philippullman-86842

Surprisingly entertaining this show manages to be family friendly instead of simply kid friendly. It is bursting with personality. To strike a more suitable comedic tone it seems that a few characters were inspired by their puppet counterparts in the Robot chicken shorts. The emperor especially is just a treat to watch him and his antics. The main characters are also quite well written. The Freemakers do feel like a real family. it is quite heartwarming to see them work together. Furthermore the setting makes perfect use of the lego star wars setting by merging the master builder concept from the lego movie with the concept of the force. The result is quite unlike everything else in the star wars franchise and a breath of fresh air. using the force to build instead of throwing stuff around allows for a lot more creativity on the part of the writers. Finally, while a few people might lament the status of the show as non canon to the broader Disney Star wars franchise i must say that this works to the show's advantage. It has far more liberty in its storytelling by being in its own canon.

14 Episodes in so far I have to say that Star Wars resistance is easily the worst modern star wars animated series. Far more mediocre that even the first season of Star wars Rebels. Kazuda Xiono is a bumbling idiot without the charm needed to be endearing. Jarek Yeager is as bland as a piece of stale bread even after getting his dedicated episode featuring his brother. Same goes for Tam Ryvora and Torra Doza (they are so forgettable that i had to check wikia to remember their names).

But that's not the worst part. One of the most common critic against this show is how cheap it looks ( or alternatively that it is childish instead of being kid-friendly). but another animated Series proved that's not the core issue. indeed the "Lego star Wars Freemakers adventures" has arguably even cheaper animation and is even more clearly aimed at children, but it is still a thoroughly enjoyable show while resistance is just a slog to get through.

i think the reason the show is so stale is the lack of a core narrative or of a basic premise. Kazuda is a spy that is just plain bad at spying more often than not just stumbling onto meaningless first order plots. He is also a pilot and racer, yet apart from the first episode he never races. The core team dynamic is also sorely lacking. the mechanics are not a family, or a real team. They're hardly even friends. coworkers at best and watching them interact is basically just as boring as your daily grind in the office. hardly escapist fantasy. Furthermore there is no imminent threat. The show doesn't explain why Kazuda's mission of spying on the first order is so important. There is hardly any urgency to foil their plans (this can be seen by the fact that every other episode is pure filler ) other than stopping the few ineffective pirate attacks.

In the end i think this is why the Star wars resistance fails so spectacularly so far. Simply put, it is set in the "sequel era". This period of the lore is fundamentally broken. The main character is working for an organization called "the resistance" yet is actually working on the behalf of the official government (the new republic) which make them more akin to a secret police than a guerrilla force. Because of that backward setting Kazuda has been stuck on a remote station in the middle of a featureless ocean. He cannot go out and explore the galaxy (like the crew of the Ghost in Star Wars Rebels did) because there is no interesting conflicts or stories to be written in the sequel era setting. Before watching the show I was worried Star wars resistance would waste all its time trying to fix the broken lore established by the 2 Disney movies. Instead the show decided to ignore everything. As a result we have a show with no story, no plot, no characters, and fundamentally no soul.

What can I say that hasn't been said before... the writing is non existent, the animation amateurish, the overall style and design lacking (to say the least), and the protagonists act out of character.

But in the end it doesn't really overstay its welcome... I guess it's best to look at this "cartoon" for what it is: a series of 2 minutes long advertisement spots aimed at toddlers