Ahsoka

What I've seen in the first two episodes is the definition of mediocracy. It's not bad, it's not good, just hanging somewhere in between.

The story so far is non-existent. There are some bad guys and... that's it.

Writing is horrible. The character interactions were pretty much the most boring I've seen in a very long time. It was painful to watch sometimes. It was that bad.

Forced wisdom... is the worst kind of writing.

Logic has left the show. When I saw Sabine, one of the smartest fighters in the SW Universe, punching a robot in the face, I immediately lowered my expectations. After that, it even got worse. She's definitely NOT the Sabine I knew from the Rebel series.

Acting is also generally ... bland. Even Rosario Dawson seems off as Ahsoka.

But there are also good things.

CGI and scenery are breathtaking.

David Tenant is amazing as the voice of Huyang. God I love this man.

The show has some promise of mystery in the distant horizon, and that's what encourages me to watch more. If they can deliver, the show can get a lot better.

I'm a big fan of the Clone Wars and Rebels animated series so I was doing backflips when I heard about a live action series based on the characters.

Overall, the casting is good and where Rebels left off, the series has a strong premise. The production design is all right (not quite as good as Andor's though) and the lightsaber fights and well choreographed.

The writing is where it's falling down. Dave Filoni has to take the blame since he wrote every episode and clearly needs a writing staff. Perhaps he's spent too much time writing for five year olds, because he is writing the characters as too bland and not grownup enough, and not thinking some things through sufficiently.

Take Ahoska for example. She's being written as too zen and serene, without an inner conflict that a lead character needs. She is being written as an Obi-Wan-ish mentor figure, but the series is named for her, so why isn't she written as the lead character, with inner conflict and complexity to match?

Maybe the true lead is a character for whom Ahsoka is the mentor? That could be Sabine or Ezra. But Sabine is the worst-written character of all. She must be pushing 30 by now, yet she still acts like a rebellious adolescent.

And don't get me started on "everyone is Force sensitive." It's far too late in the game to retcon Star Wars like this. If it only was a matter of trying to get a little telekinesis or mind control, it would be as common as superpowers are on The Boys, with societal upheaval like you see on that show.

Why doesn't Jabba the Hutt have a minion who can influence rivals in negotiations? Why aren't there background characters who can levitate a glass from across the table, or take an unusually large leap to avoid a mud puddle in the street? We'd have been seeing this all the time long before now. They just need to drop it.

Sabine is being retconned with the Force so she can serve as an apprentice figure to Ahsoka but Ezra is the more natural apprentice. But I'm no happier at his writing.

Okay let's recap here. He made a huge sacrifice while still a teenager to save his friends and the galaxy from Thrawn. He's spent a decade on a bleak planet, surrounded by enemies, with only some turtle people as companions. He has no reason to believe he will ever be rescued.

Then Sabine shows up and effectively invalidates his sacrifice. How does he respond? Oh hi Sabine, nice to see you. That's ALL? He isn't overjoyed to be rescued while at the same time, infuriated that the last ten years were all in vain? Why isn't Ahsoka equally angry at Sabine? Why is Sabine being written as an unstable moron?

It's like Filoni is scared to show the "grownups" being angry at each other because it would upset the presumably childlike audience. If you assume the audience is largely grownups, having conflict and drama is not only all right, it's necessary so we won't all doze off.

Since this series isn't yet over and hopefully won't be for a few years, I may be back to edit this review later on. Hopefully to bump up the score to an 8 or 9 because the writing has improved. Fingers crossed for season 2.

After Andor showed how amazing a Star Wars show can be when competently written by people with talent, directed by people with creativity and performed by actors with passion for their roles, this show comes along to remind everyone that Andor was a one-off occurrence, an anomaly. Ahsoka exemplifies the (few) strengths and the (many) weaknesses of recent Disney Plus Star Wars shows. It wastes time, it has bland characters and it exists to remind you of better things Star Wars has done.

The plot of Ahsoka can easily be summarised as being stretched beyond belief. The story of Ahsoka and the Rebels crew trying to prevent the return of Thrawn and rescue Ezra could have easily been told in at least 3 or 4 episodes, with the other 4 being used to build to an epic battle with Thrawn. Instead it takes us 8 episodes to set up the next season or movie, instead of resolving the plotlines of this season. It moves at an agonizingly slow pace wherein it doesn't build any of its characters and just serves up meaningless action and fluff.

The characters are mostly bland and one-note. The returning Rebels characters are all far less expressive than their animated characters and the actors all look bored and confused. It's clear the direction they were given was poor since most are competent actors in other projects. Rosario Dawson is wooden as Ahsoka which is a real shame. She reacts to everything with bored indifference. Sabine is now insufferable who basically screws over the good guys more than once and is never called out on it. The only exceptions are Baylon played by Ray Stevenson, and Shin played by Ivanna Sakhno. They're dynamic is legitimately interesting but that is all there is. Interest. They're characters are given lackluster wrap-ups.

Of course this show contains all the fan-service you'd expect. It is all there to hide the clear lack of any substance in the script. The show is visually pretty great but the costumes look so cheap and bland. When the volume is used it is very obvious. Another issue is that no casual viewer can really enjoy this show without having consumed 7 seasons of Clone Wars and 4 seasons of Rebels. The show keeps telling us that Thrawn is dangerous but we are never shown this. Thrawn does barely anything in the overall plot and there is no reason to fear him.

In the end, this is another show with nothing to say. It lacks substance. Two decent characters, pretty visuals and fan service can't save this show from the pool of mediocrity/stupidity of its fellow TV show brethren. Just re-watch Andor.

I'm going against the tide here, but this series has started off like some of the failures before it.

For every Andor (great!) we get a Boba Fet and season 3 of the Mandalorian.

Rosario Dawson is a good actress, not a rock solid lead actress. Her work in Luke Cage, The Defenders, Zombieland Double Tap and many others is good. Not great.

In this series she isn't given enough to work with, and the actress playing Sabine is so bad that their scenes together are painful to watch.

The frequent establishing shots using cgi critters is a Star Wars staple and frankly wasted space.

The head scratching bad decisions to move the plot along and put the protagonists in danger are too stupid to ask the viewer to buy into. Jedi ship seems sketchy? Let them board and kill the captain. Old padawan with an axe to grind? Entrust her with the "key" to the secret mission so she can run off with it and essentially get herself killed in the process.

Retread plots anyone? We have a secret map hidden in a device that will lead us to...the Death Star's fatal flaw...the empire's hidden fleet...Luke Skywalker...the hidden empire general that could undo the alliance...you get the picture and we've seen this way too many times.

And one thing I struggle with, whether it's Star Wars, Marvel, or DC is the scale and balance of character battles. Ahsoka handles some assailants easily, and then seems challenged by one, or two canon fodder baddies for no apparent reason. As with other Disney created Star Wars series, that inequality exists here too. Too often.

I doubt that I'll be motivated to watch another episode.

I actually enjoyed Ahsoka a lot more than I expected to. After reading all the mixed reviews I was expecting a slow moving, boring show but this was anything but. I was very entertained from the very first episode to the last. I was actually wanting more episodes when it was all ove he r. I know they're already talking about renewing this for another season so I hope they go through with that. The cast here is terrific. Obviously Rosario Dawson is great as Ahsoka but it's the supporting cast which makes this show that much better. It is extremely talented cast with Natasha Lou Bordizzo, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Wes Chatham, David Tennant, the late great Ray Stevenson, and many more. You can tell they put a lot lot of love into this because the attention to detail is very obvious. While it's I not as good as the Mandalorian or Andor, it's still a good show in its own right.