When the announcement came that the Charmed Ones were going to be rebooted, a lot of people had negative feelings towards the notion. I am not one such fan. I want to see the legacy of the Charmed Ones continue so I was pretty happy when it was released this year on Netflix. And boy did I have some feelings about the first episode.

The episode starts off with the girls’ mother, Marisol, being murdered by an unknown assailant. Her daughters Maggie and Mel Vera end up meeting their older half sister Macy and learn from Harry that the three of them are the Charmed Ones, witches destined to save the world from evil. It’s a similar formula to the original series.

For one thing, the episode was completely rushed but it’s understandable given so much having being introduced in the episode. There’s little to no setup about the world, the characters, or the overall story. There’s no real buildup. You know whenever there’s a horror film or a murder mystery and there’s a person running from some unknown force and then they get caught which kicks off the actual story. Well, there’s a little of it here. Everything starts when the girl’s mother is killed by obviously a magical entity which happens within the first few minutes of the episode. The problem with this is it doesn’t give us insight into the family’s relationship with each other nor does it make us connect with the mother.

But let’s take a look at our heroines of the series. Melanie is a lesbian and college graduate who’s obviously the tough, don’t take no one’s shit sister. Maggie is the sweet sister who wants to fit in and is joining a sorority. Macy is the half sister who’s practical sister who’s all into science and stuff. I’m on the fence about the characters. On one hand, they’re definitely different takes on the Charmed Ones and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. However, there’s not much revealed about them or their everyday lives and the things that are just feel like feministic and SJW garbage. But aside from that, they’re decent characters with the potential to be more interesting in future episodes.

My favorite character by far is Henry. He’s a really interesting character and will be Leo’s replacement as the guardian of the Charmed Ones. Henry’s interesting, knowledgeable, sarcastic, and it isn’t because he’s British. Rupert Evans is pretty damn entertaining and gives the character charisma and edge.

The big bad of the episode is some ice demon who’s totally forgettable. Now, the older series had a lot of special effects but for the most part the villains were practical. The ice demon is okay and the CGI isn’t bad but I can’t help but shake my head at the fact that it was CGI and not practical. Of course, the demon does come off as a ripoff Night King from Game of Thrones.

The setup this time around is a little different with the girl’s lives and ethnicity’s being changed around. It’s not a bad change and it gives the story a unique take.

The Verdict: In the end, “Pilot” is a bit of a mixed bag. Yeah, it did it’s job of creating intrigue into the new Charmed Ones and the world surrounding them, but it glossed over a lot in terms of the story and character buildup. Still, it was an interesting episode that did leave me wanting to see what direction the series would go.