On a Scale of One to Tano?

Earlier this week, the newest Star Wars television series, Ahsoka, wrapped up its first season. (Only season? A renewal has yet to be announced.) I went on a bit of a roller coaster ride with how I felt about the show, but now that "the ride has come to a complete stop," I want to weigh in with my thoughts before the zeitgeist collectively moves on (which I expect it will quickly).

As many people observed, Star Wars: Ahsoka played out very much like a season five of Star Wars: Rebels. Usually, this observation was made to point out how Ahsoka was picking up the story threads of the animated series, or to speculate whether someone could even enjoy the new show without having watched the earlier one. But I think that specifically overlooks how important characters were on Rebels, and how that in turn was the foundation of what was best about Ahsoka.

In my review of Star Wars: Rebels, I noted how it took me a while to warm up to the show -- largely because of the focus on the brash character of Ezra Bridger. I didn't expound upon that to say that I grew to enjoy the show in large part because the characters themselves grew. Ezra did not remain the boy he started as, nor did any of the characters on Rebels. They changed, developing ever-stronger and more interesting relationships with each other, and by extension, with the audience.

There are moments in Ahsoka that really pick up that baton and carry it forward. Mostly, they come in the middle of the season. Ahsoka becomes more interesting after a key mid-season episode, and subsequently has more interesting interactions with other characters. Sabine begins the back half of her own personal hero's journey. Interaction and banter become more entertaining across the board, particularly with Huyang, and (spoilers here), once he returns, Ezra Bridger.

So those parts that work well, I think work really well. I also love the focus on female characters overall; there's one episode here (the fourth, I think?) that has even less screen time for men than the original Star Wars had for women. And I feel a lot of goodwill about the casting -- seeing Rosario Dawson in the title role, hearing David Tennant as a put-upon droid, or watching Ray Stevenson bringing maximum gravitas as Baylan Skoll. I'd say I'm positive on the series overall.

But man, I feel like there's also a lot to be negative about here. A lot of people noted how much The Force Awakens was a repackaging of the original Star Wars. But I don't think anyone appreciated how many new elements there actually were in that movie until this season of Ahsoka repackaged all of those plot points. Both stories turn on a mysterious map that somehow leads to the location of a powerful missing figure... and (another spoiler) both stories end just when that figure returns and is about to do something interesting.

Actually, let me just drop another spoiler warning on this whole paragraph -- because I need to say more about Thrawn. Of all the elements of Ahsoka that required having seen Star Wars: Rebels for full context, his character was the biggest. The threat he posed in Ahsoka was all talk; we never saw him do anything especially clever. We got no depiction at all of why he inspired so much loyalty, why his forces stuck with him in exile after all those years, why the witches obeyed him, or why specifically anyone believed he'd single-handedly be able to restore the Empire. And while actor Lars Mikkelsen's voice is as perfect for the character as it ever was, he really just failed to look the part for me here in live action. Almost every other Rebels character was recast for Ahsoka; I think maybe Thrawn should have been too.

I also feel like the parts of Ahsoka that showed the most imagination and originality were the least developed. (Key exhibit: what was Baylan Skoll even all about? And will we ever find out now, after the unfortunate passing of Ray Stevenson?) Meanwhile, so much of what we did see showed such a lack of imagination -- particularly the final episode which (spoilers) decided zombies would be cool, and gave a witch a sword because sword fighting is kind of all we do here, I guess.

I sort of wish I'd been blogging about Ahsoka on a week-to-week basis, because there were some episodes in the middle there that I found quite enjoyable. But the season got started rough, and it really failed to stick the landing for me. So overall, I'm going to give it a B-.

Maybe it's just that all live-action Star Wars TV falls short of Andor...