In the Dark Reviews

'Ahsoka' starts slow, 'Reservation Dogs' wrap up tales

Kirk Boxleitner | Aug 31, 20230

Courtesy photo count

Jedi knight Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) wields her dual lightsabers to dispense justice in the "Ahsoka" streaming series on Disney+.

After watching the first two episodes of "Ahsoka" on Disney+, my reaction was this:

"So this is what 'Star Wars' feels like for those who aren't already fans."

I grew up with "Star Wars." I saw the original trilogy when each film premiered in theaters, and I saw each installment of the prequel trilogy on its opening night, too.

But there's a generation for whom the prequel trilogy was their first "Star Wars," just like the original trilogy was mine, and they didn't just watch the live-action prequels. They also watched the animated "Clone Wars" film and its TV series, plus the animated "Rebels" and "Tales of the Jedi" series.

Those works introduced Ahsoka Tano, the apprentice to Anakin Skywalker, and a host of the characters we're seeing in live action for the first time in "Ahsoka." Because my "Star Wars" viewing was mostly limited to the live-action movies and TV shows, "Ahsoka" has been my introduction to them.

Well, except for Ahsoka Tano herself. Actress Rosario Dawson brought the character to life for live action for the first time during the second season of "The Mandalorian," and did a good job of selling me on the character there.

For a generation of "Star Wars" fans, Ahsoka Tano means as much to them as Luke Skywalker did to me, which leaves me concerned by her portrayal in "Ahsoka." It does an effective job of introducing the players and encapsulating all their relationships and motivations, but it feels slightly flat.

That's probably partly intentional, but Dawson's Ahsoka seems to be making too many of the mistakes that Luke and Anakin did as Jedi mentors, which feels a bit disappointing, given how much the younger Ahsoka of "Clone Wars" was defined by not following the path that led to the downfall of the Jedi order.

Compared to the fiery young Ahsoka I've become acquainted with by going back and watching scenes from "Clone Wars" and "Rebels," Dawson's Ahsoka seems staid and closed, and I hope her arc involves reclaiming her passion and breaking the walls she's erected between herself and her former apprentice, the impetuous Mandalorian warrior Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo).

There's no shortage of compelling characters to explore here, between Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Hera Syndulla, a green-skinned Twi'lek whose stint in the Rebel Alliance has made her a general in the New Republic, and the late Ray Stevenson as Baylan Skoll, a gruff former Jedi who's gone to the dark side, without becoming a Sith.

"Ahsoka" promises to deliver the live-action appearance of a character featured heavily in the media that was my generation's equivalent of the "Star Wars" animated films and TV series; former Imperial Grand Admiral Thrawn, who made his debut in the novels of Timothy Zahn before being voiced in "Rebels" by Lars Mikkelsen (who's apparently playing him again in live-action in "Ahsoka").

During that extended stretch between the original and prequel trilogies, when the expanded universe novels and short story collections were the only canon that sustained "Star Wars" fans, Thrawn was a powerhouse of an archvillain, who animated the franchise when it was running on fumes.

Between all those elements, plus the introduction of an entire galaxy as a potential playground for future "Star Wars" stories, I'm trying to temper my high hopes for "Ahsoka," which so far feels more like it's feeding me the Wikipedia summaries for these characters than it's giving me reasons to invest in them emotionally.

Moving onto "Reservation Dogs" on Hulu, this third and final season is treating the second-season finale like its true climax, to the point that the descending action of the third season seems an extended epilogue.

After the Oklahoma quartet honored departed friend Daniel by making the pilgrimage to California that he didn't live to complete, ringleader Bear (played by D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai) declared his desire not to return to the rez. Indeed, it took the first three episodes of the third season for him to finally rejoin the rest of the Reservation Dogs, who'd already made their way home.

Along the way, Bear seems to chase off his spirit guide, but connects with Maximus (Graham Greene), a fellow former inhabitant of the Oklahoma reservation, whom we learn was much like Bear within his own social circle, which was composed of the elders of our current crop of kids.

Seeing young actors playing those grandparents, uncles and aunties as high school kids in a 1970s flashback episode was especially affecting.

Even Bear's more freethinking compatriots, like the contemplative "Cheese" (Lane Factor remains endlessly amusing and relatable in this role), seem to have taken the lesson that "There's no place like home" from their cross-country trip, but Bear is at a crossroads, and Maximus' gradual retreat into hermitage and conspiracy theories indicates an especially harrowing path that Bear could wind up wandering.

I don't know how this resolves, but it seems unlikely to be tied up with saccharin homilies.

A final note: You should watch "My Adventures With Superman" on Max, which wrestles with the question of how much trust should be invested in someone who possesses so much power.

Since at least the 1978 "Superman" film starring Christopher Reeve, on up through John Byrne's "Man of Steel" comic book miniseries in 1986, the subtext of the planet Krypton has been that, whatever moral virtues Clark Kent was raised with, they were not necessarily shared by the alien race that he came from.

After so many sci-fi and fantasy stories that have centered around a "chosen one," it's refreshing to be reminded that what makes Superman special is not what he can do with his superpowers, but how he chooses to use them. Though he's not human, he is unfailingly humane.