'Fate: The Winx Saga' follows the fairy students of Alfea College in the Otherworld. It focuses particularly on Bloom (Abigail Cowen - 'Chilling Adventures of Sabrina') as she attempts to uncover the secret behind where she really comes from.
Some will remember animated Nickelodeon series 'Winx Club' from which this series 'Fate' is adapted. It has been adjusted for teen viewers, and it's more than apparent those behind it are trying to market to as young as audience as possible as they cut scenes just before anything too sexual or scary happens. Across movies and series, Netflix have produced both hits and total trash when it comes to their YA demographic. 'Fate: the Winx Saga' falls to the latter.
We know the opening well. A pretty girl starts school, immediately gets hit on, and struggles to make friends and fit in (she even has red hair like Cady Heron). She meets such stereotypes as the mean blonde girl, the fat girl with attitude, the bully, the cute boy, and the guy struggling with his sexual identity. There's so much teen angst between loner tendencies, fighting with parents (pretty much EVERYONE has parent problems in this show) and drama-filled parties; and let's not forget the "being angry makes my powers come out" trope that we've seen soooo many times, it's getting very dull.
The bad guys are zombies because let's face it, it's that or dementor designs when it comes to the baddies in YA programming. The young male characters seem to do nothing but combat and training exercises. One character emerges as particularly vulgar with such lines as "I hear she let's you do butt stuff" and "she's so thirsty for your di**, it’s embarrassing." Well actually no, it's this show that's embarassing.
They're not the only cringeworthy lines either as you also have a character saying "sometimes being a fairy means you have to deal with sh**" (having literally just told a story about sh**), and Bloom's mom at one point refers to herself as a "basic bitch." In spite of the casting of Abigail Cowen, 'Fate' is closer to 'Cursed' than 'Chilling Adventures' in terms of quality. It really does feel like they're just hurling sh** at a wall, hoping something will stick.
In spite having a talented young cast ('Normal People' fans will be delighted to see Eliot Salt pop up), 'Fate: The Winx Saga' is too ridiculous and pointless to invest in, on top of the aforementioned revolting dialogue. One wouldn't want to give away its twists for fear of spoilers, but regarding the plot, as several characters in the show would say, "ya basic." On the bright side, the poor CGI quality doesn't put one off, but that's also because it was far from the worst thing about the show.
'Fate: The Winx Saga' is streaming on Netflix from January 22, 2021.
