by Jake Bourgeois, Contributing Writer
After a string of arguably middling live action seasons of television (not you, Andor), Star Wars is shaking up its target audience with a throwback to ‘80s kids’ adventure movies with Skeleton Crew.
Honestly, with the success of Star Wars animated properties, I’m shocked it’s taken this long for Disney to take aim at a live action kids’ show. While I would argue The Mandalorianand Obi-Wan Kenobiare shows that feature kid characters, and kids can certainly enjoy them, they aren’t the target audience. Not the case with Skeleton Crew, which aims to be a sort of Goonies in space.
It follows a group of sheltered children that team up with a disgraced pirate with a secret to find their way back to their hidden home, all the while avoiding other pirates on their tail by following an intergalactic map. Outside of Ryan Kiera Armstrong (Firestarter) as Fern, I was unfamiliar consciously with the rest of our youth protagonists, though our other co-lead, Ravi Cabot-Conyers, is a voice in Encanto. They both serve the de facto leaders of their respective pairings; however, I found myself connecting more to their friends. The character design of Neel (Robert Timothy Smith) makes him hard not to fall in love with, something the performance does nothing to diminish. Kyriana Kratter as KB, Fern’s friend with cybernetic enhancements, is another standout. The kids all have great chemistry, and are given their own moments to shine, including some weighty moments.
Our youth leads are then bolstered by a collection of familiar veteran faces. Top of the list is Jude Law as a disgraced pirate captain, Jod. On the coattails of Peter Pan & Wendy, his second shot at a pirate captain goes much better. You can never quite tell if he’s someone you can trust, and he adds some real gravitas to the narrative. Not to mention, he looks like he’s having a blast. Between this and The Order, I don’t think it’s hyperbolic to say that he’s recently been doing some of his best work in a decade or so. Nick Frost is SM 33 (see what they did there?), continuing a longstanding Star Wars tradition of employing well-known voice talents for memorable droids. It was great watching the mechanical first mate connect with the rest of his crew. Kerry Condon as Fern’s mother and an administrator on the planet is given less to do than the others, but she’s still a welcome face. Along the lines of Frost, perhaps my favorite supporting character, though, is Alia Shawkat (reuniting with series creator Jon Watts after The Old Man) as Kh’ymm. Her performance is great, but the character design is the star, and she is a true highlight of the show. The practical feel adds so much to the performance.
Perhaps where the talent is most stacked, though, is behind the camera. Watts, fresh off season two of The Old Man for FX/Hulu, serves as co-creator for the series, alongside Spider-Man: Homecoming and Cop Car collaborator Christopher Ford. Joining Watts behind the camera are David Lowery (Peter Pan & Wendy, The Green Knight), Bryce Dallas Howard, at this point a Star Wars TV vet, the Daniels (Everything Everywhere All at Once), Lee Isaac Chung (Twisters, Minari), and Jake Schreier (Beefand the upcoming Thunderbolts). It was fun to reach the end of the credits to see whose name was going to pop up.
And that’s my overall takeaway of the show. It’s just fun. The pirates? Fun. The action? Fun. The worlds we get to experience as our crew goes planet hopping? All unique and (perhaps just as importantly) new worlds for us to explore. As I was watching, I found myself reflecting on what context will do for a viewing experience. During the most recent season of The Mandalorian, the fact that one of the villains looked like something out of the Power Rangers, it took me out of it. Jod’s wolfman top lieutenant is the same way, but it works here because I was viewing it in a slightly different lens. Same with the finale chase. It’s not going to win any VFX awards, but it’d gotten me to buy into the story by then, so it didn’t bother me nearly as much as it would have otherwise. Though, I did feel like the finale ended up being the weakest episode of the series.
Its biggest sin is making a Star Wars pirate show and not including Disney’s best pirate: Hondo Ohnaka.
I found Skeleton Crew to be a comforting, if perhaps not an exemplary, watch. Does it necessarily have the wow factor of the best of The Mandalorian or Season One of Andor? No, but it doesn’t really need to. Entertaining me was good enough.
Rating: Liked It
Skeleton Crew is currently streaming on Disney+
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