Trapped in hiding after Julian puts out a reward to the world for any information on Macy’s whereabouts, the Charmed Ones must take drastic measures to stand a chance of getting back to anywhere near a normal life.

Season 2 ended with somewhat of a whimper, but there were some good moments and I am nothing if not a fair man so I sat down to watch this season opener with my usual sense of hope that maybe things might be better.

And to be fair, they were.

Charmed tends towards the formulaic in its writing, and so much as usual, this episode is composed of three separate subplots, allowing various characters to pair up to Do The Things all in service of the broad overarching plot. In this case, we have Harry and Macy as the ‘A’ plot, Mel and Maggie on ‘B’ and Jordan and the last person you’d expect him to team up with on ‘C’. So far, so ordinary.

I won’t lie – the fact that the writers still want to make issues for Macy in her love life after two seasons of putting the poor girl through the emotional wringer is still faintly irritating to me. That said, Macy and Harry’s adventures here – where they aren’t having relationship ‘issues’ – are actually fairly entertaining. It’s clear that Macy is very much done being any sort of passive, and it’s nice to see Madeline Mantock get to have some real fun with the new, assertive Macy.

Mel and Maggie, meanwhile, get to have the ‘comedy’ subplot when Maggie accidentally makes use of her new found powers with some unexpected consequences. In fairness, this also allows Melonie Diaz to have some fun with her character for a change, but more importantly this sub-plot actually manages to use humour without detracting from the seriousness underlying it. The girls need to persuade Jimmy to help them, which obviously isn’t helped by them having him prisoner and not trusting him any more than he does them. It’s an interesting exploration of that character, and a chance the show takes to see him as more three-dimensional rather than being a simple ‘bad guy.’

And on that theme, Jordan – having been ‘benched’ by Maggie – finds himself having the clock pushed forward on his own quest for redemption to free him from the familial witches curse that dogs him. That he ends up turning to Abi for assistance is delightful because a) I can never get enough of Poppy Drayton in this show and b) it really gives a chance to explore the nuance of her character as well. Whenever Abi interacts with the Charmed Ones it’s clear there’s layers to her, sure, but mostly what we get is the bitchy, spiteful side because they automatically distrust and dislike her (for obvious reasons) and she is not thrilled at their powers nor happy with their judgement. But there’s a different dynamic at play between her and Jordan, and as much as she likes to lord it over him and pretend he’s just a mere mortal plaything, it’s obvious that his clear-eyed honesty and assessment of her character lands more often than she wants to admit. I really hope that the show takes the opportunity of exploring this more as the season goes on.

And the overarching plot driving all this – why exactly Julian is doing what he’s doing and whether he really is the Big Bad we assumed he was at the close of last season – is quite fascinating all by itself. I won’t say that I’m one hundred per-cent convinced that the answer the episode seems to give us is the final one, but it certainly raises interesting questions. Time will tell.

Verdict: A strong start for the third season of a show that’s often struggled to hold my attention. Good chemistry and some laughs along the way leave me hopeful. 8/10

Greg D. Smith