This Show Could Have Been Great

I really wanted to like Willow, the Disney+ sequel series to the 1988 film of the same name. I loved that movie and love it still. Alas, the show—created by Jonathan Kasdan, with Warwick Davis reprising the titular role—falls far from the magic acorn tree.

And so it is with the season finale, “Children Of The Wyrm.” While one of the better episodes of the series so far, it still falls short, hamstrung at every turn by bizarre creative choices, bafflingly bad dialogue and various other shortcomings that were, I believe, entirely avoidable. I’ll say it again: There is a good show buried under all of these amateurish mistakes. There is an epic fantasy adventure with heart and humor and real stakes that’s just itching to break free from the crappy dialogue, costume mishaps and tonal confusion. But it never quite does, and that’s a shame.

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A part of me still wants a second season. I love Willow and want more stories told in this universe, in this land of magical faeries, ornery brownies, wicked trolls and colorful magic. I just want the creators of this show to treat it with the respect it deserves, because by the finale I could barely take any of these characters seriously, and the ones that did get better over time—like Kit and Elora—were portrayed so poorly early on that it’s hard to start liking them now.

The finale was utterly predictable, which I’m okay with for the most part. Last week, Elora and Kit arrived in the Immemorial City to find Airk, smirking and clean-cut. This week, to nobody’s surprise, we learn that he’s been brainwashed by the evil Crone. She does her best to brainwash the two young women as well, but her illusion spell fails. She turns Kit to stone after the voice of Madmartigan convinces her that she needs to cast off the spell and save Elora. Elora, meanwhile, almost “marries” Airk in the illusion when she suddenly is jogged out of the illusion and says, “I don’t think I’m into you anymore,” as princesses do. She also accuses him of being “gross and creepy” and tells him that if his real self could see him now he would “gag.”

Like, gag me with a spoon.

This is what I mean about tone. I don’t need this show to sound Shakespearean but it could let its characters be serious people (who are sometimes funny) rather than walking jokes. For instance, and this is just off the top of my head:

As Elora starts to kiss Airk and the Crone’s magic seeps into her mouth to steal her powers she could have a flash of Willow or something to break her from the spell—or the Crone, whatever—and then she says: “Wait, stop.”

“What?” Airk replies.

“I . . . I don’t love you,” she says, almost surprised by the admission. “I never did.” She shakes her head, as if to cast off the cobwebs blurring her mind. “Besides, you’re not even Airk.”

“Elora,” he begins, but she ignores him, turning instead to face the Crone, whose face is still that of a young, beautiful woman—but her mask is slipping. We see her rotten teeth when she smiles.

The dialogue from here on out could stay largely the same except phrases like “I don’t get you” from the Crone could just be altered a tiny bit to something like: “I don’t understand. You can have a life of love and bliss and happiness. All you have to do is let go.”

“Never!”

“Who are you to tell me never, petulant child!”

“She’s Elora Danan!” Willow says, appearing as he does in the show, striking his staff on the stone floor. You get the gist. Less “like, you’re so totally gross boo” and more just . . . fantasy-ish sounding dialogue.

I admit, I did like the fact that Willow showed up to save the day in the end. I was worried they really would have him leave and turn back rather than following everyone else over the waterfall, but he arrives just in time to shatter the Crone’s illusions and help in the fight.

From here out it’s a big fight scene. The Crone blasts Graydon into smithereens and everyone thinks that he’s dead (but it’s pretty obvious he’s not, and that’s confirmed in the final scene). Elora gathers her strength after the man she loves is slain and a big wizard battle between her and the Crone ensues. Alas, it uses the “two beams of magic collide” technique used in every fantasy show these days, and even though it’s a better special effect than most, it’s still pretty unoriginal compared to the fight between Fin Raziel and Bavmorda in the movie (despite that film coming out decades ago!)

After Elora beats the Crone the evil being imbues Airk with her powers and a second fight breaks out between the now fully-evil brother and his sister, decked out in the Kymerian Cuirass, one of the better costumes the show has given us (in a show with some truly terrible costumes). She wins, of course, and just as she’s about to kill her brother—horrified that she’s forced to take such drastic measures—Elora stops her. “I believe in a thing called love,” she says. “Just listen to the rhythm of my heart.”

And then Willow gives her the green gem from his staff and she uses The Power Of Love™ to bring him back to the light. That’s the power of love. (Damn these are good song ideas to play over this scene in a future edit!)

They all leave the Immemorial City and we cut to Graydon, laying among the bodies of soldiers in what appears to be the vision Willow and Elora both had of Elora’s death. There’s an army of darkness arrayed to the horizon, including the two-headed monster from the film (the Eborsisk, named after Siskel and Ebert). Elora is there and tells Graydon that she needs someone to help her make the world anew, and it’s pretty obvious that this is the Wyrm’s powers tricking him into joining Team Bad Guy. But it’s still kind of a cool final scene, and it makes you wonder if Willow’s vision is just a deception of some kind as well.

Some thoughts:

• Jade is a pointless character. Without her, the focus this whole time could have been on Kit and Elora’s relationship, which is more interesting and dynamic. It would have slimmed down the cast and made the show better overall and nothing would be lost. Hell, just have Kit be in love with Elora if you want some queer romance stuff in the show. That way you can have both brother and sister in love with the same person, which is way more juicy. And also Graydon, of course. It stands to reason that someone as beautiful and magical as Elora Danan might attract everyone to them like this.
• I love Boorman but please give the man more serious moments also. It’s great that he’s comic relief. So was Madmartigan. But Madmartigan also got to be serious from time to time and it made him a better character. Boorman finally gets a couple moments of this by the finale, but it’s too little too late. This is how I feel about most of the cast, actually. The show doesn’t take anyone seriously for so long and then expects us all to take them seriously at the end, but still peppers the show with dialogue that breaks that façade instantly.
• We got two modern songs in the episode—one during the fake wedding and one during the credits and I just hate it so much I want to scream. If there’s a Season 2 of this show, I hope to god the creators realize how much just about everyone—including ardent defenders of the show—dislike this. I think it’s the one thing we can all agree on actually. Mostly.
• I don’t think the Crone should have appeared to Elora and Kit the same as she did to Airk. An older, more regal woman would have made sense. Someone more like Sorsha, maybe even Sorsha herself. A peer just doesn’t make sense the way it did for Airk, who likes pretty girls. Oh, and I really, really do think that “Lili” should have appeared much earlier in the season and her true identity should have only emerged last week. Would have been a better story and generated lots of fan theories.
• I haven’t even really touched on the nonsense that is the show’s plot much because . . . well, it’s just so nonsensical. It’s like the writers made everything way more complicated than it had to be, and never considered how little sense it made. The movie’s plot was pretty straightforward. Protect the baby because the evil sorceress wants to kill her over some prophecy. That’s it! Here we have a Crone a Wyrm, the Gales, the prince gets kidnapped but seems pretty much extraneous to the overall plot, there’s a magical Cuirass and a missing father, blah blah blah. It’s messy. It didn’t need to be so messy!

I’m sad about Willow. I really wanted to love this show. I was so damn excited when I first heard about it and I kept my optimism alive as long as I could. But I don’t love it. I like it at times but mostly it’s just been a massive letdown. It could have been great, but the creators apparently didn’t understand what made the original great. What a shame.

As it stands, Willow is on my Worst Shows Of 2022 list, while another show with a different Elora Danan is on my Best Shows Of 2022 list.

What’s your take? How have you liked Willow so far?

You can watch my video review below:

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