The new fantasy and drama series, “Fate: The Winx Saga” joined Netflix in late January, and despite its quick success, is not as good as it may seem.
Since being added, it has quickly climbed the ranks. It joined the select few on Netflix’s Top 10 and stayed there for a few weeks.
The show is about a teenage girl, Bloom, played by Abigail Cowen, who travels to another world after she learns she is a fire fairy. She has to juggle her new world and way of living along with friendships, enemies, romance and monsters.
The show is an adaptation of Nickelodeon’s children’s series “Winx Club” and has one season with six episodes around 45 to 55 minutes long.
Brian Young, the creator of the show also worked on “The Vampire Diaries,” which was a tremendous success. Knowing this before I started the show, my expectations were high. I personally loved “The Vampire Diaries,” and I also really liked the idea of this show.
The opening scene set the stage for a good start. It was ominous and dark. I could tell something was going to happen. It reminded me of how each episode of “Criminal Minds” begins.
The music set an eerie mood, and it followed the action well. There was also a good variety of angles to express the various emotions of the scenes.
After one of the many conflicts of the show was revealed, the main characters were introduced, along with the world they lived in.
I didn’t have a problem with any of them in general. However, their friendships, dislikes and romantic interests for each other seemed to just happen out of nowhere. There wasn’t a big bonding moment nor a fight to establish why they felt a certain way towards each other.
The backstory of the world, some of the characters and the magic the fairies possessed were not explored in much detail either. This left me confused, and I had to consider rewatching some parts. I didn’t know if the secretive backgrounds were an element of the story or just a flaw.
I also had conflicting feelings about the graphics of their magic. In some scenes, the animation was so realistic it looked like the magic was really happening. In others, it looked painfully fake. I felt the same way about some of the sound effects of the monsters.
Despite the main story being about Bloom entering her new world and using her newfound powers to destroy evil, I appreciated how there were scenes featuring other characters. They had their own problems and conflicts separate from the main one. This allowed for each character to have an adequate amount of character development.
One storyline that stood out to me was about how one of the characters struggled with her body image. The writers touched on how her social standing and the way she was treated by others were affected by this. On that note, however, by the end of the season, they hadn’t expanded on it at all.
Still though, the angles were fresh and unique, and the end of each episode, was always the right kind of dramatic to lure me back in.
The last episode reminded me of the final battle in “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” but the final fight in the show was a little anticlimactic, leaving me disappointed.
That being said, the end of the season was great. It left me shocked and with many questions as to what might happen next. I definitely need to return to find out what will happen next if they release another season. For me, this show wasn’t the best, but it was still good enough to keep me interested and coming back for more.
