TV reviews

Lucasfilm “The Honorable Ones” will be remembered as one of Star Wars Rebels‘s greatest achievements of character development. It took an underexplored but fascinating relationship between two mortal enemies and transformed them, both in each other’s eyes and in the viewers’, by forcing them to work together. Freezing temperatures, a serious injury, and a pair…

Lucasfilm “Homecoming” pulled off an incredible feat in the way it introduced Hera’s father, the fanatical Twi’lek freedom fighter Cham Syndulla. On the one hand, Cham threw Hera off-balance and showed us a new side of the Ghost’s confident captain, deepening our understanding of who she was before she was “Captain Syndulla.” On the other…

Lucasfilm Right off the bat, I will admit that I am a sucker for space whales. The Voyage Home is my favorite Star Trek movie. But a cool-looking interstellar cetacean is nothing without a well-developed story surrounding it, and “The Call” ably met that challenge as well. The clash between Hera’s pragmatic priorities and Ezra’s…

Lucasfilm I have never found Zeb, the loyal muscle on Star Wars Rebels, to be particularly interesting, so I never expected “Legends of the Lasat” to be one of the best episodes to date. But here we are. This episode didn’t just advance Zeb’s story by providing closure for his biggest regret; it also connected…

Lucasfilm In an unusual twist, neither Hera’s wise leadership nor Kanan’s faith in the Jedi philosophy carried the rebels to victory in “The Protector of Concord Dawn.” Instead, the continued safe movement of Commander Sato’s rebel fleet depended on Sabine ignoring her doubters and fighting an enemy she knew all too well—an enemy was as…

Lucasfilm It’s never easy to bring a famous face into a TV show about less famous faces, especially while that show is still finding its footing. Star Wars Rebels avoided showing Yoda on screen in his debut episode, it gave Obi-Wan Kenobi only a brief holographic role, and it has largely kept Darth Vader in…

Lucasfilm “Legacy” stands out as one of Star Wars Rebels‘ best episodes yet. Not only did it answer one of the show’s first questions in a compelling way, testing Ezra Bridger’s maturity, but it also raised bigger questions about the nature and will of the Force. On a practical level, I enjoyed watching Ezra’s journey…

Lucasfilm Even the commanding presence of Ahsoka Tano couldn’t save “Future of the Force” from being a generally lackluster Star Wars Rebels episode. The story was thin, the characters received scant development, and one plot point in particular defied all logic and proper characterization. It felt like most of the characters spent most of the…

Lucasfilm “Stealth Strike” might be as close to a perfect episode of Star Wars Rebels as we’ve seen in a long time. It ties with “Wings of the Master” as the best of season 2. Not only did it blend moments of humor with moments of gravity (pun intended), but it resolved some tension between…

Lucasfilm “Blood Sisters” was another uneven Star Wars Rebels episode. Chopper positively shined, Sabine’s past started to come into the light, Ezra offered some welcome comic relief, and the walking, clanking, gonking MacGuffin brought some quintessentially Star Wars humor to the story. In short, most of the characters were great. But “Blood Sisters” turned on…