To all things comes an end and “Charmed” after having completed eight seasons, the producers of the series decided to tie things up and provide closure for series fans. The three Halliwell sisters discover they are good witches fighting evil sort of like “Buffy The Vampire Killer” only they use many of the same powers as their adversaries to prevent evil from taking root in our world. ***

The final season of any series is usually a mixed bag; a series has usually reached its maturity, passed it and often jumps the shark (but not always). The final season of “Charmed” missed jumping the shark but just barely. The weakest episodes here wouldn’t have been considered solid even during the first season of the show. “Charmed” began to look like it would need a major face life or call it a day. While fans won’t be disappointed, I suspect they’ll be returning to the final season less than other seasons. Since this is the final season there are some unexpected deaths that occur that spice things up a bit. ---

Image & Sound:

As with previous seasons of the series, the image quality is solid throughout with nice color reproduction and a neat, clean presentation. The problems that dogged previous seasons continue to dog this season as well—compression artifacts throughout the show, aliasing and grain particularly during the darker sequences related to issues with the Telecine transfer. ***

Audio sounds good throughout the set with a nice stereo presentation. ---

Finally we get extras for “Charmed”. The final season of the series has a number of fine featurettes on the production of the show. “The Making of Charmed” features producers, writers, costume designers and make up artists discussing the production of the series, challenges that they faced and how they pulled it altogether for each season. Although it is clip heavy there’s plenty of comments that play over the clips by the various people to illustrate their points. ***

We also get audio commentaries for “Still Charmed and Kicking”, “Vaya Con Leos” and “Forever Charmed” the very last episode of the series. ***

“Story of Charmed: Genesis” concerns the creation of the show. The WB had a fledging hit on its hands with “7th Heaven” and wanted something that would hold on to the same audience. Curiously, that would be a fantasy series about good witches. We get clips from the unaired pilot episode which, strangely, isn’t included with the extras here which is a major oversight on behalf of CBS/Paramount. ***

“Story of Charmed: Charmed Again” is one of the longest featurettes included and focuses on the changes in cast members throughout the show’s life. ***

“To The Manor Born” is a tour of the Halliwell home. ***

“Forever” Charmed” combines interviews of “Charmed” fans. ---

Final Words: