I found the first two episodes of Ahsoka to be okay. Some initial thoughts:
This isn’t Andor, either in quality of story execution via the plot and characters, or actual production values. But it is more on a level with S2&3 of the Mandalorian, BOBF, and Kenobi series.
Is this a spoiler thread? Just in case:
The crawl was cool, but was Ahsoka ever a Jedi Knight? I suppose was Kanan too, even considering he didn’t finish his training? And I do like the concept of Sabine being an almost non-Force wielding Jedi (or apprentice!)
“2D decisions” from ancillary characters which plague Mando, BoBF & Kenobi also occur here; the Rebel ship’s captain especially, the mundane and quizzical fight scenes early on, the “For the Empire” announcement of bad guys losing any element of surprise or urgency, and the “Engage self-destruct” announcement, instead of just doing it. Ugh. They don’t have much impact or resonance if they have no weight or realism. On the flip side, Shin and Sabine’s fight was engaging, well choreographed and good direction. But it looks like surviving lightsaber impalement to the stomach is a thing now. “Barely an inconvenience!”. Ahsoka’s fight with Maroc was well executed too, if a little predictable.
Chopper was great, Tennant too. I wish they didn’t use the “map McGuffins” yet again, a pity they didn’t use or think of something else, but it is only the first two setup episodes. Design wise they did look cool.
I agree with riocknroll41, sometimes acting and action scenes were a little wooden, slow and unengaging. Flat direction in places during the 1st episode, but much better in the 2nd. On the plus side the cinematography was good overall, ships looked superb, nice score and sound design, and the story was easy to follow, given these first episodes are basically set-up. There was a little too much forced exposition in places for my liking, and not enough in others (why is Sabine the one that can decipher the map? Other than Hera pushing them together?) But again, these are the setup episodes so it gets a pass.
Fans of Rebels will probably love this series, my friend who I watched these with loved it for the easter eggs and background moments. It is like a “Rebels season 5” so far. Given the usage of “time and space”, “this ancient map will help us find a guy who’s been missing for 5 years!” and likely WBW-to-come, he thinks Maroc will turn out to be Ezra. I doubt he will be, even for a Filoni show, but we shall see.
I will watch the next episodes, but I do hope they are better overall than these two were.