For reasons unknown to us Lucasfilm/Disney saw fit to deem us unworthy of advance screeners of their newest Star Wars series, Skeleton Crew. Starting off your article this way probably ensures that we never get a screener again but since we didn’t formally get access to the new show ahead of its release, what we’ll do today is a reaction to last night’s premiere.
Also, once the trades were allowed to publish their reviews we didn’t go looking to see how many episodes formal reviewers were given to watch. Last night the first two episodes of the new series aired on Disney+ so that’s what we’re basing this reaction on.
Given my proclivity to type endlessly when inspired, either until either my fingers cramp or my brain no longer sends the appropriate signals to my hands to make complete and comprehensible sentences, this will probably be review length anyways, showing those studios the errors of their ways when they didn’t include us in the mix this time around.
JUST KEEP DIGGING THAT HOLE, ANDREW.
An overall and perhaps glib feeling about Skeleton Crew is that this was a tactical move by the studios to garner a new generation of Star Wars fans. Already three generations deep into the global population, Skeleton Crew looks to be the most kid-friendly show Disney and Lucasfilm have made to date. Hands down. It clearly gives your children and grandchildren something new to attach to and call their own. Future consumers!
If you want a warm, fuzzy opinion about the show we could also say that Skeleton Crew appears to be a Star Wars show that the whole family can watch together. It is a show that because of its central young cast will connect better with the youngest generation of fans and maybe even connect with the inner child in us old fogies - if you even have one still.
Confession. I’m becoming more and more of the opinion that the further the franchise stays away from its space wizard roots the better the show will be.
BLASPHEMER!!!
I know, I know. With that said, as far as we know Jude Law’s Jod (And Captain Silvo? Come on, you know that’s coming up) may or may not be a Jedi. There’s only the floating key scene from the trailer which also ends episode two to go by. However you feel about Jedi (I didn’t *love* The Acolyte but I appreciated how it knocked them down a peg or two in the series) from what I’ve seen in these first two episodes Skeleton Crew might just be the best Star Wars series since Andor, because it has steered clear of them and looks to be focused on giving viewers a rollicking space adventure for kids. It's right there in the poster, A Space Adventure.
The original Star Wars trilogy concluded just as Amblin Entertainment was creating a brand that would become part of cinematic language known as Amblin-esque, but you can see the influence the films of Lucas’ friend Steven Speilberg had on showrunners Christopher Ford and John Watt. Skeleton Crew looks to be pretty much Goonies in space.
That’s the general consensus from a lot of folks out there. From the pirates, to the children in peril and even some of the lighting choices in that first episode when the kids dig up that old starship - for those of us who lived through that era of cinema Skeleton Crew does strike this Amblin chord.
By the end of the second episode we have a pretty good grasp of what makes each kid click. Wim has his head in the stars, dreaming of Jedi and temples. This is much to the chagrin of his stern father. Neel is his Samwise, ever loyal but yearns for home. Fern is the headstrong one of the bunch. Student by day, speeder bike racer by… well, we don’t know what time of day she races her speeder bike. KB is her best friend and sidekick. Augmented with tech she knows her way around machines.
In time I’m sure the studios will let us in on how they did Neel’s head and facial effects; what’s digital and what’s practical. As expected wherever the production could go with practical creatures and puppets I’m sure they did the most they could. Production design is never an issue with the SWU. We knew what to expect and of course it looked marvelous.
The suburban setting. It’s weird and as the series continues we’ll revisit them as the parents try to figure out what happened to their kids. It’s weird seeing normal life in the SWU. But I suppose since we had the dull settings of Syril Karn’s apartment in Andor that eventually we’d get a scenario like this. But that’s also the point of the series: extraordinary events happening to normal kids. Plucked from their mundane lives in the New Republic.
Last night was a good start to the series. It firmly stated who the target audience is, our kids and grandkids, and still gave generational fans plenty to appreciate with throwback to the original film (see that opening sequence with the pirate invasion of a cargo tailored after the taking of the Tantive IV by Vader in A New Hope, right down to the crew member looking around at the noises through the hull like the Republic Trooper did in Episode IV). I’ll go to my trusted resource for all the easter eggs that more ardent fans have spotted.
And I will state again that this is potentially the best series since Andor and a great series for everyone in your Star Wars family to enjoy together.