Ah, Spellbinder, the Game of Thrones of my childhood days! One of my more vivid memories of the time I was a kid at elementary school in the mid-90s is that I was a huge fan of this series. So when I incidentally stumbled across the original episodes on youtube a few weeks ago, nostalgia hit me, combined with curiosity about how well it would hold up 20 years later.
And after watching all 26 episodes again I have to say, apart from outdated CGI and terrible 90s fashion (with the latter fortunately only being an issue in one of the two worlds the series deals with) it holds up surprisingly well. The quality of the writing is remarkable for a show aimed exclusively at a minor audience. Naturally, it runs heavily on the "adults are useless, kids save the day" trope, and our heroes rely on several convenient coincidences to get to the eventual happy ending. But with very few exceptions, the plot devices that cause a turn of events to the positive get solid exposition beforehand and thus aren't just introduced "ex machina" when the plot asks for them. There are even bits of foreshadowing (watch out for the license plate on Mr. Reynold's car in the pilot). But what the creators are really good at is building up tension. There were moments that had me on the edge of my seat when I re-watched it as an adult. Not to mention the cliffhangers. The acting is fine for the most part as well, and the theme music is memorable and nothing short of epic. It's not just a quality show for children, it's a quality show, period.
A short summary of the plot: 15-year-old Paul Reynolds from Sydney accidentally opens a portal to an alternate dimension and gets trapped in a parallel world. A feudal world that resembles medieval Europe, except the rulers, the so-called Spellbinder, master advanced technology based on magnetism and electricity and use devices such as radio communicators, flying ships and "power suits" that shoot lightnings. The status quo is protected by law: Technology and knowledge are exclusively reserved to the Spellbinder and forbidden to the peasant population. Paul quickly gets into trouble with this law, and although he can convince at least some people that he is from another world and just wants to get home, he is summoned to the Spellbinder court and threatened to be banished to the wastelands. Only Spellbinder Ashka seems sympathetic to his case and protects him. But as it turns out, she has no intention to help him get back home, and instead wants to take advantage of his knowledge in order to rise to power.
Paul trying to escape from this scheming and to find a way to open the portal again would be enough for some good television, but that's just act one. When Paul does eventually get back to his world after a standoff with Ashka, Riana, a peasant girl from the Spellbinder world who helped him along the way, is thrown through the portal as well and subsequently trapped in his world. In an inversion of the first act, we find out that surviving in our modern world as an outsider is just as hard as in Spellbinderland, and convincing people you're from a parallel world is even harder. While Riana tries to get home with help from Paul and his friends Alex and Katrina, Ashka's luck changes as her plotting is revealed to the Spellbinder regents and she has to flee the castle. The portal to Paul's world not only offers her a safe escape, but also potential access to powerful technology and weaponry that could be used to overthrow the regents. This sets off the third and final act.
For a main character, Paul will often act irrationally and be either naive or in a bad temper. But as he is a teenager, this portrayal is simply realistic. To me, a fictional character like that is more appealing than a whitewashed hero with zero flaws (Riana comes closest to this, but she makes up for it by being the bad-ass action girl of the series). And for the target audience, his little character flaws make him easy to identify with. If there's something to criticize about the series, it's the characterization of Paul's friends Alex and Katrina. They play a big role in getting Paul back from the parallel world in the first act, but once he's back they're demoted to playing his sidekicks. While Alex, playing the cliché of the teenager who fails at school but isn't all that dumb after all straight, can be regarded as the comic relief, the character of Katrina remains a bit underdeveloped. She's the science nerd, so on top of helping Paul get his life back, proofing the existence of parallel worlds excites and motivates her. Showing a bigger portion of her side to the story would have helped to justify some of her later decisions and actions.
The most interesting character arcs are reserved to two members of the Spellbinder class. There's regent Correon, who evolves from a grumpy old men with zero empathy to Paul's most important confederate to the embodiment of the hope for a better, juster future of the Spellbinder world. Note that the Spellbinder are in no way portrayed as inherently bad to begin with, just as being out of touch with the realities of living outside the Spellbinder castle. And then there's Ashka. The definite highlight of the series, brilliantly portrayed by Australian actress Heather Mitchell. She's so good at plotting, manipulating people, taking advantage of events, always being one step ahead and quickly adapting her plans to new situations, she would be a truly magnificent villain in any TV series, let alone a kids show.
I thoroughly enjoyed revisiting the Spellbinder world 20 years later. If your kid is watching this show, be assured that he/she is exposed to high quality television.
And after watching all 26 episodes again I have to say, apart from outdated CGI and terrible 90s fashion (with the latter fortunately only being an issue in one of the two worlds the series deals with) it holds up surprisingly well. The quality of the writing is remarkable for a show aimed exclusively at a minor audience. Naturally, it runs heavily on the "adults are useless, kids save the day" trope, and our heroes rely on several convenient coincidences to get to the eventual happy ending. But with very few exceptions, the plot devices that cause a turn of events to the positive get solid exposition beforehand and thus aren't just introduced "ex machina" when the plot asks for them. There are even bits of foreshadowing (watch out for the license plate on Mr. Reynold's car in the pilot). But what the creators are really good at is building up tension. There were moments that had me on the edge of my seat when I re-watched it as an adult. Not to mention the cliffhangers. The acting is fine for the most part as well, and the theme music is memorable and nothing short of epic. It's not just a quality show for children, it's a quality show, period.
A short summary of the plot: 15-year-old Paul Reynolds from Sydney accidentally opens a portal to an alternate dimension and gets trapped in a parallel world. A feudal world that resembles medieval Europe, except the rulers, the so-called Spellbinder, master advanced technology based on magnetism and electricity and use devices such as radio communicators, flying ships and "power suits" that shoot lightnings. The status quo is protected by law: Technology and knowledge are exclusively reserved to the Spellbinder and forbidden to the peasant population. Paul quickly gets into trouble with this law, and although he can convince at least some people that he is from another world and just wants to get home, he is summoned to the Spellbinder court and threatened to be banished to the wastelands. Only Spellbinder Ashka seems sympathetic to his case and protects him. But as it turns out, she has no intention to help him get back home, and instead wants to take advantage of his knowledge in order to rise to power.
Paul trying to escape from this scheming and to find a way to open the portal again would be enough for some good television, but that's just act one. When Paul does eventually get back to his world after a standoff with Ashka, Riana, a peasant girl from the Spellbinder world who helped him along the way, is thrown through the portal as well and subsequently trapped in his world. In an inversion of the first act, we find out that surviving in our modern world as an outsider is just as hard as in Spellbinderland, and convincing people you're from a parallel world is even harder. While Riana tries to get home with help from Paul and his friends Alex and Katrina, Ashka's luck changes as her plotting is revealed to the Spellbinder regents and she has to flee the castle. The portal to Paul's world not only offers her a safe escape, but also potential access to powerful technology and weaponry that could be used to overthrow the regents. This sets off the third and final act.
For a main character, Paul will often act irrationally and be either naive or in a bad temper. But as he is a teenager, this portrayal is simply realistic. To me, a fictional character like that is more appealing than a whitewashed hero with zero flaws (Riana comes closest to this, but she makes up for it by being the bad-ass action girl of the series). And for the target audience, his little character flaws make him easy to identify with. If there's something to criticize about the series, it's the characterization of Paul's friends Alex and Katrina. They play a big role in getting Paul back from the parallel world in the first act, but once he's back they're demoted to playing his sidekicks. While Alex, playing the cliché of the teenager who fails at school but isn't all that dumb after all straight, can be regarded as the comic relief, the character of Katrina remains a bit underdeveloped. She's the science nerd, so on top of helping Paul get his life back, proofing the existence of parallel worlds excites and motivates her. Showing a bigger portion of her side to the story would have helped to justify some of her later decisions and actions.
The most interesting character arcs are reserved to two members of the Spellbinder class. There's regent Correon, who evolves from a grumpy old men with zero empathy to Paul's most important confederate to the embodiment of the hope for a better, juster future of the Spellbinder world. Note that the Spellbinder are in no way portrayed as inherently bad to begin with, just as being out of touch with the realities of living outside the Spellbinder castle. And then there's Ashka. The definite highlight of the series, brilliantly portrayed by Australian actress Heather Mitchell. She's so good at plotting, manipulating people, taking advantage of events, always being one step ahead and quickly adapting her plans to new situations, she would be a truly magnificent villain in any TV series, let alone a kids show.
I thoroughly enjoyed revisiting the Spellbinder world 20 years later. If your kid is watching this show, be assured that he/she is exposed to high quality television.
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