The following includes spoilers for Masters of the Universe: Revelation.
Masters of the Universe: Revelation has debuted the first half of its first season on Netflix, and the internet is abuzz. Fans and newbies alike have been giving their thoughts on the show, and it seems to be fairly well-received (aside from the darker corners of the fandom who have criticized the show for being too "PC" simply because a female character is the main focus of the story). This latest version of the He-Man story was created by Kevin Smith, a well-known filmmaker and comedian, particularly in nerdier circles, and is meant as a love letter to He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, which aired in the 1980s.
Smith claims that the intent of the show was to continue the He-Man story and appeal specifically to long-time fans of the franchise. The show is an effort to show those fans a continuation of the world of Eternia, to show what happened to the characters they already know and love, rather than start a new story and have to reintroduce the lore and characters to a new audience. In theory, this is great for He-Man fans, but in practice, it's less than ideal for newcomers. Even creators that want to appeal to a certain demographic should still make their show accessible for everyone, newbies included. Masters of the Universe: Revelation falls a bit flat for viewers who have no previous He-Man knowledge, and it makes it difficult to get into the world and the story when that world and the characters that inhabit it are never fully explained.
This show is branded as a continuation of the Masters of the Universe franchise rather than a reboot, which likely gave the creative team behind it the freedom to make a story that didn’t need to focus on introducing characters or doing too much world-building, because it’s assumed that the viewers are already familiar with all of that. Unfortunately, the reality is that there’s probably a large demographic of the viewership that are new to the world of He-Man, either because they never watched it when it aired (and missed out on any other entries in the franchise) and are taking a shot at it now because it’s being recommended to them on Netflix, or they were too young to watch the original show in its prime (a large portion of the audience likely wasn’t even born when the original show was first airing).
The main problem is that the show doesn’t take the time to explain anything to a potentially new viewer. Sure, exposition can be boring and really drag a story down for a lot of people (if it’s not executed well), but it’s necessary, especially in a piece of fantasy media that involves a world with lore. It’s even necessary for a sequel to do a bit of exposition about prior events, just to cover the bases and make sure that new viewers are somewhat up to speed. Masters of the Universe: Revelation doesn’t take the time to do any of that, and instead throws the audience into the story with virtually no explanation of what’s going on.
Anyone new to this universe won’t understand the He-Man mythos or anything about how Eternia works. Why is Adam’s sword magical? Who is the cute little imp guy with the red Gandalf hat? All they get is a one-minute recap in the first episode that vaguely describes what’s going on, but still doesn’t answer a lot of the questions a new viewer might have watching the show. When basic elements of the lore of the universe (that would already be known to old fans) aren’t touched on until late in the series, there’s a problem.
This is vaguely irritating, but not a deal-breaker. Eventually, one should be able to puzzle out what’s happening, and the plot isn’t too convoluted - anyone familiar with fantasy stories will be able to figure out the stakes at some point. What really suffers with this approach is the character relationships. The show never takes the time to expand upon why these characters care about each other, and viewers are just supposed to understand from minute one that they have this deep connection and bond that they never actually see (because it happens off-screen, presumably in the original He-Man series).
One of the inciting incidents in the show is that Teela leaves the kingdom behind because she feels betrayed by everyone lying to her for years about He-Man’s identity. This is a compelling idea, but it becomes significantly less compelling when the viewer doesn’t know who these people are or how close their relationships are. There’s a single moment that shows Teela and Adam being friends before He-Man is murdered, which doesn’t feel like enough time to get invested in their relationship.
There’s a moment later on in the show that’s a sort of “Dude, we’re getting the band back together!” moment, where the main characters go on a quest together after being separated for a while, but the moment doesn’t feel earned. At this point, a new viewer is going to have basically zero investment in these relationships (and in most of the characters) because we haven’t gotten to see them in action together. If viewers are going into this series fairly blind, they won’t have the years of these characters adventuring together to draw from, which makes these kinds of story beats fall really flat and feel very underwhelming.
Perhaps the character relationships will be explored in a more meaningful way in the second half of the show, which is expected to air later this year or sometime early next year. However, those kinds of stakes are the things that need to be established early in the show, because unless someone has watched a lot of the Masters of the Universe franchise, they likely aren't going to get super invested in any of these characters, because the writing doesn't really give them a reason to. It seems to simply be relying on previous knowledge, which isn't going to please anybody because it's not even making these characters feel deeper than they've been in the past. The characters and their bonds with each other are supposed to be central to this version of the series, but viewers are barely given the time to explore them at all, which leaves the show feeling like more of a display of animation and voice acting talent than an emotionally intense story.