Disney somehow managed to remake the StarWars franchise into an after school special…
No plot, wooden acting, practically no emotional impact (and I won't even get into those stupid Anakin cameos)... in short, boring as hell.
Get rid of Sabine (and of pretty much everyone other than Thrawn, Baylan and Shin), put it on double speed, add a plot that's not summarized in 1 sentence, and this show might get decent at some point. I don't carry much hope for that happening, though.
This really managed to give me some old school Star Wars feels. The series is essentially season 5 of Rebels, bringing back the main characters and picking up the dangling story threads we were left with (Nightsisters! Thrawn! The World Between Worlds!). And as a fan of that show, this was largely very satisfying.
For a show named Ahsoka, it was really Sabine who felt like the focus. She also ended up as the most interesting character in the whole thing and was cast extremely well. Similarly I thought Eman Esfandi was splended in the role of Ezra. Less convincing was Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Hera, who took a vibrant character and made her feel somehow diminished. Meanwhile David Tennant's Huyang kept things both steady and funny.
That leaves Rosario Dawson in the title role, and generally I like her a lot. And yet, she is giving us a far more stoic interpretation of the character and it didn't always work for me. The pacing in her conversations was noticeably off with long pauses in the back and forth. But Dawson still feels right for the most part.
Story-wise, it managed to both satisfy and irk me. I feel like the whole thing moved slowly for the amount of episodes it had, and editing this down to a 2.5 hour film could be done without much fuss. There's a sense of drawing things out so big things can be saved for the inevitable future film(s). This is a real shame. But each episode also did something which managed to pull me in and the magic feeling is definitely here.
It was the surprises that really made this click for me. Hayden Christensen returning as Anakin and being given far better material to work with was absolutely beautiful, especially as it dealt so much with his history with Ahsoka. The flashbacks to the Clone Wars were simply sublime (helped no end by a wonderful young Ahsoka who felt pulled straight from the animated show). Ray Stevenson and Ivanna Sakhno both give us intriguing antagonists with more story to hopefully be explored (obviously tricky now, sadly).
Visually this is an utter delight too - either the StageCraft is getting better or they made clever use of real environments at times here. There are a number of stunning images throughout this, be they glowing-eyed resurrected stormtroopers or characters emerging from misty vistas. But the real star of the show is the musical score which is an absolute treat from start to finish, and probably the strongest interpretation of Star Wars we've had outside of John Williams.
For someone who wanted to see a lot of things happening, this may look a little bit disappointing, because it's clear this series is setting up something bigger. Filoni has two great abilities: adding some interesting minor stories to bigger events (Tales of the Jedi) and building up world and characters for grand stories. This series is the case for the latter one.
I don't know what comes next, a new series, a movie, a season from another series... but we need to have patience like a Jedi.
About the characters, what I felt after the first episode was confirmed through the entire season: some characters work, other didn't convince me. The weak point was probably Sabine, her introduction in the live action series made her less interesting and even after her development, I personally don't care about her.
Hera was my favorite in Rebels and I miss Vanessa Marshall, I was hoping for her to reprise her role. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is a good actress, don't get me wrong, but she feels too young for the role.
About Ahsoka... it's difficult to say. I am a fan of Rosario Dawson since I saw her on the 25th hour, but I am still not convinced.
While Ezra was played in a convince way.
Back in 2014, when i watched Rebels, I used to watch a show from the Star Wars Youtube channel where actors talked about characters they played in Rebels. I am used to see them, not only as voice actors, but as characters as well. And I always thought they were similar to their characters. So I can't understand why Filoni didn't choose them again for the live action series, like he did with Katee Sackhoff.
Thrawn was great in every scene, for example.
So, most of the time, it was like watching similar characters, not the ones from Rebels.
I praise the new addition, like Baylan Skoll and Shin Hati. We didn't have much time to know her, but she impressed me and I hope she'll have an interesting arc... I just don't want her to be killed by Sabine.
Other than that, the story was interesting, the direction was good, the action scenes were (mostly) well done. Better shot than the Kenobi series and, forgive me, more exacting than Andor (good series, but not enough Star Wars elements for me).
I am sure we'll go back to this season after what comes next and we'll think "This was a nice start!". We need some perspective.
I pushed through all 8 episodes. Sorry, this was quite poor. I don't know specifically what's wrong it just doesn't work. After the other shows recently Like Kenobi and Mandalorian I had a different expectation. This is, boring. I say 5, thats frankly on the generous side.
Unlike many other commentators, I actually liked most of the characters, especially Ahsoka and Thrawn. They were designed and acted very well, portraying a wise Jedi and a tactical mastermind. The general design of the season in a subtle Japanese style, the visual effects and the introduction of Magick were all pretty entertaining too.
However, the story was hardly interesting. Having protagonists die only to be shown alive in the very next episode was extremely pointless and kind of stands for the problem of the whole season: evil always loses and good always wins. There's no grey zone, no plot twist, no excitement.
I sure hope the next season will offer a better story, for the cast - and the audience - deserves it.
Despite the title, this show is not about Ahsoka at all.
Great duels and fight scenes, amazing settings. Loved the Purrgil :whale2: and Huyang :robot:
The story was boring, most of the episodes was useless to the plot. I started caring at episode 7. And then it was over and I really didn't care much for anyone.
5/10
Meh
I had such high hopes
for this show I really did
but after all said and done
It was nothing but a waste
of my time.
Everything about this
show only served as a
Macguffin and that is
Just not acceptable.
Baylan and Shin
got the dirty done to them,
they were the Coolest and
by far the most interesting
Characters of the show.
I would definitely watch a
show with those two as the
star of it, I wanted them
to have so much more
Screen time but no they
gave that to the bloody
annoying
Sabine who's doomed
the hole Galaxy.
After the first three,four
episodes everything just
went to shit and fell apart,
and to be honest I was
More bord than entertained.
Pretty solid season - definitely better if you binged it. The action choreography was mostly okay with some weird scenes sometimes but the scenes with Anakin and the bearded guy really shined. The ending felt a little rushed and it really answered fewer questions than it asked. Especially since we barely got to see anything from Ezra smh
Ashoka’s character imo needs to be put to rest. She’s should have stayed dead in Rebels because she had already done her part. Like at this point, she’s not nearly as interesting enough to continue a story about her. The base Rebels crew and the new “Sith” characters offer so much more to the world than she does
This show had so much potential, but it ended up being more boring than exciting unfortunately. Story and character choices don't make sense to the point where I never cared about any character, and the interesting characters, like Baylan and Shin, were just wasted at the end. Also so much slowwww lightsaber and blaster action that made all the action sequences just boring. What happened here?
A solid entry into the tv universe but falls flat of the Rebels season 5 we all hoped it would be.
Just another filler season of a show. Skip it until the next iteration comes out
Ahsoka has some good things, but it failed to really convince me. They didn't have to establish all the characters (Clone Wars, Rebels and Mandalorian did that for them), but it still felt like just a setup for bigger things to come. Which is true in a way, because we are getting a movie to wrap up 'The Mando-verse'. Or are they doing a season 2 of this first, we'll see... For me, the difference is that Mandalorian had more of an own story. Which is not bad per se, but it is a bummer because I expected a bit more from this.
I enjoyed it though. Anakin's appearance gave me goosebumps and that whole episode with live action Clone Wars-flashbacks was truly amazing. I also really liked Ezra and (of course) Thrawn. Sabine, not so much... Still, I'm hoping for a big climax, that ties everything Star Wars neatly together again. Even if it's some ways down the road. Please, don't disappoint me, papa Filoni. :wink:
Show and season 1 rated a 7
Shout by CurbBlockedParent2023-08-31T23:35:41Z— updated 2023-09-15T00:17:22Z
Boring. I have never been less invested in a main character. Ahsoka is a plank of wood.
Only redeeming quality is some visuals.