Tubi’s Wynonna Earp: Vengeance Is a Fun, Messy Return to Purgatory
Photo Courtesy of Tubi
Wynonna Earp might have one of recent television’s most tumultuous histories. Originally airing on SYFY, the series was a bona fide hit and a queer classic for three seasons before running into trouble ahead of production on Season 4. At the time, IDW Publishing (the company that owned the rights to the IP, having originated the comic character) was on the brink of financial collapse and a potential sale, putting Season 4 on hold until the money could be shelled out for another season. But, thankfully, the zaniest Western on TV carried on through its fourth season before being unceremoniously canceled despite its Season 5 order. But you can’t keep a good gunslinger down, and three years later, Wynonna and crew are back for another ride.
Tubi’s Wynonna Earp: Vengeance picks up almost two years after the end of the original series with Wynonna (Melanie Scrofano) and Doc (Tim Rozon) galavanting on a cross-country roadtrip swindling casinos and causing general mischief. Back in Purgatory, Waverly (Dom Provost-Chalkley) and Sheriff Nicole (Katherine Barrell) are living in sweet, domestic bliss—until an ominous and violent calling card is left on their proverbial doorstep, causing them to summon Wynonna back home. With everything on the line, it’s up to Wynonna to take down the latest big bad (Karen Knox) and bring peace back to Purgatory once more—but not without causing a little trouble herself along the way.
While it is nice to return to Wynonna’s old stomping grounds, if you’re not a die-hard fan of the original series, your mileage may vary in consuming this Tubi Original. It’s packed with Wynonna Earp’s signature (if slightly cringe) humor, fist-pumping and tear-jerking moments for our heroes, and a healthy amount of downright fan service; it genuinely reads more like an expanded episode of the series than an outright film. Its resemblance to the original series is its highest selling point, allowing fans to finally reap the benefits of the three-year fight they’ve endured in the show’s absence. But while Vengeance does a great job of filling in the necessary blanks for the few newcomers that may press play on this film in Tubi’s (frankly confusing) interface upon release, it’s not quite the rollicking joyride necessary to entice casual fans or unfamiliars into the fold.
Pointedly, the movie’s strengths in its similarities to the original series are also its biggest weaknesses as a film. With a slightly messy premise and a bit of a pacing problem in the third act, it’s both a love letter and an unscalable wall. But, while I can poke holes in its plot and point out the ways the pacing cripples the tension at times, I also can’t fault this film for delivering exactly what Wynonna Earp fans have been clamoring for this whole time: an honest-to-God return to form for their favorite show. When thinking of other continuation films like Serenity—the Firefly offshoot that aimed to spin its own sci-fi legacy in a theatrical release that failed to truly connect with new viewership and felt somewhat like a betrayal of those that had stuck around long enough to see it get made—Vengeance manages to avoid totally bungling its core audience, and that’s a feat in its own right.
The performances here are the most stand-out element of Vengeance’s 90-minute runtime. From Scrofano’s dynamic portrayal of Wynonna’s white-hot sass and bittersweet sorrow to Karen Knox’s (whose casting feels particularly suited for fans who also happened to be watching KindaTV while devouring those early seasons of Earp) fun and frustrating villain and everything in between, watching this cast return to these characters is just like watching Wynonna naturally slip back into her classic leather jacket in the film’s opening act. And while some of the movie’s best performances are colored by the unfortunate storyline twists that come standard with TV continuation films, those heartbreaking moments are both satisfying and tear-jerking in this cast’s capable hands.
Overall, fans of Wynonna Earp will absolutely get a kick out of this fun, funny, heartwarming, and heartbreaking return to Purgatory. If you don’t have an overabundance of fuzzy feelings for the SYFY series, however, you may instead find yourself exhausted by the film’s sometimes inside-baseball vibe and lackluster climax. And while a fan service romp is honestly exactly what a television continuation movie should be, I can only hope that it can still reach a wider audience in order to facilitate the sequel the ending of this film undoubtedly sets up. It’s not often that TV fans get this big of a win—after all, something like 99% of renewal campaigns never see their hard work and investment pay off—so I can’t really disparage this film for doing exactly what the series’ fans set out to do all those years ago: bring Wynonna home.
Wynonna Earp: Vengeance premieres Friday, September 13th on Tubi.
Anna Govert is the TV Editor of Paste Magazine. For any and all thoughts about TV, film, and her unshakable love of complicated female villains, you can follow her @annagovert.
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