So - I watched Fate: the Winx saga

When my girls were really young, one of them loved the Winx Comics. We bought them every month, and was a member of Winx Club I think it was.

So - I was kinda amused when I saw that Netflix now had a Winx show coming out this month and just for fun, I watched a few minutes of it this evening.

Well, that is to say, I ended up watching the entire first episode, because it was actually really interesting and well made, and not the Barbie fairies I thought it was going to be, but more like Magicians, just a tad younger (16’ish).

Basically, its a school for fairies (They don’t have wings anymore, that transformation magic was lost), they recently survived a war against some monsters, that are all gone, but…something is coming - The whole damn thing starts with a guy who is exploded!

I mean, the promise of a first episode in a new show is rarely kept, but seeing as season one is only six episodes, which is another positive thing that speaks well for the show, I am going to see them all - and I kinda want to recommend you check it out, if you like this kind of show!

The headmistress of the school is kinda awesome as well.

Edit: No, my topic isn’t similar to “Who watches the watchmen show”…!

I was intrigued by the trailer and wondered momentarily if it was a live action adaptation of one or more of the crazy Fate: Whateverwhatever animes I keep meaning to watch. I never really saw the kid’s cartoon this is actually based on, but that kinda content is definitely up my alley. I might give it a shot! Was sad to read about the partial white-washing of some of the cast members by Netflix, though :(

Hey! I’m not alone!

I watched the various Winx cartoons over much of my now 10 year-old daughter’s young life. We were both really excited to watch this together when we saw the news that a live action version was coming to Netflix. And we tried the first episode last night.

She lasted until the bloody, mauled body. Oops. I knew they were aging it up, but I didn’t realize quite how much. She bailed and had a rough time falling asleep. I went back down after she fell asleep and watched the rest of the episode. And I really enjoyed it.

I recognized the Faragonda-like headmistress from Nurse Jackie, so that was a plus, she was great in that. I enjoyed the surly teenage attitudes and the different issues they seemed to be struggling with. This is not Winx Club, but it’s actually drawing from the surprisingly deep mythology of the cartoons.

My daughter has mandated that I watch the whole series an episode a night and summarize it to her each morning. I agreed.

PS Stella is the most perfectly cast person in the show. Kudos.

I was definitely curious but I am almost certainly not the target demographic and I’m not familiar with Winx at all except in that that name rings a bell somewhere like maybe I shelved things with that title at the library or something.

I’ve never heard of this show before it showed up on my wife’s Netflix list. We watched the first episode tonight and she was generally pleased by the acting and the storyline. Since she runs a theater company and it’s a playwright she has a low threshold for bad acting and writing. So that’s a plus for Winx. Plan to watch the rest.

Coming in blind I thought this was overall weak, but not without interesting elements and scenes. I watched in the background so may have missed details, but the worldbuilding was interesting enough that I did go through all 6 episodes.

However, if I had known this was based on a cartoon for very young girls I would have viewed it more favorably. The frame I had coming in was, “This feels like the Disney Channel was told to copy the Magicians, but the writers didn’t actually watch the show.” But being a show aimed at younger audience I am way more forgiving of much of the clunkiness. It doesn’t change one thing though, I feel like I lost the thread on the main character by the 5th or 6th episode, and following that, the decision her whole crew goes through with to break out Rosalind. By that point much of the missing information was filled in and I’m like, are they all supposed to be just be insanely reckless? I could have bought this scene earlier in the show before the risks were clear but at the point? But teenagers don’t have to make the best decisions I guess, so whatever.

I also compared this with Motherland: Fort Salem, another ‘magic school for girls’ show, and I think Motherland is a much better show. (But not aimed at as young an audience, probably.)

A minor thing: I know it’s a genre trope, but so much importance on finding your ‘real parents’ kind of feels tone deaf to adopted kids and their parents. I wouldn’t have minded a few more characters pushing back on that. (It did happen but overall vibe of the show didn’t quite match.)

I had a YouTube ad today for some fairy unicorn toy. I blame this thread.

Maybe. But the only important question is: Did you buy one?

PS: on episode 5. It’s pretty good. I think the comparison to Ft. Salem is apt. And I finally got around to Googling why Saul is so familiar. He’s that nasty butler, Thomas, from Downtown Abbey!

We watched the first episode but it was a bit borderline. Kept expecting it to go full CW / teen romance, which it never quite did, just heavily threatened. Will keep watching, the world building and systems seemed potentially interesting and I am a sucker for coming of age stories where the characters all level up at a school a la Harry Potter.

Holy shit this show is hilariously terrible. Like worse than Tidelands. Worse than early Arrow. Vastly worse than Warrior Nun, and that suuuuuucks.

This sucks worse than Sabrina. Sabrina!

You’re really selling me on this, I LOVE bad CW magic nonsense but I just foolishly started My Hero Academia, alas

I mean, yeah. It really isn’t good. But it is great, if you come in with the right mindset! It’s a show that started as a pure cartoon preteen girl power fantasy with cute fairy pets, then converted by Netflix into something that is trying but not quite succeeding at being Sabrina meets … I dunno? An aged down The Magicians?

It just worked for me, in terms of just shutting off my brain and going with the flow. But honestly, I would never be caught dead recommending this to anyone. And I dearly hope it gets a second season. Again, there’s an incredibly complex Winx universe with an aeon spanning mythology that I believe the first season hints at. And I’d love to see how they play it out. But this can’t possibly get good enough ratings, can it? Nah.

Spoilers for the cartoon and maybe the show? :

I mean… Blood witches?! Sure, the Trix, 3 different characters in the cartoon merged into Beatrix in this version were witches who attended a rival school for witches. And Beatrix was from that witch town that Rosalind destroyed, so there’s surely some drama there. Plus there was a whole season of the cartoon where the witches ended up moving into Alfea and working together with the fairies. And there was that season with the ancient order of fairy hunters. Plus some stuff with the true ancient fairy Queen that A Midsummer Night’s Dream was based on (Titania?). And tinker bell eventually shows up? Ok. I’m spent.

Its fun - some people just don’t like things that aren’t right up their alley.

My girls and me all want this to have a second season, so there is that.

To be clear, I was being genuine. I am a total sucker for this kinda stuff, and all the things are bothering Adam are in my wheelhouse, hah

Sure - but its not as bad as Adam makes it sound. Its a comic book series for pre-teen girls about faries that is remade by netflix and amped up a bit - I don’t really think Adam is the intended audience for it, especially with that reaction.

Yup, this right here. It’s not Good, I’d be embarrassed to bring it up even to a lot of people who know I like some eclectic things, and I still kind of enjoyed watching it more than most other things I’ve watched recently.

How scary is it? My 7 year old has a really low bar for things that might have a hint of scariness.

It starts off rather bad actually, with a somewhat horror type storybit. That part isnt good for a young person I think.

Probably too scary honestly. There quite a few scenes that are about as scary as the very first scene in the series.