I have a sickness. I really deeply love the idea of Star Wars. I also love the original three films of course, but the idea of Star Wars is something I find intoxicating, and I have spent an ordinate amount of time reading novels and comics and watching movies and shows that almost entirely prove…that the idea of Star Wars should have died in 1983. It’s all a long way to say that I have accepted that Star Wars is functionally not good no matter how much I wish it was. But sometimes you need to kill time with garbage on in the background and that is what the Disney+ Star Wars shows are for.
10. The Book of Boba Fett – Season 1 [2022]
This was very bad even by Disney standards. Like it was extremely embarrassing. This may sound very basic but the biggest issue is the entire premise of this exercise in the first place. If you accept the premise that Boba Fett should be brought back to life to tell a new story with him set after the events of Return of the Jedi (and that is a BIG if), why did they not just make a small scale bounty hunter/action movie? Why did they instead tell this insanely stupid seven-episode mini-series where the core motivation of BOBA FETT is to not do bounty hunting?? I mean. What is going on here? What was anyone thinking?
9. The Skeleton Crew – Season 1 [2024]
On one hand, I suppose it’s good that Star Wars was finally made explicitly for kids instead of man-children. On the other hand, jesus fucking christ. Eight episodes of kids going on a Star Wars adventure. How did this get approved?
8. Obi-Wan Kenobi – Season 1 [2022]
I am a prequels agnostic (boring, I know). My basic take on them can be summed up as on paper, the prequels are brilliant in theory but the execution was lacking in many, many ways. One of my favorite parts of the prequels was the admirable job Ewan McGregor did throughout. One of the most frustrating parts was what a mismatch the material was for Hayden Christensen’s talents. Hence the tragedy of this series somehow being both worse than the prequels overall and somehow giving McGregor worse material to work with. And then the hilarity that the one person coming out of this one looking good was Christensen. The series put him in a position to succeed, and he did just that. Beyond that, this was abysmal. But at least it was not Boba Fett actively trying not to be Boba Fett.
7. Ahsoka – Season 1 [2023]
Ahsoka felt like a turning point in this Disney Star Wars situation. Not only are they doing the same dull bullshit that they did in Boba Fett and Kenobi, but now they are also doing that with characters (I think?) are in the cartoons and/or books or whatever. Beyond that, there are two specific weaknesses here that really make it stand out. One, something about the dialogue direction is insane. Everyone is speaking as if there is all the time in the world in what is a supposedly high stakes situation. It did not work. Two, Thrawn was probably the last card Disney Star Wars had to play that had not already been tainted, and they blew it. Whatever you may think of Thrawn in the books, he did always stand out as a unique adversary – here, he is mainly just blew. There are moments in this show that threaten to inject life into the world, but they are too few and far between.
6. The Mandalorian – Season 3 [2023]
The remarkable thing about the Disney Star Wars situation was that not only was this a bad season for The Mandalorian (an already Not Good show), but it somehow was still more artistically (a term I am using loosely) successful season of television than the awful shows about Boba Fett and Obi-Wan. You would hope that (at best) this misguided season of television would be the lowpoint. But, no. Disney has gone much lower. Anyway, this season sidelined Mando/Baby Yoda adventures stuff and instead focused on the lore of the fake Boba Fetts. It was absolutely insane but there were a couple of fun moments near the end at least.
5. The Mandalorian – Season 2 [2020]
Season 2 was when the cracks (in the already weak) foundation of the Disney Plus Star Wars Television Series World Shit Whatever. There was even more Fake Boba Fett People lore shit. The season was partially used as a backdoor pilot for a(n awful) Boba Fett show. and just in general there were hints of this simple (and successful) show taking its first first steps into a larger (and less interesting) world.
4. The Acolyte – Season 1 [2024]
The Acolyte attempted to do something mildly different for a Disney Star Wars show. They told a self-contained (murder mystery) story that had virtually nothing to do with any other Star Wars movie or television show. Instead, the show addressed a major idea in the Star Wars world that has never been so explicitly and directly: the Jedi are a flawed institution made up of flawed (and somethings incredibly fucking stupid) individuals. A system is supposed to do what it does after all. And the Jedi are a force (pun not intended) that protects itself and the status quo and is more willing to do nothing as opposed to being a voice of the people and radical change that can actually help the masses. How they told this story was not always excellent, but I appreciated what this was attempting enough to find it interesting.
3. The Mandalorian – Season 1 [2019]
It seems kind of ridiculous now to think about, but this season of television was a minor phenomenon. But that fucking muppet man set the world on fire. People just went fucking nuts for the fucking baby Yoda. Anyway, as a season of disposable television, it was FINE. The complaints (shitty look, too much lore, etc.) seem almost quaint compared to what has happened since in Disney Star Wars.
2. Andor – Season 1 [2022]
It took me a while to watch this season of Star Wars. The level of skill, craft, and care that went into it just make it rather objectively the best season of Star Wars without much debate. But man. I will never forget getting to episode 10 and realizing, “How is Andor not even part of the rebellion yet?”
For a show that only plans on going two seasons, the fact they spent an entire season to just SET UP Andor as a rebel is just absolutely insane. Think of all the fun and daring adventures this man must have done before Rogue One. And we spend 12 episodes with him desperately trying to NOT be a rebel???
It also led to the weird dynamic of every other character in the show being obsessed with him and constantly talking about him, worried about him, and looking for him. And I guess that justifies the show being called Andor, but it does not feel earned in any way and far too forced.
Anyway, the other shows are all so bad or mediocre that this seems like high art in comparison. I just simply don’t think the radicaliztion of Cassian Andor is a twelve-hour story. It sounds like a two-hour story that you would release in theaters.
1. Andor – Season 2 [2025]
Watching the end of Andor comes with a lot of emotions (some contradictory). Much like season one, this is just seriously well-crafted work that is designed for actual adults and not man-children. It engages in big ideas with nuance and well-textured characters. It is quite simply the only Star Wars property still worth your time.
The thing is though: being well-made and for adults are not things that should be even really have to be considered when assessing and thinking about art. But the bar is so fucking low with Disney shit that shows like Andor seem revolutionary when they manage to escape the mouse’s house.
Once you clear those barely-above-ground hurdles though, it does seem quite clear that not only is this season of Andor good television, it also clears the first season. While the “Surf Dracula” element is not altogether missing (with Cassian’s arc in the first three episodes especially egregious in this regard), this is finally a show about the titular Andor being a revolutionary and going on missions and such.
In fact, Tony Gilroy made the rather ingenious decision to have this final twelve-episode season divided into four three-part cohesive arcs with one year of time separating the arcs. This allows the show to easily blend tension of short-term conflict and the emotion thats from characters being alive for a long time over the course of a show. It is a tricky idea to navigate, but Gilroy manages to pull it off.
Gilroy does this by trusting the audience to not need everything spelled the fuck out for them. We know what Andor and Bix mean to each other even though their screen time as a couple together is limited. We can feel and imagine what they mean to each other to such a degree that when Bix leaves him at the end of episode nine, it is one of the most emotionally overwhelming and devastating moments in the history of Star Wars. It has haunted my dreams ever since.
This is a show about adults for adults. It was not perfect. But comparing these two seasons of television to the fucking content slop that has otherwise been produced by Disney is a fucking insult to the concept of art . There is so much to unpack in these twenty-four hours – I hope to go back and do that one day.
December 14th – 5 Takeaways from Star Wars Lego Holiday Special
December 15th – 5 Takeaways from the Original Thrawn Trilogy
December 16th – Solo Podcast Review & 14 Questions about The Star Wars Holiday Special
December 17th – Top 10 Star Wars Performances
December 18th – Ranking the Star Wars Films
Past Star Wars Podcasts
Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker Podcast Review
Star Wars: The Last Jedi Podcast Review
Past Start Wars Articles
Ranking the Lightsaber Duels in Star Wars Films
5 Questions About the Future of Star Wars After Watching Rogue One
11 Issues with The Last Jedi After Two Viewings
What Can We Learn From Star Wars: The Last Jedi?
How Rian Johnson Finally Moved Star Wars Into the 21st Century
5 Questions After Watching Solo: A Star Wars Story
These Are the Only 4 Good Things About The (Extremely Bad) Rise of Skywalker
The Reel World 