Show Review:
Fate: The Winx Saga Season 1
Rating: 6 out of 10 stars
Overview
Pros
- Creepy, formidable monsters
- Interesting characters
- Creative episode titles
Cons
- Unsatisfying storyline
- Did not feel particularly attached to most of the characters
- Seems to tailor to two audiences but does so poorly
- Too much teenage angst
Observations
- Nothing like the kids show Winx it is loosely based on
Warning: Spoilers ahead!
Review
This show was not my favorite. Granted, it was okay, and I don’t necessarily regret watching it. But I feel like it’s a show that does not really know what it is doing–in terms of audience, for example. Even though it’s rated MA, the teenaged heroines and heroes feel like they would be highly relatable to a teenage audience. But the adult themes, including the amount of drugs, alcohol, and sexual content, make it lean toward an adult audience. The boarding school feels like it was meant to be a college and the teenagers all look like they are in their 20s. It’s like they were going for two audiences and satisfied neither.
It’s nothing like the Winx kids show. Sure, the names are the same, but the characters are completely different from their cartoon versions. I didn’t watch the cartoon but my best friend had and we watched the live action together. The vast changes were not necessarily an improvement of the original.
Bloom discovers she is a fire fairy and enrolls at Alfea, a school in the Otherworld made for fairies and Specialists like Sky and Riven, who have other skill sets. The threat of the Burned Ones looms over the school after they begin to make a reappearance after 16 years of being thought extinct. We never get a good long look at the Burned Ones, but that perhaps makes them a little bit scarier.
Netflix went to the trouble of creating playlists for the show that offer the character development that was somewhat lacking in the show. Here are the links to the playlists:
Many of the relationships seem toxic. Stella and Sky suck, they have very little chemistry and have history together that makes it hard for them to be a good couple. At times Stella seems to be emotionally manipulating Sky, making herself seem dependent on him as her safety net. He asks her if he is her safety net, who will be his? All together they do not seem good for each other.
Riven, Beatrix, and Dane are also toxic–Beatrix purposely throws Riven under the bus by telling Bloom Riven is responsible for everyone finding out she is a changeling. Dane has a crush on both Riven and Beatrix according to multiple sources–it is also heavily implied. Riven treats Dane like trash though. My brother often says that the only true love triangles are gay….and this one certainly seems to be. But the toxic nature of these relationships makes them all hard to root for.
Sky and Bloom are better, but I haven’t seen enough of them to be sure that I want them together. Bloom literally drugs Sky to prevent him from stopping her. Sky was spying on Bloom for his old mentor/father figure. Obviously, there are some trust issues and other issues at work here.
When it came to characters, I didn’t feel particularly attached to any of them. There were two that stood out to me as interesting, however.
Musa, the mind fairy and empath, was my favorite. I found the way that she had to drown out the emotions of others with music somewhat relatable, as I often use music as my own escape. Musa felt all the emotions her dying mother felt until her mother’s actual death. Because of this, when Sam is near death she is overwhelmed and afraid to be by his side, afraid to feel a dying person’s intense feelings and emotions again. To her, Sam is the epitome of calm most of the time, which is why she is so attracted to him. Her love for him overcomes her reluctance to share his strong emotions and pain, and she stays by him until he recovers.
Stella, the light fairy also interested me. She is not the sort of person I would like to meet–I found her personality kind of caustic–but she was decently well-developed. She gained a reputation for blinding her best friend after her friend flirted with Sky. Even though this is eventually revealed to have been an accident, Stella cannot shake the reputation she has earned. Stella’s mother, a queen, spread that rumor because she was unwilling that Stella become known for losing control. Stella’s mother would rather Stella was known for cruelty rather than for a mistake.
The storyline could have been better. It creates tension, but lacks much creativity. Typical magical boarding school drama and an immense amount of teenage angst drive the plot.
As a last note, I love that all of the episode names are derived from the poems of William Butler Yeats. As a former English major, I fully appreciate this creative decision.
I cannot honestly recommend this show for fans of the original Winx kids show. Additionally, I found it to be lacking in many areas, and not to fit any particular audience as well. As a result, I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone unless what I have written about above has piqued your interest.
The Queer Schizophrenic 