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 recently finished this book after having it in my ereader for YEARS. I bought it originally because it had Wil Wheaton’s first fiction sale in it. (It’s a decent story.) It’s a great idea for a collection; shorts (there’s even a poem) that detail events from the first movie from alternate POVs. There are sequels covering the next two movies of the original trilogy as well, and proceeds were donated to a book charity, at least when originally published. I will probably look for the next two, but who knows how long it will take to read them! 😉