A new journey in a galaxy far, far, away.
What They Say:
Poe Dameron assigns newly appointed spy Kazuda Xiono to the Colossus, an aircraft refueling platform on an outer rim water planet; after Kaz boasts about being the best pilot around, he is forced to compete in a dangerous sky race.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With a new generation of fans coming on through The Force Awakens, it’s no surprise that the latest TV series focuses on that period. This one takes place a bit before that film so that we get some familiar characters involved before events spiral out of control through the film side. Having really enjoyed Clone Wars – and looking forward to more – and digging the latest aspects of the Rebels series, there’s a hesitancy with Resistance if only because of the animation style. I’ll admit easily that the more it feels like it skews younger the more frustrated I get by it because I know they can do a lot better – and kids deserve better as well. But, in the end, my love of Star Wars is what gets me to read the younger-oriented books as well as the more mainline and the same as when it comes to the shows like this. There’s more than enough to explore for everyone.
The show gives us a fun and simple little intro with Kaz of the New Republic, in his gleaming T-85 X-Wing fighter, having to deal with bringing materials to the Resistance. They get ambushed by a pretty intense First Order ship that leaves Kaz facing him one on one until Poe shows up and provides some assistance (along with BB-8). Poe’s amusing once they’re aboard Leia’s ship in leaning into Kaz about signing on to the Resistance (this whole dynamic is still weird in how it’s set up in the films) but we get the nod that Kaz’s father is a Senator with a big plan for his son, which is why Kaz feels fairly constricted with a lot of things. But we do get a look at that natural curiosity that he has which certainly humanizes him in a way that’s pretty cute – and maybe a little too cute.
Kaz is drawn by the possibilities here and we see how he’s going to be used by Poe and the Resistance. Heading to Castilon, which is along the edge of nowhere, the idea is for him to become a part of the pilot base that’s there. With the First Order operating out of Wild Space, a place like this is ideal for a spy to be working to acquire a lot of what they need in order to launch an attack on the New Republic. While we know the big picture end game of things there are a lot of stories to fill in between those events and what can be done. Kaz isn’t keen on being a spy but this is one that lets him be a pilot as there are a lot of those there and an interesting group of Resistance fighters. Again, a simple setup and there’s plenty of familiar spaceport cliches here within this universe that work well, including a bar like you’d expect.
The show works through a number of shenanigans as Poe works to set him up on the station with a man named Yeager to watch over him and the others. That, of course, leads to a bar fight and then a challenge in a race that will let him really establish himself. Again, it’s familiar setup material but it flows smoothly and I do like that for the short-term we get BB-8 being left with him to keep an eye on things. While the character side moves in a standard ay I do really appreciate the flying aspect of the series. We’ve seen it in different forms in the past two series but this one has a different feeling in some of it even though it is mostly just racing. The animation production company, Polygon, gives it a pretty slick look here that I like with the contrails, the various ship designs at play, and, admittedly, the videogame aspect of it all.
Team bonding is handling nicely enough with Kaz getting help from Yeager and Neeku, who may be a challenge in the long term to handle with his personality. The plus is that the show is just slowly introducing us to the cast here over the course of the two episodes whereas later on there’ll be less Neeku because of the overall size of the cast, making his quirks a lot more manageable. We do get the fun of rebuilding the ship Kaz is going to use and seeing more of what Yeager is running here. But the real challenge of the show is to come. A lot of what’s here is just getting a lot of the basics in and establishing character/ship models. What we don’t get is much in the way of story material as part of the big picture. If it works similar to Rebels in some ways I expect it’ll take most of the season before it really is firing on all cylinders but I like to think they learned some from that and will hit the ground running a bit sooner. While I don’t think that every series or story has to “count” in the big picture sense, there does need to be some real weight and meaning to it all.
In Summary:
One of the things I like about the Star Wars franchise as it goes on is that more and more from various works are incorporated into it. Bringing pieces from the prequels and original trilogy here works well to create a more cohesive universe. Star Wars Resistance feels like it leans a little more into serialized cartoon storytelling than Rebels and we get only the slimmest of introductions to most of the team that will populate the season. It’s a slow burn that has as its hook a decent bit of time with Poe early on and some nice nods to Leia as the threat of the First Order is really starting to rise. I like what we get for the Colossus base where this is run out of and I can easily see a lot of story potential but i suspect it’s going to take some time for it all to really come together.
Grade: B-
