...They didn't experience the major budget cuts in the later seasons. Say we take the point in the series where Charmed's budget was at its highest and keep that amount consistent with the rest of the series. How do think would effect the story, the effects, the cast, powers etc?
shareHonestly I dont think it would be all that different. It would for sure be better, but still not at the level of the first seasons. When they made season 5 and 6 they had a high budget, but they weren't exactly great seasons. But we would at least not have to deal with Billie and Christy if they weren't forced to bring them on
shareFor starters Phoebe would not have lost her active powers. She'd still been levitating and probably would have acquired more active powers and had a more streamlined power progression. Leo wouldn't have clipped his wings and never broken up with Piper. More demon fights and explosions and trips to the underworld
shareI don't really think they cut down on power usage a LOT or fights, its just s3, 4 & 5 had the best fight scenes and power usage.
Season 6 started off good then its like they blew their budget and cut down after that.
I actually think second half of s8 had the best use of powers/fight scenes/demons. The zen episode had a big fight scene so did the follow two episodes with the Triad. You can tell the first half of s8 was poor with budget though, kinda the reverse of s6.
The unexpected is the new cliche ~
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I'd agree with that one.
I just wonder if S8 would've been more believable because if they had the money to spnd on sets, since they could've had the Charmed Ones and Leo move into a hotel and get different jobs than the ones they already had (how dumb did that make the Elders and the demons if they couldn't figure out that they were the Charmed Ones when they lived in the same house and had the same jobs),
Also, with a bigger budget, they could've kept both Darryl and Leo in S8 and maybe even pay Shannen Doherty and Julian McMahon enough that they would've been part of the finale. Who knows? Maybe they could've paid the actor who played the original Angel of Destiny and the actor who played the original Cupid so they could be part of S8 rather than making them AngelS of Destiny and cupidS. That took away so much from both the Angel and Cupid.
That would make more sense to me than spending extra money on extra special effects.
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Haha that is so true! I mean they fake their death, but stay in the house and keep their jobs as their own fake cousins. Should ring a bell with the demons lol
shareIt's why I always thought the second set of Elders (after the first set was killed by the Titans) were stupid and more demonic than the demons, while the demons were also stupid and just used as comedy. The only exception to that rule was Zankou.
shareLeo wouldn't have clipped his wings and never broken up with Piper.
In season 6 and 8 there were initial plans to have Leo out of the picture for a time or reduce his orbing to cut the budget. I should have said. Become mortal by Falling from Grace
shareOh. Well with season 8, Leo was already mortal from season 7. The consequence of a budget cut was him being frozen.
In season 6, I doubt they wanted to reduce his orbing or any magical ability otherwise they wouldn't have made him an Elder and introduced another Whitelighter in the form of Chris, surely?
Babies kill TV shows!
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Paige should've lost what? All of the whitelighter powers she never should've gotten? After all, she was part of setting up Rick Guttridge, too.
sharePaige loosing hers would be a lot better, because Paige's orbing made everything too easy for them. Without it, they would have to work together as sisters again and couldn't just orb everywhere
shareDemons shimmer and warlocks blink. One of the charmed ones need to be able to get the others around supernaturally or they will always be at a disadvantage.
shareWell that's personally why I like the first half of the show better, because they couldn't do that. They had Leo, but without him they had to find other solutions, and that helped reinforced the whole idea of them being normal women that were also witches, and not the other way around
share*nods* Amen.
And I preferred it when the Charmed Ones were at a disadvantage - it added to the suspense and the drama.
I suppose so but then we would have eventually seen a lot of the disappearing act with potion throwing. Similar to what Christy and Billie did in season 8. Not sure if they ever really teleported anywhere or just gave us the illusion that they did.
shareI'm sure you mean Season 8... :P
But did they teleport or did they just give the illusion? Interesting.
The thing is, if they didn't have Paige or Leo and the power to orb, would we have really needed two witches who were more powerful than the most powerful witches ever?
I don't think so.
If Phoebe could still get premonitions of them coming, Prue could still throw them and Piper could still freeze them, then they say a Power of Three spell - who needs to orb?
All the other powers are superfluous that take away from the power of the Power of Three, which is why giving Paige that summoning power rather than letting her have Prue's power and no whitelighter powers was stupid.
Screwing up everything just to make things "fresh" *shakes head at the stupidity*
If only Ted King hadn't quit and Leo had stayed in Season 1 where he belonged, like Cole should've stayed in Season 4 where he belonged, the show would've been much, much, *MUCH* better!
If only Ted King hadn't quit and Leo had stayed in Season 1 where he belonged, like Cole should've stayed in Season 4 where he belonged, the show would've been much, much, *MUCH* better!
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It would be a whole lot better! Leo wouldn't have left the show mid through season 8. We might even have Darryl in a few season 8 episodes. Phoebe wouldn't have lost her powers. Better special effects, better demon makeup, etc.
America is doomed!
Darryl's absence in season 8 was a big one. By the way I like your avatar. Go Cosima!!
shareStill wouldn't have fixed the biggest problem of all: poor writing
A high budget would have meant more male guest stars for Phoebe, more fairy tale creatures for Paige, and more normal life routines for Piper-Leo (hiking, restaurants, etc etc).
Unless they used the money to hire a better team
*sigh* Unfortunately you're absolutely right about that.
Although from what I've been reading, a lot of that was more The WB and their henchman Brad Kern who were trying to use sex to sell Charmed. The writers weren't happy with what they had to write.
I don't think it would've gotten any better unless way back in S3 they'd followed Buffy's example and jump ship to the UPN.
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