Small Screen Star Wars

'The Mandalorian' brought it's third season to close with a climactic battle for Mandalor, capping off a rocky eight episodes that have left some fans disappointed after what was such a stellar conclusion to season two. "The Return" ties up many of the loose ends from this season and the action set-pieces alone are worth the price of admission (more jetpack heavy battle sequences please) but takin...

As this season closes in on it's finale next week, there have been a lot of questions about this season's direction, or lack there of. Including on this very show. This penultimate episode for season 3 does a lot to answer those questions and it does so with tons of style. There's plenty of exciting action set pieces this week to sink your teeth into, which are satisfying in there own way, but it'...

Most people seem to agree that season 3 of 'The Mandalorian' seems to be a bit lost in the woods. Despite strong episodes, like last week's "Pirates", overall the larger plot seems to be a bit directionless at times. It's a cloud that is hanging over the show and seems to be casting a primarily negative shadow on it's reception this year. This week's episode unfortunately continues that trend, but...

Just as Din seemed to be fairly aimless since his bath in the living waters, so to did the show itself. Wandering from plot point to plot point with no regard for pacing or sense of direction. That largely changed this week as Din is recruited to rescue Nevarro at the behest of an unlikely ally, all with the possibility of using the opportunity to create a new home for his cohorts. The threat of p...

It's a rare thing to get a season finale that hits as hard as this two-part season 2 capper of 'The Bad Batch'. Lucasfilm Animation was firing on all cylinders for much of this season, with gorgeous animation, top tier performances, and scoring from Kevin Kiner that is as good as anything you'd get in a feature film. Yet somehow they took it to another level with "The Summit", and then somehow fou...

A big reveal accompanied by a nice surprise are the highlights of this week's episode of 'The Mandalorian', that otherwise felt mostly inconsequential. Not quite a bottle episode (but close), we spend much of the relatively short runtime with the Mandalorian covert as they attempt to rescue a child from what is essentially a dragon. Meanwhile, over on 'The Bad Batch' we are treated to one of the b...

After a massive bombshell at the end of last week's episode of 'The Mandalorian', we take a sharp left turn into a completely different part of the galaxy and largely leave the Mythosaur thread to dangle... for now. The shift to concentrate on Dr. Pershing and his attempt to reintegrate into a post-war society, though surprising, was actually chalk-full of deep world building and does the leg work...

Coming out of a lackluster premiere, 'The Mandalorian' steps things up in a big way with "The Mines of Mandalore". They waste no time in getting to the meat of the larger story, with a much better mix of lore to chew on with very exciting action (did someone say slice and dice?). Meanwhile on 'The Bad Batch' side, Lucasfilm animation outdoes themselves yet again with another top tier episode of St...

The big brains at Disney have decided that for the next 4 weeks, Wednesdays will be Star Wars double-header day, with episodes of season 3 of "The Mandalorian" premiering alongside the ongoing season 2 of "The Bad Batch". It certainly makes for a very fun double-feature for Star Wars fans, but also makes covering those shows on the podcast slightly more complicated. As such, Julian and Rachel will...

With no ship, and no help from Cid, The Batch are all but stranded. But wait! Omega has a plan! They'll track their stolen ship by zeroing in on their defective power droid, Gonky. This takes the crew to a mining facility that has their own problems. Namely, a tale as old as time, in that the workers are being abused by a greedy boss. Fortunately, with the help of the thief who originally stole th...

It's back to our regular scheduled programming this week with another "mission of the week". Or at least so we thought. "The Crossing" starts off in a very unassuming way but as things go from bad to worse on a this gold rush era, western themed mystery planet, it becomes evident that this episode has a little more going on under the surface (ahem, pun not intended). In what can be described as a...

This season of 'The Bad Batch' has been a real rollercoaster. The highs of "The Solitary Clone" to the lows of episodes like "Faster". This week, the show once again elevated itself with a 2-episode drop that feels like a spiritual sequel to the great 'The Clone Wars' episode "Clone Conspiracy". In fact, the first part of this 2-part story arch, aptly named "The Clone Conspiracy", doesn't even fea...

We are proud to be taking part in "Star Wars Podcast Day 2023", a celebration of all the podcasts who are covering the galaxy far far away. This is our first year taking part, and as a special bonus episode just for the occasion, Rachel and Julian look ahead at all the Star Wars content coming to Disney+ and beyond. 2023 is shaping up to be one of the best years for Star Wars content in some time,...

Now we're cooking with gas! After two very insular episodes that felt very light and fluffy we're back to something with a little more (furry) meat on the bones. "Tribe" kicks off with a very moody space station sequence that leads up right into the reintroduction of a fan favourite character from 'The Clone Wars' in nonother than everyone's favourite Wookie Jedi, Gungi! He's is looking a bit olde...

Last week's episode of 'The Bad Batch' gave us a topsy-turvy, through the looking glass examination of the jingoistic "adventures" of 'The Clone Wars', seen through the eye's of a compassionate, respected, and likely regretful, veteran of those wars. It was near perfect - chefs kiss*. This week... well this week we got a pseudo-podracing episode that attempts to flush out Cid's past, but unfortuna...

Think back to ‘Revenge of the Sith’ - after Kenobi finishes off Grievous, Commander Cody, Kenobi’s good friend and colleague, gives him back his dropped lightsaber. This is only moments before he shoots him down when Order 66 is enacted. That moment is the last time we had seen Cody from a timeline perspective. A lot has happened since then: countless Jedi murdered, the rise of the Galactic Empire...

After a short holiday break, Julian and Rachel return to Star Wars, this time in the animated form, to discuss the premiere of ‘The Bad Batch’ season 2, which encompassed two episodes, “Spoils of War”, and “Ruins of War”. The two-part premiere saw The Batch take on an extremely risky “get rich quick” scheme that takes them to the planet of Serenno, Count Dooku’s old haunt, to steal a fraction of h...

What a season of television! 'Andor' is easily one of the best shows of the year, regardless of genre, but it changed the game for Star Wars. Tony Gilroy laid the gauntlet, and is now stepping back into the shadows as he prepares to wow us again with season 2. Which, unfortunately, will likely be over a year away. In the meantime, we can revisit the masterpiece that is this first season. A season...

One episode left! The level of quality on 'Andor' has been so high, the show so engrossing, the final episode for this nearly perfect first season feels like it's coming way too fast. We spend much of this penultimate episode moving the pieces into position for a what is shaping up to be a thrilling finale. All roads lead to Ferrix. With Marva's tragic passing pulling all the key players, includin...

Defying all odds, this show continues to get better every week. With the conclusion of the heist arch, and the weight of expectations it carried, it was impressive how well it managed to stick the landing. Now four episodes removed from that dramatic escape from Aldhani, we've reached the end of the prison arch. Not only does the show deliver an epic payoff to an escape we knew was coming, it did...

We're two-thirds of the way through this prison arch and once again the tension is palpable. Every scene drips with suspense - which is quite the feat considering we already know the fate of many of these characters. It's a testament to the quality of the storytelling that the show is able to create such dramatic weight in a prequel setting. We watch as Andor slowly puts an escape plan in place, w...

Andor is admitted to a very "different" type of prison following his swift conviction. This further adds to the fallout from the heist as we see it's even reached previously convicted prisons. Meanwhile we see how the elites are handling this while Mon hosts another cocktail event to garner votes to delay the Emperors latest "overreach". On Ferrix the Empires grip tightens as Vel and Cinta watch A...

The repercussions from last week's "successful" heist are far reaching. This character driven and world building heavy episode shows us how the Empire responds to threats (not well), and what that means for the wider galaxy. Meanwhile, Andor has to grapple with all of this in a much more personal, heartbreaking, way. Mon and Luthen spar somewhat, but the mission continues as we're treated to some...

Andor’s second 3-episode arch came to a dramatic close this week as the Imperial heist we have all been waiting for was finally executed. Was it a complete success? No. But the “heroes” did come out with a decent chunk of change, striking a blow against the galactic villains; “vulnerable to manipulation” my butt. The win came at a cost though, with key members of the team not reaching the the fini...