The recent adaptation of the 1988 fantasy film Willow into a TV series has a lot going for it. In the process it has been from translated from the original English into Millenial-speak, which can be jarring, but also kind of fun.
The show contains lots of cool Easter eggs. I like the fact that one of the main characters is named Boorman — a plausibly Tolkienesque name, but also a clear reference to the great film director John Boorman, who once upon a time brought us Excalibur, The Emerald Forest and other movies that are clear influences on the current series.
But there is one place where I feel that they jumped the shark on the easter egg front. At one point a character refers to a “Fibonacci hex”.
It’s one thing to do winking shout outs to relevant filmmakers. It’s another thing entirely to randomly insert the names of actual historical figures from our own world.
That moment yanked me clear out of the fantasy universe. It was as though a great wizard suddenly appeared named Thomas Jefferson.