Female Trouble
Artificial insemination, adultery, the dark forces of otherworldly evil, et cetera
If Felicity's New York, evoked in choice location shots, seems to palpably participate in the drama, the San Francisco of Charmed just looks like Echo Park to me. A similar not-quiteness, an air of the second-hand or substituted afflicts the show overall - we've seen those youth-sucking demons and dream-invading murderers before, and just about everything else here as well. Milano, Doherty and Combs are attractive presences, but the writing lacks bite or an ordering vision more variously exploitable than that sisterhood is powerful, and - between the jobs, the dates, the family matters, the identity issue, the supernatural murder mysteries, and the attempt to track three leads through every episode - there is perhaps too much in the cauldron for the series to cast an effective spell.
No such lack of focus afflicts The Powerpuff Girls, Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup - perhaps because they are too young to date, or perhaps because they are only cartoons, created for Cartoon Network by Craig McCracken (who worked on Dexter's Laboratory for Genndy Tartakovsky, who works for McCracken here). Born of a mixture of sugar, spice, everything nice and Chemical X, they are perfect little superheroines, with great big eyes and u-shaped mouths, who go to kindergarten, sleep with the light on and fight crime in the city of Townsville (whose mayor also baby-sits). Like much contemporary TV animation, the show is both postmodern and parodic, with nods to the geometric abstractions of UPA, the thick-lined stolidity of early Hanna-Barbera, and the force-in-repose of Astro Boy. It is also, as far as I can make out from close and careful study, perfect: perfectly drawn, perfectly written and perfectly voiced, its wit so much a combination of those elements as to be beyond quotation. Pretty colors, graceful shapes, and the world saved twice every half-hour - who could ask for anything more?
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