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Willow premiered with its first two episodes on Disney+, bringing back the magic of George Lucas' imagination and Ron Howard's creativity to the TV screens. The show serves as a sequel to the 1988 film, which had Elora Danan at the center of the crisis. As it turns out, after 20 moons of peace, evil still lurks around every corner of the fantasy land of Tir Asleen.
The second episode fixes some of its predecessor's problems, like the rapid pace of exposition, but creates a few new ones of its own. The sudden drop in pace in this episode will be more evident for viewers who are watching the episodes back-to-back. This is not necessarily bad, but the second episode struggles to be compelling at times, relying on slower world-building and grand revelations to keep things interesting.
Willow season 1, episode 2 review: Many interesting additions work well to drive the episode home
While there can be plenty of criticism about how the second episode handled its subject matter, not all of them matter as much. The only thing that stands out negatively in this episode is the often jarring changes. First, after the revelation at the end of the first episode, especially such a big one, the second episode does not focus explicitly on the twist with the urgency it originally showed.
This normalization is rather jarring, and so is the drop in pace. It is very interesting to see Warwick Davis' Willow having mastered his powers and acting as a teacher to Dove/Ellora (Ellie Bamber). This new student-teacher dynamic is engaging, and for some shows and films, this is enough to drive an episode. But Willow fails to do so in the second episode.
Coming to the good bits, this episode is also filled with new revelations that make the whole ordeal much more enjoyable. For instance, it is a completely unforeseen twist when Willow reveals that Ellora must die to protect the world. These are the moments where the second episode shines. It is also interesting to see Ballentine (Ralph Ineson) now chasing after Ellora, bringing in a good dynamic of good vs evil.
The technical aspects are just as good. Coming from the house of Disney, there is almost no avenue to complain about the visual and auditory aspects of the show. The second episode's calmer rhythm is well-matched by an equally gritty score that combines elements of fantasy and the medieval.
With the second episode, it is safe to say that the new show has gotten to a good start. The twist at the end of the episode is also a crucial part of the excitement that the episode provides. It may not be the perfect start, but it is promising enough to find a footing amongst the sea of new content currently available on the web. It will surely go in the right direction in the upcoming weeks.
The first two episodes of Willow are now streaming on Disney+.
