Season 1 |
Season 2 |
Episode Guide
Episode 1 – | Review Score – 3/5
Episode 2 – | Review Score – 3/5
Episode 3 – | Review Score – 3/5
Episode 4 – | Review Score – 3/5
Episode 5 – | Review Score – 2.5/5
Episode 6 – | Review Score – 2/5
Episode 7 – | Review Score – 3/5
Season 2 of Fate: The Winx Saga is somehow both better and worse than the first season. On the one hand, there’s much more magic and a more urgent plotline involving Blood Witches, murder and strange slug-like creatures. On the other hand, there’s way more formulaic teen romance, irrational character actions and a distinct lack of logic from many of the fairies, who flit back and forth between reasonably sound of mind, emotionally unstable and arrogant, depending on what the script calls for. The result is an uneven and disjointed season that’s likely to be far more polarizing compared to season 1.
The story this time around picks up some time after the events last year. With Dowling gone, Rosalind is in charge of the academy and she’s certainly more Dolores Umbridge than Professor Dumbledore. There are also students missing too, while the Specialists outside have intensified their fighting, sensing something foul approaching. Who’s behind this? Well, we soon learn who the big bad is (and I won’t spoil that here) setting up a conflict for the second half of this season.
The plot soon takes on a much more formulaic edge, especially as the mystery dissipates and we double down on the whole plot centering on Bloom being the “chosen one.” Holding the power of the Dragon Flame inside, Bloom is forced to try and wield this to stop the forces of evil, while simultaneously keeping all her friends happy and her relationship with Sky intact.
Despite all of this, Fate: The Winx Saga still suffers from the exact same problems seen last season. Aesthetically, everything looks incredibly bland, lacking that magical edge to help set this apart from other teen dramas. The sets are basically old offices and big halls, with some old ruins the highlight of the entire 7 episode run. Of course we also get more cellphones, parties and drinking, which feels anachronistically placed against old rituals like banishments and the Specialists fighting with swords.
It’s clear that the writers want to try and blend fantasy and modern romance together, but here it works about as effectively as Gordon Ramsay being served good food on Kitchen Nightmares. It doesn’t help that none of the romances are actually developed all that much, and by the end most of our fairies are in the exact same position they started from.
The biggest problem with this season though is the sheer lack of logic from some of our characters. Bloom in particular spends an entire episode telling her troupe not to wander into a very-obvious trap. They don’t listen and subsequently walk into an ambush. An episode later, Bloom’s friends spend half an episode telling her not to wander into a very-obvious trap. She doesn’t listen and goes anyway. It’s frustrating to watch and these sort of niggling issues crop up right the way through the series.
Despite all those flaws, Fate: The Winx Saga does have some redeeming features. There’s some good use of CGI this time around and a few surprising deaths along the way too, which will certainly catch you off guard. However, these glimmers of brilliance are drowned out by an overwhelming amount of mediocrity, with this show struggling to find its own identity and mesh its awkward teen romance with fantasy drama. Much like the first season, Fate: The Winx Saga is formulaic fantasy that fails to conjure much in the way of magic.
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Verdict - 5/10
5/10
loved the cartoon as a teen, so I was quite curious to see the live adaption.
Was really happy that season 1 had a little darker ring to it… kind of letting the show “grow up” with the audience. Also the build up to magics was for me not so bad…. yes the development was a bit slopy, first slow and then to much… but in the end I enjoyed the series.
With season 2 everything was destroyed. The character development was completly off from season 1. Not even in the cartoons was there soooo much drama and unstable stupid behavior….. this is madness (this is spartaaaaaa – sorry^^)
Back on track, I was really disappointed that they decided to take this path and concentrate on drama instead of quality plot development.
What I did like was that the bigger picture isn’t black or white, which could have given the characters more depth. But they kind of fucked that up by overdoing the drama and also all the instable actions. Come on Bloom changes her trust in people every 5sec. but the actions an trust some characters change every 5sec. As if she had learnt NOTHING up until now. ust makes things unlogic, unbelievable and was more annoying than interesting.
So the series has lost my interest aswell
2 episodes into this season and it felt like I was watching hollyoaks or something,it’s more wrapped up in in silly little relationships instead of like the first season it climaxed at the end to an all out fantasy genre which turned out great at the end,expected to see more like the end of the first season straight away and all through out. This ain’t for me now my head is completely out of it unfortunately.