Thursday, January 23, 2025

Skeleton Crew

I'm late to the party, don't yell!




Lord knows we needed some fun and fancy free Star Wars, and boy howdy did Skeleton Crew hit so many buttons for me! Taking a concept as simple as four kids find a derelict spaceship and get whisked off into an adventure in a galaxy far far away, and giving so so much more than that. I'm honestly stumped where to begin so let's talk cast. Ravi Cabot-Conyers as Wim could not encapsulize a loving Star Wars fan in the universe of Star Wars more if he tried, wanting some adventure in his life and obsessed with tales of the Jedi, his bubbly persona and comedic timing are a joy to watch throughout. Ryan Kiera Armstrong as tomboy rebel Fern is pretty badass assuming the role of captain of the ship and carries a no nonsense attitude that serves the crew well on their adventures, if Wim is the heart Fern is the brain. Kyriana Kratter as tech savvy KB while not getting an abundance of personalized screen time has a killer design, and honestly owns the most emotional scene of the whole show in my humble opinion, and yes she is baby girl and an ace pilot! You know if you've been around long enough on this show how I often say I see certain characters and can imagine my future daughter to be exactly like them? Sirs, madames, and all you wonderful in-betweens on this planet...I have a son. His name is Neel (After Neil Armstrong?), and I'm trying not to be an emotional mess right now. Robert Timothy Smith you are friggin' Star Wars ROYALTY in my eyes! That's my son, that's my boy! So sweet, so thoughtful, effortlessly adorable, charming, and amazing. I would be here for the rest of my life telling you how proud I am and how much I love my little blue elephant son. I would kill for Wim and Fern, I would burn planets for KB, but I would end dimensions for Neel, I won't hear a besmirching remark or pithy comment on any of them. Jude Law as a pirate captain with more names than Sauron himself, but I'll stick to Jod is a right bastard in this show as any pirate should be, and to have an actor with range as broad as Jude Law I knew I was gonna get a really fun good performance and he is absolutely fascinating to watch in this from beginning to end. Wild to think Nick Frost took almost a decade to get into Star Wars since Simon Pegg got in right off the bat in 2015, but contender for best droid in the galaxy SM-33 is quite a stamp to have, and yes I do just call him Smee. Endlessly entertaining, absolute king, made me feel justified saying 'Aye' for the last few years, 10/10! But obviously we get more characters thrown in so I'll highlight some standouts real quick. Brutus, holy great balls of fire that is character design genius having a legacy alien, Shistavanen, been around since 1977, as a pirate with flintlock blasters are you–

Lucasfilm you never needed to go that hard. Kh'ymm wise owl lady, sign me the hell up I'm so here for her and her aesthetic! Pokkit, we got a Disney Princess up in here y'all so thank you Kelly Macdonald for being in this universe, granted you kinda scare me but a scottish accent can make me do crazy things, need more of her. Also shoutout to Jaleel White, stellar to have you aboard as well! In fact all the visual designs and worldbuilding to a galaxy that has a lot already going for it is marvellously handled, ship designs, worlds, use of aliens, lore about the Old Republic hello there! And they don't even really cherrypick elements from the past though occasional nods to stuff like Force Unleashed and Knights Of The Old Republic make a nerd like me happy, they craft a lot of new stuff and I loooooove when Star Wars is new stuff never before seen! Even a pretty decent mystery involving the kid's homeplanet had my interest but was far from my focus. They wanted to make a damn good show and whether or not this is the end or if it comes back for round two, I'm fairly happy with it all! In fact my only source of contention is the ending and that's simply because it was too short, we had climax and falling action but precisely zero on resolution and I felt there were loose ends to tie up. Is my son gonna get his girlfriend or not?? Answer me Lucasfilm you cowardly cutlass! I mean if a show barely over 4 hours total can get me that invested and wanting to know as much as possible, clearly it did something right! This was so much fun, taking a lot of Amblin magic, with ample love of 80s cinema a lá Goonies and such, and weaving it into a storied franchise is not only impressive but very succesful. You don't even really need to know all that much about Star Wars to enjoy it and understand it which my God that's handy! Love the story, love the style, love the characters, love the adventure, Jesus fish Andor is gonna wreck me isn't it? We got some months before that but mother of all that is good and precious it's gonna hit like a burial brick. Until that bombshell I give this series 4 stars, 8.5/10!

No comments:

Post a Comment