Team: Victoria Bata (writer), Cristiana Buzzelli (ep), Judy Counihan (ep), Lisa James Larsson (director), Joanne Lee (ep), Niceole R. Despite some nice elements, this saga’s fate is sealed. Fate: The Winx Saga is a mediocre YA fantasy saga that does neither genre proud. The villainous Burned Ones are indeed scary and seem like dangerous Big Bads, while the story about Alfea’s history of abuse + murder may actually be more compelling than the fantasy elements. Best of all, and unfortunately because of their casting controversies, are Applebaum’s empathic Musa, who is at least moody, and Eliot Salt’s earth fairy Terra, who feels the most alive in the scenes.īloom’s adoption storyline, while not as nuanced as it could be, is welcomed. Robert James-Collier’s instructor Saul + Eve Best’s headmistress Farah are suitably adult + generally fare better in their scenes than the younger actors. Though Theo Graham’s Dane crushes on both Beatrix + Riven, which is infinitely more compelling. Though the accents make it feel like it’s Europe-set, the main character is American and not knowing the setting feels like an odd omission.Ībigail Cowen is a good lead as Bloom, a fire fairy coming to terms with her adoption. Precious Mustapha’s water fairy Aisha is a nice complement to Bloom, though she could’ve been the lead. Hannah van der Westhuysen’s Stella is kind of a mean girl without enough redeeming moments so far, while Sadie Soverall’s Beatrix is a bit more electrifying because of her electricity powers. Danny Griffin’s Sky, a “Specialist” fighter is sure to spark plenty of online chatter for his looks, while a certain part of the internet may ship him + Freddie Thorp’s Riven. These are disappointing choices, particularly given that Asian + Latin/Hispanic talent should not be difficult to find.
Winx media trans is crap series#
The lore of the fairies also doesn’t feel fresh. Perhaps most egregious of all is the whitewashing of at least two major characters. I haven’t watched the original series but sources say that Musa is Asian (modeled after Lucy Liu) and is being played by Elisha Applebaum ( reportedly ¼ Singaporean but white-presenting) and Flora in the original series is presented as brown (and supposedly inferred to be Latina) and is not present in the Netflix adaptation but a character named Terra (played by white actress Eliot Salt) with similar powers is. The effects can feel a bit underwhelming, and some of the action moments aren’t particularly strongly blocked or shot. The pacing ends up being quite slow, despite quite a lot actually happening, as by the fourth episode of a six episode season, the season goals still feel muddy. Nothing novel or intriguing is added to the high school genre, nor are the characters or dialogue particularly compelling. Unfortunately, while this kind of translation is usually welcomed, the series is laden with tropes.
For Netflix, the series is now a live-action drama with slightly aged-down characters + darker themes. Fate: The Winx Club is based on an animated Italian/American Nickelodeon kids series about Fairies at Alfea College called Winx Club with a voice cast including Ariana Grande + Keke Palmer. Netflix’s newest YA + fantasy series is a headscratcher.