Troubled by her half-demon nature, Macy retreats to binge watch her favourite 90s TV show, but things take a turn for the weird. Mel and Jada work with Nico to expose the people trying to assassinate Jada. Maggie experiences new relationship troubles as she and Parker try to take the next step.

The thing about Charmed is that when it decides to go on the nose, it really commits to it, and this episode – wherein Macy’s favourite cheesy 90s supernatural TV show gets a reboot of sorts wherein everyone can comment on how dated it is etc – is no exception. Troubled by her demonic side and the potential fate it assures her, and unable to agree with her sisters about the best course of action, Macy takes to the attic to binge the show on her laptop, but an incident sees the main characters – a pair of anachronistic, brooding male brother angels – transported into the real world and…I guess I’m supposed to say ‘hilarity ensues’ only it really doesn’t.

The problem is that it is so blatant in what it’s trying to do, not only commenting on the dated nature of the characters but unable at every turn to resist poking fun at itself and its forebear, which might work were that forebear not a beloved piece of genre television and this the first season of what has so far been a fairly mediocre rebooting of that property. This feels like the sort of stuff a show needs to earn after having put in a good few successful seasons, allowing the writers and actors to let their hair down and have some fun. Done this early, it just feels slightly desperate and more than a little tone-deaf.

Elsewhere, Mel and Jada work together with Nico to track down the two mysterious figures who tried to kill Jada last week after posing as her parents wanting to meet. This is by far the most interesting and sophisticated storyline in the episode, as Jada continues to try to convince Mel to not keep listening to the Elders, making some fairly compelling arguments along the way including helping Mel to develop new aspects of her powers. Is it possible that the Elders are holding Mel and her sisters back? And if so, why?

And there’s Maggie who is having bedroom problems with Parker now that they are an item once again. Not the usual sort of problems of course, but fairly explosive ones with no obvious cause. To be fair, this also develops over the course of the episode into a reasonable thread that’s deeper than it first appears, but unfortunately it’s relegated to a minor sub plot in favour of the main one involving Macy and that damned TV show.

Verdict: Not terrible, but also not the sort of episode that a show should attempt this early, and not putting the emphasis in the right places. 6/10

Greg D. Smith