Recycling

Over all types of media whether it be television, literature or art, there are always storyline, character and/or subject matter repetitions. Just look at Alias. That show reuses all of it's storyline developments, such as the Vaughn-Lauren storyline mimicing the Jack-Irina storyline. And our Charmed show isn't far behind the recycling aspect either. Just rewatching the first five seasons or so can unveil mutliple parallels in storylines and in character assignments. For example, look at the witch-whitelighter storyline. This is used twice, for both Patty and Piper. And even though the Piper-Leo storyline doesn't end like the Patty-Sam storyline, it's completely obvious that this storyline conveys epic love. Another plot recycling example is the witch-demon love. It appears to mimic the witch-whitelighter storyline a bit, but in reality it's about a different kind of love and about different personalities. You see Phoebe and Penny ("Grams") have this underlining trait that longs for evil so they may attempt to reconstruct evil into good. The fact that it's dangerious is what makes it so appealing. And they don't direct it as a false hope, which is what leaves them with the possiblity of them finding love because they think that they can turn evil. So they fall in love. What's so different about this love from the witch-whitelighter love is that it is the tragic love, the Romeo-and-Juliet love. It's bushels of star-crossed lovers destined for nothing but pain. Therefore, as you can clearly see, Charmed dabs in the dark magic of recycling. My examples are those of love, but Charmed tosses around other used plots and stuff too. Examples are the turning-human plot, the life-changing plot (Piper to big sis, Phoebe to middle sis and Paige to having siblings) and much...much more. Remember always, though, that it's okay (to me) that they reuse great storylines and characters like the above because it brings in things like nurturing (mimic a relative because of "monkey see, monkey do" concept) and human nature (meaning of existence with the turning-human plot). So always cherish the recycling of Charmed's plots and such because they are what make the show something really special. I mean who would give up the witch-demon plot between Phoebe and Cole? Or the witch-demon plot between Penny and the Necromancer in season five? (Not me!)