Star Wars, the once invincible franchise in the Disney era, hit a downturn in support in the recent years of streaming dominating our entertainment. With people and fans hating the sequel trilogy at this point more than any of the hate I saw lobbed at the Prequels back in the day, along with the destructive wave of bad actors online harassing anyone who wants Star Wars to be more than just Luke, Han, and Leia. It’s not the best time ever to really be a positive and public fan of it.
The Acolyte started earlier this year with impressive initial numbers and ended with a whimper in terms of viewers of the final episodes. The show that I thought was quite good didn’t work for many. Star Wars has now become a TV franchise instead of the huge blockbuster cinema one it started as. So far, Star Wars works best for people when it’s minds nostalgia of what came before and the feelings and the accursed term – LORE of the past entries. This new show, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, minds nostalgia in a very different method from things like Andor or The Mandalorian.
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew works on many people’s feelings when they grew up and were introduced to Star Wars, either in the original films or the prequels. This show is about living in Suburbia, playing with your friends, and imagining adventures in that world. So take those types of memories of playing with your imaginary light sabers and speeder bikes and then add in that 80s kid movie aesthetic from a Chris Columbus movie or the feeling of a Spielberg film. You have what this show is doing, much like how Stranger Things grabbed people using some of the same ingredients to feel just the right amount of familiar but new at the same time.
The series was created by Jon Watts and Christopher Ford, who worked together on Spider-Man: Homecoming, bringing some of that wonder and optimistic hope to the beginning of this series. Before I go further, Disney only sent out three episodes of the series to review, so all my thoughts are just on the early parts of this series.
Ravi Cabot-Conyers plays Wim, our entry point character, a young boy who is distracted from his school work because his imagination takes over him as he dreams of doing more than just being in class to be something boring in his adulthood. His best friend is Neel, an alien kid who resembles an elephant-like species. Robert Timothy Smith plays him, and the two together are like a perfect vision of two young best friends who have little adventures between school and home for the night. Wim is the dreamer and constantly gets in over his head, while Neel makes sure he doesn’t go too far and gets pulled into things he knows aren’t wise to do. These two are balanced out by two girl best friends, Fern and KB. Fern, played by Ryan Kiera Armstrong, is a risk-taking leader who is a little mature beyond her years but is still very much a child. She’s Wim’s foil at times as he jumps with no plan at all, while she’s just naturally good at things, so she always has some type of plan going on in her head. KB, played by Kyriana Kratter, is the science wiz of the group; when you meet KB, who has this great look from the visor she wears, it helps her see. KB and Fern really have adventures that Wim and Neel wish they were having.
The series pilot, which is close to 45 minutes long, does well to set the scene as these kids are in their space suburb. Life gets turned upside down when they find something in the woods and end up in space, light-years away from their homeworld. This is when the show feels the most Goonies-like as the kids are brought together, and they end up dealing with some danger and start of a grand journey. They end up meeting Jude Law‘s Jod, who ends up being the adult who helps them. The show adds a mystery that is almost a C-plot that will end up crashing into the main story by the end. This show feels perfect for the whole family to watch. I enjoyed each episode, and none of them were too long. While I worry that “fans” will end up attacking this show as well, I hope it doesn’t affect people giving this show a chance.
THE TAKE
With a likable cast, good performances, and a fun premise, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew is a show I look forward to watching as we end 2024 and head into 2025.