B.A.

One of my favorites.

Dan1boy

Watched the first episode. Wasn't blown away but will continue as its only 6 eps.

Dubious casting choices and too much of a 'contemporary' feel with accents and script. The scenery and Warwick are the hooks for sure.

Gizmo

I don’t think I’ve ever seen the movie before. Is it required?

Shannon Nutt

Theoretically, no...as they provide a few flashbacks to the original film. But I watched the original a few days before these new ones and I was glad I did. Although, honestly the movie seems to have had much better production values - despite this new series being 35 years later and, you'd think, would benefit from all the advances in filmmaking.

Dr. DVD

The first two episodes were okay, but didn't floor me. It's obvious it's been over 30 years since the first one for most of the returning cast, but I guess medieval era living ages one similar to living on Tatooine. Speaking of which , I got major Obi-Wan/Uncle Owen vibes regarding the whole deal with Willow and Sorsha discussing Elora Dannan. I'm kind of surprised Sorsha would be so blunt to Willow and am curious if something else is at play.

TomOpus

I liked the first two.

candyrocket786

This one was a little bit better, but damn those end credits.

BOORMAN needs his own damn show.

Also, I SERIOUSLY wonder how many times the cast will use the word SERIOUSLY in the next episode. You could SERIOUSLY turn it into drinking game and do a shot every time they say SERIOUSLY.

Goldberg74

The worst part of this episode was the Metallica cover band. And it was kind of fun to see a cameo by…



Shannon Nutt

(A) I'm really not digging this new story so far, but (B) I still think it's better than Amazon's Lord of the Rings show.

Dr. DVD

Didn't recognize her. I found what appeared to be two Appalachian looking women dressed in jeans and cowboy type hats a bit distracting for something that supposed to be in Medieval earth (I presume this is our earth). The Metallica cover sucked, but was cool when placed with the shot they had at the end. I love Boorman, but overall I think there's just too much modern/quirky dialogue in this show. Still don't know why they would get an English actress for Elora Dannan and then have her talk like an American.

How much you want to bet we get a Doors cover song before the season is over, as a "clever" nod to Val Kilmer?

candyrocket786

They'll probably switch that once she masters her power or something. 😆

fujishig

I've only watched the first episode, but I thought the opposite. We finished the original movie yesterday (it took us a week to get through it) and then started on this show, and even though the shift is jarring watching one right after the other, I though the tv show had much better production values (not taking into account the age of the special effects). I don't think a more "faithful" recreation of the world would have been as fun, though the setup (with Elora Danin being saved in the first movie then immediately being hidden) is kind of hokey. Like yeah, let's erect a magic barrier and hope that that stays up, while discarding all magic. Having said that, the original movie has a ton of plot holes anyway, with Sorsha turning on a dime and yet as a kid I still liked it so...

BTW, is the premise that all the bad guys under Queen Bavmorda disbanded and Sorsha was somehow made queen of the now-freed people of Tir Asleen (the ones who were crystalized?) They made the daughter of their mortal enemy and a thief the king and queen of their kingdom?

Dr. DVD

Sorsha's character arc was something that pretty much got butchered in the theatrical version. Howard later admitted he should have let it remain, but since she wasn't really the focus of the movie, it remained gone. It does still exist in deleted scenes. I am curious with all of the flashbacks they are using if maybe they will appear in the series.

fujishig

Thanks for linking that!

I'm kind of surprised given those already shot scenes that they never did some kind of Director's cut, particularly the Sorsha's father thing.

Dr. DVD

Next year will be the 35th anniversary, so here's hoping for that and maybe a 4K conversion. Of course given the rather negative reaction to the new series that may be a fever dream at this point.

fujishig

Oh shoot, is there that big of a negative reaction?

ViewAskewbian

Well, if we're going by RT, the movie has a worst rating at 53% by critics with the show sitting at current at 84%.

But the audience reaction is something flipped turned upside down:

Willow (movie): 79%
Willow (show): 25%

fujishig

I wonder how much of that is people genuinely hating it for what it is (which given how different it is from the movie I can understand) and how many hating it because they heard it's "woke."

RichC2

You have to score a 3.5 or higher to be considered "Fresh" on rottentomatoes' Audience Score, I can't see even more avid fans giving it more than a 3 out of 5.

I know nobody offline that actually likes this though, they all seem to think it feels too CW.

dex14

Most things are the latter these days.

Dr. DVD

This week's episode was probably the best so far, but that's still not saying much. Lots of memberberries for sure, and a nice look into the origin of Bavmorda. Again, Willow has a lot of similarities with Star Wars. The cult to which Bavmorda belonged is very much like the Sith, and Nockmaar castle was acting a lot like the cave on Dagobah. I like Boorman, but it seems like Jonathan Kasdan is trying to mix his Dawson's Creek style of writing with that of Buffy the Vampire Slayer for the characters. While I did like Buffy in its time, the dialogue doesn't really fit medieval fantasy.

Dr. DVD

I think the reason most who watch don't like it is because they are basically pulling a Last Jedi and making the established characters take a back seat to the new ones. I'm sure the CW style dialogue doesn't help either.

candyrocket786

Given the first few episodes where Willow is given the Jake Skywalker treatment, followed by the shitty dialogue (especial from Kit), and the crappy end credits music, I'm not surprised at the low rating.

Hell, this week's episode was pretty good... but Kit and those goddamn end credits just kill it and completely take me out of their world.

fujishig

I'm not sure what choice they had given the age/state of the original actors, but hey, fans don't need to be reasonable.

I did laugh at them just constantly referring to things as if they were already known, especially Willow's whole "I'm the map" routine, when to my knowledge none of this stuff was referenced at all in the original movie. Maybe it has more meaning to people who were more deeply into the lore or something.

Dan1boy

Its just interesting enough for us to finish the series but overall, this is a terribly written show (no idea why writers included profanity) and casting/delivery is equally as cringe-y, minus Warwick of course. He's the only actor worth tuning in for.