Ouija Broads/ Which is Witch
Ouija Broads
Out of Entertainment Weekly (the one with Alanis Morrsette on the cover).
The line could have come from a hard-boiled crime novel, a great film,or a classic '60's girl group refrain: "I told him I loved him and kissed him and I killed him".
But these words-their cadence full of doom, piercing like a stake through the heart-actually came from a recent episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) explained how she offed the one vampire a slayer could really fall for, the soulfully re-souled Angel(David Boreanaz. The line-from a script by Buffy writer and coexecutive producer David Greenwalt-was a momentary pause in the show's usual onslaught of jagged jokes and fizzy pop-culture references. It was an example of unguarded, unironic emotionalism in a slam-bang series that prides itself on it's blithe knowingness and sarcasm and just keeps getting better at juggling hilarity, gothic romance, and horror.
Tell people that Buffy is an hour as dramatically satisfying as Homicide, ER,or NYPD Blue and you're likely to be met with snickers and a dismissive wave. That's because most TV featuring the supernatural or attractive young people is often built more along the lines of Charmed than Buffy.
The WB's latest entry in the teen sweepstakes is actually building on the ratings of it's lead-in, Dawson's Creek, among 18- to 49- year-olds. Charmed cannily plays to adolescents interest in witchcraft (and all-ages interest in tightly clothed young women) by casting Picket Fences' Holly Marie Combs, Melrose Place's Alyssa Milano, and the first lady of American theater, Lillian Gosh-oh, sorry, Shannen Doherty-as San Francisco sisters who become witches. But, I hasten to say to Steve Allen and the Parents Television Councel, goodwitches, witches who help people.
Spike-heeled where Buffy is fleet-footed, Charmed is Charlie's Angels with a Ouija board. Like Angels, this newcomer is executive produced by Aaron Spelling and plays up the stars' separate-but-equal charms. The Halliwell sisters are like superheros; Prue (Doherty) can move objects telekinetically; Piper (Combs) can momentarily freeze time; Phoebe (Milano) can forsee the immediate future. They live together in a big ramshackle house, fighting warlocks and being catty toward each other.
"You Sleaze!" squeals Combs to Doherty when Shannen sleeps with a guy on a first date; a but later, after Doherty's Prue has been snappish, Milano remarks, "You'd think Prue would be mellower-it's been what, six months?" Charmed is a bit thin in the plot department; the main things are it has going for it are the sisters' pulchritude and the presence of Doherty, who is that rare item: a TV star who suceeds on the strength of her vitroil. Perennially crabby, delivering her lines as if she has contempt for them-Prue? Shannen? Where does one end and the other begin?-Curt, cranky Doherty gives Charmed it's kick.
By contrast, Buffy's kickiness is both literal (it's necksnapping martial-arts scenes are stimutaniusly cartoonish and scary) and figurative; no show this side of Seifeld loves teh language of conversation (the wisecrack, the pun, the withering retort, and the mutted aside) as much. The third season got off to a sensational start through role reversing: a runaway-from-home Buffy reduced to waitressing while her chums back home Willow (Alyson Hannigan), Xander (Nicholas Brendon), Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter), and werewolf boy Oz (Seth Green)-were forced to hold down the fort against the hell-spawned demons that continually invade their small town, cursed town, of Sunnydale.
If the obvious joke behind Buffy has always been that vampirism and lycanthropy are metaphors for really raging hormones, the series has sustained itself by regularly exploring the serious side of the joke. Gellar and Boreanaz are awfully good at playing out the fatalistic love between Buffy and Angel; unlike the romances on other prime-time teen soaps, this one carries dark emotional weight. In light contrast, the most delightful development on the series has been the hosty dating that wisecracking Xander and withering Cordelia are indulging. Give series creator Joss Whedon credit: No other show balances so many elements as deftly, without a trace of corniness or melodrama. I can admire Charmed for it's shrewd casting and pop-culture timing, but week in and week out, Buffy just slays me. Buffy the Vampire Slayer A Charmed B-Which is witch?
Out of Seventeen Magazine
Before you step out on Halloween night in your black robe and cone-shaped hat, you should know that by being a witch-even if only for a night-you are joining a long line of controversial figures. Once shunned and hunted, witches used to represent all that is evil, dark and dangerous. Not any more. Today's witches, at least as they're protaryed on TV and in the movies, are warm, fuzzy supernatural chicas, more like the girl-next-door than Satan's wicked sister. So in honor of the holiday that pays homage to the magically inclined, here's a look at the changing face of the witch lady throughout time.
Before 1200 AD-Pagan, nature-worshipping religons, many of which predate Christianity, are practiced openly by women and Men.
1233-The roman Catholic Church begins trying, punishing and torturing suspected witches, a practice that continues for more than 400 years.
1692-During the Salem witch trials in Salem, Massachesetts, 20 men and women are tried for practicing witchcraft. Eventually 20 are killed. (None however, were burned at the stake)
1939-The Wizard of Oz features one of the first portrayals of a good sorceress (that'd be Glinda) and sets us on (yellow brick) road to nice witches.
1942- The film I Married a Witch, starring Veronica Lake, is the first to depict a marriage between a witch and a mortal, and the serves the basis for the television series, Bewitched.
1965-Witchcraft goes demestic as housewifely sorceress Samantha (Elizabeth Montgomery) makes magic seem as simple as twitching your nose. Of coarse, in the prefeminist 1960's, Sam's powers are often kept under wraps by her cranky hubby.
1971-Bedknobs and Broomsticks takes witches out of the kitchen. In this tearjerker , do-gooder witch Angela Lansbury uses her powers to bring happiness to children during WW 2.
1987- In The Witches of Eastwick threee gorgeous women (Susan Sarandon, Michelle Pfeiffer, Cher) are witches who take on the devil (a well-cast Jack Nicholason).
1989- In one of the first pop culture depictions of a young witch, the movie Teen Witch spotlights Louise (Robyn Lively), a shy wallflower of a girl who becomes cool after discovering her witch-like powers on her 16th birthday.
1996- The Craft. A coven of High School outcasts turn to witchcraft to torment their tormentors as well as one another. While three of the Gothlooking sorceror girls were pretty nasty, in the end, the nice witch (Robin Tunney) prevails.
1996- In Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Melissa Joan Hart uses her powers for stuff like getting dates and embarrassing mean girls.
1998- The new TV show, Charmed (starring Shannen Doherty of 90210 fame) traces the trials and tribulations of three orphaned sisters who just happen to be good witches- think supernatural Party of Five.
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