Star Wars has had its ups and downs since it was acquired by Disney. While the newest trilogy ended up falling flat on its face with the mess that wasRise of Skywalkerit seemed like the franchise was redeeming itself in other areas,particularly with streaming. The first season ofThe Mandalorianand the long-awaited final season ofStar Wars: The Clone Warswere huge hits with fans both old and new. But as the shows have gone on and the frequency of these spin-offs for beloved characters continues, the cracks are starting to form. What started off as a fun new endeavor into live-action television has turned into a mixed bag of cliché plots, fumbled beloved characters, and questionable CGI that’s starting to feel like more trouble than it’s worth.
Certain Star Wars Shows Are Taking the Service Out of Fan-Service
More and more frequently, concepts, characters, and settings are being brought back into the fray with little actual function. They come on screen, so we can go, “Hey, that’s Max Rebo!” or “I remember Zeb!” but don’t do anything to expand on the character or concept and barely ever contribute much to moving the story forward.
Fan service is not inherently bad, but it should serve the story. Why are we gettinga Zeb cameo inThe Mandalorianbut not seeing him inAhsoka? Why is Ahsoka (Rosario Dawson) retreading her thoughts on Anakin (Hayden Christensen) being Vader, which has already been dissected inStar Wars Rebels? Why is Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) getting a spin-off show that’s barely about him? Why isAdmiral Thrawn(Lars Mikkelsen) in Season 1 ofAhsokaif he hardly does anything? The answer to all of these is because fans like the characters. But instead of doing anything new or interesting with them, modern Star Warsseems content to have them just exist where we can see them and let the plot take a backseat to showing us things we already like.
Star Wars Shows Make Use of Not-So-Special Effects
The visual effects are looking worse and worse as more of these shows premiere. Season 1 ofThe Mandalorianpioneered some awesome techthat allowed them to shoot mostly on a soundstage that’s being used on tons of other shows, but that doesn’t mean these shows are immune to the pitfalls of a quick production cycle and overworked VFX artists.AhsokaandObi-Wan Kenobiare by far the biggest offenders on this, but the other shows aren’t free of this problem either.
The effects on creatures in scenes where there are both real humans and CGI elements are just bad. They don’t seem like they’re in the same scene, with certain VFX creations looking obviously inserted in a way that’s jarring to the viewer. Not to mention a more frequent reliance onde-aging techthat’s been used for years, most recently in the case of Anakin Skywalker, which is… not the best. It’s serviceable, but spend too long looking at anyone, and you’ll start to notice they look doughy, or the way their mouth moves somewhat independently of the rest of their face brings to mind a poorly rendered video game character.
Star Wars Episode Counts Don’t Count for Anything
Most of these series have seasons with anywhere from 6 to 10 episodes, but few of them do anything to justify that runtime. They make it feel like the episode count was an obligation and not a choice made for the story’s pacing — and it shows.
Season 2 ofThe Mandalorianwas busy setting up backdoor pilots for other shows and barely got to its own plot in time for the finale.Book of Boba Fettis so bloated it barely focuses on its titular character, while the series creatoradmitted it was more ofThe MandalorianSeason 2.5than its own thing.Kenobialternates from a deathly trudging pace to bursts of action with such inconsistency it could give you whiplash, andAhsoka’s whole first season is a slow burn that barely accomplishes anything other than (assumedly)setting up future seasons. It seems like the shows barely care about their own plots, too concerned with getting to the next season or next spin-off to commit to telling a full story. A season of television shouldn’t leave us feeling like we’ve left it in the same place we began, but so often these Star Warsshows take many episodes to say basically nothing.
There Is One Exception to These Lackluster Star Wars Shows
None of these shows are without merit, but they all bring with them a host of faults that connect them — although one show really stands out as different from the pack, and that’sAndor. It’s already got an edge from the fact it’s stepped so far away from the Jedi. It’s a story about the war and the Empire from a more everyday perspective.
It’s also much more grounded. There are small cameos from a few characters, but they all serve the plot and, most importantly, make sense for the character. Not to mention thatAndorexercises much more restraint in this area compared to other shows, with the only otherRogue Onecharacter in Season 1 being Saw Guerrera (Forest Whitaker). Each episode meaningfully moves the plot forward and the season is even split into distinct mini-arcs that really lend to the sense of progression. It’s not a flawless show by any means, butAndorsucceeds not just at being a good Star Warsstory but a wonderful piece of television as well.
These shows aren’t beyond redemption; far from it. If anything, Season 1 ofThe MandalorianandAndorshow how muchStar Warscan thrive in televisionif the franchise truly takes advantage of the medium, but so many of these shows feel like they’re doing things out of obligation: reaching an arbitrary episode count, bringing back fan favorites with no clue how to use them, and just rushing through the plot overall, trying to get to something else, something bigger, rather than just enjoying the story currently being told.
Streaming has the potential to be a freeing option for storytelling, and these shows are at their best when they’re just doing their own thing. WhenObi-Wan KenobiorAhsokatakes a minute to just be goofy or heartfelt or heartbreaking in the moment, it really hits. But these shows will continue to feel empty and meandering until they lean into their biggest strengths. Right now, it seems that Disney is content to let Star Warsbe more about the brand than the story, but it doesn’t have to stay that way.
