The Other Kingdom
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 The new girl is fairy different.
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The Other Kingdom is a fantasy sitcom created by Thomas W. Lynch that aired on Nickelodeon from April 10, 2016, to June 19, 2016. The series stars Esther Zynn, Callan Potter, Celina Martin, Taylor Adams, and Josette Halpert. Despite initially gaining controversy for its concept, the show would later go on to become a cult classic, being seen as a "hidden gem" despite the show being canceled prematurely.
Why It Rocks
- Unlike most Nick sitcoms of the mid-2010s, this series doesn't have any usage of "trendy" aspects or one-note stereotypes that would quickly get dated or moments that try to be hip with the teenage audience. Just normal teenager actions and life in high school, with some fantasy aspects thrown into the mix. It's also more narrative-driven than most of Nick's sitcoms and doesn't have a laugh track, making the series stand out even more and feels alot like the old nickcoms from the 2000s.
- The series is partially a tribute to ancient Greek tales -- most notably A Midsummer Night’s Dream -- and urban fantasy series such as Sabrina the Teenage Witch while throwing in its own unique spin on the concept. The kingdom of Athenia is nature-themed with its fairy, elf, troll (etc.) inhabitants being deeply in touch with and caring about the environment. There's also a brief and vague history about the kingdom and its realms (namely, their rival kingdom Spartania), and why the inhabitants tend to be untrusting of "others".
- While the concept of a magical princess who ends up experiencing life among humans has been done a couple of times before, this series has the princess (Astral) having to make a choice after 90 days of in the human world over whether to return home to rule her kingdom, or stay in the human world forever. It seems as though Astral's story is meant to be a parallel to teens feeling as though they have a big secret, something that nearly every kid/teen can relate to. In Astral's case, it's her being the fairy princess of her homeland.
- The series also has its share of original aspects. For instance, in the second half, the series moves away from the surreal aspect of it all and digs into larger themes such as the merging of environment and technology.
- The series offers a lot of great lessons and concept about humanity's ways that most people often take for granted. Most of the time, these lessons are highlighted via Astral's daily crystal messages being sent back to her homeland of Athenia.
- The New Kid: Everyone's trying to fit in somehow and it's okay to have someone to help guide you, but you have to make sure you know the right people to trust, and recognize when someone's just using you and isn't a true friend.
- Thanks a Latte: People are always shifting emotions rapidly. This often creates friction towards others, which is a usually bad thing, but sometimes when things come together in the right way, it could create something special. The results are very unpredictable.
- Witch!: Various events and outcomes that may at first seem bad usually have a silver lining, or an upside or opportunity to take advantage of. You just need a new perspective and this events can often turn out to be a good thing.
- Cold Season: Be aware when you're feeling sick or unwell and don't force yourself to work if you don't think you can handle it.
- Girls Just Wanna Have Fun: Friendship is important. It helps carry you through life and is people at some of their best. Don't take it for granted.
- I Got This: You can't force someone else to love you. It needs to happen naturally; You shouldn't try to be someone that you're not as your unique traits are what make you special.
- Trouncing the Council: Sometimes you have to do what's right, rather than taking the easy route.
- Let There Be Cake: It's okay to reveal a truth to someone else, but you need to take into consideration just how the other person will rather to finding out said truth. Not everyone will handle the reveal very well.
- Get a Job: Nothing in life is free.
- Bad, Bad Fairy: Winning can be a powerful thing, but you shouldn't let a victory corrupt you into becoming insensitive to those around you.
- Love Hurts: When someone makes up their mind about something, it's difficult to change their mind. Thinking before you do something may occasionally be a good thing, though it's usually not. Trying to change someone's mind doesn't always work, but when you know something's very important, nothing should stop you from doing what's right.
- You Can't Go Home Again!: Even though different people come from different cultures, they all share the same emotions and there's no reason you can't get accustomed to the changes and get along.
- Cliff Anger: Having a powerful position is a huge responsibility, and you have to make sure to look out for others, especially if they can't defend themselves. You have to sacrifice on own wants for the needs of many, and places your team/group before herself, even if it means making a decision you may not be comfortable with.
- Aside from Astral's story of experiencing how humans live as Devon's exchange student and recording her life lesson reports in her crystal, there's also a second story centered in Athenia, particularly centered around British exchange student Winston Percival Althazar, who was supposed to be Devon's original exchange student but ended up in Athenia. And he has to adjust to his new life in Athenia and learn to stand up for himself and care about nature and the kingdom's inhabitants.
- Great acting from the ensemble cast, especially from Esther Zynn, Callan Potter, Taylor Adams, Adam Peddle, and Celina Martin.
- Great and shocking twists and turns in the story, especially in the second half of the season, with secrets involving Devon's father, and Astral's friend/crush Tristan.
- Amazing and memorable cast of main characters who manage to be relatable to teenagers and don't come across as annoying.
- Princess Astral as noted above is the rebellious fairy princess who gets curious about life in the "other"/human realm and gets to experience life as an ordinary teenage girl. She's incredibly friendly, considerate, cheerful, honest and tries to see the good in people. And coming from Athenia, she's also in touch with and loves nature. She's also not afraid to stand up for herself or take matters into her own hands whenever she's got a problem or her kingdom's in peril. She goes through decent character development throughout the course of the show: She first comes to the human realm because of her crush on Tristan, but that becomes less important as she becomes her own independent woman to the fairies and inhabitants of her realm.
- Devon Quince is Astral's roommate in the human world and one of her closest friends. He's one of the smartest students in geography class and a great chess player. He's also very protective over Astral and tries to keep her out of trouble and away from mischief. However, despite being very smart, he's also very shy in school and sees himself as invisible towards other students wanting to not be viewed as a nerd.
- Morgan Tracey is Astral's closest friend from the "other world", and the first person to discover Astral's a fairy. She's admired anything fairy-related since she was very young, looked up to them, and has an extremely vast knowledge of their ways. So naturally, when she finds out Astral's secret, they quickly get along great due to having similar interests and likes. She's extremely friendly and wants nothing more than Astral's safety and protection, although she often has to talk Astral down from something risky.
- Brendoni is Astral's cousin from Athenia who's half-fairy-half-troll. He starts off as Athenia's resident prankster, humiliating Winston and not seeing the value of humanity, so he's sent by the king to the human world as a final resort (alongside Astral) until he can learn to care about the lives of humans. He quickly proves himself to be a total wild card and his style of (light-hearted) chaos, contrasts vastly with Devon's organizational process. As time passes, he would become a rather good and loyal friend to the group, coming to care about the Devon and the "others" (even though he'd always deny this whether it's brought up).
- Tristan Andersen is a friendly boy who values the simple things in life and doesn't believe in love. He's also Astral's boyfriend whom she would often try to get into a relationship with despite it not always working. He also turns out to be hiding a massive secret, and has a mysterious past that not even he knows about.
- The supporting cast is also fairly memorable and has quite a bit of entertainment factors to them.
- King Oberon and Queen Titania (another Midsummer Night’s Dream reference) are Astral's parents and the benevolent rulers of Athenia. Despite being mildly strict towards Astral about her duties, they respect Astral's decisions and are still caring and protective parents of their daughter, valuing her safety over all else. They also aren't too trusting over the human race due to knowing what they're capable of, with Oberon in particular, being a more extreme example, and yet never neither of them let their distrust of humanity corrupt them.
- Winston Althazar is a British exchange student, who was supposed to go to Devon's house instead of Astral, but ended up in Athenia due to circumstances. He quickly realizes he's in a magical land, and though he's initially excited, his hopes are quickly dashed when he constantly make a fool of himself, keeps landing in serious peril, and learns the hard way he wasn't living his dream life, with Peaseblossom being his only companion, yet still manages to remain lovable due to his good heart, and self-esteem issues. He also goes through a decent character arc relating to self-esteem and becoming more noble and caring and coming to appreciate Athenia and nature in general.
- Versitude is King Oberon's two-sided advisor, who manipulates Winston and tries to bring harm to Astral and usurp her way to the crown and aid ruler of Athenia's rival kingdom, all while putting on a façade of being a loyal, dependable ally to the King and Queen. This makes her a very entertaining villain overall.
- Oswald is a master warrior and a loyal servant to the king, who's also a sort of chaperone character similar to Goneril’s servant in King Lear who tries to dissuade the princess from leaving, and then temporarily accompanies Astral secretly providing her emotional support and keeping her safe.
- Peter Quince is Devon's father as well as a reasonable authority figure who cares deeply for his son and is more than willing to provide security for Astral and Brendoni. Plus unlike most parents in teen sitcoms who are neglectful, abusive, absent, inept or embarrassing, Mr. Quince is a present, attentive, responsible and open-minded father who respects Devon's thoughts. In addition to that, he later turns to be hiding a massive secret from the main gang about his past, that's revealed in episodes 15 and 16.
- Peaseblossom is a cheerful, knowledgeable, hyperactive but inexperienced fairy in training seen as an outcast by the other fairies with only Winston as a companion. She's a hilarious comic relief who also manages to be surprisingly compelling and lovable.
Bad Qualities
- The show still contains the archetypical Alpha Bitch in the form of the overly dramatic Hailey Grimm, the school principal's niece. Although even she's managed to have a fair share of hidden depths and talents, it's not quite enough to save her. It's entirely possible she was going to have an arc of her own in future seasons, but with the show getting cancelled, we don't actually get to see this growth in action.
- Not only does the series get canceled after one season, the finale "Hidden in Plain Sight", was a mediocre way to end the show as it ends the series on a cliffhanger. Plus, it leaves a lot of unanswered questions and unresolved plot points.
- Astral still needs to make her decision over whether she'll stay in the "other world" or return to Athenia to become the next ruler.
- The Season 1 finale ends with Tristan finding out he was the long-lost fairy prince of Spartania (presumably) prophesied to bring harm to Athenia, and that his father was the Spartanian King. Although he clearly doesn't want to follow him or bring harm to Athenia. Had the series been allowed to continue, Tristan would have had quite a compelling storyline with Athenia and Spartania's frosty relationship.
- The final episode has Winston receive a fairy heart from Oberon and Titania as a reward for taking part in saving Athenia from destruction, which would make him unable to lie and ensure he "has empathy for the broken, cares for the world and faces all difficulty with courage". What exactly he's going to do with the fairy heart is anybody's guess as we never get any proper closure for Winston's story arc.
- Since Devon's father is a fairy, and his (unseen) mother was a human, this makes Devon a half-human hybrid who's part fairy. The show has established that fairies aren't born with their powers or their wings, rather they gain their powers and grow their wings at a certain age but the exact age differs from fairy to fairy. Devon potentially growing wings in the near future was mentioned in some lines of dialogue, but the arc seems to get abandoned midway, and it certainly doesn't get a resolution.
- Petrithon, Oberon, Titania and even Oswald have all been on their own other walks long before the events of the main series, with Petrithon even staying in the human world and giving birth to Devon. Although, not much is known about Oberon, Titania and Oswald's "other walks", which the series doesn't get around to explore.
Possible revival?
On January 26, 2017, Esther Zynn (Princess Astral's actress) posted a blog on her Instagram post (which was then posted at NickALive!) announcing that she and the crew currently no plans to make a second season of the series, despite the show's extremely-short time on the air, the various unresolved plot points and the abrupt ending. However, various other websites have the series' fate labeled as "Pending" or "Undetermined" as if the cancellation was never made completely official. In addition to that, according to an interview with the creator, the series was intended to have a four-season run and a six-issue prequel graphic novel series.
In fact, seven months after the Zynn's post was released, on August 13, 2017, a user named Ori Moonsammy created a petition on Change.org to Nickelodeon and Thomas W. Lynch for a potential second season or even a reboot or revival that would pick up were the series left off and answer some of the unresolved plot-points. Said petition currently has over 1,300 supporters who signed it. No word has been brought up by the creators or crew over whether the petition will be answered or just when or how the story would be picked up, although various fans are continuing to not lose hope.
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