Do I even want to step into this minefield?
I was open-minded because I thought the concept had some potential. We haven’t had a movie or show go this far back in the timeline before, so that’s intriguing. Although I was also cautious due to the quality of the some of these shows. Unfortunately this show ended up being worse than I expected. I was expecting it to be okay or mediocre and it went below that. You can stop reading here if you don’t want to wade through my rambling mess.
Of the three episodes, I liked the first one the most. It wasn’t great, but I liked some of the fight scenes. Seeing martial arts in a Star Wars show was fun. That was probably the one thing that kept me watching. I was disappointed that they killed Trinity in the first scene. Seeing the Trade Federation was unexpected. I didn’t realize they’d been around that long. They were definitely trying to give it that Phantom Menace feel. Some complained about the fire in space, but I don’t give a shit. The last thing I’m concerned about in Star Wars is physics. I started to lose interest once I realized what the twist was. A good twin and a bad twin. Well that’s boring. Oh, and one of them is named Osha apparently. My reaction when I heard that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6M1OF_E0IA
The second episode was the one where I really started to lose interest. Way too much boring exposition. It started reminding me of The Phantom Menace again and not in a good way. And then it only got worse from there. The third episode I thought was abysmal. I was confused and stunned after sitting through it. The acting in the first two episodes I thought was mediocre (with the exception of Lee Jung-jae, he was good), but the acting in this episode was just atrocious and the dialogue wasn’t any better. The only part I found interesting was when the Jedi showed up, but even then it kind of just felt like they were doing the blood test stuff from Phantom Menace again. Space witches? Don’t care. I didn’t like the Night Sisters and they seem even less interesting than them. There was also little to no action in this episode, so on top of being confusing it was very boring.
The production also looked unimpressive, which is ridiculous for a show that cost almost as much to make as Dune: Part Two. Hell, apparently the first season of House of the Dragon cost less and from what I’ve seen it looks way better than this. This looks inexcusably cheap. The only thing that stood out to me as kind of interesting were some of the droid and alien designs, but they weren’t present much. The costumes, lighting, sets, and camera work were all subpar. Where the fuck did all the money go? Why do all these Disney Plus shows cost so much, yet look so lifeless?
But I’d probably be able to forgive those if the story or characters were interesting or fun, but they’re not. It’s very dull. I was liking the action, but not caring for the mystery. I just did not care about what was happening. The characters were not compelling to me either, they were bland to me. Lee Jung-jae was again the only saving grace as far as the cast went, and he’s good, but I’m not sure what all there is to do with his character.
Another thing I think that’s worth bringing up is that these shows are missing a very key element of Star Wars… John Williams’ music. That’s part (not all) of why a lot of these shows feel off. The music in most of these has been very forgettable.
I would say that this show is unfortunately more in the same category of quality as Book of Boba Fett or the Kenobi series. Hell, after that third episode, I was starting to think it might be worse. I was hoping after Andor the quality of these things would pick up, but I guess I was too optimistic.
Will I watch more of it? Maybe, but I don’t have “high apple pie in the sky hopes” to quote a Frank Sinatra song.