Welcome

Welcome to my ever-evolving blog. It started out as a blog on Beachbody workouts and products, mainly when I was a Beachbody coach. I no longer coach, not because I don't believe in Beachbody's programs (I subscribe to Beachbody on Demand and use their workouts every day), I am just not a salesperson and hated that aspect of it. I am more than willing to answer questions about my experiences with their products and the various workouts, and I feel freer to do so without the appearance of giving a biased review of something.

I have also started adding reviews for various things I have purchased like movies, books, CDs, and other products. This was brought about by a fight with Amazon in which all of my reviews were removed over a completely bullshit allegation that I posted a review that violated their terms of service. After going back and forth with the morons in the community-reviews department (even after they admitted that my posts did not violate their guidelines) they restored my account (which took them six months to do), but I have been posting my reviews on my blog to have them preserved in case something like that happens again. And here, I will post uncensored reviews so I will swear from time to time and post reviews that may be longer than Amazon's character limit. Everything I post here on any topic or product is my personal opinion, and I take no compensation for any product reviews I post. I am a member of Amazon's vine program and because I get those products for free, I keep those reviews on Amazon only, but everything I have purchased with my own money, whether from Amazon or some other store/website/outlet, I will post here.  

I also plan to do some longer blog posts on various topics, such as how to learn physics, how to get through calculus, and longer reviews of workout programs as I do them. Basically, whatever strikes me as interesting at the time.  As you can see if you navigate around the blog, I had many years in between postings. During that time I was going back to school to get an engineering degree, and learning material that I avoided my first time through college was a different experience and one that gave me a lot of insight into how to do well in those classes, which I will try to impart here for those who are looking to get a science or engineering degree. 

Thursday, April 10, 2025

Blu-Ray/TV Series Review: Charmed (2018)

 


This is the complete series of the Charmed reboot that aired for four seasons from 2018 to 2022. It was created by the original series' showrunner, Constance M. Burge, and starred Melonie Diaz, Madeleine Mantock, and Sarah Jeffery as the three sister witches known as the "Charmed Ones." Rupert Evans also starred as Harry, the whitelighter guardian of the sisters. The supporting cast included Ser'Darius Blain, Ellen Tamaki, Nick Hargrove, Jordan Donica, Poppy Drayton, Valerie Cruz, Natalie Hall, Craig Parker, Eric Balfour, Peyton List, and Lucy Barrett. 

The reboot series shared some similarities with the original series, but was also very different. While some similar storylines were used, the reboot series used much more serial storytelling where the episodes built on each other and did not have as many monster-of-the-week storylines. It also included real-world issues in the storylines, and definitely took a more "woke" stance (to the extent that is really a thing) on social issues. The series did get flack for not tying more closely to the original series or including any of the actors from the original series, although the showrunners indicated that was by design saying that they wanted to tell the story from a different standpoint. They came up with a clever explanation for why the Halliwell sisters are not mentioned in the series, however, if the show had continued, the writers were clearly setting up a tie-in to the original series.

The blu-ray set is a 16-disc set. Each season has its own case, holding anywhere from two to four discs, that is packaged in a decorative outer box. At least in the US, the blu-rays are only available in the complete series release, the individual seasons were only released on DVD. Most of the seasons have bonus content, including behind-the-scenes material featuring interviews with the cast members and showrunners, and gag reels. 

The series pays homage to, but is not a carbon copy of the original series. Some aspects of the reboot series were much better than the original series. For example, the special effects in this series are light-years beyond those in the original series. This version has much more diversity in the cast and in general the storylines are a bit less cheesy than in the original series. Although, this one  definitely has some of the same kind of soap opera-ish elements to the storylines that the original series had. Ultimately, this series was good, but if you really loved the original series this one might be too different for you. That said, I do think it is worth the time to check out.

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