Magic as a Metaphor...

Today, I was patrolling the web, somethign that I oft do while I am stranded at work and feeling bored and wishing that I could be actually typing up some fiction.  I came across an article on Think Progress that bespoke of one of my all time favorite WB shows: Charmed.

You remember Charmed don't you? A snazzy early 2000's television show about three women who happen to be sisters, who manage to get a fantastical ability to cast magic and kick as as witches with the mythical "Power of Three"? It was many a person's "guilty" pleasure, or in my case an extreeme pleasure. I loved that show. It always had some sort of new problem with the sisters (one wound up leaving the show and a fourth sister to replace her was found) would have to come against and solve. the great thing about the show was that it was not jsut magic for magic's sake, it had problem solving, and often had rules in which power was used and abused and how it affected their lives.

That's the part I want you to note: How it affected their lives.

That really is the key sentance there at this moment. As I was sitting and reading this article, I came across the point of the article and I have to say that it was a valid point. the article, without ruining anything, stated that Charmed was a better show than this past season of True Blood, only for the simple fact taht when people used magic it had consiquences and real life application and didn't force a person to feel as if they had been cheated by the system. Now everyone knows that I absolutly love the show True Blood. though this previous season has been a total disaster. When the idea of witches were being introduced, I was glad. It was a little something extra for a show that had seemingly lost its way in the third season. I was however constantly dissapointed with the way that it was set up and this article articulated several of eth way that I had been disappointed and why a middling show which lasted over 8 seasons managed to do better with less.

Now don't get me wrong. I love the series True Blood, but the way they portrayed magic seems to be a growing trend in television and movies in this day and age. A lot of shows in what several people I know like to call "the before time", only because of how simple it used to be and the fact that they were original ideas, seems to have been lost in teh mix up of how they portray magic. Shining - yet partially silly in their antics - examples will include Sabrina the Teenaged Witch (based off of the popular Archie comic of the same name) and Bewitched (some of the Golden Age of Television at it's finest). These were shows that in the span of a half-hour, gave you a problem, someway that magic tried to fix it, and the consiquences of using magic when it might not have been neccessary were revealed. At the end of the show, everything was cleaned up and everyone had a good laugh and all was back to normal until next week when another zany problem revealed itself.

Not really a decent example, but in those shows, even though the timeline was not clear, the characters seemed to grow, or even partially mature as they used magic and dealt with the consiquences. Shows that took that growth style of magic having consiquences are Shows like HEX, a british television show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, heck even Dark Shadows did it as well as my favorite show Charmed. All these shows showed the pluses and minuses of using magic and how power can change a person (or in some cases like the first two examples, a comedic value with a moral at the end).

True Blood made it so that I was not impressed with what was going on. I could have cared less with eth Magical subplot of the whole show (though on a side note, this particular season made me want to vomit a little...). The whole reason I bring this up is that tonight, there is another show called "Secret Circle" which is airing on the CW which made me wonder what kind of show it is going to be. Mind you, it too is based off a series of novels. In this case, it is a series of Young Adult books that are quite interesting.

Needless to say I can't wait, and tomorrow, when it comes on, it shall be TiVoed and then watched.