|
Charmed is a surprisingly successful American television
series about three sisters (Phoebe, Prue and Piper) who discover
that they have magical powers - powers that they use to safeguard
mankind.
I
say "surprisingly", as the show has been condemned
to some of the most unhelpful time slots and marginal channels
you could wish to find. You would have thought that its makers
were trying to deliberately kill it off. To put this into
perspective, even with this handicap the show has run for
an impressive eight seasons, so far, slightly shorter than
the impressive nine seasons of the X-Files, but still
longer than most of the individual Trek franchises
- both of which would have been shown in prime time spots
with a lot of studio clout behind them. So, there must be
something in it. Keith Topping obviously thinks so as he has
produced a very authoritative guide to the show. Published
by Telos, who have obviously decided to corner the market
in 'must have' television reference books, Triquetra
covers the first seven seasons of the show.
Like most reference books, it's not the sort of thing that
is designed to be read from cover to cover, unless you're
the most rabid Charmed fan. The introduction, by the
author, is honest in that he admits that for a long while
he thought that the programme was an old piece of tosh that
didn't hold a candle to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, until
he gave it a chance. This was always going to be a problem
for Charmed. Buffy was such a successful show
that any that came after it with similar elements was going
to be thrown to the wolves without anyone actually giving
it a chance. To pin my own colours to the mast I have to admit
to not being a great fan of the show. Like most, I've seen
a couple of dozen episodes whilst flicking though Sky, when
there's nothing much else on. I never found it a terrible
show, but then I never turned it off either, it obviously
had stuff going on that isolated the casual viewer. I guess
it would be like watching random episodes of Babylon 5,
nice show but I have no idea what is really going on.
Topping
obviously had an epiphany at some point as he's produced the
ultimate book for Charmed fans. The book runs at an
impressive three hundred and fifty-one pages of small type,
which means you're getting one hell of a lot of densely packed
pages of information and commentary. Even if you hated the
show you've gotta to be impressed with the bang per buck value
of the book, though at my age I did get the feeling that I
was going blind trying to read it. The book contains so much
that it could quite easily, with a few pictures and a bigger
font, have been turned into one of those massive coffee table
books that's actually bigger than your coffee table. Topping
breaks down each of the one hundred and fifty-six episodes
into a number of categories. There is the factual information
about who worked on the show as well as a story synopsis.
Where Topping scores high is his encyclopaedic knowledge of
both the shows continuity and mythology, though he's not above
pointing out some obvious flaws and unintentional comedic
logical impossibilities.
For
a relative non-fan of the show it was still an interesting
and amusing read and a "keeper". As a reviewer you're
sent a lot of stuff that would just fill the house up, in
my case I give away a lot of stuff to friends, it has to be
something pretty special to become a "keeper" and
there's no doubt that this book is something special and will
nestle nicely with Telos's other must have book on the Survivors.
An obvious labour of love and I'm sure a treasure waiting
to be found for all Charmed fans, this is the nearest
thing to a bible that they are going to find.
 
Charles
Packer
Buy
this item online
We
compare prices online so you get the cheapest
deal! Click on the logo of the desired store
below to purchase this item.
|
|
|
£12.99
(Amazon.co.uk) |
| |
|
|
|
£12.99
(Countrybookshop.co.uk) |
All prices correct at time of going to press.
|
|
