ALL SERIES TV

Charmed: The Complete Second Season finds San Francisco's favorite and fetching trio of witches, the Halliwell sisters, still battling supernatural forces while trying to make sense of their tricky personal lives. It has been a year since Prue (Shannen Doherty), Phoebe (Alyssan Milano), and Piper (Holly Marie Combs), were each endowed with a unique, magical ability after discovering the Book of Shadows in their attic, and while Phoebe and Piper are in the mood for celebrating, Prue is emotionally incapable of using her telekinetic gifts. Powerless to have saved her ex-lover, Andy Trudeau (Ted King), from death in season 1, Prue's grief prevents her from cooperating with her sisters in a battle against a demon who steals the all-important Book. That's just the beginning of the Halliwells' otherworldly troubles. The second season finds the sisters also taking on brain-zapping Warlocks, a Demon of Hate, a Darklighter who inspires thoughts of suicide among the living, evil witches, and--get this--the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, who turn out to be quite dapper (albeit nasty) fellows. Meanwhile, Piper struggles to raise $60,000 to open a happening new club (at a site where two other clubs have failed) while also juggling romantic feelings for two guys, one a hunky new neighbor and the other last season's handyman character, Leo (Brian Krause), who turns out to be a Whitelighter (a kind of an angel). Prue's job at the art gallery gets a bit wobbly, and she gives unintentionally mixed signals to a very nice man who likes her a lot. Phoebe, for her part, is still in school and meets a handsome prospect at a dating service--then has to save him from a succubus (a female demon who seduces men and then kills them). Season highlights include the episode "She's a Man, Baby, a Man," in which Prue--due to a botched spell--becomes a man (a clever and funny performance by Doherty). In a reversal of Tootsie's feminist theme, Prue learns how to be a better woman for having a been a man, though a lot more repairs take place at the house while she's a he. "Animal Pragmatism" concerns yet another spell gone awry, this one turning a pig, a rabbit, and a snake into full-grown men with the characteristics of the creatures they were. The final show, "Be Careful What You Witch For," is a lot of fun, co-starring French Stewart as a genie who makes a lot of mischief at the same time the sisters are trying to put a Dragon Warlock in his place. --Tom Keogh