Quick Thoughts #4 - Star Wars on TV Kinda Rocks Part 1

I didn’t realize that 2020 was the last time I really talked about anything Star Wars here. It’s not like I haven’t been watching what Disney+ has been putting on. I will say that with the overload of content (Star Wars or otherwise…) getting through it all has been kinda tough with a 2 year-old in tow. Besides, my binges into other shows (Grimm, Different Strokes, Picket Fences, and now Legacies) with Liz have been really fun. So, I’ll start off this little project with the shows and seasons I’ve actually finished. It honestly hasn’t been that many. Since these may get a little long, I’ll leave it to three shows today.

 

Star Wars: Rebels

Yeah, it’s not part of the current Disney+ roster, but it’s time to get this out. I ended up binging Rebels toward the end of 2019 during Christmas break, so this has been a long time coming. For those who don’t know, Star Wars: Rebels aired on Disney XD from 2013-2017. It was about… well, Rebels! Basically, the show’s about a group of the Rebel Alliance fighting against the Empire a few years before Episode 4: A New Hope. We got two Jedi (or 1 ½ Jedi),  a Mandalorian, a Twilek, a… thing that’s from Ralph MacQuarrie’s concepts (I don’t know what Zeb is!), and a cussing droid making the Empire look like idiots.

While it took a while for me to take to the show, this was pretty good. It does its best to introduce new characters and concepts while being pretty familiar. I thought that the crew of The Ghost were pretty good. Kanan Jarrus (Freddie Prinze Jr.) was an awesome character and is probably one of the best Jedi put to screen. I also like Sabine Wren (Vanessa Marshall), Hera Syndulla (Tiya Sircar), Zeb (Steve Blum!), and… I guess Ezra Bridger (Taylor Gray). There was a reason it took me a while to like this show after all.

With it taking place in a pretty familiar era of Star Wars, we get to see some familiar characters show up on the show. While it all could have felt like fan-service for its own sake, most of it was really good. When the show started to introduce Clones War characters, I really got invested. That doesn’t mean that our Rebels got ignored or anything because they carried the show pretty well. The series was able to show the growing feel for rebellion in the galaxy toward the Empire. While the Empire is a little watered down (this is a kids show on Disney guys), they do show why they were freaking tyrants.

The stories ranged from okay to pretty awesome. Even when things weren’t too great in Season 1, you would get a story or two that would be pretty cool. Since it was a series and not a movie, you got to see these characters get developed in pretty awesome ways. You get to see the Jedi/Sith conflict handled in a pretty cool way. It’s first inkling we get of the Inquisitors. We also get some good moments for the supreme Sith from this era. You know who they are. Lastly, we got the first on-screen appearance of an admittedly pretty awesome villain from the Expanded Universe in Grand Admiral Thrawn.

Yep, Maul showed up here like a skeevy adult. Don't do it, Ezra!

There aren’t too many things I don’t like about the series. As I bemoaned before, Season 1 isn’t that good. It’s a little too kid-friendly, but that kinda makes sense. Even the 3D Clone Wars series had that problem, and like that series, Rebels learned from that. You also get episodes here and there that tend to revolve around the main droid of the crew, C1-10P, aka, “Chopper.” I wasn’t that much of a fan of those episodes. Other than those things, this was a good show, and I’m glad that these characters have made it to live-action… for now. I’ll save my thoughts on Ahsoka once it’s done.

Star Wars: Andor

Andor was released in September of 2022. Now, this was one that I was pretty much watching from the beginning. Seeing folk hype it up online kinda brought me there. The show revolves around Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), one of the main characters from Star Wars: Rogue One, and it takes place a decade before the original trilogy. The show basically goes into how Andor got pulled into the conflict with the Empire and the early Rebellion. While Andor’s going around and getting into trouble, we also follow the man who pulled him the Rebellion, Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgard), and how he fits into it all. We also see how a couple of other lesser known characters were doing at this point.

I saw that gun and wondered if Roy Batty was gonna show up next.

Now, this a show that probably wasn’t on anyone’s radar, even mine. While Cassian Andor was a fine character from Rogue One, seeing a series revolve around him was going to be weird. Even I thought this. Now that I and others have seen it, it makes so much sense. This took what Rogue One did and went further. It focuses on the regular citizens of the universe. We don’t get any big space battles or two lightsaber duelists manipulating the Force here. We have regular people trying to start a revolution against a powerful force and how much of a toll it can take.

I thought that the storytelling was pretty solid. You get to see who Andor was before he joined the Rebellion and how everything he goes through here strengthens that determination. I also liked the character of Luthen Rael. He was like an inverse of what Palpatine was during the prequels. Those two and other characters really helped carry this show. The show also shows the bureaucratic side of the Empire  which was pretty interesting. Also, kudos to whoever told Disney to make this a full season (12 episodes). These short 6-7 episode series are a bit much to take. It felt like we got a proper buildup throughout the season.

I see what y'all did there... quite clever.

The set design is another thing that really stuck out to me. While the creators were obviously using things that felt authentic to the universe, it also felt like they pull influences from other Sci-fi films. Heck, the first minutes of the season felt like we stepped into Blade Runner territory. I even kinda thought that Andor was sporting Rick Deckard’s revolver. The prison arc is definitely one where I saw some obvious homages to one of George Lucas’s first movies, THX 1138. The action we get is pretty good, and while ship battles are few, the ones we get are pretty awesome. Other than a couple of plot threads (Mon Mothma’s plot is a bit slow but not bad), this was a solid show that may be the best of the Disney+ shows.

 

Star Wars: Visions Season 1

Now Visions was an interesting project for Disney to make. For their first season (I know Season 2 changes things up a bit), they basically let a few anime studios tell a short story using the Star Wars Universe. In some ways, this is pretty similar to what DC did with Batman: Gotham Knight years ago. Unlike with Gotham Knight (which can be considered canon to Nolan’s  Dark Knight Trilogy), these shorts are pretty much meant to be out of continuity. While a couple could maybe fit in with canon, the rest can’t for obvious reasons. This meant that these studios could go and pretty much do whatever they wanted with their stories. The result is ultimately a bit mixed but not bad

First off, it was cool to see what Japan could do with the Star Wars universe. So much of it was inspired by the culture, so seeing lightsabers in an alternate feudal Japan looked interesting. While I didn’t like all of the animation that was being used, it all looked well-put together. Each short was able to tell a quick story in about 15 minutes. While that isn’t a lot of time for them to craft a big storyline, the creators did their best and succeeded for the most part. None of the stories tie in to one another either.

From "The Twins." This one was... weird.

While some shorts have a familiar vibe, some stories go a bit off kilter. The story with the twins is one of those and while it went balls to the wall crazy, that animation was fun. Another one (“T0-B1”) went for a weird Astro Boy homage and that was one-part weird and one part cool. Some of these shorts are also able to pull a couple of twists toward the end. My favorites of the bunch were “The Duel”, “The Ninth Jedi”, and “The Elder”, and “Akairi”. Now, I will say that the length can be much to be desired, but they only get so much time for these shorts. Yes, some of them are weird, and that’s okay. It’s cool to see what others can do with the universe. Overall, I say check them out at least especially if you’re a fan of anime.

This one, "The Elder", was probably my favorite episode from this season.

 ………………………………………….

This was going to go longer, but I’ll stop here. I can now save my thoughts on The Mandalorian since I haven’t caught up with the show yet. While Disney has gone into overdrive with its constant streaming, it has its moments. Next time, it’ll probably be another three shows/seasons. I know I need to talk about Kenobi and the Mandalorian at some point. For now, I’m outta here. Until then, Peace, God Bless, and be careful out there.