Star Wars: Resistance

...thank god they are bringing back Clone Wars.

This show was made for kids ONLY. It does not have the universal appeal of CW and Rebels. Adults fans of SW will not like it. Such a disappointment. The characters and plots have no depth.

It seemed really childish and the animation and writing weren't on-par with the other Star Wars animated series. However, I remember feeling the same way about Rebels and even The Clone Wars when those shows first started, so I defended it on the grounds that the show would likely mature with its audience and get darker and more dramatic as the series progressed. By the end of the first season, that seemed to be the direction the show was going in. One of the main characters joins the First Order and now our heroes are on the run. What's going to happen next?? Mostly a bunch of stupid standalone adventures that don't really progress the plot or develop the characters. Yeah, the second season felt really meandering compared to the first season, most of the episodes didn't even have the main conflict set up at the end of the first season in them. Then it shows up again, and then the show just kinda ends before it really even got a chance to begin. This show was a whole lot of nothing, ultimately. For a show titled Star Wars Resistance, it does not really give any larger context to the Resistance and the sequel era the way Rebels did for the Rebellion and the originals or The Clone Wars did for the Republic and the prequels. It feels weirdly separate, most of the show technically doesn't even have the Resistance in it. It feels more like LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures than Rebels. To be very honest, I believe this show was cancelled behind the scenes. I think the show was supposed to go on for longer, but was cancelled prematurely because it wasn't successful enough. I don't have any evidence to back that up, but it just feels that way to me. There are some strengths to the show, the voice acting is good, it's designed well, the main setting is very well-developed and the characters are likeable and memorable, but that's still not enough to make up for the lacklustre writing. Overall, if you really like Star Wars and are starved for new content, check it out. Otherwise, I'd say skip it unless you're under the age of 12, but even then I'd recommend Rebels and The Clone Wars over this show any day. Very disappointing.

Overall, this show is massively disappointing, but not because it's really that bad - it just has such a vaunted legacy to live up to, and had such promise that it doesn't reach.

First, the artwork is beautiful. I only wish the the other Star Wars cartoons had anime-inspired artwork like this instead of the awful, dated, digital style they have.

But the other SW cartoons succeed in spite of their artwork, the writing is that good -- and the inverse is Resistance. In spite of the beautiful animation, the show never takes off, the writing is that directionless.

In contrast to the other SW cartoons, there's almost no tie-in to the specific plot of the SW movies, with an exception or two. It's just broad strokes about life in the SW universe during the time of "The First Order", centered around a "platform"/station. There's little about Jedi. It makes this cartoon into something else entirely. It's slow and mundane with occasional action. It's basically a lighthearted drama. Similar to SW Rebels, the main character isn't very likable. But it almost works.

While Resistance tries to keep it relatively light and humorous, it's rarely actually funny -- but admirably, it's not cringe-worthy either. There are some flashes of quite clever and unexpected humor with surprisingly nuanced comedic timing, in fact. Such as when a good-guy droid tries to get a prisoner to talk by submitting them to nails-on-chalkboard sounds..only to have another of the good guys abruptly tell them to stop bc it's annoying. Not easy to pull-off.

The character development is decent, like the other SW cartoons, and overall the writing is far better than the sequel SW movies - unfortunately that's the universe that this show operates in, so perhaps it's for the best it doesn't waste time trying to make sense of nonsense and cuts it's own path.

If they made a third season, I'd come back for it. For me, Rebels only took off in its 2nd season, before becoming my favorite over the Clone Wars series. Regardless, I appreciated this effort overall - when the beautiful artwork of Resistance gets paired with the writing success and compelling narrative of the previous SW cartoons, it's going to be an absolute winner.

When this show started I was aboard the hate train because I was tired of Disney's new direction of Star Wars and the first episodes felt really disappointing and boring. As of mid February, the show has gotten quite more promising and interesting than from where it started. All of the characters except for Oscar Isaac's character (Poe Dameron) felt really dumb at the beginning, but became more interesting as they became more developed. The plot at the beginning (which consisted of plane racing) became more of what the show promised, becoming more of a war in space than what we see at the beginning. If you're an adult you probably won't get much out of the show, but it serves as way better of a show for younger folks than Star Wars Rebels does.

This show leans towards the younger demographic which is great. My 5 year old daughter and I really enjoyed watching this together. The last quarter of the season really picks up plot wise and we look forward to season 2.