Charles in Charge

By Glenn

Netflix has a service now where instead of just obtaining DVDs through the mail, you can watch what would OTHERWISE be DVDs online using your computer. They call this service "Watch Instantly" without a hint of irony.



When I was in California visiting my sister I had a moment of extreme vulnerability that led me to start watching Charles in Charge. I started with the very first episode of season 1 and didn't stop until I got tired roughly two hours later. There was a VERY funny line in the pilot episode and I've definitely laughed out loud - as an adult - at different parts of the show, but overall I knew that this affair had to end.

Because Netflix makes future recommendations and immediate character judgments based on what movies/shows you rate highly and what you watch, I started getting a lot of recommendations based on these several episodes of Charles in Charge and it wasn't looking good. Gone were the helpful suggestions of Ghost World, Hotel Rwanda and Land Before Time - replaced with UNhelpful suggestions of Waterworld, Hotel for Dogs and Land Before Time IX. Hotel for Dogs isn't even in theatres yet and already Netflix was telling me I couldn't watch any movies until I saw it.

So I decide to go to the Charles in Charge DVD page and rate one of the discs 1 star. That means I "Hated It." What a lie. The only things I hate about Charles in Charge is the low quality of the writing, poor acting, and heavy religious imagery of the third season.

I know I'll never really come to terms with my betrayal of the show, but writing about it helps. It all actually reminds me of the episode where Buddy wants Charles to rate a movie poorly because it will impress the editor of the school newspaper and Charles feels conflicted because he actually liked the movie. It only gets more complicated when Charles finds out that Grandpa Powell absolutely hates the movie but Sarah owns stock in the production company that made it. In the end Charles kills himself instead of reviewing the movie.