Star Wars: Resistance

First of all I know this show is aimed at kids but as a massive Star Wars fan I wanted to check it out. Especially since Filoni has done other great Star Wars animated shows like Clone Wars and Rebels, which I love and think they are both amazing. Resistance was a tough pill to swallow at first. It is definitely not as fun and engaging as Clone Wars and Rebels. Having rewatched all the films and shows I still had a Star Wars itch that I needed to scratch and the only thing I hadn't seen was Resistance. So I gave it a shot. The first season was okay, with some nice elements with BB-8, Leia, Poe, Phasma being involved. But I honestly think season two is a major improvement on the show, there is a lot more exploration and a lot more resistance elements. The whole point is that a group of people don't have to be officially affiliated with the Resistance to be a group of resistance freedom fighters. And season 2 is really building up on that as well as showing how an unsure impressionable young adult could be swayed by the First Order's beliefs. I don't think the show is great or amazing, but I really don't think the show deserves a 4.8, I think it belongs more in the 6.5-7.0 range. I genuinely feel most of the ratings and reviews are by people who just saw the trailer and said "nope that's not Star Wars" or people who saw the pilot/couple episodes and said the same thing. I agree it's not a masterpiece but it is very much Star Wars and it is an attempt at doing a larger world building in the Star Wars universe without depending and obsessing over the Skywalkers and romanticising over the Jedis being heroes. I hope the show improves and makes better plot developments and I hope Disney make more expanded universe type shows in the animated space. People are already loving The Mandalorian and we have the Obi-Wan show coming plus we have the next season of Clone Wars coming so things are looking up for us fans.

Although I liked the fact this series adds to the story of the last 3 films (kind of), the main star Kaz is just so damn annoying, so is his green friend Niko who is like this animated series version of Jar Jar. I watched all of season 1 and now on to 2 but Kaz is beginning to seriously ware thin. He is just too clumsy it's not even funny. Star Wars Rebels had some seriousness too it, this is like a piss take.

Overall, this show is massively disappointing, but not because it's really that bad - it just has such a vaunted legacy to live up to, and had such promise that it doesn't reach.

First, the artwork is beautiful. I only wish the the other Star Wars cartoons had anime-inspired artwork like this instead of the awful, dated, digital style they have.

But the other SW cartoons succeed in spite of their artwork, the writing is that good -- and the inverse is Resistance. In spite of the beautiful animation, the show never takes off, the writing is that directionless.

In contrast to the other SW cartoons, there's almost no tie-in to the specific plot of the SW movies, with an exception or two. It's just broad strokes about life in the SW universe during the time of "The First Order", centered around a "platform"/station. There's little about Jedi. It makes this cartoon into something else entirely. It's slow and mundane with occasional action. It's basically a lighthearted drama. Similar to SW Rebels, the main character isn't very likable. But it almost works.

While Resistance tries to keep it relatively light and humorous, it's rarely actually funny -- but admirably, it's not cringe-worthy either. There are some flashes of quite clever and unexpected humor with surprisingly nuanced comedic timing, in fact. Such as when a good-guy droid tries to get a prisoner to talk by submitting them to nails-on-chalkboard sounds..only to have another of the good guys abruptly tell them to stop bc it's annoying. Not easy to pull-off.

The character development is decent, like the other SW cartoons, and overall the writing is far better than the sequel SW movies - unfortunately that's the universe that this show operates in, so perhaps it's for the best it doesn't waste time trying to make sense of nonsense and cuts it's own path.

If they made a third season, I'd come back for it. For me, Rebels only took off in its 2nd season, before becoming my favorite over the Clone Wars series. Regardless, I appreciated this effort overall - when the beautiful artwork of Resistance gets paired with the writing success and compelling narrative of the previous SW cartoons, it's going to be an absolute winner.

When this show started I was aboard the hate train because I was tired of Disney's new direction of Star Wars and the first episodes felt really disappointing and boring. As of mid February, the show has gotten quite more promising and interesting than from where it started. All of the characters except for Oscar Isaac's character (Poe Dameron) felt really dumb at the beginning, but became more interesting as they became more developed. The plot at the beginning (which consisted of plane racing) became more of what the show promised, becoming more of a war in space than what we see at the beginning. If you're an adult you probably won't get much out of the show, but it serves as way better of a show for younger folks than Star Wars Rebels does.

I don't really like the art style but the story is pretty interesting and I hope it improves