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Charmed Season 8 Episode 7

The Lost Picture Show

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8.2

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Episode Summary

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AIRED: 11/6/05

Wanting to return to her old career as a social worker, Paige's plans get put on hold, when her Whitelighter father, Sam, returns asking for her help with his charge. Meanwhile, Piper and Leo go to see a magical marriage counselor who thinks the best therapy is for them to walk a mile in each others' shoes - literally.moreless

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Fan Episode Reviews (29)

The Lost Picture Show

9.0

By TrueTvWatcher, May 20, 2012

The Lost Picture Show was a superb episode of Charmed and I really enjoyed watching because there was a lot of action, drama, and intrigue. It was interesting to watch Piper and Leo switched into each others bodies to walk a mile in each others shoes. The story was fun and full of surprises. I liked how every thing played out in the end. There was a lot of character and plot development, humor and magic. I look forward to watching what happens next!!!!!!!!!moreless
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The eighth season of Charmed is the worst among all season.

5.0

By Danny2312, Oct 06, 2011

Something is terriblely wrong with Charmed. Begins with the first episode in this season, the episode getting bored and filler. Nothing happened!! What happened in this episode except the demon who trapped Sam inside a painting? Half of this episode is full with Billie. Billie, Billie, Billie. Billie's the reason why I should stop watching this series. I love Kaley Cuoco, but I hate her character so much!! She's just Paige's charges, she should not be a main character. The appearance of Billie is just making the show worse!!

A filler episode with nothing happened at all. One of the worst episode in this series.moreless
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Picture, Not Perfect

4.9

By maxpower03, May 24, 2010

An episode which has a ton of different storylines, some that are successful and some that aren't, The Lost Picture Show was an episode I was looking forward to but which never really fulfilled my excitement.

The episode sees Paige's dad Sam popping up to ask for help when one of his missing charges suddenly re-surfaces after being abducted by a demon who locked him and other future Whitelighters in photographs for 50 years. Meanwhile, Piper and Leo swap bodies and Phoebe, in another desperate attempt at getting knocked up, becomes a prostitute... kidding.

The whole episode feels a lot like somebody got hold of the scripts for Sam I Am, Siren Song and The Painted World and then through in a little Chick Flick for good measure. Disappointing. Besides the basic storylines having been done to death already, I did find most of them entertaining. Despite being slightly anti-climatic, the Paige/Sam story was enjoyable, mainly down to the excellent performances from Scott Jaeck and (shock horror!) Rose McGowan. What's happened to you Rose? After three years of shoot-me-now performances, you suddenly start getting good again! Yay!

The demon-polaroid thing was kinda lame but still fun to watch. The photographs themselves looked really corny and the ending was complete garbage but the journey getting there was enjoyable. The ending seemed slightly rushed, however, and I was disappointed that everything was undone just because Paige called her father "Dad".

The body swap was kinda pointless. We've seen power swaps, pregnancy swaps and, uh, body swaps countless times before on Charmed and, to be honest, do we really need another one? The previews made it seem that this was the main storyline but far too little screen time was devoted to it and I thought Holly Marie Combs was pretty useless throughout. Whilst Brian Krause looked like he had put at least some energy into his performance as Piper (probably because he's leaving in 3 episodes), Holly just sleepwalked through the entire thing and acted like, well, Piper. Still, there were some funny moments, in particular the screaming in the car and the "tinkling standing up" line.

The other two subplots weren't so successful. I am getting increasingly bored with Phoebe's attempts to get pregnant and I can't help but want her to get possessed by a demonic hooker so she could get the deed done as soon as possible! Thankfully, the storyline appears to be over at the end of this episode but I guess we'll have to endure her finding a new man sometime in the near future.

Billie's subplot was also a mess. Why is she there???!! I am completely uninterested in her personal problems and her little thing with JD in this episode felt out-of-place and unneeded. Kaley Cuoco just can't convince at anything she does! Even her hugs seem weird! Get her off the show! Fire her instead of Brian! And fire her make-up artist! She looks like a 60-year-old drag queen with all that plastered-on eye shadow and lip gloss! Aaaggghhh!!!

And what the hell was with all the 50's characters that looked like rejects from Beach Blanket Bingo and then Phoebe's shrunken cardigan! It looked like the costume designer completely forgot about her job and just threw together any old garbage for the cast members.

Thinking about it, the more and more I remember this episode, the more I start to hate it. Some parts were enjoyable but most of it was gouge-out-my-eyes bad. Simple, cheap-to-make, unmemorable Charmed.

Rating: Fmoreless
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Did anyone get the ending?

5.0

By hobbie234, May 24, 2010

I didn't get the ending, Paige finally calls Sam 'dad' and all the victims are magically freed....ooook. I get why it would free Sam, hearing that would free him from his pain and therefore from the prison where the demon feeds on pain, but what's with everyone else getting free? And the whole Piper and Leo switching bodies thing...they did that before and needless to say it was more funny and more effective then than it was in this episode; I mean they don't truly even reconcile Phoebe has to counsel them which I found pretty corny. And what's with JD just dying like that? Everyone else except the Charmed Ones primary innocent was saved...? Another question I have though: WTF did Billie do to her hair she looks like she aged like 15 years and got beaten with an ugly stick in the process. Anyway for a final season I gotta say it doesn't look like Charmed is gonna go out with a bang.moreless
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Some really boring and way overused story lines, but a familiar face lightens things up a lot. Average Charmed.

5.9

By ViktorCharmed, May 24, 2010

As so many other Charmed episodes, this one featured some bad things, and some good. The demons was very boring, and as they mostly are; a bad actor. He overacted and his acting just seemed strained and off. He was very unoriginal, even though the photography part was new. It didn’t work out very good, so he might as well have been one of the same old demons we always see. The JD/Billie romance was badly made, and although they were very much alike, it just seemed to fast, and they weren’t at all a matching couple. When Billie throes herself around his neck, it just feels desperate from her side, and not the genuine, sad feeling the writers must have imagined. The fact that they both played their roles very dull and bored didn’t make it any better. Phoebe’s story line was also very boring, and the baby obsessive Phoebe was just wrong. The fight between Leo and piper was refreshing and fun, but the way it developed was terrible. How many Piper/Leo body/power switches have we had now. Four? It’s just so overused, and they should know by now how the other one feel. Bad writers. The fact that Agent Murphy made an appearance wasn’t very good either. I’ve always found him boring, and this was no exception. His not having anything to do just made him even more boring.

The only really good thing about this dull episode is the great interaction between Sam and Paige, and both of their acting. Their journey through the episode and the emotions it brought up was perfectly written and acted. Paige being the only sane one in the house and her struggle to reason with her sisters and her father was fun and so Paige. Week after week Paige is becoming more fabulous, and this episode is a great example to show that she’s the best sister at the time. I like that she’s accepting her whitelighter half more and more and is becoming more whitelightery. She really fits as one.

If it hadn’t been for the great Sam/Paige story line, this episode would have been a complete catastrophe, but their great acting and excellent writing really heightened the episode very much, and kept it from being the worst episode in almost a year. It just felt like it kept going on and on, without ever ending. But despair not; only one semi-bad/average episode left, and then we’re at the two best episodes of the season, and one of the best episodes of the show.moreless
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Cast & Crew: STARS

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Alyssa Milano	Phoebe Halliwell
Brian Krause (I)	Leo Wyatt (Season 2+)
Holly Marie Combs	Piper Halliwell
Kaley Cuoco	Billie (Season 8+)
Rose McGowan	Paige Matthews (Season 4+)

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Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

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Brandon Quinn	Agent Murphy	Guest Star
Scott Jaeck	Sam	Guest Star
Jay Kenneth Johnson	J.D. Williams	Guest Star

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (10)
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- In the beginning of the episode the demon enters 'Chadwick's Photo's' and flips the open/close sign. However the glass is rather densely frosted and the sign would barely be visible through the door and would be impossible to read, making the sign useless.
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- When seen from the inside, the front door of "Chadwick Photo" has a window but when seen from the outside, it doesn't.
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- While it is understood that Piper and Leo's switching bodies was never meant to come undone until they resolved their differences, Piper still tried to find something in the BOS. So why didn't they at least try the spell/potion Phoebe and Paige used in the 4th season when they switched bodies?
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- TRIVIA: Orbs are heard during the end of the episode, which probably tells that J.D. has become a Whitelighter, like he was always meant to.
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- Throughout the whole episode the name of the demon (who is trying to photograph Sam and JD in order to complete his collection) is never revealed.
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- Since Sam is a whitelighter why does he need to go to Paige to get his charge out of the hospital? He could have just orbed out himself, and how come he didn't leave until J.D. woke up to heal him?
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- How did J.D. track down his father in just a couple of minutes of screen time, despite being 50 years out of touch, having no idea where his father was, or that he'd even still be in San Francisco?
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- The Segway Scooters that the police officers are riding were withdrawn from the market in 2003 by Segway, and they are in fact banned from use in San Francisco.
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- TRIVIA: Piper & Leo are magically switched with each other again, only this time they just switch bodies not powers.
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- TRIVIA: This is the third time Scott Jaeck has appeared in the role of Sam. He previously appeared in the season 2 episode P3 H20 and the season 5 episode Sam I Am. Interestingly enough, Sam only seems to appear every three years.
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QUOTES (5)
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- Agent Murphy: Are you guys related or something?
  Paige (in unison with Sam): No.
  Sam: Yes.
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- Soothsayer: How many times a day do you have sex?
  Piper: A day? What, are you crazy?
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- Sam (about Agent Murphy): What part of the government does he work for again?
  Paige: Uh...the super-creepy part.
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- Paige (to Sam): Don't make me regret having saved you three years ago.
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- Paige (to Sam, using air quotes on the last word): Maybe if you came around more then once every three years, you'd know this about your daughter.
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NOTES (1)
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- On it's original airdate got and 3.87 million viewers.
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ALLUSIONS (1)
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- Title: The Lost Picture Show
  
  This is a reference to the 1971 film "The Last Picture Show" featuring Cybill Shephard. This film is set in Anarene, Texas and deals with relationship problems.
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