A killer is on the loose in town, killing women who are into the
occult, and only detective Trudeau (Chris Boyd) figures the killer must be
after witches. In another part of town, Pru (Shannen Doherty) is upset
because her sister Piper (Holly Mary Combs) has invited her other sister
Phoebe (Lori Rom) to move in with them in their deceased grandma's
house, because she and Phoebe haven't gotten along for just some time. What
do these two narrative strands have in common? Nothing at first, until
the three sisters find out they are actually witches, Pru can move objects
by the power of thought, Piper can freeze time, and Phoebe is able to
look into the future. Now just finding out you have powers like these is
stressing enough, but if a killer chasing witches is around, it's even
more so ... and if the killer turns out to be Piper's boyfriend Jeremy
(Eric Scott Woods), an evil warlock after the powers of witches ... now
that's a bitch! Fortunately, the three girls are able to combine their
powers just in time to annihilate the warlock once and for all. This
unaired pilot for the quite charming Buffy
the Vampire Slayer cash-in Charmed is by and
large the same as the first episode of the series, Something
Wicca This Way Comes (so much so that it seems portions of the
pilot were just reused for the series rather than refilmed), with one
major difference: The role of Phoebe is played by Lori Rom here, by Alyssa
Milano in the series - and it is the recasting that actually made the
series. Now I have to admit two things: a) I always had a certain
fondness for Alyssa Milano, but b) I don't think she's a terribly great
actress, maybe not even better than Lori Rom. That said, it seems that
Lori Rom just doesn't find the right approach to her role, playing her
like a bland Ms Everybody, while Alyssa Milano embodies the character with
just the right amount of (self-)irony to breath life into Phoebe and the
series as a whole - and if anything, it was irony that set Charmed
apart from other Buffy
the Vampire Slayer cash-ins on both the big and the small
screen ...
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