On January 14th, the first season of the adventurous sci-fi series «Star Wars: Skeleton Crew» concluded on Disney+, taking place during the same timeframe as the hit show «The Mandalorian». While Din Djarin and the little Grogu are getting ready to conquer the big screens, and Star Wars fans eagerly await the second season of «Andor» coming this spring, the studio suggests to distract ourselves with something more frivolous, even childish. The review below explores what this turned out to be eventually.
Genre adventure sci-fi, coming-of-age story
Showrunners John Watts, Christopher Ford
Starring Jude Law, Ravi Cabot-Conyers, Kierrana Kratter, Robert Timothy Smith (voice), Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Tunde Adebimpe, Kerry Condon, Nick Frost
Premiere Disney+
Release Year 2024
Website IMDb, official site
The New Republic has already triumphed over the despised Empire. Yet, the inhabitants of planet At-Tattin seem to have always been quite detached from the political passions and Jedi exploits in the Galaxy. Adults here engage in some mundane office routine, children attend equally boring schools, and the lawn by the neat suburban houses is trimmed so evenly that such an idealistic picture would likely nauseate Darth Vader.
Amid this utopian harmony, a young boy named Wim, who is fascinated by the Jedi, literally dreams of space adventures and plays battles with improvised lightsabers with his best friend, an Ortolan named Nil. One day, Wim accidentally stumbles upon a real starship hidden in the dense forests of At-Tattin. Together with Nil, and schoolgirls Fern and Kay B, the boy sneaks inside the ship, and then everything happens just like in a book — the kids get caught up in a grand space adventure. It will entail encountering the dangerous surrounding world, sinister pirates, and a mysterious, supposedly Jedi, Jod Na Navud.
This new project within George Lucas’s iconic universe clearly lacks the high ambitions of many predecessors — no usual political intrigues, pompous speeches, or uncompromising Jedi vs Sith battles. In other words, the fate of the far-far-away Galaxy is clearly not being decided here.
Instead, the creators of the series, Christopher Ford and John Watts, who directed the Marvel Spider-Man trilogy, offer the viewer to dive into escapist entertainment in the spirit of family adventure films of the 80s, particularly «The Goonies» (1985) by Richard Donner. Thus, the rebellious spirit typical of the «Star Wars» universe here is at most a harmless teenage defiance.
Accordingly, «Skeleton Crew» is a local story that does not require viewing of previous series or films or excellent knowledge of the lore of the expansive universe. At the same time, this content is not only intended for a new generation of viewers (read — kids) but at least tries to return the old fans of the space saga — now adults who themselves have kids — to a carefree childhood. And that is rather good.
However, along with noble intentions, the series has also adopted the unattractive genre features of children’s cinema — somewhat irritating naivety, obvious plot conventions, predictability, lack of high stakes, and so forth.
Watts and Ford try to infuse their creation with the authentic adventurous spirit of adventure inherent in Lucas’s classic films, yet this still cannot negate the overt childishness of what happens on the screen. And if you are not ready to accept such a kind of «Star Wars», better to skip watching it.
For everyone else, «Skeleton Crew» might turn out to be an optional but moderately engaging frivolous trifle that does not pretend to be eternal. «You seem too old for children’s fairy tales», Wim’s perpetually busy father says, and with this remark, the authors seem to address the viewers who grew up on Lucas’s films. However, when watching, it’s easy to read between the lines, suggesting that there is always room for a good fairy tale in life.
Overall, this is a typical coming-of-age story where children play the primary role, and their parents barely manage to show more emotions than the ubiquitous droids.
From the interesting characters featured here: an old one-eyed tin can, droid CM-33, with its constant «companion» rat and the voice of Nick Frost (the latter recently flashed on the big screens in the mystical thriller «Black Cab»); a cyborgized girl with a device on her head resembling Cyclops’s glasses from X-Men; a bunch of motley pirates with corresponding makeup; an owl-like creature named Gim; a kaiju crab that surfaced from the blockbuster «Aquaman» (2018) and the cherry on top of this show — a charming villain played by Jude Law.
Given the above, it’s easy to guess that «Skeleton Crew» is «Star Wars» for the youngest, and in this role, they look quite decent. If you are looking for grim and adult Star Wars, better wait until April when the continuation of Cassian Andor’s adventures is set to start on Disney+.
