Review: Winx Club - The Magic Is Back (Part 2)

Part 2 of the Winx Club reboot dropped on Netflix yesterday, and it seems like fans are completely disengaged with this franchise. No one is talking about it, and it was pretty poorly received in So Diva! Magazine. The latest drop was fairly short, with only six episodes. This batch of episodes focuses more on the Winx girls than Damien, who seemed to be the star of the initial drop. However, the reboot is stuck between old and new story developments with a lot of revisited material from the superior original series, and not all of the changes they made to it are for the better.

The first episode of the drop, "The Truth About Bloom," threw me for a loop because the reboot didn't make it clear that Bloom didn't realize she was adopted. Those of us who have been watching the original series for years were well aware of this fact, and dragging it out slowed the reboot to a crawl. After Bloom learned that she was the secret keeper of the dragon flame, had a magical guide from another world, and had a twin brother she didn't know about, she still believed her birth parents were two ordinary people from Earth. I found this difficult to swallow, which mitigated the emotional impact of the reveal. The conversation would have been more effective if it had taken place earlier in the show.

Tecna was less irritating this season and had a nice episode that redeemed her negative characteristics introduced in this version. We met the robots who raised her and clearly care about her a great deal, and saw her cry for the first time, which was a nice touch in humanizing her character. The other Winx girls had less of a spotlight placed on them, whether it was to keep the focus on Bloom or because the writers assumed we already knew about them from the previous show. In fact, there were times I felt the Trix got more attention than the Winx.

This arc put less focus on Damien, which I thought was detrimental to the new story being told in the reboot. I found it hard to accept that after everything he learned about his family and Vexius's manipulation, he would still consider working for him. His feelings for Flora didn't come up at all this season, and he put little to no effort into fostering a relationship with his newfound family. Instead, the focus shifted gears to the Trix, who had nothing new to offer for the reboot. All in all, I think these six episodes do a poor job of continuing what the first batch started.

At this point, the main thing that Winx Club: The Magic Is Back has going for it is the bright colors and fun music. The reboot lacks the character development that took place in the original Winx Club series and rehashes too many old ideas without taking the time necessary to develop the new ones. Damien had a lot of potential as a new character, but they don't seem to have much of a plan for him. The show is overly focused on the old Winx vs. Trix dichotomy and doesn't give itself much room to grow. At least it's still better than Fate: The Winx Saga.