nick-1896

In the 70's I queued like every other kid to see Star Wars. I'm of that generation who grew up with it, it was always present in our lives and some say, shaped our generation's whole attitude and outlook. The soul-crushing disappointment of Jarjar and the prequels is part of the reason we're so cynical - and why, I've never been excited about any Star Wars movie or spinoff since. Like other fans my age I curbed my enthusiasm to avoid another terrible flop. And up until now, that was the right approach. There HAVE been moments - some of the cartoons had some interesting new characters and ideas. Some of the movies had good visuals. And as Disney cranked up the money-making machine, we've had no shortage of Star Wars content. But so far, nothing has come close to the original 3 movies. They just don't feel as grounded, the stories and the characters don't ring true. Mandolorian looked like it might be close (and apparently the kids like it) but for original fans, it fell short. The sets looked like hokey spaghetti westerns with hapless extras just milling around. Yes, I get that the directors were giving a nod to westerns, but maybe just stick to doing Star Wars well first? The story was lackluster, the characters were flat and it's hard to connect emotionally with a helmet. Plus the transparent addition of the overly cutesy 'Baby Yoda' thing was pure marketing and actually kind-of offensive. Anyway, I could go on but enough bellyaching about the failures.

Finally, Andor is the TV series fans have been waiting for. The story takes unexpected twists (just like real life!), it's affected by characters who feel real and react with real human emotions, and it's set in a world that feels gritty, purposeful and grounded in reality. People are doing things, going places, and have purpose. It's dirty and crowded and things are there for logical reasons - not just to pad out the set. When Bix is rushing through the town, she has to push past people, and even quickly acknowledges someone she knows (which in a town that size, of course she would). It's these little details that make this Star Wars feel genuine - and so unlike the stagey nonsense in Mando and Obi-Wan. Basters look - and sound dangerous. The action scenes don't feel staged or contrived. Is it perfect? Well, no. But I'm just 3 episodes in, and for the first time in 40 years, I actually want to know what happens next. For the first time in 40 years I've let myself get excited for the rest of the series - and the prospect of more, perhaps even better ones, to come. I feel like that 6 year old kid again, reliving scenes, talking about it with friends, and once more enjoying the anticipation of the next adventure in a galaxy far, far way.

A seemingly random collection of thoughts slung together with a bit of eye-candy but no coherence or believability. The hammy sets, wooden acting and silly costumes remind me of 70's into early 80's scifi. But they have an excuse - they didn't have the benefit of CG and access to the physical and digital effects we have today, they were bringing scifi to the masses for the first time. The planet 'Wolves' is set on looks just like a quarry on Earth. It's like we're watching Blake's 7, Dr. Who or early Star Trek. Then we're asked to believe the super high-tech androids sent to raise the new seed of humanity are into home spun. The androids themselves wear spray on, uncomfortable to look at plastic suits (clearly in the future we lose our both our dignity and fashion sense) yet they make their kids wear chunky woollen ponchos. What they make them out of is a mystery when there's narry a sheep to be seen. So many little things like this annoyed me about 'Wolves'. Often with scifi you have to suspend belief, give in to a few little conceits to enjoy it. But 'Wolves' has too many stupid things that make no sense, and too many bad scifi tropes. The android killing people with her scream? WTF. Seriously? And you package this killing machine up in the body of an emotionally unstable bronze woman? Who levitates. But only with the right eyes in? It's so, so silly. The cast is like the United Colours of Benetton - which is very PC and woke and all, but also kind-of distracting. It feels shoehorned in. And again, makes no sense. The world's a melting pot of cultures and colours. A thousand years into the future surely we'll all be a mixed up lot. Yet here we have extremely clearly defined races. It feels wrong. The central plot of the religious wars just doesn't ring true - all these jokers wandering around dressed as knights of the templar - in the future? They even have little perspex shields LOL! Christianity obviously makes a MASSIVE comeback in the future huh. Despite all the different, clearly defined cultures? And they're so inconsistent with it. One minute they're talking like Amish or Luddites, next they're all into technology same as the Atheists. One minute they're hating on androids, next you realise half of them ARE androids. Makes no sense. What else? Oh the giant lizard skeletons lying around everywhere ala 'New Hope'. On a planet with nothing to eat. To have animals of that bulk, you need a LOT of food. Just another poorly thought out prop and one you could easily live with. But all these stupid little things add up to one big mess. The plot is like they're making it up as they go along. The costumes look like they were stolen from Logan's Run. The CG is just OK with crashed ships and whatnot. But the pods we see a lot of look lazy and not particularly believable. All in all, I have no idea how this show has garnered such a high rating. It's higher than ground-breaking scifi classics like Star Wars, Aliens, and Blade Runner. Again, this makes no sense to me. This is a soon to be forgotten bit of nonsense shouldn't have even got a second season. 'Wolves' is just another bad Lost in Space clone in my book. And I'm not going in to bat for the 'Lost in Space' remake but it was so much more believable and coherent than this nonsense.