"Created by Lauren Gussis and based in part on her experience, the hourlong series was originally developed for The CW but picked up to series at Netflix after narrowly missing the mark at the younger-skewing broadcast network. The show revolves around an overweight teenager (Ryan) who seeks revenge on those that tormented her after she loses the weight.
After the trailer for the CBS TV Studios-produced Insatiable was released, an immediate backlash began — a Change.org petition garnered hundreds of thousands of signatures — after many took issue with the show for perpetuating the "toxicity of diet culture" and the "objectification of women's bodies." Reviews of the series have skewered it as "poorly done and misguided." Insatiable has a staggeringly bad 11 percent score among critics on RottenTomatoes.com but a favorable 83 percent audience score.
Gussis defended her series in an interview last month with The Hollywood Reporter in which she noted that the storylines reflected on Insatiable are from her own personal experience. "I wanted to poke at all those issues through comedy. But every single one of the issues that these characters struggle with — from eating disorders to body dysmorphia, to sexuality to needing outside power and validation, to wanting to be perfect, to mental illness — I have struggled with every single one of those things," Gussis told THR, noting that creating a "safe" show would border on censorship.
"It was important to me to just let them all be out in the world, and in a world that I created, where they get to enact all of their terrible impulses to fill a hole," she added. "Because as someone who has struggled with all of them, I know my first thought is probably not the right thing. What happens if you act that way? I come from an eating disorder. My brain, about that stuff, is broken. There, of course, is the aspirational tale of someone who is fully healed and who does the right thing all the time. But my truth is that because of all the messages I got fed about the way that I should look or the way that I should be, I got miswired, and the impulses are not good. Then, I got to play them all out to show how damaging that actually can be.""
"According to multiple TV literary agents who spoke with Variety, there was a clear shift within the networks this year to increase the number of women behind the camera, particularly in the director’s chair. One source also noted that the studios exerted “immense pressure” to increase the number of female directors this season.
ABC has 13 female creators on 9 of their 23 pilots this year, up from 9 creators in 2017. Of those, five are comedies, including originals from Liz Meriwether and J.J. Philbin, Diablo Cody, Sherry Bilsing-Graham and Ellen Kreamer, and Kristin Newman. In addition, Rachna Fruchbom will write the network’s reboot of “Greatest American Hero” starring Hannah Simone.
Fox has 6 female creators on 5 of their 11 pilots this year, versus 7 female creators on 6 pilots last year. This year, Liz Meriwether and Lake Bell are behind the off-season comedy pilot “Bless This Mess,” while Ilene Chaiken and Melissa Scrivner-Love are the creators of the untitled drama starring Katie Holmes. Erin Foster is the creator and star of her own comedy as well, while Liz Heldens is the writer of drama “The Passage,” which was rolled from last year.
Fox also brought on 4 female directors this season versus just one last season. Bell will direct “Bless This Mess,” while Kat Coiro will direct Erin Foster’s comedy. Sanaa Hamri will direct the Chaiken/Scrivner Love pilot and Patricia Riggen will direct the untitled David Elliot/Danny Strong legal drama.
Finally, The CW has 7 female creators on 6 of their 9 pilots, up from just 2 last year. Jessica O’Toole and Amy Rardin are writing the reboot of “Charmed,” with Jennie Urman receiving a story by credit in addition to executive producing. Rina Mimoun is a co-creator on “Playing Dead,” with Corinne Kingsbury also doing a pilot for this network. The others hail from Carina Adly MacKenzie, April Blair, and Katie Lovejoy. Rachel Goldenberg and Julie Plec will direct pilots for the CW this year, with the network having no female directors in 2017."
"Description:
A face revealed, and rage unleashed—
old anger set upon the world.
Three sisters must come together to fight
or worse fates will surely be unfurled…
The Bay Mirror is covering the grand reopening of Mural House, a San Francisco landmark built in the 1920s, and Phoebe invites her sisters to attend. Piper's got her hands full with P3, but Paige is happy to tag along to see the once-famous artists' colony that housed great art, passion, and scandal. Notable for all is the story of the building's architect, William Lancaster, who, during the construction, fell in love with an artist—a young divorcée named Isabella Marshall. Their relationship was tumultuous at best, eventually ending in tragedy… and in William's disappearance.
The hoopla surrounding Mural House's reopening has made William and Isabella's love affair legendary. With the permission of Isabella's daughter, Lucile, Phoebe has been reprinting the couple's love letters in her column. She joins Lucile, now an elderly woman, at the gala's main event—the unveiling of a long-painted-over mural. Lucile is visibly upset when the mural is revealed; in fact, she seems horrified. Before passing out from fear, she whispers, "The evil has been released…"
Meanwhile S.F. is hit by a series of brutal murders. And the handsome manager Piper hired is not as innocent as he seems to be."
"The launch, which is a partnership between FanMail and CBS, is in honor of the 20th anniversary of Charmed. The show premiered on October 7, 1998. The boxes will contain "apparel, accessories, collectibles, jewelry, home goods and more" and each box will also "include exclusive licensed items that aren't available on any other plane of existence." The boxes will be themed, too. The first box's theme is "Charmed: 20 Years", and centered around the anniversary itself. The boxes will be sent out four times a year in January, April, July, and October.
If you're interested, there are two ways to subscribe: With the quarterly plan a subscriber's credit card is charged $49.99 right before the box goes out. With the annual plan, each box costs $44.99, but subscribers are charged for four boxes at once. There are also a couple of added bonuses, especially for anyone who subscribes quickly:
As part of the launch, the first 100 subscribers to Charmed: Box of Shadows will receive an exclusive enamel "I Am A Charmed One" pin, along with a copy of a rare exclusive Charmed comic book. In addition, all who subscribe will be entered into a drawing for a Charmed prize pack that includes action figures, trading cards, comic books and an 8x10 autograph by a Charmed cast member.
The Box of Shadows site notes that if extra past boxes are available, they will be sold on the site to those without a subscription, but no guarantees can be made as to whether any will be available. The first box will ship in late October.
FanMail has been sending out subscription boxes for three years now. The service was started by two young women who wanted to create something "for lady geeks by lady geeks", while also supporting small businesses. According to their site, "FanMail has supported more than 100 different small businesses run by women/non-binary/gender non-conforming folx. We’ve created more than 200 unique fandom items and shipped thousands of boxes to fangirls around the world."
While the new Charmed boxes are for a specific show, the usual FanMail boxes are themed, but feature items tied to an assortment of movies, TV shows, and books. For example, the October 2017 "Witch Please" box included surprises related to Kiki's Delivery Service, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Harry Potter, and Hocus Pocus."
"Milano also added that “ultimately we succeed when we hold those accountable for their abuses of power.”
The actress credits the movement’s success to the fact that the initiative has never been about one person and doesn’t have one leader, other than movement founder Tarana Burke.
Burke, who is a sexual assault survivor, first launched the Me Too initiative back in 2006, but Milano is credited with starting the hashtag around that movement that went viral, sparking a global conversation about sexual violence.
“This is really a movement for the people and I think that’s why it has been so successful, is that tweet was only a seed planted and everyone else in the world cultivated that seed to actually be somewhat of a forest,” Milano told Hill.TV co-host Buck Sexton.
Milano thinks the movement still has a long way to go, and emphasized the need for both more women and also more diversity in positions of power.
But she said that she’s starting to see policies reflective of the #MeToo movement in her own industry, citing a new code of conduct from the Screen Actors Guild‐American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) union as just one example. "
"Description:
She sang her telegram to a Hollywood star—
now he entertains from afar.
Foe to friend, help in our quest
to rid this mansion of an unwanted guest.
The Charmed Ones travel to Hollywood to attend a big bash hosted by Kevin Peterson, Paige's old flame. Kevin is holding the party at his recently purchased mansion, which he was able to afford because of rumors that it's haunted! Sure enough, ghostly goings-on begin almost immediately, but everyone believes that Kevin is the one behind the "haunting." He confides in Paige that he is not.
The ghost reveals himself to be Robert Maxwell, a star of stage and screen who vanished under mysterious circumstances in 1926—right after receiving a singing telegram. A friendly ghost, Maxwell just likes having an audience. But when people start to disappear and the house seals shut, the Charmed Ones realize something evil must also be lurking.
It is only with the able assistance of their ghostly ally that they and the rest of the partygoers stand a chance."
"However, over the years, Charmed has become one of the shows, if not the show, I’ve rewatched the most (I’d say, give or take, 20 times). Suffice it to say, I love the Halliwell sisters and continuously enjoy watching the hectic, tragic, demonic adventures in their lives play out on my screen.
Watching Prue, Piper, Phoebe, and eventually Paige deal with the struggle to balance their family and romantic lives and their careers with their witchly duties and a new demon coming after them every month was inspiring. The Halliwells never had it easy, nor would they ever. They were normal, modern women living in this world where it seemed like everyone was out to get them.
I honestly believe Charmed made me a more compassionate, understanding, and hopeful individual. The sisters saved everyone, even those they thought didn’t deserve it, and used their powers to make the world a better place, regardless of race, circumstance, or any other factor. They were genuinely good people, and they had their dark moments, but each found their own way back to the light and continued on their destiny to help people and save the world.
No matter how much time passes, Charmed will always remain relevant in the world, and isn’t that what makes great television? Their personal stories, while intertwined with their witchly world, allowed them to depict the average life of the modern woman and the struggles and triumphs of love, money, and career.
Sure, the graphics make me a bit outdated and their outfits are a travesty at times, but Charmed didn’t need to rely on anything but the lives of the Halliwell women to be successful and reach out to fans at various stages in their lives.
When the Charmed “reboot” was first announced a few years ago, I’ll admit I was not thrilled. It seems like every year there’s been a new attempt to recreate the series, obviously to replicate the success of the original in a Hollywood world full of lacking original content. Each year, it has failed, but this latest attempt managed to earn a season order, though not without a shadow of disrespect to the original."
"The Witching Hours
Samhain: 10/31, or Halloween—traditionally a time to reflect, a time of divination, and a time to honor the ancients. But Phoebe's plans to communicate with her ancestors are cut short when she's recruited to help reunite a star-crossed, magical couple.
Yule: 12/22, or the winter solstice, and the longest night of the year. And when Paige enters an all-night party at a local club, she finds herself at the center of an evil plot to bring about permanent midnight.
Imbolc: 2/1, a time when the earliest hopes for spring are fostered and seeds are planted for dreams of the coming summer months. But Piper can't look toward the future—and having children with Leo—when her half-whitelighter, half-witch sister's powers are on the fritz. Is a hybrid baby destined for doom?"
"When asked if she would be interested in making a cameo or directing one of the reboot's episode, Milano quickly shot down the idea.
"I don't think so," she replied. "I think that that ship has sailed for me."
The CW officially picked up the "fierce, funny, feminist" (as they described it) reboot for the fall season in May after announcing the series last year.
Shannen Doherty, who starred in the first three seasons of the original, weighed in on the CW's description in January of this year, calling it "offensive." "Perhaps with the backlash they will be more thoughtful in the future," she tweeted, adding, "I love Charmed. I also want it to be respected. I’m simply choosing to be constructive about it because negativity has no place in my life."
Additionally, Holly Marie Combs, who played Piper Halliwell on the show, which ran on The WB from 1998-2006, slammed the project. “I appreciate the jobs and opportunities the Charmed reboot has created. But I will never understand what is fierce, funny, or feminist in creating a show that basically says the original actresses are too old to do a job they did 12 years ago," Combs wrote in May, adding that she hoped the revival would be “better than the marketing so far.”
Meanwhile, ET caught up with the stars of the revival -- Melonie Diaz, Sarah Jeffery, and Madeleine Mantock -- at San Diego Comic-Con last month, where they opened up about the criticism the show has received, as well as how much they would "love" cameos from the original stars."
""You're going to need your sisters…"
—The Elders, Vaya Con Leos"
Three sister witches. Two magical sons. One evil ex-husband. Countless demons, baddies, and all-around evildoers vanquished. It all adds up to eight seasons of Charmed, the witchy, wonderful hit television show from Aaron Spelling.
This, the second volume of the only authorized companion guide to Charmed, contains everything you need to know about the sexiest supernatural show of all time. Covering seasons six, seven, and eight, the final season, Volume 2 lets you inside the enchanted world of Phoebe, Paige, and Piper!
Exclusive in-depth interviews with the cast and crew
-A prologue by Aaron Spelling
-An introduction by executive producer Brad Kern
-Episode guides
-Character profiles
-Notable quotes
-Color photo insert
-And more! The Book of Three, Volume 2—your essential companion to the -witty, witchy world of Charmed!"
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