past in season two's "P3 H2O". This ability to feel the emotions within her premonitions could have been a foretelling of her soon to come empathic powers. In season five's episode, "The Eyes Have It", after not having had any premonitions in months due to her being overworked and overstressed, she seeks out the help of Gypsies to help unblock her powers. She gets a "super premonition", in which she is able to astral project herself into the future within her premonition, and her ability to feel what happens grows so that when she was hurt in her vision, her present self was also physically harmed. This type of premonition has only occurred very rarely; she has also been able to astral project her present self into the future and have a conversation with her future self. Phoebe at times, has also been able to share and pass on certain premonitions she has had with others who also have the gift of premonition. Phoebe also eventually obtains the active power to levitate, which is useful when used in combination with her martial arts skills. Her power of levitation is first seen in season three's premiere episode, "The Honeymoon's Over". Her empathic powers develop late in the series, allowing her to read others' emotions and affect the supernatural powers of other beings whose powers are tied to their emotions, allowing her to "rebound" and channel the attacks and powers of certain demons, as well as the Valkyries seen in "Valhalley of the Dolls (Part 2)".

After the tragic and unexpected death of Prue, it is revealed that the sisters have a younger half-sister named Paige, born to their mother Patty and Sam, her Whitelighter, a guardian angel for witches. As this type of relationship was forbidden and unheard of at the time, they gave the baby to Sister Agnes, a nun, and the Matthews family later adopted her. Her birth parents requested only that her first name begin with 'P', to continue the tradition. From her Whitelighter father, Paige inherits the power to "orb". At first, Paige could only orb out momentarily and reappear in the same spot, this was triggered by fear and surprise. She later was able to orb wherever she wanted. For the prophecy of the three Charmed Ones with three powerful and distinct powers to stay true, the third sister was to have the power of telekinesis. Being half witch and half whitelighter, this also has an effect on the powers she inherits from Patty: instead of telekinesis like Prue's, Paige is able to move an object by calling for it; the object in question will then orb to her or to any location she wishes. Though this power requires the use of verbal commands, she has been able to do so silently when in a state of enhanced power, and in a few other instances. This power is called telekinetic orbing. In Season 5, Paige reveals that she also has other Whitelighter powers, such as glamouring. Halfway through Season 8, Paige develops more of her Whitelighter side by being able to heal and locate charges by sensing them.

A central theme throughout the shows run is the sisters' struggle to balance their normal lives with their supernatural responsibilities. The burden of keeping their destinies a secret from the outside world has repeatedly created tensions in their friendships, workplaces, and romantic relationships. Only a few know their secret and help them on a regular basis. The most important is Leo Wyatt, a Whitelighter assigned by the Elders to guide and protect the sisters. Leo means a great deal to the sisters both professionally and personally: he heals their wounds, advises them collectively and individually, and mediates between them and the enigmatic Elders. He also becomes the love of Piper's life, her husband and father of her children. Others who keep the Charmed Ones' secret over the years include policemen Andy Trudeau and Darryl Morris, tormented half-demon Cole Turner, the mysterious time-traveler Chris Perry, sisters Christy and Billie Jenkins, Paige's husband Henry Mitchell and the many other creatures in the magical community.


**Wikipedia.org