At least Willow ends as it began. It's still not the best fantasy show available on streaming TV, it's not anyone's runaway favorite, and there won't be people proclaiming it an underrated masterpiece at the end of the year. But, it's still a fun fantasy adventure series with a lot of potential. Whether it'll live up to that potential remains to be seen.
In the era of streaming TV, no series is safe. The entire entertainment industry changes on a dime every couple of weeks and countless shows get the ax, whether they deserve it or not. Spoilers follow for the entire first season of Willow, but it's worth wondering whether any of it will be meaningful.
Far too many shows end on unresolved cliffhangers these days. Fair warning, Willow does have a semi-satisfying ending in its finale, but it also has a big sequel hook for a theoretical second season. It's impossible to know whether Disney will allow the team to pay off that big reveal, but the show does work fairly well as a single season of TV. If the show doesn't get picked up, turn it off before the last five minutes or so. If it does get picked up, there's an interesting new dimension or two to the next chapter of the story. Unfortunately, the show's reputation does partially rest on its ability to be greenlit again.
The final chapter of Willow is the big action payoff for the rest of the series' setup. Kit and Elora finally find the no man's land that held Arik, only to discover that he's allied himself with the evil Crone. Since he's fully bought in, he joins the witch in the traditional "join me" routine. Kit and Elora get a long-winded montage of what their lives could be like if they give up on reality and live in an illusory dream. The back-and-forth isn't very compelling. The Crone speaks in a lot of magic-sounding vagueries, but there isn't an underlying philosophy to follow or rebel against. It feels like a tabletop RPG version of the scene, in which the GM knows their players aren't interested, so they barely try.
They refuse, obviously, and the sword and sorcery combat begins. Kit and Elora's bickering has been a mixed bag throughout the season. It weaves back and forth between being justifiable and silly. It's mostly out the window for the finale, where the dual main characters must fight back to back. They each get their own final boss, though they're not created equal. Willow's practical swordplay has always been more engaging than its colorful CGI magic maelstroms. All-in-all, the finale is fun from an action standpoint, though it brings the show's problems into greater focus.
Boorman, Jade, Graydon, and Willow follow their friends into the finale, but they spend most of it dealing with different threats. Kit and Elora dominate the screen, while Boorman effectively guards the door and Graydon disappears for a shockingly long time. The episode has a terrible time dividing its attention between groups. The geography of each scene becomes a mess, and it's never terribly clear where anyone is or how they're doing. This unfortunately relegates some of the best characters in the show to less interesting side roles. The adventure has given a lot of time to each character so far, for good and for ill, but the finale is much less egalitarian.
Willow feels like a time capsule from an earlier era. It manages to evoke the world of filmmaking that only existed three decades ago. It's a straightforward middle-of-the-road fantasy series. No massive stars, no billion-dollar IP, no groundbreaking gimmick. It's just honest fun in a relatively marketable package. This is the kind of show that a lot of people complain about missing. It has problems, but it'll be a lot of fun while it lasts. The awful truth is that there isn't a lot behind the presentation of the show. Here, in the finale, the show finally dispenses with all the callbacks and references and focuses entirely on being its own work of art. If it had done that from the beginning, the world would be talking about it as a fun alternative to the other two big fantasy series that came out last year. As is, no one is talking about it much at all.
Anyone looking for a charming fantasy series will have a great time with Willow. Anyone who fondly remembers the lesser-known film will probably fall in love with the new series right away. Anyone who is looking for the next big thing in young adult fantasy should probably keep looking. There's something refreshing about Disney publishing this simple little show about wizards and princesses. It's hard not to want showrunner Johnathan Kasdan to get his second season, ideally without so many weird studio decisions. It's fitting that a film that only found its fanbase after its initial run would inspire a series like this. As it is, Willow is a magical journey. It may not go down in history, but it will enchant any audience who finds it.