Ahsoka

After Andor showed how amazing a Star Wars show can be when competently written by people with talent, directed by people with creativity and performed by actors with passion for their roles, this show comes along to remind everyone that Andor was a one-off occurrence, an anomaly. Ahsoka exemplifies the (few) strengths and the (many) weaknesses of recent Disney Plus Star Wars shows. It wastes time, it has bland characters and it exists to remind you of better things Star Wars has done.

The plot of Ahsoka can easily be summarised as being stretched beyond belief. The story of Ahsoka and the Rebels crew trying to prevent the return of Thrawn and rescue Ezra could have easily been told in at least 3 or 4 episodes, with the other 4 being used to build to an epic battle with Thrawn. Instead it takes us 8 episodes to set up the next season or movie, instead of resolving the plotlines of this season. It moves at an agonizingly slow pace wherein it doesn't build any of its characters and just serves up meaningless action and fluff.

The characters are mostly bland and one-note. The returning Rebels characters are all far less expressive than their animated characters and the actors all look bored and confused. It's clear the direction they were given was poor since most are competent actors in other projects. Rosario Dawson is wooden as Ahsoka which is a real shame. She reacts to everything with bored indifference. Sabine is now insufferable who basically screws over the good guys more than once and is never called out on it. The only exceptions are Baylon played by Ray Stevenson, and Shin played by Ivanna Sakhno. They're dynamic is legitimately interesting but that is all there is. Interest. They're characters are given lackluster wrap-ups.

Of course this show contains all the fan-service you'd expect. It is all there to hide the clear lack of any substance in the script. The show is visually pretty great but the costumes look so cheap and bland. When the volume is used it is very obvious. Another issue is that no casual viewer can really enjoy this show without having consumed 7 seasons of Clone Wars and 4 seasons of Rebels. The show keeps telling us that Thrawn is dangerous but we are never shown this. Thrawn does barely anything in the overall plot and there is no reason to fear him.

In the end, this is another show with nothing to say. It lacks substance. Two decent characters, pretty visuals and fan service can't save this show from the pool of mediocrity/stupidity of its fellow TV show brethren. Just re-watch Andor.

I'm going against the tide here, but this series has started off like some of the failures before it.

For every Andor (great!) we get a Boba Fet and season 3 of the Mandalorian.

Rosario Dawson is a good actress, not a rock solid lead actress. Her work in Luke Cage, The Defenders, Zombieland Double Tap and many others is good. Not great.

In this series she isn't given enough to work with, and the actress playing Sabine is so bad that their scenes together are painful to watch.

The frequent establishing shots using cgi critters is a Star Wars staple and frankly wasted space.

The head scratching bad decisions to move the plot along and put the protagonists in danger are too stupid to ask the viewer to buy into. Jedi ship seems sketchy? Let them board and kill the captain. Old padawan with an axe to grind? Entrust her with the "key" to the secret mission so she can run off with it and essentially get herself killed in the process.

Retread plots anyone? We have a secret map hidden in a device that will lead us to...the Death Star's fatal flaw...the empire's hidden fleet...Luke Skywalker...the hidden empire general that could undo the alliance...you get the picture and we've seen this way too many times.

And one thing I struggle with, whether it's Star Wars, Marvel, or DC is the scale and balance of character battles. Ahsoka handles some assailants easily, and then seems challenged by one, or two canon fodder baddies for no apparent reason. As with other Disney created Star Wars series, that inequality exists here too. Too often.

I doubt that I'll be motivated to watch another episode.

So far this isn't the worst Star Wars show/movie out there, but it's certainly not amazing either.

The good: It's very pretty

The mediocre: The music The plot The villains

The bad: The acting The writing

Nothing feels like people having an actual conversation, it all feels like people reading lines at each other.

The thing with the map they are trying to find feels like it's pulled directly out of the sequel trilogy. Why is there a map to someone's current location hidden in some ancient ruins behind several layers of old mechanisms you have to turn to unlock? It's the classic error of thinking of something you think will look cool and then finding a silly excuse to do it.

And then there's the whole "the force is female" thing. So far it doesn't really hurt the show, because most of the characters are established and well liked, but you can't help but notice and remember that it's because if Disney's stupid politics, and it just can't help hurting the immersion of the show.

The lightssaber choreography seems really mediocre as well. It's full of the standard up close and obscure shots and cuts, that they do when they have no choice, because it would look terrible otherwise.

The last annoyance so far is the female villain. Maybe it will get better of we get to know her, but her only trait so far is her ability to have a complete deadpan look no matter what's going on in the scene. It's the most lazy way possible to try to make a villain look evil.

I hope the show will get better and part 2 was definitely better than part 1, so there's still hope for the show.

Ahsoka may not the best thing from Star Wars that I've seen but it's still worth watching. I was really looking forward to this when I first read about it and the even more so after I saw the trailers. It did not disappoint! I don't consider myself a huge Star Wars fan but I'm a normal fan who does enjoy most of them. Like by most, I really liked The Mandalorian and Andor. I thought those two are some of the best things Star Wars has put out since the original trilogy. I even thought The Book of Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi were both worth watching. I don't understand most of these negative reviews, it's like most of the people writing them didn't want to like this. What were you expecting that you didn't get? Anyway, if you're a fan of Star Wars I definitely recommend you give this a try.

Ahsoka is, for most of the first episode, fairly decent. Rosario Dawson is a rather muted hero, but there's a good fight scene early on and I thought the general was an appealing character.

But the character of Sabine makes no sense. She starts by doing something rebellious for no other reason than to show that, yeah, she's a rebel just for the sake of being a rebel. Later she does something blatantly idiotic that results in exactly what you expect to happen. And once again, the reason for her decision makes no sense.

If the rest of the episode were great then I might forgive it a blitheringly stupid turn of events, but nothing else made up for that foolishness.

I hadn't planned to watch anymore, but then someone on social media raved about how the series really took off in episode 4, which was directed by the guy who did the first Spider-verse movie. So I checked that out. And it was not remotely better than episode 1. Sabine was still stupid, the characters were still bland, and I was generally bored throughout.

Should have gone with my first instinct.