'Charmed' Season 2 Fall Finale: What The CW Reboot needs to do to keep the story exciting for fans

With new showrunners, Liz Kruger and Craig Shapiro, at the helm for Season 2 of the 'Charmed' reboot on The CW, viewers expected many changes from the show. The reboot, which gave the sisters Latina identities and was purported to be a "feminist" reboot, a claim which had angered members of the cast of the original show as well as fans.

However, the reboot did find its fans and its plotlines involving themes such as Manic Pixie Dream Girl (with a literal pixie) and rewriting Medusa's storyline was fun to watch even if a little contriving. We even got to meet some supporting characters that fans grew to love (Lucy will always be our favorite).

However, with Kruger and Shapiro heading the writers this season, the show underwent a drastic stage as it took the sisters out of their college campus town situated in Hilltown to a co-working space in Seattle. Not only did we lose some beloved supporting characters, but we also lost some magnificent backdrops.

Though Season 2 started with a lot of excitement and an exciting exploration into the Whitelighter folklore, somewhere along the way the reboot lost the charm that it had. For one, 'Charmed' has always been about the "Power of Three", which was something we got to see in the Season 1. Unfortunately, Macy, Mel, and Maggie all have been doing mostly their own thing this season and rarely working together.

This is made more difficult with the fact that the Book of Shadows is being destroyed. Moreover, with the change in setting, the sisters also lost some very important and interesting allies they had made through the last season. So we don't have Lucy or the zephyr or the pixie from the last season, characters we would have loved to see much more of. 'Charmed' also did a major disservice to its fans when it seemingly bid farewell to Katrina in the last episode. One thing the reboot did better was its introduction of all the people in the Charmed Ones' lives and diving into their dynamics as well.

Another reason Season 1 worked well was that the show was not afraid to dig deep into the sisters' or other characters' identities with the addition of magic rooted in Latinx and African mythologies. This has been largely avoided this season and we must say that the show is all the poorer for it. We've also got less formidable demons this season with Abigael and Dark Harry taking up much of the antagonistic roles this season.

This is not to say that Season 2 is bad. Besides the aforementioned exploration into the Whitelighter folklore, we also love the addition of Poppy Drayton as Abigael Caine, and though she is deliciously conniving, we think she is much more sinister than the writers have let on until now. 

So before the midseason finale airs this Friday, we look at what needs to happen in the upcoming episode so that the reboot gets its charm back while keeping the interesting elements from this season.

First and foremost, bring the Vera-Vaughn sisters to work together — this is always when 'Charmed' is at its strongest, not just in the reboot, but also in the original show. We need to see them using the Book of Elders and properly experiment on how to get their witchy powers back which we have really missed. The sisters need to work with each other more without being pulled away in different directions.

Next, though we love Harry, we want him to take a bit of a backseat. 'Charmed' is undoubtedly about the three sisters at the forefront. This was something the original did excellently, they focused on Leo's and Piper's relationship without putting the other Halliwell sisters on the back burner. This is something fans agree with, with one tweeting, "Wanting Harry to stay behind the sisters doesn’t mean we hate the character."

This brings us to the other supporting characters. The writers need to commit to keeping the new ones and try to bring the old ones back, whether it be by transporting the sisters back to Hilltown or by bringing our favorite characters to Seattle (we definitely mean Lucy here).

Finally, the reboot was supported by fans before and during the first season because of its commitment to telling stories of people of color and of other issues that are socially relevant today like the #MeToo movement. Though they could have been written better then, the second season has not even tried to do that, instead, we get a show that is very different from what we were promised.

As one fan writes, "Also the #CharmedCW is ambitious. Trying to tell the story of women of color, different multicultural cultural religions without appropriation, relevant political issues, social commentary while being authentic and occasionally funny. It doesn’t always succeed, but they try." And we need that back. Kruger and Shapiro are experienced showrunners who can undoubtedly bring a new dimension to this aspect, and we hope they do so for the remaining episodes.

The 'Charmed' midseason finale airs on Friday, December 6, at 9/8c on The CW.