CHARMED: THE COMPLETE SERIES

My daughter (14) fell under the spell of the Charmed Ones three years ago and now has every season on DVD - it's probably all that girl power that attracts her and she was a dedicated old/new Worst Witch fan - although my son (10) happily watches Charmed with her (perhaps he secretly routes for the demons). Most of her Charmed seasons were recorded from Living TV re-runs on Sky but now we have this Ultimate 8 Season Set purchased from Amazon. Naturally the episodes are far nicer without 20 minutes of adverts. We missed the series first time around - so it's great to get all the episodes in one go. To find out more about The Charmed Ones than most people want to know, just search online - its handy as TV episodes never have the name of the episode in the credits, unlike these DVD set menus. This set is great value: 48 DVDs, run time a massive 123 hours [5.1 days]. Plus you get some good extras [the same ones included in the US set], mostly featurettes: The Demons Of Charmed, Charmed Effects, The Men Of Charmed, The Book Of Shadows, The Power Of Three, Directing Charmed, and The Making Of A Monster - but we avoided watching these, as the ones included with Buffy gave away key bits of the seasons plot. The interesting 'unshown pilot' is safe viewing though. The DVDs have English subtitles and sound/picture is fine on a standard TV [picture format 4:3, not widescreen]. Note you can also buy this 8 season set as the 'Magic Chest Box Set' with all the DVDs being within an expensive wood/leather/velvet-lined chest [and a price tag to match]. This simpler cardboard boxed set looks good as well, with one DVD case per season, and it doesn't take up that much room [although I far prefered Buffys complete 7 season slipcase style and graphics]. 1998's season one is naturally a great starting point and has the attraction of older sister Prue joining Piper and Phoebe, as they discover the Book of Shadows and become the 'power of three' (just in time as it happens). I have watched a lot of Charmed episodes with my daughter and I have to say that I really liked season 7 [and Paige] with the rise of The Avatars and their attempts to create heaven on Earth (e.g. `Extreme Makeover - World Edition' and `Charmageddon'). Plus demon Zankou makes a good baddie. The finale is pretty good as well (`Death becomes them'). This season really set the pace for the final [2006] season 8 when the `power of three' have to face their worst enemy and defeat the Ultimate Power. Ok the stories repeat themselves a bit (there must be around 160+ episodes) and some of the acting is on the `Victoria Principal' level with girly pouts and eye rolling, but it is all great fun. In many ways the series has a non-violent feel and little blood and gore despite the high body count (although there is the mystery of how does a flaming vaporising demon fail to leave a scorch mark on the sofa - the Power of Three even joke about it in later episodes). I'd ignore the 15 rating, they are more like a 12 max - our kid's PG rated 'Clubhouse detectives' film is far far scarier. Typical Charmed quotes: Piper,"Well, we changed the past to fix the future and save the present." Victor, "Wait, what was that?" If your daughter (10+) hasn't seen any of Charmed before, I'd recommend it. Just tell her it's like `Buffy the Vampire Slayer' but with no Buffy and no vampires. Highly recommended for female offspring (and young males in touch with their orbing side). Other 'similar' complete season boxed sets for teenagers are Buffy the Vampire Slayer [first 5 seasons easily as good as charmed], Buffy's positively apocalyptic spin-off 'Angel' [we rate this as even a tad better than Charmed], The Dresden Files [great], and Supernatural seasons 1-3 [few special effects but easily the scariest here, and deserving of it's age 15 rating]. Also try them with classic 60's sitcom 'Bewitched' (seasons 1-5 with Dick York only) which is quite sympathetic with Charmed and a hit in our household. For under 10's there is the classic 'Worst Witch' series on DVD. So a great all 8 season boxed set of Charmed, only downside: being glued to the TV to find out what happens next episode as you don't have to wait a week for the next epsiode .....

Charmed is a fantastic television show that I remember watching when I was younger when the episodes used to air on English channels. This box set is great because you have all of the episodes, back-to-back in the comforts of your own home. (If you watch them religiously, you could easily do all eight series within a week or maybe even less!) However, I'd say you can tell this box set has been cheaply made. The box is thin card and can easily tear or be bashed around, but at least the discs aren't falling out or being scratched so I'm not too fussed about this. I bought this item in May but had several problems with it which were later corrected by Amazon, but some of them cropped up on my replacement. One or two of the discs, a German or foreign language screen pops up that has no relation to Charmed whatsoever and stays there for thirty seconds or so before it corrects itself, taking you back to the home screen. Now, I'm not too bothered about this as it doesn't ruin the viewing quality...possibly a coincidence it's been on the two box sets I ordered? Another gripe is that there isn't a "play all" feature meaning after every episode, you have to click on the next one. This is a matter of convenience more than anything. It also lacks "special features" (apart from one or two things on the eighth season disc) but historically throughout the Charmed box set history, they've been known for leaving them out much to fans disappointment. Nevertheless, I still believe this box set is worth the money. All of the subtitles and audio descriptions are perfectly accurate and the viewing quality is great. Definitely a great gift for a die-hard Charmed fan or even if you're not. 5/5!!

Excellent series about three sisters who are Witches.

Bought For Family Member Is Treasured By Them

The first season of Charmed was released on Blu-ray in the UK some time ago, but that was the only British hi-def box set of the show to appear. Things proceeded more happily in the US, with seasons 2 to 8 each issued separately. The trouble was that most of the American sets were extremely expensive. Now the entire show has been made available as a collection with a price tag that few Charmed fans will think excessive. Blu-ray editions of complete TV shows are sometimes packaged appallingly, but CBS have wisely retained the eight separate slimline Amaray cases that they used for their season-by-season releases. Where they've fallen down is in the cardboard sleeve in which those Amarays are presented, which is much too thin and flimsy for the job. Mine arrived with two five-inch tears in it that made it utterly useless. Fortunately CBS's mastering engineers have done their work better than their cardboard makers. I haven't yet had time to watch more than a little of the show, but every review that I've seen so far has applauded CBS's picture quality, with competent conversion from 4:3 to 16:9 and a considerable improvement in resolution. On the sound side, Season 1 uses lossy, DVD-grade Dolby Digital, but all the later seasons provide proper DTS Master Audio. (Incidentally, the labels of Seasons 1 and 2 are conventional, but those of Seasons 3 to 8 omit the usual Blu-ray logo, hinting that when CBS have sold their first pressings of these discs, they may switch to producing them on recordable BDs instead. So if you prefer ordinary discs to burned ones, it may be better to buy this set sooner rather than later.) To sum up, this is a BD release of a much-loved show that its fans should welcome warmly. No, it's not quite perfect, but this is certainly the most desirable Charmed collection that CBS have ever made.

Excellent recommande

Ho approfittato di un offerta di pochi giorni in cui il megacofanetto era in vendita a 48,02 euro. Ero un po' preoccupato, perché da alcune recensioni ho letto che c'era il rischio che arrivasse con la custodia di cartone esterna rovinata. Invece è arrivato tutto perfettamente integro e sigillato nell'involucro di plastica trasparente, come potete vedere nella foto. I due box di plastica dura in cui sono stati divisi i dischi, dalla I alla IV serie e dalla V all'VIII serie, sono un po' grossi, ma con un ottima chiusura. D'altra parte questa misura ha consentito di disporre i dischi nei separatori interni uno per facciata, quindi ci sono 12 separatori per box. Questa disposizione, permette di prendere un solo disco alla volta e alla fine il tutto risulta più maneggevole. Credo che non sia stata fatta nessuna rimasterizzazione. Gli episodi sono in 4:3, ma con apposita funzione dei televisori o dei software per PC, si possono tranquillamente vedere molto bene anche in 16:9. Prodotto ottimo. Ho visto i primi episodi ed è stato come tornare indietro di 20 anni. Quanti ricordi con le sorelle Halliwell...

Amo esa serie, llegó completo y si está en audio español, pero es español de España, no viene en español latino

Good quality. No problems.

Let me start out by saying this is a different kind of review and as you read on you will find out why. I am assuming that anyone who has bought this edition or is thinking about it already knows what a marvelous show this was to have succeeded eight years on the air. anyone investing this kind of money knows this. There fore I decided to review the presentation of this most unusual and incredible packaging, etc... Read on: I absolutely love this deluxe limited edition. Worth every penny. I repeat, Anyone who has invested this much money to purchase this copy already knows that the series is fabulous. I want to talk about the presentation of the book of shadows edition. I saw the much smaller one in a store. It was half the size and quite frankly disappointing looking. Plus I heard that there was a problem with glue getting on the discs. This GORGEOUS edition is just that gorgeous. It's just like owning your own Book of Shadows. Beautifully and artistically rendered. I was an art major in college and am very critical about art in general. I was so impressed when I opened up this very heavy package I received in the mail that I knew what it was right away, as I get a lot of packages in general. This lovely rendering of The Book of Shadows does not disappoint. Whomever put this together should be very proud of themselves whether it be one person or a collaboration. I was honestly sorry that I didn't buy a few books. When the descriptions came out for the two different versions they were the same and there was no way of telling what the differences were. One just had to take a gamble and I decided I best go with the more expensive one hoping that I wasn't making a mistake. Thrilled that I made the right choice I highly recommend any charmed fan or even a new watcher of the series to just not waste time and get this edition right off the bat. You won't in anyway be sorry. The only thing I feel they could have done better was the packaging of the book itself. I feel that it should have had a cover on the box itself for protection. It's not too late for the manufacturer to make covers and offer them for a couple bucks. I bet they would fly right out of the warehouse as I cannot be the only person that feels this way. Something so beautiful really should be better protected. Also, a small thing but nonetheless nice would have been if they had added a few more ribbon page dividers. All in all I couldn't be happier that I chose the full size authentic rendering of Charmed's "Book of Shadows" disc set. I'm just altogether THRILLED in case anyone didn't catch my opinion the first time. Just kidding! This is truly a work of art worthy of displaying the artwork in the book itself. It goes without saying that the Series is the obvious reason anyone buys the seasonal collections. Yet in this particular case that Is why I chose to review the actual Book of Shadows packaging more than or at least equal to the DVD set. This reminds me of when I was a child and cared more about the wrapping paper than the gift itself. At least the principal holds up. I display mine in my living area of my home. It's as much a piece of artwork as the paintings I have hanging on my walls. A real catch if you can still find one. A++++ rating.