Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Charmed Season 7

 

+++Warning, this contains spoilers from the prior season, but no major giveaways from Season 7+++

This is the second to last season of the original Charmed series. This season ran during the 2004-2005 season and has 22 episodes. The show continues to be a blend of a monster or demon-of-the-week procedural combined with a serial arc that runs the course of the season. The serial arc is again about a demon who is attempting to get the sister's powers. There is some carryover from the prior season with Leo still reeling from the death of adult Chris and we get to find out how Wyatt turns evil. Both Drew Fuller and Wes Ramsey make appearances as the adult version of the kids during the season. There is also a bit of closure on Cole's storyline via an appearance by Julian McMahon. 

For those who get the blu-ray, this is yet another region-free set with German and English audio and captioning options. There is, like with the releases of seasons 1-6, no bonus content of any kind. The show does look better in HD this season than it has in the prior seasons, and the cheesy special effects are a little better and do not look as fake in HD as they did in the earlier seasons. Of course, they are all fake, but in the earlier season releases, they looked hilariously fake at times. 

Overall, the season is good, although it did reach the point at which it was getting long in the tooth. This season had a good slate of guest and recurring stars, many of whom are recognizable (especially now that some have gone on to wider popularity). Some of them include Nick Lachey (from 98-degrees), Elizabeth Dennehy, John De Lancie (who played Q on Star Trek), Charisma Carpenter (from Buffy and Angel, who appeared after she was fired from Angel for the transgression of getting pregnant by Joss Whedon, and appeared basically in a bra the entire time to show off how great she looked after having a child), Kerr Smith (from Dawson's Creek), Ian Anthony Dale (who would go on to star in the Hawaii Five-0 reboot), Oded Fehr (from The Mummy movies), Billy Zane, James Avery (uncle Phil from Fresh Prince), Billy Drago, T.J. Thyne (who would go on to star in the series Bones), Anne Dudek (who would have a major guest starring role on the series House a few years later), Corey Stoll (from House of Cards), John Hamm (from Mad Men), David Anders (from Alias), Seamus Dever (who would be a secondary character on the series Castle), the great character actress Michelle Hurd (in an episode that was a total ripoff of Buffy), Kathleen Wilhote (who had a recurring role on ER), and Glenn Morshower (from the series 24). The show did cut back on the musical appearances, with probably the biggest band appearing this season being Collective Soul who had a couple of hits in the early to mid-2000s. 

The show follows the format that made it a success in the earlier seasons, and yes, Alyssa Milano and Rose McGowan are put in skimpy outfits from time to time, although less than they were in the prior seasons. The writing is still so-so, sometimes very good, and sometimes incredibly cheesy and even cringe-worthy when Phoebe and Paige are pining for a man. The season finale does have a bit of a series finale type of feel to it, so it's likely that the writers were not sure whether the show would be renewed for a final season (which it was) when they wrote the finale. But ultimately, if you have liked the show from season 4 forward, you will probably like this season as well.