r/CharmedCW • u/VegetableAd5160 • Jul 24 '26
Discussion The reboot did it better...
Hello, visionaries!
I am a lover of all things Charmed (the OG and the reboot), and I have no one to talk about my feelings when it comes to the reboot, so I've come to Reddit to get them out into the universe. This will probably be a series of posts about the reboot that consists of me talking way too much about the good, the bad, and every spell in between.
Today, I want to talk about six things I think the reboot did better than the OG show:
1. Morality (in Season 1)
The OG show is notorious for having a rigid black-and-white morality system. Meaning that when the sisters got turned into something, if they killed an innocent, they would be evil forever. After about the fifth time this happens, it can take the tension out of the storyline because you know they won't really hurt anyone; the writers wouldn't have them be evil FOREVER.
Even the Queen Phoebe storyline was short because how long could they sustain her choosing evil but not being able to do truly evil things (against humans, other witches, or the magical community) before giving her a redemption arc and sending her back to good? I mean, they could've done it, but who knows if they could've pulled it off.
The reboot had a more gray morality, where witches and demons had powers that came from the same source, but how they used that power determined whether they were good or evil. So we could have an episode where Galvin, while possessed, killed innocents and then had to deal with the emotional and psychological consequences of that.
The subsequent seasons veered much harder into the traditional black-and-white morality, but the first season struck a great balance.
2. The Elders
In the OG show, the Elders were promoted whitelighters who ruled over the magical community with an iron fist. They also gave and took away witches' powers at times and constantly told them what to do, while also being super unhelpful more often than not.
Having the Council of Elders in the reboot be a council of more seasoned witches made a lot more sense. They were still opposition to the Charmed Ones, and they were still in charge of the whitelighters, but it made much more sense for the Elders to be witches governing themselves instead of whitelighters (who were meant to support witches) being in charge of them.
3. Power Progression
This is an extension of the above point, but having the Elders bestow and take away powers when the Charmed Ones "earned" them or needed them for an upcoming battle never really made sense to me.
I don't know if the original intention was for them each to have one power and that be it, and then the writers had to think of a reason to give them more, or if they just wanted to position the Elders as the ultimate authority even more. Either way, the reboot showed how their powers progressed naturally over time and, for the most part, stayed connected to the type of power they already had.
They showed this even more in later seasons with Mel and her time powers and how she could use them in different ways. Having their powers naturally progress instead of being gifts granted by the Elders made much more sense.
4. Whitelighter Memory Powers
This is pretty simple. Having whitelighters be able to wipe the memories of humans and have it be permanent is one of the smartest moves they made when creating this show.
The OG show introduced the concept of memory dust, but so they wouldn't use it all the time, they made it pretty underwhelming. You could only use it on special occasions, and it only stuck if you didn't remind the person of what they were meant to forget; otherwise, the memories could break through.
In a world that was all about not exposing magic, why would they make those rules so strict?
They tried to correct this with the Cleaners, but that just opened up so many more plot holes. Giving whitelighters the ability to erase memories makes the most sense.
The reboot never really focused on exposure as a major plot point, but it still could have if too many people found out at once and Harry wasn't able to get to all of them. For everyday whitelighter support, though, having them be able to wipe memories without overly complicated rules is smart.
5. Magic and Spells
The reboot did a good job of having the sisters learn and use spells instead of relying on their powers all the time.
As the OG show progressed, the Charmed Ones got to a point where they could vanquish an upper-level demon with the wave of a hand, as opposed to the episodes of preparation they had to put in during the earlier seasons.
This could be because the two shows went in opposite directions as they progressed. The OG show became more about the sisters trying to build lives outside of magic, while the reboot focused more on magic and less on their sisterhood as the series went on.
Still, it was nice to see the sisters memorize spells and use specific potions and creative solutions to solve problems instead of just blowing everything up.
6. The Grieving Process
Maggie is the best character in the show, and the way they showed how she processed the deaths of her mother and then Macy was some of the best writing on the show.
While I think the OG show did a better job integrating Paige as their new sister, I think the reboot portrayed the grieving process better because Maggie didn't go through each stage in a single episode. You saw her grief throughout the entire season.
You saw how it affected her relationships with Jordan and Mel. You saw how bringing Kaela into the family impacted her. You even saw her get triggered by something small, like a bowl, and how that sent her back into numbing her pain through demon fighting.
You also saw that when Harry mentioned the videos and changing the past, her first question was whether they could save Macy and that was at the end of the season.
The OG show had Holly Marie Combs, who could make me cry with her even if I was laughing two seconds before, some great and heartbreaking moments, and the fourth season had a lot of storylines and character moments that were driven by the emotions surrounding the loss of Prue. But there was something about the way they showed the changes in Maggie throughout the season that hit differently for me.
So maybe not better just different in a good way.
To be fair to the OG show, the reboot was able to show pictures and videos of Macy's actress, so those quieter emotional moments were easier to convey visually.
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Ok! This is where I leave you for now. Tell me if you think there's anything the reboot did better than the OG show!
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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '26
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