TV Series Review: She-Ra, The Princess of Power: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly (Spoilers)

A 4.0 out of 10.

This confused, bumbling look from IGN’s terrible review sums up the show and Adora’s character pretty well.

Just released on Netflix, She-Ra, the Princess of Power is a reboot of the original, 2-year 1985 series by the same name. With a huge cast and crew, the original series was designed to be a spin-off of the popular He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, 1983 show. First, some background (as that is needed for a reboot review because comparisons will be made!):

While He-Man saw a longer running time (probably mostly due to its toy line, but that’s just an opinion), She-Ra was cut short in its prime (but not before learning the truth of the link between She-Ra and He-Man). Now, both shows suffered a deplorable lack of budgeting for the animation and the characters were excessively 1-dimensional. However, that did not stop them from becoming huge fan favorites that led to a He-Man movie (a terrible, terrible violation of the human brain, starring Dolph Lundgren, that if you have not seen – DON’T, for you own mental well-being, just don’t!), a He-Man cartoon reboot (which was VERY cool but for some reason, short-lived???), and has inspired a completely re-imagined movie coming out in 2019 (which, I am praying with all my hope will not suck this time, capture the original feeling of He-Man, and truly delve into the character mythos).

So, what made such terribly low-budget cartoons so amazing? Well, back in the 80’s, even though the toy companies masterminded the funding for these shows (and thus, in many ways, decided their fates), the writers, without even being able to fully show it on screen, created incredibly deep characters with incredibly complex stories. You know, the very element that’s missing from SO many movies and television series in Hollywood today that has caused the rapid decline in quality? The characters were open to the minds, hearts, and imaginations of children allowing them to be anything they wanted. And, of course, the men were sexy and the women were beautiful. Unfortunately, it was also this false illusion/perception of what made a hero that created a false ideal precept for children of the 80’s that eventually lead to a decline in the emotional well being of American culture in the 90’s, and so on. Nevertheless, He-Man and She-Ra were heroes – for ALL children.

Right now, the biggest element that is dominating social media about this show is that it is “for girls”. I am absolutely not pleased with this. Here’s all I am going to say to that: as a guy, who is a guy, who likes guy things: I LOVED She-Ra. She was strong, pure, clean, decent, had high moral values, and represented many of the attributes I wanted in myself, much like He-Man. As for the reboot:

The confused and angry 1-season / 1-dimensional nature of these characters as shown in this picture from Den of Geek’s review really sums up the low quality story between characters.

She-Ra, the Princess of Power is a classic story of a young woman taking on the heroes’ journey. It’s about a single hero, no matter how strong, learning the value of teamwork. It’s about everyone accepting one another for who they are. This concept has continued to dominate the hero stories in both movies and television. From Hannah Montana to Tony Stark to Batman, even when you’re the hero – you’re still human and have to contend with battles beyond just the villains (the “inner” self). Created by Noelle Stevenson, the new She-Ra is a teenage girl following the very cut and dry, pre-stamped Joseph Campbell hero story. While it is a very age-appropriate cartoon, it has not been received well by fans. Before the show even aired, there were social media accounts trying to boycott it. This should have been cause to immediately put on the breaks and try again rather than launch a mistake.

She-Ra is a very deep, complex, dark, and amazing story line begging to be re-imagined with all the quality that new animation technology affords – not pandering. But, pandering it did. Whether using classic cartoon “bumblers” to instant, final episode heroes who popped up out of nowhere, focusing on meaningless relationships, or screwing up the Unicorn – there were just too many mistakes. So, in the traditional style of the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, let’s delve into the modern She-Ra, shall we?

The Good

After the first 5 minutes – I hated this show; absolutely, 100%, hated it. About 25 minutes in to a 30 minute series, and I was hooked! The story line explores the background mythos of what made She-Ra into who she was. Now, while this ‘hooked’ will just literally fall off after about the 4th or 5th episode, until then, it is good. Yes, the story is predictable, but it is also well told. There are so many interesting aspects to the story that are raised, including a new approach to She-Ra’s background, that it makes the series fun, at least at first. Up until the 5th episode, I would have still rated this an 8 out of 10.

Characters: Some of the character changes in this new series were great. Hordak, while wholly under-utilized, was no longer the bumbling bad guy who couldn’t tie his own shoes. This time, he was truly dark and sinister. Princess Glimmer was, okay. Bow was pretty strong and forthcoming as a character – although there is zero room for development. There’s just not much good to say about this, so a 5 out of 10 for effort – and that is being REALLY generous, considering the additional reviews, below?

In the traditional style of the old cartoons, each face is just a cut and paste from one to the other. So, while they did have some variation on an old theme – the artists fell short with a lack in their own style and kind of wasted time. Plus, the many outfits of She-Ra, all in season 1! Unless they’re selling a toy line – this was a stupid waste of anticipation and fun things to come. Picture from Tor, another wasted review.

Music & Sound Effects: The opening theme and transformation theme just didn’t “strike” out as great. But, throughout the series, it was good and audio was well balanced. The sound effects were spot on. So, a 7 out of 10.

Voices: The voice changes were phenomenal – mostly. Except for Mermista’s emo voice that did not fit the character in any manner whatsoever, the voices in this series really made a difference. If the story and everything else had been in place, this would have just been one of those amazing add-ons in the scoring that put the series over the edge. A 9 out of 10 (-1 for Mermista as she was a main character and the ‘funny’ of her emo / whatever-style teenage attitude was annoying).

Multiple She-Ra’s: Border lining on being really bad, the use of multiple She-Ra’s was creative. The story became muddled trying to explain this, but it was not impossible and brought a new, interesting addition to the character mythos. For this creativity, I’ll add a score of 7 out of 10 (it was a good addition, but was not well thought out).

The Bad

While the animation is okay, as noted by a fellow viewer, it looked like a cross between Steven Universe and someone’s first time attempt at anime-like animation. While Netflix may have made a good platform for this show to have a trial run in the animation, even the “giant woman” concept from Steven Universe crossed over to She-Ra (ultimately undermining a girl’s ability to be amazing unless she is a woman? Or … ???). While they did a good job capturing the planet of Etheria, the artwork was still lacking, such as the temples, which were clearly inspired by the crystal gem temples in Steven Universe (even the hair styles are identical in many scenes). Conversely, some critics enjoyed the Steven Universe take-off, so, maybe it’s just a personal taste, thing? Looking at this as a completely new, series, I cannot get past the low-end animation, mistakes, and other problems that required a little more effort. With only 13 episodes and a lot of comic con hype, this should have been better. – 0.25 point.

Appearance: This is a big one on everyone’s plate – does She-Ra have to be beautiful? Well, yes and no. The beauty on the outside is only a reflection of the beauty on the inside when it comes to cartoons. But, as we’ve seen with cartoon shows like Adventure Time, Star vs. the Forces of Evil, and even Steven Universe, heroes come in all shapes and sizes. This leads us to characters like Glimmer, who is a little overweight, but it doesn’t stop her from being amazing. However, this is not an original cartoon. Some of the characters could be re-imagined, but others, not so much. The shows protagonist, She-Ra had a look and design that actually had meaning and purpose. It was not sexist … just look at the stone-age loin cloth He-Man wore!!! She-Ra’s classic look, which is a little more exposing than her current look, is a ‘representation’ that appearances are deceiving. A strong woman could, and should be, appreciated for who she is, not how she looks, and as the villains so often find out, underestimating that is usually a really stupid mistake. The costume is lacking in as much as the appearance of Hordak was substantially weak. In the original series, he looked much, much more evil (even if he was treated like a moron). It isn’t that the costume has to be ‘exposing’ (and in fact, I don’t want it to be as I like the idea of encouraging a more modern, modest appearance), but it is not flattering and loses its feminine power that it originally, had. We get it that Adora is a kid – but not She-Ra. The distinction between the two should have been made, better and more pronounced. The baseline problem – making Adora a 14 year old girl as both herself and as She-Ra, failing both the story line and the adult heroine.

Now – I’m sure many of you [the readers], already have rebuttals to my costume argument. However, let me expand upon this to say that: She-Ra is not Adora. She-Ra is a grown woman, so the comparisons between the two ‘should’ fall dramatically short and the differences should show – significantly. To become great, one has to work on it. Adora is given a ‘short-cut’ via the sword. Think of Marco Diaz from Star vs. The Forces of Evil. As an adult, Marco looked down-right sexy! As young Marco, he’s a stick. But, did anyone take offense to that? Nope. Why not? Marco spent years of hard and grueling training and truthfully, that is how he would look. If Adora spent the 1000 years it would take to become She-Ra, wouldn’t she, too, be fit? So – we can put this into a logical perspective that sets aside sexism and recognizes what’s most important – the STORY! Additionally, what’s terrifying about a sexy heroine? Nothing. What’s terrifying about an ugly heroine, nothing? The point of the “story” though, comes back down to recognizing what She-Ra represents: the under appreciated and misjudged person with a real hero inside. She represents what each child feels: a weakness and lack of control that is harshly judged and criticized by an opinionated world that she overcomes by laying the smack down on that world! Whether it’s Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Captain Marvel, or She-Ra, the fun in seeing the villains (who represent the egocentric and judgemental darkness in all of us), get steamrolled by the fact that the heroine is smart, funny, clever, and even in shows like the Big Bang Theory, a deep, emotional character with meaning, is AWESOME! So, if empowerment was part of the show – THAT would be it. Children don’t think about gender differences as much as adults would like to force on them – at least we didn’t in the 80’s. It was okay to love She-Ra as a boy (as long as it was done secretly), because it wasn’t for gender – it was for someone who inspired us to be better. For this, -0.5 point. It was not so terrible as to deserve less, but the poor choices hurt the main character, and that’s not good.

(I won’t hold it against this show, or the 80’s version, but the “beautiful” molds that everyone had to fit into were really culturally detrimental and caused a lot of problems for kids … just saying ….)

Everyone’s a Princess: It feels like this show is just pandering to the idea of girls being princesses, unless they’re the evil ones. Wow. That was … I’m not even going to go on. That’s just continuing to perpetuate stereotypes, so a – 0.25 point.

Character: While I did mention that Hordak was truly dark and sinister, his character was undermined by the lack of inclusion. After reading the writers’ commentary on why they focused on the majority of girls in the story, that’s fine – but Hordak is a central character. Upgrading him into something of quality and then shoving him into the background did not preserve the show for fans. Sadly, it also undermined the show for a new generation because there is a lack of motivation on the villainous side that makes the story – empty. Sure, absolute power, we get it, doesn’t need explained. Conversely, Hordak acts more like he’s interested in sitting in a chair, asleep all day, then actually seeing anything happen. Everyone’s afraid of him and other than one cool scene where he is mixed with technology (shadowed out, but cool), why? There’s no reason for it? -0.25 point, not terrible, but not good.

The Story Line: I don’t know how to even address this in full there were so many problems. First, the first 2 – 3 episodes rushed what could have been an entire season. Adora’s companion, Catra, went from being a lost soul who needed Adora to a horde minion so desperate for her return that she was suddenly falling in line with what the bad guys wanted and betraying those she cared about. Worse, by the end of the series, she was throwing She-Ra over a cliff and walking away more evil with an end of the world agenda that went from, “If I can’t have Adora, no one can,” to “Screw the world – I’m plunging it in darkness”. Okay … what? In one season, huh? I get that the gals who wrote this may have been thinking they would not get a sequel so they would cover as much ground as they could – but that makes for bad story telling and 100% detracts from that deeper, more meaningful story that could have made this series, great. In fact, the story was so rushed that even Catra said it best when she commented on the fact that Adora had only been with her captors for a few hours and was suddenly ready to abandon the last 14 – 15 years of her life?

Glowing / Trance She-Ra was okay … not great, but okay. Could have been a saving grace for this series, but sadly …

Sadly, the story line problems do not stop there. We are thrown into the rebellious teenage daughter relationship with Glimmer and Queen Angella only to have no way to bond or relate to these two, but we’re supposed to feel their suffering later on in the episode when Glimmer finally breaks down and bonds with her mom? Who cares? Somewhere in there is a relationship between Sea Hawk and Mermista but again – it’s haphazard and uninteresting. The child ice princess was flat out terrible and flipped entirely as a character in the final episode for NO reason at all? In fact, only a couple characters are even interesting and the entirety of the relationship aspects are so flat that they waste time. Even the motivation in the story is terrible. Catra complains that if she goes back without Adora, she’s in trouble. But, what does she do? She goes back without Adora! Um, what? This story was rushed beyond any acceptable standard. – 1 point. Fact is, the writers were given a huge audience from the 1980’s and I have lost all interest in supporting creators who are handed a free audience and auto-ticket to success, and then throw it all away.

The World: The world, presumably in order to keep the budget down, was quickly shoved into a series of 4 – 5 princess kingdoms, and done. What could have taken 3 seasons and kept fans going, was thrown into one. It felt, small. Unlike the original She-Ra, where we were always interested to learn more about how Etheria was connected – that was missing in this reboot. Worse, at the end of the season, after the princesses broke up, they suddenly came together in a last second ex-machina revival of their efforts, without their armies, to join together as friends. Even in the 80’s, that was stupid. I’m not saying the writers are lazy, but inexperience is certainly a factor, here. -0.25 points.

Background Building She-Ra: So, why was She-Ra/Adora so bad? Well, first of all, she was failing, non-stop, and whining about it. Without having first established that She-Ra was powerful and giving Adora a way to both join with her past and to grow into the character, all we see is failure after failure ending with her suddenly telling the AI off, saying that all she needs is friends, not training! What? I mean, like … what the math? Even when She-Ra is successful, she just goes quiet and doesn’t show any emotion. I personally believe this is a key failure with her identity being known. There is no duality. We see Adora struggling with who she is while simultaneously everyone around her is telling her that she’s She-Ra, but she doesn’t even know who that is? It’s convoluted, at best. You’re She-Ra. Just stay that way. People like you for who you are and who you are “is” She-Ra. That’s the resolution that would have worked, even though it was still a terrible idea. Season 1 should have been 100% about building up She-Ra’s combative strengths, how she can bring together the kingdom, and positioning Catra as just beginning to see the connection. All of that is lost. The attempt to include the Horde background as the ‘shock’, was equally as uninspired. -0.25 points.

The Ugly

The Mentally Challenged Unicorn: Unlike Cringer, She-Ra’s Unicorn, Swift Wind is supposed to be a strong, and noble creature. Whether as a horse (Spirit), or in his Unicorn form, Swift Wind helped set the standard for how children would see magical, flying unicorns with rainbows shooting out behind them for ages to come. The re-imagined Swift Wind, however, is a little less … noble. The new unicorn is a political activist with a personality more like Zork-O, making him a laughable joke (not to mention the animation was … less than great). Terrible. -0.15 points.

She-Ra’s secret revealed: So, this was a stupid decision. Sorry to the writers if they find that offensive, but it was. The entire purpose between a dual identity super hero is that there is a struggle between both lives. In this series, She-Ra might as well not become Adora at all and leave that behind as her Horde identity. Otherwise, she’s just a part time magical princess who otherwise, doesn’t possess the noble and admiral traits of the original She-Ra. The struggles are muddled, the character is 1 dimensional, and her mystique is lost. – 1 point.

Children armies … really? Other than the fact it appears that the adults in Etheria have vanished, it appears as if both sides of the fight are using an all child army to carry out their fights. Well, that is until She-Ra steps in as an 8′ tall adult woman and whoops ’em up. Sort of makes you think that both sides should just hold off for another 10 years and then revisit this whole battle plan … o.0?? -0.25 points.

The intermittence of She-Ra’s strength: So, this is bad, like really bad. She literally wields the power of Greyskull like He-Man, but is turned into a bumbling character who doesn’t know how to use her new-found powers without 1000 years of underground AI training (or the occasional glow when it seems like she’s in a trance), by an inept AI, just to bring together the story of having friends to help save the day. Conversely, even the original series characters just assigned different strengths in a battle that was too expansive for the original She-Ra so that the “teamwork” was spread out as needed and satisfied the message about the important part of being a team. In one episode, She-Ra is smashing tanks and throwing giant mecha-droids around like pebbles and in another, Catra and a few soldiers are arm-barring her to the ground. Consistency, much? -0.35 points.

Leaving behind Entrapta: First off, the idea that Entrapta is a princess without a crystal and goes over to the horde is ex machina. The idea that Entrapta just suddenly figured out what Etheria was all about was ex machina (and that, I would call lazy writing). Leaving her behind, though? That was utterly stupid. “She’s gone,” the group says. Did you see her go? Are you all just a bunch of kids with a 1-dimensional perception on reality that do not grasp magic even though you wield it or even realize that SHE-RA has healing powers and could bust in and free her and has been performing miracles thus far? Did the writers not even read this? WHY? I was expecting Entrapta to pull the ol’ switcheroo’ on the Horde and make the machines suddenly fail because, that would have been funny and very cool. Again, lack of experience in writing and a failure in continuity or speed of story telling all contributed to a rushed and less than enjoyable outcome. -0.25 points.

A 13-episode season: I get that Netflix is a good test-bed for a series. But, Hollywood has condescended to its audience, treating them like “things” that are in the way, and cut 22 – 26 episode seasons down to 10. If She-Ra wanted to break some molds, they should have spent the extra time and money to do at least a 22-episode season, giving them the time and space to fully develop characters. Otherwise, they’ll never be a Voltron or Puss N’ Boots, and will see a quick end. I won’t dock them for this – but bad decision making seems to be a key element for this team.

She has been bestowed with the LITERAL power of the gods, but can barely manage a one-on-one with Catra, the bumbler?? WTF!? This is a combination of laziness and just inexperienced ex machina style writing. And, the writers missed the opportunity for the good ‘ol He-Man / She-Ra fallback: when all else fails, pick up a giant boulder and throw it! Such a waste of time and energy …

Sea Hawk: Where to begin? 1st, he’s made out to be a lying womanizer. Then, he evolves into an arsonist with a self-destructive personality. In the end, we’re left with a serial arsonist who has serious homicidal / suicidal tendencies and works well as a boyfriend for the emo-style, self-serving Mermista who’s ready to die, “or some junk, you know, like whatever.” I get that this show was focused on the women of Eternia, but either the guys, like Bow, barely function at the side-kick level while being superficially shallow, are left out like Hordak, or they have a neurosis. That was a waste of time and character development. – 0.5 points.

Entrapta: It’s as if the artists borrowed from the new Teen Titans, Go, Gizmo character for this techno-obsessed, multi arm (kind of) techno genius. That’s all well and good, except that she is so ‘techno’-savvy that she is devoid of any redeeming personality traits. If this is supposed to be a story that empowers girls, that just killed the entire STEM industry for them. If not – knowing that the girls will have an OCD that functions at the level of a psychosis when it comes to technology, kills the STEM industry for them. Worse, she is separated from the other princesses because she is “weird”, which makes all of them shallow and really detracts from any meaning or feelings that would have justified the ending of the Princess alliance. This is yet, another inexperienced inclusion in the whole story. -0.25 points.

I could go on, but we’re running out of points and unless the crew wants to hire me – I’m not here to fix this for them … if it can be fixed! Just reviewing …

Conclusion

I think a She-Ra reboot is awesome and long overdue and for that, I’ll add one point. That said, it is a reboot. You can’t be as creative as original shows like Star Vs. and instead, you have to know your audience. For their valiant efforts on bringing the show back, ignoring their group photos at this point (which, if they didn’t have the time to animate or story line better, is aggravating at best since it is ego without reason or causality), I’ll add another point back to the score. Ultimately, that comes out to 3.7 out of 10. For arguments sake, I’ll average that up to a 4 out of 10, and even though it’s generous, I’ll leave it at that for this 1st time team working on a cartoon series together.

Is it worth watching? That’s a difficult call. Because the first, few episodes keep you really involved, yes. But, because you’ll find yourself invested in the hopes that things get better, no. I am glad I watched it since I am such a fan, but am sad that it was so disappointing.

Can it be salvaged? Maybe – but it will be hard to undo much of the damage already done. She-Ra’s identity needs to become private, except for her close, group of friends. They need to do an episode that confuses the bad guys into thinking someone else is She-Ra, letting Catra be the only one who knows the ‘secret’. Hordak needs to be thoroughly integrated, using him as a serious villain, comic relief, and the evil motivator yelling at the others, constantly trying to take over the world. Sea Hawk, well … give him a weapon and just “stop” with the arsonist angle. The relationship angles need to back off until we’ve developed some sort of meaningful relationships with the audience and characters. Swift Wind needs to just flip and be a noble beast – forget about who he was during Season 1 and be done with it. Scorpia and Entrapta have to start riding the line between good and bad. Hordak needs a little bit of a make-over to look more like the original as far as his armor. And, She-Ra needs to no longer be a bumbling idiot whose powers come and go. She needs to start training, part time, with the AI, and balancing that against her time with friends and saving the world. The story pace needs to slow down about 400%.

If all of that is done and season 1 is not totally ‘forgotten’, a few other tweaks are made, we get back on track with the real She-Ra story line, they fix the AI and She-Ra interaction to be more meaningful (summing up the previous AI to a ‘glitch’), STOP denouncing the audience’s criticism since the audience is the ONLY reason this show will stay running and is an incredibly arrogant and disgusting behavior (Hollywood, and artists in general, have lost touch with what it means to be a starving artist if you don’t make the consumers happy … something that’s gotta change), and the writers and artists get on the ball for a 20+ episode season, we can move on. That’s all I can suggest. Voltron was good, but in this last season, fell short, having rushed its story so much that it became too convoluted to keep straight (and frankly, they just made jumps in the timeline that were unforgivable). If you want to give Season 1 a watch on Netflix, just don’t set the bar too high. And, maybe that’s part of the problem. Existing fans saw how great the He-Man cartoon reboot was and expected more from the She-Ra team than they could deliver. Therein lies the rub. If you want to do a reboot vs an original, know your audience. Learn to make it “for” them while slowly and subtly sharing your ‘vision’.

For the viewers, good luck. It really is a bad, bad rendition of She-Ra, not well written, and epitomizes why Netflix is both good and bad as a test-bed for shows. I am glad this was not on regular cable as I would have quit after episode 1. Binging was the only way to make this experience, bearable.

Hope you enjoy, and thanks for reading!

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“For the honor of Greyskull!” -She-Ra