Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Premise: A group of suburban kids stumble upon an old ship that shuttles them out into the middle of the galaxy. Now they must find their way back home.
About: Skeleton Crew comes from Spider-Man director Jon Watts. It was developed during a time when Lucasfilm had a dozen shows planned. The money-stuffed prodco wanted a Star Wars show for every demographic. As many of those shows fell by the wayside, Skeleton Crew somehow survived, probably because of Jon Watts recent pedigree. Dude is directing some of the most beloved Marvel movies around. Why not give him a chance? He teams up with Christopher Ford for this first episode. Ford is a good screenwriter. He wrote one of my favorite underrated movies of the last ten years, a little serial killer movie called The Clovehitch Killer. He also wrote several drafts of Spider-Man: Homecoming.
Writers: Christopher Ford and Jon Watts (based on the universe created by George Lucas)
Details: about 45 minutes
I still believe in Star Wars.
Or maybe it’s just that I still want to believe.
But, in order for me to have this belief, I must believe that Star Wars is bigger than the people in charge of it and that those people will pass. And when people who actually understand Star Wars get a hold of it, they will finally mine the stories that Star Wars is capable of telling.
Skeleton Crew comes at a difficult time for the franchise, mere months after its most disastrous output, a show called “The Acolyte.” Well, maybe The Acolyte wasn’t as bad as The Star Wars Christmas Special. But the fact that it’s in the same conversation is damning enough.
I don’t need to re-litigate all the other mistakes the franchise has made lately, namely the 17,000 movies that it’s canceled. But let’s just say that it’s in a lot of trouble, leaving Skeleton Crew with an almost impossible task that it was never meant to take on: SAVE STAR WARS.
Does Skeleton Crew save Star Wars?
Let’s find out.
The story for Skeleton Crew is simple. Four suburban kids, Wim, Neel, Fern, and KB, are inadvertently thrust on a wild adventure. 12 year old Wim lives with his single workaholic father. Since his dad is never home, it’s up to Wim to do almost everything, including getting to school every day.
On the day of his big “placement” test, he wakes up late, forcing him to take a shortcut with his hoverbike. In the forest, he stumbles upon a Lost-like hatch in the ground. He tells his best friend Neel, which is overheard by two cool girls (Fern and KB). The four head to the hatch to find out more.
Once there, they somehow get inside, where they learn it’s an old buried spaceship. Wim accidentally turns it on and the ship lifts out of the ground and shoots into space. Once there, they realize they’re not alone. Broken robot SM-33 is there with them. When they ask him to take them home, he points to all the stars and says, “Which star does your planet belong to?” It’s then when they realize they’re f&%*ed.
SM-33 says there’s a spaceport where they may be able to find some answers so off they go. Except that the spaceport SM-33 brings them to is a PIRATE SPACEPORT! The kids dodge and dance around a number of nefarious aliens before finally running into Jod Na, a man who says he can help them get home. But do they believe him?
There are three things that hit me right off the bat with this show that separated it from other Star Wars shows.
One, it’s a simple story.
Overcomplicating your stories is one of the quickest ways to frustrate readers UNLESS you are a master at plotting. And most writers are not masters of plotting. This is such a simple story: Kids lost. Kids need to get home. That’s it. We get it right away.
Two, the character work.
Character work can be a large and overwhelming process. But when you break it down, character work is simple. You give us reasons to relate to the character, you give us reasons to like the character, and you give that character something they’re trying to achieve that matters.
Wim is lonely. He misses his mom. His dad isn’t around much. These circumstances make us care about him immediately. And we like the fact that he doesn’t want to do some mundane job for the rest of his life. He wants something bigger for himself.
Then, of course, when he gets lost, his goal arrives: Get home.
Three, the tone.
Tone is always the hardest thing to get right because it’s a feel thing. But janky tones have been plaguing Star Wars for years. The closest we’ve gotten to a proper Star Wars tone since Disney bought the franchise was The Force Awakens. But nothing’s really come close since. I mean The Acolyte was practically anti-Star Wars tone.
For Star Wars, the tone should be a combination of adventure, mythology, whimsy, and mystery. And Jon Watts got those ingredients… if not perfect, then close.
I mean, the man finally put aliens back in Star Wars! I must’ve watched 8 episodes of Andor before I saw an alien.
Here, there are more aliens than you know what to do with. My absolute favorite alien was the little monkey guy who shuttled them from their ship to the spaceport. He literally made me lol five times. That moment when he gets the payment, looks at it, giggles maniacally, then shoots off? That’s Star Wars right there. Jon Watts gets it.
The first two episodes are so good that I didn’t have many criticisms.
I suppose the girl characters were bitcher than they needed to be. But I get it. Watts is trying to create conflict. If the girls are exactly like the boys, that’s boring. But it does have a teensy bit of that “girls are superior to boys” stink that was being forced into the development of 90% of projects three years ago.
Then, of course, I have to remember that I gave The Acolyte’s first two episodes a good review. But I did so with the same caveat I will use here, which is that the screenwriters spend the bulk of their time getting those first two episodes right. Then, because they’re not spending as much time on episodes 3-7, the writing drops off. I mean it dropped off so badly in Boba Fett that they just abandoned two episodes altogether, replacing them with Mandalorian eps. So we’ll have to wait until next week to see if that’s the case here.
But something gives me more hope for Skeleton Crew over other Star Wars shows. Like Watts’ ability to direct children. The actor who plays Wim has that perfect balance of naivety, likability, and acting chops. Unlike those poor excuses for actresses who played the young twins in The Acolyte, we actually believe this actor.
This is DEFINITELY worth checking out, even if you’re not into Star Wars. It’s got this holiday feel to it that will work for most audiences. It’s sweet. It’s innocent. It’s fun. I’m in!
[ ] What the hell did I just watch?
[ ] wasn’t for me
[xx] worth the stream
[ ] impressive
[ ] genius
What I learned: Do not be afraid to take your time setting up your characters in TV shows. This is what TV was made for – long-form storytelling. It’s not like movies where you have to set your hero up in one scene. After its cold open, Skeleton Crew takes its first 17 minutes setting up its young characters and boy does it pay off. Because sometimes you need that moment of quiet – your hero all alone in their house – feeling empty, isolated, abandoned. You can’t rush through a moment like that. And that moment has its roots in Star Wars lore. Luke Skywalker walking off to the end of his home and staring up at the setting suns – that moment DID NOT NEED TO BE IN THE MOVIE. It didn’t move the plot forward. A producer with ADD probably told Lucas to cut it. But those moments help sell what’s going on internally with your character. Watts understood that and took his time setting these characters up.
