Charmed - Series 3 [DVD]

Product Description ------------------- Debuting in 1998, the Aaron Spelling-produced television series Charmed follows the adventures of three modern-day witches juggling their supernatural abilities with the demands of everyday life. The Halliwell sisters (Alyssa Milano, Shannon Doherty, and Hollie Marie Combs) use their magical powers to protect innocent people from evil demons, who, in turn, attempt to steal the sister's powers for their own purposes. In order to shield the world from darkness, Piper, Phoebe, and Prudence must protect their own powers from the lords of the underworld, and also rise above the childish bickering of sisterhood to work together as a team. This collection features all 22 episodes of the series' third season, which was Doherty's last. .co.uk Review ------------- Charmed: The Complete Third Season is a little different from its previous seasons in that the long-running series, for the first time, is dominated by a single story arc that affects nearly every episode. Actor Julian McMahon (Nip/Tuck, Fantastic Four) joins the Charmed cast as Assistant District Attorney Cole Turner, who enters the show when he unsuccessfully prosecutes a demon-possessed killer who attacks the Halliwell sisters' ally, Inspector Morris (Dorian Gregory). In short order, Cole becomes romantically involved with Phoebe (Alyssa Milano ( /gp/search?search-alias=dvd&field-keywords=Alyssa%20Milano+-ntsc )), but it's soon revealed that he's actually a demon, part of an unholy plot to destroy the Charmed Ones, i.e. the Halliwell sisters. Trouble is, Cole's human incarnation begins to battle with his demon self, and the rest of the season is really dedicated to the ramifications of his ambivalence. Even old issues on Charmed, such as the forbidden love of Piper (Holly Marie Combs ( /gp/search?search-alias=dvd&field-keywords=Holly%20Marie%20Combs+-ntsc )) and Leo (Brian Krause), an angelic Whitelighter, become secondary to the Cole-Phoebe story. (The latter becomes supernatural when Phoebe's misery over Cole turns her into a shrieking Banshee and the pair meet up in the hellish Dark Side.) Season highlights include "Primrose Empath," in which Shannen Doherty ( /gp/search?search-alias=dvd&field-keywords=Shannen%20Doherty+-ntsc ) gives a superb performance when her character, Prue Halliwell, takes on the powers of an empath and is soon overwhelmed by the emotional pain carried by scores of others. "Sleuthing with the Enemy" finds Prue and Piper, in the first of several such stories, working at site purposes from Phoebe, who is intent on saving Cole from capture or destruction. The clever and comic "Look Who's Barking" concerns a spell that turns Prue into a Banshee-tracking dog who gets hit by a car and briefly becomes the pet of a handsome, single man. Season finale "All Hell Breaks Loose" may be the best Charmed episode in its first three years, a y and apocalyptic tale in which the powers of the Halliwell sisters, long kept secret, are revealed to an insatiable news media, the and , and dangerous crazies. Not to be missed. --Tom Keogh

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