Review: Fate: The Winx Saga – Streaming on Netflix

I had no idea what to expect when I fired up this little drama. My massage therapist enjoyed it and apparently her boyfriend was really into it, so I thought, why not. I like a good fantasy.

Abigail Cowen (Dorkus from Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and Vicki Carmichael in Stranger Things), plays Bloom, a young woman who, we learn is actually a fairy. It seems that over the course of thousands of years, fairies have evolved from small, wing bearing sprites to full on human looking teenagers. They are not in fact humans, although everything about them screams human, so, obviously this is a metaphor for people who don’t fit the “norm”, whatever that is in 2021. They all go to a school called Alfea in an alternate world/dimension called the Otherworld. They have the ability to create gateways to move between worlds, which is handy.

The school has dorms, and each dorm apparently holds five to six students, and there Bloom interacts the most with the rest of the ladies. Terra, a shy but confident and talented earth fairy. Musa, a mind fairy who likes to wear big ol’ headphones. Stella, a light fairy who is a bad fairy (like a bad person), but she and you come around, and finally Aisha, a powerful water fairy who wants to move up the ladder and likes the rules. Each character has their own little arcs, with satisfying payoffs for only six episodes. Terra doesn’t think she is pretty and no boys will like her. Yeah it’s a tired trope, but it’s handled with a refreshing 2021 and fairy magic approach – landing it. Musa is an amplified empath. She can feel everyone’s feelings all the time. She felt something bad happen to someone close to her, making her scared of her powers and her capabilities. Stella can create light out of nothing, and later learns a few new tricks. Her mother is of high importance and Stella’s upbringing and the expectations of her from her mother make her — a difficult character to like, but she is portrayed well, and it all works out in the end.

Bloom is a fire fairy, and a special fairy at that. She is the viewers character, being new to the world herself, we get to learn about the world, school and people with her. Raised with human sensibilities we get to see how Bloom’s ideas and other fairies ideas often don’t mesh, to dramatic and interesting scenarios.

I can’t say much more without spoilers so here are some facts. There is some swearing. There are a few “scary” moments. Very little blood. No sex. No drugs. Not that I can recall anyway. Little violence, but it’s toned down. It is a “dark” show however, and in this regard I’m torn.

The show was originally an Italian cartoon. Very bright and vibrant and very much made for little girls. This new grittier, darker take on the original source material definitely makes it more appealing to a male audience, but I wonder what is lost in doing so. I think it was probably a creator call to give the property more widespread appeal, not just for girls, but who knows. I can only speculate and there’s always a good chance I’m over analyzing or just wrong. I wonder if the soul of the show still exists in this new version. I have never seen the original so if this version is guilty of some sins, I am unaware of them.

Regardless, I’m not comparing the two, this is about the Netflix show.

You like fantasy? Magic? Pretty people? Easily digestible shows? This is for you. It’s fun. For only six episodes (45-47min each) this is a worthy investment if you like the genre. The payoff in episode six with Bloom is worth it. Well…it was for me.

Recommend.