There's more to watch this weekend than just Star Wars. [Always Be Streaming - Aug 25]
But that Star Wars show is actually pretty good.
Not a lot of volume this week, but some premium titles.
The biggest title of the week is a new Star Wars show called Ahsoka. As is the case with shows like this: If you’re into Star Wars, you have probably already seen it. If Star Wars isn’t your thing, there’s probably not a lot I can say to persuade you otherwise.
A few thoughts on the show:
The last show was Andor, a show that broke a lot of the rules around Star Wars and would probably actually be appealing to a whole lot of people who it would be difficult to talk into watching Star Wars.
This show is not that. Ahsoka is very much for those who are susceptible to stories from a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. That isn’t to say it is for fans only - but it is for those who are happy watching lightsabers on screen and hearing pew pew pew coming from their speakers.The first episode does tie itself pretty heavily to the cartoon shows Clone Wars and Rebels. Haven’t seen them? That’s actually okay. Just think about all that stuff as being like Obi-Wan Kenobi telling Luke about all the clone war business in the original 1977 film - it is backstory for the characters to understand, but you’ll do just fine carrying on without it.
Episode two is really great fun with an entertaining action sequence towards the end. As long as the show is more like the second episode and less like the first, this should prove to be highly entertaining.
I’d be pretty happy to see Star Wars go back to using people in silly costumes running around in forests rather than see as many CGI characters in ‘The Volume’. There’s a bland uniformity to how Volume-filmed scenes look that just isn’t all that appealing to watch.
At a certain point, live action Star Wars might as well just be a CGI cartoon. I wonder with Ahsoka if we are at that stage…
Beyond Star Wars, there’s also a new Adam Sandler family comedy You Are So Not Invited To My Bay Mitzvah - it is a family comedy in two senses in that it is both for families to watch and also it literally stars several members of Adam Sandler’s family.
Want to know the best thing you should watch this weekend…?