This one took me a while to go through its eight episodes, which says something right away about it.
Right after it premiered I heard it reduced to “Star Wars Goonies” and while that’s probably a fair tagline, the story has to fit into a wider universe and timeline that was NOT a constraint for the 1985 film. An adult will recognize the various tropes here, but I’m not sure how well a kid will get these characters as they aren’t shown with a lot of depth.
My biggest dislike of this story, though is Jude Law’s character. SPOILER ALERT!
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He’s the VILLAIN! You think he might have redeeming qualities, but, nope. Those little bits of good he did with the kids were just a jerk’s feint. The show’s ending doesn’t even hint at remorse for him. This just felt entirely out of place for this show’s two functions as Star Wars (Villains are Villains, well, except for Darth Vader/Anakin at the end–which we at least get to experience) and as kid’s show (Good vs. Evil ends up being clear-cut). I doubt anything more will happen in this corner of the SW universe, so we’ll file this under “At least I got something out of my Disney+ subscription this month”.
I am blessed with friends that read even more than I do, and when we get together (too infrequently!) I get recommendations for books that sound interesting; sometimes I just get how much they like the author. This book, and the entire series (called “The Murderbot Diaries”) was one of those. I jotted down the author’s name and there it sat for several years. This won lots of awards in 2018, and as a novella it certainly doesn’t take long to read. I really enjoyed the concept of another cyborg-like intelligence that transcends its programming and limits. Really, I’m a sucker for that kind of story. This was an entertaining setup and I’m looking forward to where the second book takes the Murderbot.
I didn’t begrudge Peter Brown the 1983 book The Love You Make as I figure that a Beatles insider gets a chance to make some money off the association. THIS book, however, is just a compilation of the source interviews done for the book.