Pop Culture Fix: “Charmed” Rebooting With Lead Lesbian Witch, Okay Fine I’ll Watch It

Welcome to your weekly pop culture fix, bringing you all the news straight from the center of this firey planet.

… The “fierce, funny, feminist reboot” of Charmed, written by Jane the Virgin‘s Jessica O’Toole and Amy Rardin, is gonna have a lesbian lead this time! Here’s the breakdown, from TV Line:

MEL PRUITT | A strong-willed feminist, she feels deeply and is a bit controlling. Mel — who is in her mid 20s and a lesbian —  is the sister of Madison. In the wake of a tragic accident, the grieving Mel becomes angry, defiantly unkempt, even violent, pushing away those who might help her, including her girlfriend, Detective Soo Jin. Mel’s power is time-freezing.

That’s right — she’s gonna have a girlfriend (presumably a woman of color) too AND she’s gonna do the Zach Morris Time freeze. Honestly it should be a rule now that when you reboot a show you have to add a queer/lesbian/bisexual woman, or else why even bother. (Looking at you, Fuller House.)

… Jessica Jones Season Two promises a little bit of lesbianing (at 1:48), despite having killed a lot of lesbians already:

https://youtu.be/hSvnepZS26s

… Katy Perry would write “I Kissed a Girl” a little differently if she was writing it today:

“That was in 2008 when it came out, and I think we’ve really changed, conversationally, in the past 10 years. We’ve come a long way. Bisexuality wasn’t as talked about back then, or any type of fluidity. If I had to write that song again, I probably would make an edit on it. Lyrically, it has a couple of stereotypes in it. Your mind changes so much in 10 years, and you grow so much. What’s true for you can evolve.

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… Your New Favorite Music By Queer and Trans Artists To Check Out This Month

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… Gay Characters Have Been Spotted in the ‘Star Wars’ Universe. You’ll Need Binoculars to See Them

… This Model Was “Put on the World to Break Stereotypes”—Here’s Why | Who What Wear … “as a plus fashion model, a queer woman, and a devout Christian, challenging the status quo is what she’s here for.”

… Best Queer Female Films and Web Series 2018

… Virginia Gardner is the Laser Beam-Shooting Lesbian Superhero We Need

… Boob(s On Your) Tube: “9-1-1” Reveals Its Lesbian Character JUST AS WE PREDICTED WITH OUR SUPREME TV GAYDAR

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Riese

Riese is the 41-year-old Co-Founder of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, video-maker, LGBTQ+ Marketing consultant and aspiring cyber-performance artist who grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York and now lives in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in nine books, magazines including Marie Claire and Curve, and all over the web including Nylon, Queerty, Nerve, Bitch, Emily Books and Jezebel. She had a very popular personal blog once upon a time, and then she recapped The L Word, and then she had the idea to make this place, and now here we all are! In 2016, she was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism. She's Jewish and has a cute dog named Carol. Follow her on twitter and instagram.

Riese has written 3238 articles for us.

31 Comments

  1. JESSICA JONES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    i wanted to watch charmed cause i hear its a classic etc. etc. but after rose i think im just gonna hop on this reboot instead !!

    • Just watch the first three seasons before Rose showed up. I only own those three and I just pretend the rest never happened tbh. Prue was better than Paige don’t @ me

  3. Did I just wake up in a parallel universe where someone rewrote charmed with a witch lesbian and gave her a detective girlfriend?
    Can “the detective girlfriend” be like a new gay trope on TV that I won’t complain about, like ever?
    And while we’re at it: Can rebooted 90s Shows with queer leads become a trend pretty please?

  4. Side note, that cover image is from season 2 and if you give me a few minutes I can probably tell you which episode. When did Phoebe wear that crochet top…

  5. I mean, the real question here is would Katy Perry have named it something else so I could Google the Jill Sobule song IN PEACE

  6. I am less excited for gay porgs than I would be for canonically queer humans, but hey, that’s cute.

    As an aside, “Admiral Holdo gay” is currently the third most popular google search for Admiral Holdo, so… AHEM.

  9. I read ‘who is in her mind 205 and a lesbian’ and I thought ‘That’s cool’ then I thought ‘No, maybe that’s not cool?’ then I thought ‘Wait, what does that even mean?’ then I thought ‘I’m going to re-read that part.’

  10. As a black woman with poofy natural hair who has wanted to making out with Carrie Anne Moss since I first saw the Matrix at 22 (I was late to the party), that lusty scene at 1:48 is a fever dream (the best of) and is also now my Shroud of Turin. This is my testimony. Amen.

  11. Anyone interested in canon, well written actual gay characters in Star Wars should check out the Doctor Aphra series that’s currently running. She’s an Asian anti-hero badass and she loves the ladies. She’s currently having a flirtatious will-they/won’t-they thing with a cute, easily flustered imperial officer.

  12. Always loved Charmed, particularly in the Shannon Doherty days. And Jessica Jones, fan-bloody-tastic!
    Certainly the best of the Marvel stuff. My cup runneth over.

  13. I have for the past week seen the billboard for the new Queer Eye on my way to work and a bit disappointed there isn’t a dapper Butch gal in the show. Or better yet, just make the hosts Cameron and Rhea, it be an instant watch and super funny.

    • Is Queer Eye that show where gay men dress someone?

      Because I’d definitely watch Cameron Esposito and Rhea Butcher dress strangers!

      I’m semi-confident they’d all end up looking kind of the same, chill but stylishly butch, and I’m totally okay with that.

    • Ha, I was totally hoping someone would mention the Disobedience trailer. The trailer looks good. Movie reviews are all really positive. But, has anyone seen it? Does it end…morbidly?

    • Yeah I’m surprised there was no Disobedience mention! It has only gotten positive reviews so I’m tentatively hopeful (although I am really not looking forward to the alleged spitting).

      Very vague book spoiler: it’s a pretty nuanced and sensitive look at a very private orthodox community and what it’s like for the people within it who don’t conform. No lesbians are killed!!!!!

    • yes we’ve talked about this movie a lot! (and actually spent the last two days putting together a proposal for advertising with their distributor.) me not putting it here was an oversight — we posted the trailer on our facebook page and it racked up a gazillion views, so in my head i was thinking we’d already posted it. but we had only posted it on social, not here!

  15. I know I kinda promised myself that I wouldnt watch the new Charmed reboot… but a mid-twenties feminist witch, her detective girlfriend, time-freezing powers? I feel like they are trying to bait me. If that character turns out to be anything like Holly M. Comb’s Piper in seasons 1-5 there’s virtually nothing that’s going to keep me away from this potential tv gem.

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