S01.E05: Wildwood

[AnimeMania]

The enchanted fairy forest beckons, but is home to dangerous Bone Reavers.

Streaming on Disney+ December 21th. 

[Cranberry]

Boorman is the best. Loved his campy shower flashback.

I'm glad the Brownies weren't a big part of the episode; I felt like we saw a little too much of them in the movie. They were amusing enough here, though. Was Rool's daughter wearing a band t-shirt? At this point I'm just rolling with things like that, the woodcutter's blue jeans, and the modern music (which was mid-episode this time).

I'm glad Kit and Elora are bonding a little more even if they're definitely not friends. I also appreciate that Kit is aware of what a little shit she is; she knows she's mean and often wrong. She's improving, though. Telling Elora she's not useless and apologizing to Jade were a good start.

I love that secrets don't last long in the group. Everybody knows everybody else's business, which they really would when they're spending literally 24/7 together.

I knew that kiss would be interrupted from the first time I saw a flash of it in the teaser. Looking forward to seeing how hard Jade will go next episode to get Kit back. Seems like Willow was captured too. Was Graydon? We only saw Boorman, Elora, and Jade at the very end.

[iMonrey]

I'm really enjoying this. Lots of fun stuff. So Jade is Kael's daughter. Nice tie-in to the movie. I think the concept of "Skull Reavers" is a nice way to expand on the idea that Kael wore a skull mask.

OK, so they got Kevin Pollak back for an episode to play Rool, which I'm fine with. A little of that character goes a long way. I wonder if they tried to get Rick Overton back to play Franjean. Rool's daughter was funny. A little too convenient the Brownie homes just happened to be there, though. 

I'm not clear on whether the Wildwood really had any kind of hypnotic affect on people who entered it or if that was just a legend to keep people away. They sort of dropped the ball on that without explaining it.

I loved all the bits with Lori. Favorite line: "We have a saying about people who make empty threats. They make good hats."  I did think the drink-off between Kit and the Skull Reaver was a little too cliche but I'll allow it.

Trolls!

My one complaint is I don't really care for the contemporary music. It's not really in the spirit of the source material. Crimson and Clover? Really? I'd really like to hear the original theme music somewhere here. It doesn't have to be the show's opening them music but I'd just really like to hear it used somewhere for the sake of nostalgia. 

[MissLucas]

Oh, show you're such a mess. A charming mess, but still a mess. The world's about to sink into eternal darkness but you stop for a little detour in the woods, complete with cringeworthy dialogues, exposition dumps and whiplash-inducing tonal changes.

Boorman is still the best. The character is a walking trope but he works amidst a cast who never knows whether they're in drama or comedy (not the actors fault - it's the writing). 

When Scorpia first showed up I thought 'nice freckles, just like Jade' - well played, show (and casting director).

The whole Zion/Coachella bash took up way too much time, as did the drama between Kit and Jade. That was some bad, bad dialogue. I was actually glad when the trolls showed up.

Also: Graydon should have kept the beard. And that truth plum must have been pretty weak because 'I was possessed' was not really an explanation. And Elora's reaction was more than a bit undercooked - 'by whom?', 'why?', 'how?' and 'how did it stop?' were the sort of follow-up questions I would have liked to hear.

Ganush wanting to become famous for 'Decoupage!' and Boorman's slow-mo shower were the episode's highlight.

 

[thuganomics85]

Vaguely remember Rool and the Brownies, so it was kind of fun seeing him again, although they seemed to use just the right amount because you can tell he would have been a bit much if they stuck around him for too long.

Good old truth plums sure know how to get everything in the open, heh.  Glad Kit and Elora are finally thawing a bit and I'm equally glad it led to Kit and Jade finally being open with their feelings towards one another.  Of course, a troll just had to show up before they kissed, but once again, I'm just kind of happy Disney stepped over the low bar with having an actual gay romance instead of just being coy with it.

Everyone is right: Graydon can not pull off that clean shaved look.  Just makes Tony Revolori look even more like Flash Thompson cosplaying in fantasy world.

Thought the actress playing Scorpia was very familiar but it turns out I haven't seen her in anything, so I wonder if it's because she does look like she can be related to Erin Kellyman.

Still kind of amazed that I like Boorman as much as I do since he really is just your atypical roughish trope.

The contemporary music is still an odd choice to me.

Over halfway through the season and we still seem to be stuck in side quest mode.  I really don't see them fully wrapping everything up and since I doubt a second season is happening (seems to be no hype at all for this show), I worry the conclusion is going to be lacking in a lot of ways.

[Bort]

Airk could have been killed fifty times over in the lollygagging they’re taking to go rescue him. At this point, he’ll have rescued himself and will be waiting at Tir Asleen for them to return.

Elora got the hang of Cherlindrea’s wand pretty quickly. Why does Willow have it, by the way? I would’ve thought at the end of the movie that Raziel would be keeping it. Or gave it back to Cherlindrea.

To echo above sentiments: I pegged Jade and Scorpia as sisters because they look alike. Them being Kael’s daughters was a nice twist. And I laughed my ass off at Boorman’s hair-flipping slow motion shower.

[iMonrey]

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Elora got the hang of Cherlindrea’s wand pretty quickly. Why does Willow have it, by the way? I would’ve thought at the end of the movie that Raziel would be keeping it. Or gave it back to Cherlindrea.

I wonder what happened to Cherlindrea. Sorsha said she and Raziel were "gone" but didn't elaborate. I assume Raziel simply passed away from old age, but even if Cherlindrea aged like a mortal I'd still expect her to be alive. I hope they explain this eventually.

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Oh, show you're such a mess. A charming mess, but still a mess. The world's about to sink into eternal darkness but you stop for a little detour in the woods, complete with cringeworthy dialogues, exposition dumps and whiplash-inducing tonal changes.

I'm curious to know how recently you've watched the movie (or at all). It, too, is full of really clunky dialogue and odd tonal changes, from really campy comedy to life-and-death battles. I think the show lines up pretty well with the movie in terms of pace and tone.

[Bort]

46 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

I think the show lines up pretty well with the movie in terms of pace and tone.

I disagree, the movie had a much faster pace, due to the run time being approximately two hours vs this show being significantly longer in run time. Consequently, they’re taking their sweet time to go places with lots of stopping for days.

The tone is different too, largely from the use of contemporary cover songs, which I’m not really crazy about. I’m not usually a purist about source material but the movie didn’t do this and it’s jarring to have the show do it. Especially since I think it’s something of a fad I’ve seen several fantasy/period piece type shows do already and it seems more copying than edgy at this point.

And taking out the music part of the tone, it’s still different vis a vis the storytelling. Prime example being the Boorman in the shower scene. That was over the top campy. Funny, but definitely not a level of camp the movie ever even came close to.

[MissLucas]

4 hours ago, iMonrey said:

I'm curious to know how recently you've watched the movie (or at all). It, too, is full of really clunky dialogue and odd tonal changes, from really campy comedy to life-and-death battles. I think the show lines up pretty well with the movie in terms of pace and tone.

Yes, I've watched the movie. I don't mind switching from campy comedy to high-stakes drama - but it's a difficult balance to get right. The movie wasn't perfect either in that regard but to me the show is worse - YMMV. That said, I still enjoy it.

[Cranberry]

3 hours ago, kariyaki said:

And taking out the music part of the tone, it’s still different vis a vis the storytelling. Prime example being the Boorman in the shower scene. That was over the top campy. Funny, but definitely not a level of camp the movie ever even came close to.

I dunno... Madmartigan (badly) disguised himself as a woman to trick someone's husband, and the guy asked him if he wanted to breed, haha. Also, a Brownie fell in love with a cat!

[raven]

23 hours ago, kariyaki said:

Airk could have been killed fifty times over in the lollygagging they’re taking to go rescue him. At this point, he’ll have rescued himself and will be waiting at Tir Asleen for them to return.

LOL.  Every once in a while Kit mentions him but then they go back to lollygagging.    I was hoping we would see him this episode, the destroyed city looked interesting.

On 12/21/2022 at 3:11 PM, iMonrey said:

I'm not clear on whether the Wildwood really had any kind of hypnotic affect on people who entered it or if that was just a legend to keep people away. They sort of dropped the ball on that without explaining it.

I wondered if this was why our band of heroes was hanging around but then realized that they've never really had a sense of urgency.  Maybe the truth plums (I think it was plums) had something to do with it.

I was back to "shut up, Kit" this episode.  I'm not sure why she has to be so rude to Elora.  They're about equal in experience with their abilities on this quest.   Speaking of Elora, it almost seemed that she wanted to tell Graydon that she was developing romantic feelings for him.  I hope not, as they have zero chemistry, unlike Jade/Kit and Boorman/Scorpia (steamy!).  As for Boorman, yes the water scene was unexpected and hilarious.   I know the show has to dance around Madmartigan's absence, but the cutaways when he's mentioned are annoying.

Graydon is very casual about his brother's death "I idolized him, I was possessed, I killed him" *shrug*   Could use some more info there!   Also, he looked better before being shaved.

I liked the opening with everyone immediately on the run from the baddies; nice segue from last week.   Maybe if they magicked off the cage on that one guy's head, he'd be in a better mood.

I also like the movie tie-ins; it's feels more like the same universe now.  I am curious about Willow's history from Bavmorda to now.   I can understand he's embarrassed about bragging about her defeat, since he used a trick, but he can do magic now, we've seen it.  Did he make up/encourage a heroic history over the last 20 years?  Did something happen to his wife and son that he doesn't want to think about or blames himself for?  He seemed to be a person of renown among the Nelwyns; he's not a failure.  I hope they start to explain and don't exposition dump in the last episode or something.

I basically enjoyed this one but wish they had gotten to the trolls much quicker.  We spent way too much time sidelined.

[iMonrey]

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 Maybe if they magicked off the cage on that one guy's head, he'd be in a better mood.

Yeah what's the deal with Cage-head? Does he wear that on purpose just to look scary? Or did someone lock it on his head and he can't get it off? Sometimes visuals like this have no real point to them.

[Bort]

It looked like the cage was embedded into that guy’s torso. I can’t imagine why someone would do that, unless his skull is made of marshmallow…

[MissLucas]

Reading all the comments about Graydon's beard or lack thereof made me realize that he just pulled off a reverse Riker 😁

[raven]

7 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Yeah what's the deal with Cage-head? Does he wear that on purpose just to look scary?

He reminds me of Thirteen Ghosts!

[Abra]

Hated the pacing here, still hate the modern music, still hate the modern references used in a medieval-y fantasy series ffs. Liked the character beats even if they were trite and trope-y, but I'm not sure if that makes up for all that I hated. Especially when I'm posting it on a site with the most god awful new default theme. Where do I formally complain about that?

Glad to see Rool, and Gus was amusing (she sounded like the Glam Kitchen lady from TikTok, which I'm sure wasn't intentional but still took me out of the show a bit).

Kit and Jade kissed in the very first episode, right? I'm not hallucinating that? Because the way the show's been written since then they're acting like nothing has ever happened between them and I feel gaslit.

For a show titled Willow, he sure is a side character. Where's his growth? What's the deal with his magic? Where is his family besides Mims? What happened to the Nelwyns?

I realize I've complained a lot here but I'm still in it to the end.

[iMonrey]

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For a show titled Willow, he sure is a side character. Where's his growth? What's the deal with his magic? Where is his family besides Mims? What happened to the Nelwyns?

The root problem with a reboot like this is that it undoes the happy ending of the movie. We were led to believe that destroying Bavmorda would resolve all the trouble. Now we're told Bavmorda was merely a conduit of a greater evil that's still out there plaguing everyone. Which is why there is some magical boundary around Tir Asleen. I imagine the Nelwyns had to go underground for the same reason - to hide from this evil. 

I'm hoping at some point we find out what happened to Kaiya and Ranon. I'd also like to know what happened to Meegosh but I'm not holding my breath for that one.

[Tachi Rocinante]

Good to see Willow stating the obvious that he's kind of a novice and has mostly lived off his one success.

Not liking the modern-speak too much either.  

Edited December 25, 2022 by Tachi Rocinante

[nodorothyparker]

Did we know before this that Boorman's first name is Thraxus? That's funnier than it probably should be to me but then the video montage that belied his entire heroic account of his escape and why he's still alive was a hoot. Thank you, show, for the meta observation that so much of this journey thus far has been side quests.

The show is still something of a mess, but the parts that work ping something for me so I'm choosing to just go with the whole lot of it. I can appreciate that for all the Very Serious fantasy stuff with the Crone and coming doom, like the movie the show remembers to pick its spots to not take itself too seriously. My only quibble about using modern music is that "Crimson and Clover" doesn't really match up to anything else they've done up to this point. I've been fine with the show covering late '80s-early '90s stuff to evoke the same movie-era fantasy.

The backstory of the Bone Reavers does make it little harder to root for seeing them all wiped out in the movie. It makes a certain amount of sense narratively to make Jade not just some poor orphan waif raised at Sorsha's court but one of General Kael's fifty eleven children he left behind. I'm guessing Sorsha does know that? I mostly liked Scorpia and thought the actress had great chemistry with Boorman but admit being distracted by her hair. I couldn't decide if we're meant to see something weak in Graydon that he's been possessed multiple times to do bad things each time or that he has inner strength in being able to come back from it in a way Ballantine couldn't. 

Warwick Davis was a lot less wooden this episode, probably because he finally got more to work with than ominously burn through pages of exposition. It's interesting that he never did become a great sorcerer and knows it when one of the hooks of his character in the movie was that he was so much untapped potential getting by on luck and wits. I actually kind of liked Kit and Elora together. They're not great friends, but they're coming to understand each other and that in turn makes Kit more tolerable.