According to a Wiki search on the show, Fate: The Winx Saga is about fairies attending a magical boarding school in the Otherworld, where they must learn to master their magical powers while navigating love, rivalries, and the monsters that threaten their very existence. Except that it is hard to tell whether they are witches or fairies. Even though the show should be about fairies.
This was not the Winx Club that most people expected as the thin line between them branding off Winx Club and creating a new something became somehow weird. Like most people, I assumed that we would be getting a story about a group of fairy friends fighting monsters and navigating through life, only for us to not get any of that stuff.
This goes on to show that this series struggles with staying original, yet they are trying to prove a point that they are being original somehow, in some other way. Let me explain….
The Writing of the show…
Fate: The Winx Saga is somehow argued as a reimagining motion picture of the original Winx Club. That the Netflix show is not a remake, nor a reboot. In other words, you can look at it as a new show that has been inspired by the original source material. Yes, this would mean it is not telling the story that we all know. Which makes sense, because creating this show does not take away from the original show that is still iconic and prominent.
If that was the case, then they should have played around some names like ‘The Fate Saga’, Or maybe a simple ‘Fate: The Saga’. Anything that does not have the name ‘Winx’ in the title and the name can be mentioned every single time during dialogue or used to form storylines. Then try to base the show a few decades later post the events of Winx Club after the original team has graduated. This way, the original characters can make an appearance every now and then since they are somehow alumni of the school.
Setting the show years before what we show on the animated version would have allowed us to tap into Daphne’s moments at Alfea. Even a story about The Trix would also work, seeing as villains getting to tell their side of the story so the viewers can sympathise with them given the Morbius (2021), The Joker (2019), and Avengers: Infinity War. That way you can create the bare minimum and the atrocities won’t fall on the original show in comparison.
The Characters on the show
It is using the name ‘Winx’ that is making the whole thing problematic. Okay, maybe not the name, but the usage of the original characters and then erasing some of the characters that are pivotal to that story. You have Bloom, Stella, Musa, Aisha, Sky, Riven, Fara, etc. But no Brendon, Flora, Timothy, Tecna.
Now the whole squad seems out of place, and some of the relationships that they are trying to force do not come off as genuine. For example, in the original series, Stella was never a self-centered rude, and mean girl who hated Bloom in the beginning. She was sassy and always quite too proud about fashion and always looking look, and the show made her not seem likable and that redeeming factor that they had for her role didn’t really land as they expected it to be.
She had the most rushed writing ever as not even once was she shown interacting with the rest of the crew and all of a sudden, they’re all best friends. Maybe they could have cut the parts about her being friends with random girls or her being in some confusing relationship with Sky. The unnecessary drama between her and Bloom also took way longer than it should have.
Terra is shown as someone who is struggling with some body issues as shown in the beginning when she is not comfortable with changing in front of other girls or seeing Aisha go into the loo with her. But that was never even developed. I loved how the characters were given real-life issues, yet not developing those is weird. Aisha’s character had a lot of elements with Bonnie Bennett from The Vampire Dairies. A smart powerful Black girl with powers but spends the entire season being an emotional punching bag for the white girl.
She was basically a white girl’s assistant the entire season and we never got to see what caused her to lag during some lessons, and what issues were with her powers somehow going off. I can go on, but I don’t want to be overly insensitive by over-analysing her character. All I am going to say is, keep Brian Young away from Black female characters!
What I found interesting about the show
The first and most important thing to mention is Beatrix. This girl carried the show for the most part and she was my favorite until they found a way to exclude her from the main storyline on the penultimate episode. She knew how to deliver dialogue and her source material and character writing was insanely good.
I also loved the take on the Red Fountain school but would have loved to see different lessons, e.g. Weaponry lessons, it would be insanely good to see them learning archery, sword fight with different katanas because I loved the hand to hand combat that was shown. More can come from that part of the school and I was overly impressed by all the students.
The set design was not bad, but it was overshadowed by the dark tint of Luts during editing or less lighting when film. It was impossible to get a clear pictorial view of some of the settings because the overall edited theme of the entire project was dark. But locations were stunning, and I was drawn to the amount of nature we got. The exterior shots of the school and I am not overly bothered by the Red Fountain school being under the same barrier protection or same campus.
The CGI was also good, you can tell that the money went there and to that location. Apparently, in an interview, the actress who plays Bloom mentioned that the next season will diversify the cast as they plan on introducing more characters. The setting of the upcoming season was quite good and creative.
Overall review
When I started watching the pilot episode, I found the acting to be horrendous. However, it grew in me over the episodes that followed. The dialogue was bad, not organic at all as it spends more time trying to be all over the place. It is impossible to get a clear sense of it and it is worth noting that the scene between Beatrix and Bloom at Ester Dale, that one, was good and well written. This then goes to show that the show is not consistent at framing dialogue.
Netflix has downscaled the number of episodes for series, everything is kept between six and eight as opposed to the earlier ten. This show found itself having pacing problems which gave issues to the development of their powers and relationships. Bloom is not supposed to be that good with her powers this early. Stella also struggled with her powers, at some point they were gone, and then she had them but then also her mom complained about her not having them under control. It was impossible to keep up, and this includes the mystery surrounding Bloom’s parents.
The show should get more flack for whitewashing characters, worse…in 2021, and a Netflix show at that. There is also a queer character that was being sidelined, also there was zero homophobia that I picked up from the show yet that was mentioned few times. I really assumed that Dane was going to hook up with Riven since the latter guy looked more sexually ambiguous.
This show finds itself confusing between trying to be like Teen Wolf for the burnt-ones, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina with the fairies, Harry Potter with the locations and settings, and Riverdale with the convoluted teenage drama. Trying to chase many elements led to them not knowing how to bring that intrinsic identity out, hence the mess that we got.
I initially planned on only highlighting the bad parts of the show, but given the work that the cast and crew put into this, I figured that pointing out the good…would be a nice thing to do. I hope there’s a second season at least!
