Season 6 General Discussion

[The Matriarch]

Season six of Charmed finds the benevolently bewitched Halliwell girls under the protection of a new "Whitelighter," or guardian angel. With Leo (Brian Krause), the father of Piper Halliwell's (Holly Marie Combs) son, Wyatt, having decided to become a Whitelighter Elder, his replacement is Chris Perry (Drew Fuller), whose unorthodox behavior leads the "Charmed Ones" to suspect that he is not one hundred percent angelic (though Piper is clearly attracted to him). Elsewhere, Phoebe Halliwell (Alyssa Milano) struggles to adapt to her newly found "empath" powers, which enable her to experience the emotions (and sometimes the pains) of others; she also falls in love with Jason Dean (Eric Dane), who is none too thrilled to discover that Phoebe and her siblings are witches (even "good" ones). Paige Halliwell (Rose McGowan) likewise falls in love with Richard Montana (Balthazar Getty), thereby enmeshing herself and the other Halliwell girls in a deadly feud between two magical families. And Piper's infant son, Wyatt, exercising his incipient force-field powers, capriciously messes up his mom's love life. Amidst all this activity, there are the usual forays into the past and future, and the vanquishing of various demonic forces who just can't leave the Halliwells alone. The season ends with a treacherous foray into an alternate universe in which evil is good and vice versa -- and it's all the handiwork of Leo and Chris' Whitelighter mentor, Gideon (Gildart Jackson), who is clearly up to no good. With chaos erupting all around her, Piper, who has been impregnated by Leo, gives birth to her baby...also named Chris.

Discuss everything season 6 here.

[Deleted]

I first posted my reviews of each season during S8 at a different site. My feelings for them haven't changed much in the last few years. Because they're a bit controversial and always get conversations going, I decided to post them here so here goes.

SEASON SIX

First, fair warning. ALL CHRIS-FANS, STOP RIGHT NOW!!!!! You WON"T like what you read.

In case you couldn't tell by that intro, and in case you don't know by now, I HATE CHRIS!!! I think he's the worst thing that could've happened to the series (I consider HIM the true Big Bad of Charmed for how badly he screwed up his mother and her sisters!) and as such, I consider S6 my least-favorite of all the seasons. The *only* saving moment was in Spin City when Paige said, "Bug spray! We should've used Bug Spray!" Amen! Then Chris would've been gone!

Why do I hate Chris? Because he was a lying, murdering, whining brat who never apologized for his lies and who I thought was going to kill Wyatt up until the moment *he* died (I cheered!) and who turned my favorite male character (Leo) from my wonderful pacifist angel into a murdering Elder by vanquishing him to Valhalla, where Leo was forced to hate and kill! And why does Chris hate Leo? Because he wasn't around for him! OH, POOR BABY!! Leo is out saving the world and his son is pouting and whining coz he doesn't have time for him!

To top it off, thanks to his obvious belief that ends justify the means, he taught his family to feel the same way besides getting them to stop worrying about innocents and just concentrate on their family--they became self-centered b!tches from then until the end of the show--and as proven in Imaginary Friends, he didn't really save Wyatt--Wyatt's still just as prone to becoming evil since, like Phoebe, he was born in the Manor, so Chris did all that for nothing, as far as the series is concerned! By the end of S7, I was certain there was no doubt the Wyatt in *this* world was going to hate his mother, coz *she wasn't* around for him thanks to Big Chris making them concentrate on themselves rather than innocents, like they're supposed to! Let's just worry about ourselves and our own desires to live a normal life (he learned how to whine from his mother!) and not others! Was there anything more stomach-turning than the S7 finale??? Let's walk off and have fun living our own life (Piper's normal life!) and who cares that poor Victor is going to have to try to raise two magic kids! Thanks to Future Chris making his mother and aunts totally self-centered, just like him, it's FUTURE CHRIS who is going to make our sweetie Baby Wyatt turn evil, not Gideon!

Obviously S8 showed that I was wrong, and I was glad, but since Chris came into their lives, Piper constantly whined, Phoebe was more PhoeME than ever and Paige was a dummy! The other worst part of S6 was Phoebe going on that visionquest, where from then on, finding the father of her child (to hell with love!) is all that she was interested in. And I actually liked that part at that time.

People say that what Chris did was OK coz he saved the world. But did he? But did he?! What did he really change for the good? Wyatt was still almost turned to evil in S7, so Chris obviously did not prevent him from turning evil simply by saving him from Barbas or Gideon, and obviously he didn't save Wyatt's life the first time around, since Wyatt *was* alive during ChrisCrossed. By vanquishing his father to Valhalla, Leo learned how to hate and how to murder, something we never saw in our gentle Whitelighter before. By turning Leo into an Elder, that's when Leo murdered and became an Avatar and *almost* caused the end of the world as we know it, none of which would've happened had Chris kept his skinny a$$ in the future where it belonged, or at least come back, write what was going to happen in the Book of Shadows, leave it on that page, then get his ultra-skinny a$$ back to the future where it belonged!

Although Bianca wanted Chris to go back to save Wyatt for their sake, most of it looked more like Chris went back to get revenge on Leo for "not being around for him." Oh, poor baby!! Your dad is off saving the world and doesn't have time for his self-centered son! BARF!

Although it's obvious how much Chris loves Victor, I never truly saw anything that made me think he actually loved his mother, his aunts or his father. He *used* them for his own selfish reasons all the way, which is why I truly thought Leo was making a mistake when he left Wyatt behind with Chris, because I truly thought Chris was going to kill Wyatt!

Although the sisters and Leo immediately forgave him and loved him as soon as they found out he was related (a very stupid reason as far as I was concerned for forgiving all of his lies, his murder, his screwing up their lives--especially Piper & Leo's!-- all the things he never once said he was sorry for!), I never saw any loving on Chris' part. In fanfics, definitely. On the show, nope.

In the same way, those who say he did everything for Piper are also wrong. If he did, I might feel differently, but he didn't. If someone can just show me *one* scene where he actually showed love for Piper, I'll concede! But to me, that's all in the viewer's imagination, because the writers never showed it. There are a ton of fanfics which shows how much Chris loved Piper, but it's never shown on the show! Even the look they shared when she first found out at the end of Courtship could be interpreted as his being scared that she would try to stop him now that she knew, so my thought, that he did it very strictly just for himself and Bianca or to get revenge on Leo is still valid. I can certainly show a *ton* of examples of that--as a big Leo-fan, this is a lot of the reason why I can't stand the brat and think that he's the worst thing that happened to Charmed outside of the change in Cole's personality. This is also why I couldn't believe that Leo forgave him so quickly when he simply found out that Chris was his son--the most dumb of reasons, coz this Chris WASN'T his son--not really. Piper was still carrying *his* son! This Chris was the son of a Piper dead (if we believe him) and Leo gone (if we believe him), so there was no real reason for Leo to forgive him that quickly just because he was a version of their son, one who never once said he was sorry for all of the crappy stuff he did, especially splitting up Piper and Leo and vanquishing Leo to Valhalla!

Yes, I agree that the main reason for the mixup is Holly becoming pregnant so they had to change their original plans for Chris, hence the reason he is so different in "Oh, My Goddess" and in S6. It's also probably the reason why we never got a chance to see any nice moments between Piper & Chris once she found out who he was--IF they meant to have any and I haven't conceded yet that they did--she was too far along--but to go very strictly by the show, there are no true moments of caring between Chris and Piper in the show, only in the fanfics. Would someone who truly loves and respects his mother speak about his upcoming conception as coarsely as Chris does in I Dream of Phoebe? If I hadn't hated him before, I sure did then!

Also, as I pointed out earlier, the other thing that Chris taught them was that ends justify the means. If doing all the dreadful things he did is OK coz he ended up saving the world (which as I just pointed out, I don't think he did), whatever happened to "Wrong things done for the right reasons are still wrong!" (Phoebe in "Morality Bites")? Since they learned from Chris that ends justify the means, they did more and more stuff for personal gain (Phoebe wanting to switch powers just so Piper could have a premonition of the Avatars' future and changing reporters who were irritating Piper into rats being chief among them ). If "Forever Charmed" is Piper's delusion as she almost dies, as believe it is, then I'm also certain that on Feburary 26, 2009, the day when Phoebe burned in "Morality Bites, it's all three sisters (especially Piper and Phoebe) who ended up on the pyre, and it's Chris' self-centered journey to the past will be the reason!

Even Chris saving Wyatt didn't do anything--after all, it was his coming back that ended up with Wyatt almost dying, since Wyatt was still alive in Chris-Crossed.

I read somewhere that this season, Kern wanted to show Piper as a single mom, trying to raise a magical kid. Well, Wyatt never did much magic after the first couple shows and Piper dating so soon after Leo left was totally disgusting and showed no respect for the man she professes to love so much. Not that I blamed her--thanks to Chris, that wasn't the Leo she & I love.

In this season, Phoebe became a combination of Freebie/PhoeME, disgusting. Paige became a totally dumb clutzy Valley Girl--just as disgusting. Piper became as whiney as her son. There was no longer a Charmed One to like. And Leo was totally disgusting, looked fat and ugly and was nothing like the angel I love and miss. The Elders were more demonic than the demons! And not once did the Charmed Ones try to save an innocent that wasn't family, except when Chris wasn't around--my favorite eppis. No wonder they tried to make Chris be the hero. Too bad just being cute and being a member of the family didn't cut it.

Introducing Magic School was also a horrible mistake--trying to steal too much from Harry Potter and not doing a good job at it! The writers obviously agree since it became the headquarters for the demons.

And since Chris dominates the season so much, I hate the whole season! The only good episodes are ones that don't include him. The bad ones are the ones that do.


F-/0 out of 10/ATROCIOUS!

[temporalcombustion]

S6 is my least favorite season too, for a lot of the reasons you said but mostly because of Magic School, Leo being an elder and the relation Piper and Leo had in the season.

Magic School, like you said, was a horrible copy of Harry Potter. The "magical" hallway was stupid, and they totally forgot about it after that episode.
I liked Magic School in season 7 and 8 but not in season 6.

Leo being an Elder, I always found stupid. Although a few episodes with him being an elder were good (such as The Seven Year Witch). I wished he stayed a whitelighter and I wished that the elders were always the ones you never saw like in season 1-5 (not counting the season finale)

Another thing I didn't like was that this season looked like the season where Phoebe turned into every kind of magical being there is. She definitely has been turned into other beings the most. Her being a mermaid was good, because it had a reason for it, but they did it to much.

Empathy. That power looked like a real Charmed power when they showed it in season 3 (Shannen really showed what a wonderful actress she is in that epi!). In season 6 it looked nothing like it, it gave Phoebe too much power. Phoebe was better as the levitating, premenition-having witch. I'm glad she lost it and that they didn't use it again.

Season 6 is a season I will only watch when the air reruns or when I need a screencap or a bit of info.

What I did like of season 6 was Paige and her temp jobs and the episode with the blond Stillman sisters.

[Lexi]

I've got to say that giving Phoebe Empathy was the biggest thing I hated about S6 and I hated a lot of stuff! Mainly because it was stated in S3 that people who had Empathy had already died and were put back Earth as immortal beings, having that power. It wasn't actually a Wiccan power, so I hate that they did that!

I completely understand Es on the fact that Chris was annoying. Whenever I need him, I rewrite his character. I know its bad practise but I just can't stand the character he was for the reason that he had to be there! I liked him in the two S5 episodes because I truely believed that he was going to turn out to be some demon that had stolen a load of Whitelighter powers and was working slowly into their lives, coming across as helping them. I know that the worst evil is someone you trust! Look at Cole, it took them ages to realise he was evil, they way Chris came across I thought he was someone similar.

Leo turning into an Elder was the biggest mistake that they made, he should have just stayed as a Whitelighter. He was best between S2 and S4, he was a true Whitelighter then.

Magic School...meh, I never read Harry Potter and have only seen one movie because my sister told me to since it had Robert Pattinson in it, so Magic School never meant a lot to me. I liked the idea behind it but I think they could have portrayed it better and maybe brought it in earlier.

Now for the good things from S6...........Spin City, I loved the episode and the angst to it. It was great to finally find out why Chris hated Leo - even if it was a pathetic reason. I wanted a much better one than he gave. The episode with the desires too - that should have taught the girls so much but it never did, Piper still constantly whined about her normal life, Paige still constantly went on about not enough magic in her life and Phoebe....well, don't even get me started on her. She's my least favourite Charmed One for a *lot* of reasons.

[Dark Witch.]

Well, many of the Charmed seasons lately have been on and off likes and dislikes to me, for I have seen every episode probably over 80 times each.

S6 for me was an okay season. It had some good episodes that I enjoy. One thing I did hate, and I know it is a minor thing, but PHOEBE'S HAIR! Oh my god that annoyed the hell out of me!

Now many of you will disagree, but I like Chris a lot. And though, now hearing some of your points, I do agree with many points, but I do like Chris. As a character, he has a lot that is not covered and could be discovered, but with the interaction with the sisters, I agree did not do well, for there was one point where they thought he was Wyatt from the future which would have been interesting for me to see. hehe.

I never liked Magic School. It took away from the Halliwell Manor, and they always went to Magic School for advice on things as opposed to the BOS. I actually liked it when the demons took over, for it was a magical battleground on the series.

Now, this thread seems to be VERY negative, so here is some positives:
I agree with Paige's temp jobs for it gave Paige a way to deal with her whitelighter side for her thinking she is given the jobs for a reason. The development of Jason and Phoebe was nice, we actually see Phoebe with someone other than Cole, which I didn't like very much. The King Arthur, Trial, and other eps were very nice to see. I liked those alot.

So all in all, I give this season a 6/10, for some things did bug me, but that season I got fully immersed in the Charmed phenomenan. Oh well. hehe.