8/17/04: Alyssa Milano, Holly Marie Combs and Rose McGowen, the charmed ones. How much longer can they keep innocents safe and protect themselves and those they love? Piper, Phoebe and Paige are back for a seventh season starting in September.

It is an interesting premise, sisters that didn’t know they were witches suddenly finding out after their "Grams" dies. Add to that the fact that they are all trying to go their own ways because they are all so different. Suddenly they are thrust into this supernatural world that they have no idea about and no one to help them. As they each discover the power that has been given them, it leads to all kinds of mixed emotions and results. The power of three was originally played by Shannen Doherty (Prue), Holly Marie Combs (Piper) and Alyssa Milano(Phoebe). At the end of the third season, Shannen Doherty decided to leave the show, so her character died and they had to bring in another sister, Rose McGowan (Paige) to restore the power of three. That brought on a whole new set of problems since Piper and Pheobe didn’t know about Paige. So dealing with the death of their oldest sister and then finding out they had a younger sister made for interesting season.

In the meantime, Piper and Leo (Brian Krauss) fell in love and got married. This was no easy undertaking either. Leo is the whitelighter assigned to watch over "The Charmed Ones" and keep them on the straight and narrow, safe and to deliver messages from the Elders. There were all kinds of obstacles placed in their way before they could even become engaged because the girls mother fell in love with her whitelighter (Paige’s father) and it didn’t work out.

Fast forward to the end of the sixth season, the sisters haven’t done a lot of protecting innocents this past season, it has been more about keeping Wyatt (Piper and Leo’s son) from turning evil and ruining the future. We also met Chris, who we found out is the second son of Piper and Leo, who came from the future to help keep Wyatt safe. During this season Leo became an elder and seperated from Piper. This made things a bit more difficult to make sure that Chris was conceived, but it finally happened. At the end of the season finale, we saw the older Chris die and vanish right before baby Chris was born. Does this mean that Wyatt is safe? Did it change the future for Chris? If the season finale is to be believed Gideon (the man in charge of the magic school) is the one who turned Wyatt evil, but he was vanquished, so we can assume that Wyatt is not going to turn. Did the older Chris really die or did he just return to his time safe and sound?

Here we are getting ready to start the seventh season, can the writers keep the storylines coming and keep them fresh? I hope so, I have gotten hooked on this show since catching the reruns every afternoon on TNT. It’s not a wholesome family show like Seventh Heaven, but it is entertaining if you are willing to suspend your down to earth beliefs for an hour and believe in magic.