This is the Way

 So if you're a 50 year old like me, who actually saw the first ever Star Wars movie in the theater, you likely have enjoyed The Mandalorian very much and see it as a return to what made the franchise great.

As an aging nerd, there's lots to love. The show clings closely to the production design of the original films and also has a great economy of story and character that echoes the best moments of the movies we remember most fondly.

In 1977 I was dragged into the theater by my mom after she gave a hard pass to seeing a Disney cartoon, "The Rescuers" - I was upset that I couldn't watch cartoon mice - but I quickly changed my tune.  I will never forget seeing that Star Destroyer pass overhead at the beginning of the movie.  It was a moment forever burned into my 6 year old brain that I can still see clearly today.  It was the beginning of a life long love for blockbuster entertainment and the impetus for me to try and get involved in any way I could, as an adult, into an occupation connected to movies and/or tv.

And I think ultimately, the big reason The Mandalorian has hit home so hard and strong with us Gen X people, is that the images burned into our brains have been there now going on 40 years.  It's hard to escape being enthralled with a tv series that is so technically superb at bringing those etched-in pictures back to life.  

But as blown away as I and others my age have been, the generation before us must be completely out of their minds.  These are kids, now adults, who literally watched the original trilogy on VHS when they were still in diapers.  They then came of age right as a second wave of Star Wars movies hit the theaters.

And although my generation did it's level best to crap all over these movies as much and as loud as we could, ultimately we failed to dampen the love for George's prequels.  It is very obvious at this point, if you pay attention at all to the social media of young people, that Episodes 1-3 are not only finally being openly appreciated, but that there is a deep and protective love for little Annie, Jar-Jar and all the rest of the problematic gang.

And although I've only noticed this love recently, I can gain understanding from my 16 year old daughter that the love has been there for a LONG time.  Since the beginning really.  Gen X decided we would act exactly like Baby Boomers and make everything about us - and in the end it didn't matter because the prequels weren't made for us at all, they were made for the next generations of kids.  George knew this, even though the unwavering determination of Gen X to be miserable about the prequels certainly hurt his feelings to some extent, in the end I think he recognizes that ultimately all the bile has less to do with the prequels themselves and ultimately more to do with the boring truth that you can never go home again.

Well, the genius that is Dave Filoni came along when George wanted to flesh out the timeline between episodes 2 and 3 in the form of an animated series called the Clone Wars, and he managed to help build a very impressive and massive amount of stories that went a long way to greatly improve the importance and emotional power of the prequels.

And it makes sense right?  The prequels amount to less than 8 hours of story telling, the Clone Wars animated series has nearly 50 hours to play with.  Even if Filoni wasn't as great of a story teller as he is, it would be pretty hard not to improve the prequel legacy with such a large amount of time to build and expand with.

But the good, or rather great, news was - Filoni is a master story teller, who cut his teeth on the impressive Avatar: The Last Airbender animated show (that my daughter made me watch and I'm glad I did) and then came in and gave an enormous kick in the pants to Star Wars universe with a massively rich array of characters and satisfying character arcs in the form of an expertly animated series.  And then he did it again with another animated series called "Rebels".

Flash forward a year or two and John Favreau, the brilliant fellow behind the amazing movie "Elf" and the genesis of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the original "Iron Man" - is tasked with a live action Star Wars series, and who does he bring on right from the beginning?  The genius who took a deep appreciation for the prequels and turned it into an animation juggarnaut,.

Oh, I guess I failed to mention that Filoni loves the prequels.  I suppose it would be an obvious qualification for someone whose job it was to tell a story between episodes 2 and 3, but the anger for the prequels runs so deep in people my age that it would be an easy thing to ignore.

Filoni, truly and deeply LOVES the prequels, and more than once has publicly and loudly gone to the matt for George's maligned movies.  The most impressive defense of the prequels I've ever seen is in the Mandalorian documentary series on Disney+. Filoni at the directors round table talks unedited for a solid 12 minutes about why the lightsaber duel between Qui-gon Jin/Obi-wan and Darth Maul is the most important fight in  the Star Wars saga, and it's truly impressive.   His love and knowledge of the prequels, and his expert breakdown of why they matter so much - it has to be seen to be believed.

And so Mr. Filoni brought this passion and expertise to the Mandalorian, and thank God he did because the show it turns out is not only great nostalgia and fan service for us 50 year old curmudgeons who stubbornly insist on only appreciating the movies that were around when we were kids, but the show is actually a massive continuation and enhancement of ALL of George Lucas' Star Wars.  And the show is all the richer for it.

Filoni's deep love and massive talent for ALL the Star Wars, permeates the show.  From the "Roger Roger" droid parts in a sand crawler, to an aborted Snoke clone in stasis.  But production design isn't the only all-encompassing embrace of Lucas.   Character after character can be connected to the prequels and even some to the sequels, which is now the new whipping boy flavor of the month of the Gen X hate parade.

Bo Katan, a beloved Clone Wars character, showed up this season in episode 3 and millennials lost their minds.  The very next show, Ahsoka Tano, another Clone Wars giant (the only character from that show on par in importance with Anakin and Obi-wan) finally made her long rumored appearance and the collective orgasm across the nerd-verse was heard and felt far and wide.

These massive waves of pleasure were so HUGE that they couldn't help but put cracks in the armor of us cranky asshole fans - yes the 50 year olds who insist on acting like babies with every new Star Wars product.  Next thing I know, I'm seeing reaction videos on YouTube of overweight balding guys like me wetting themselves as Katie Sackhoff (Bo Katan) and Rosario Dawson (Ahsoka Tano) show up.

Really dudes?  You hated the prequels, you poo-poohed the Clone Wars 'cartoon' and now you're on board? Ok , boomer or gen Xer or whatever.

Whatever indeed.  I'm actually ok with my generation now, despite being fickle and bitter beyond reason at the arrival of 3 brand new Star Wars feature films in 1999-2005, and then again over the past 5 years with 3 even better feature films. The Mandalorian and Dave Filoni have disarmed a lot of that cynical anger in one fell swoop.

Season 1 of The Mandalorian was a well crafted set-up, a serialized western that followed 'The Man With No Name" across the galaxy as he rescued a kid (take that asshole Gen Xers who hate little Annie) and protected him.

Season 2 was the spectacular payoff which to the casual eye would seem to be fan service in the extreme, but to a Star Wars fan - be it a cynical old fatty or a wide eyed youngster with a Jar-Jar stuffy, it was deliverance on a biblical scale.

And it has cut across the generations.  The youtube reaction videos this morning after the season 2 finale are full of 20somethings through 60somethings, all with tears of joy in their eyes. I can't help but be watery eyed myself doing the ultimate dumb thing of the 21st century - watching other people react to something I've already seen.

And now it's time for SPOILERS - so if you haven't digested all 16 episodes of the Mandalorian series you should stop now and come back when you're done.

The people my age and older on youtube who are this morning blubbering tears of joy - think they are doing so because Luke Skywalker showed up.  While this is a big part of it, the bigger part is that the emotions are not only rooted in a single character from a movie that's 44 years old - it's THE character from a massive saga that spans all of those years in ever emerging and flourishing content with far more stories than just three and far more characters than just the holy trinity (Luke, Lea and Han).

Take away the prequels, take away the Clone Wars and Rebels, and take away the sequels.  Now try to imagine a show like Mandalorian existing, pretty tough.  Then try to imagine if it somehow had come to exist and then think about Luke Skywalker showing  up in the season finale. Yes, it still would have been pretty cool - but it wouldn't be the ocean of joyful tears that we are seeing right now.  

I have no doubt in my mind that the focus would've been more on the CGI and less on the return of the character - the opposite of the reaction today.

But the reason Mandalorian works, and the reason Skywalker's appearance was so knee-buckling, is because we have been living through constantly emerging and evolving Star Wars content for 4 decades.

That many of us have been needlessly nasty about most if not all of that content, is pretty despicable.

I've said it many times before but it bears repeating.  No one hates Star Wars more than Star Wars fans.

And yet, here we are - all but the nastiest of us have abandoned the dark side (for now) and have returned to loving Star Wars again.   All thanks to Favreau and Filoni and their incredible team of artists.

It is a great morning to be a Star Wars fan that's for sure.

And my fondest hope is that when the next piece of content comes out that doesn't meet the expectations of my generation, my generation for once could maybe shut the fuck up a bit instead of gnashing their teeth and wringing their hands like a little bitch.

Star Wars does not belong to us and we are entitled to nothing.

You are certainly able to criticize if you feel a story falls short, certainly I did with "Rise of Skywalker" but there is a right way and a wrong way to do it.

When you want to voice displeasure - do it with respect, do it with thoughtfulness and do it without questioning the heart and character of people like George Lucas or Kathleen Kennedy or whoever else is creating content.  

If you see a Star Wars movie or tv show that you don't care for as nothing more than a cynical cash grab - you and not the creator are the problem.  All movies and television shows are a "cash grab" in that none of them would exist if there wasn't a profit to be made.

Grow up and recognize this first before you get out the knives to eviscerate the character of someone you know nothing about.  Or rather, you are ignoring the one thing that you do know - that they unequivocally love Star Wars and wouldn't be creating Star Wars content if they didn't.

Rick Berman got it in Star Trek and George Lucas got it in Star Wars - an irrational hatred from the fan base that is rooted in their own inability to recapture the magic from childhood and has little to do with the thoughts or feelings of grown ass men and women who are trying their best to create a story in a creative universe that they love and is also loved by millions more.

Sometimes they screw up.  Sometimes they fall short. Sometimes they don't have the time they need to do justice to the story that came before (Rise of Skywalker I'm looking at you).  But never, is a creator giving thought to how they can most thoroughly rape your childhood.

Let's all get over ourselves and yes, embrace the feels of great joy when they succeed wildly (Mandolorian Season 2 Finale) and thoughtfully criticize when it's necessary.  Hopefully in that criticism we can use the sandwich technique and couch it in what we did like.  Much more productive and helpful than just shitting all over something because it makes you feel better.  That's not what fans do, that's what bitter babies do.

Example;  Rise of Skywalker has many fantastic and emotional moments even though it drastically shortchanges characters like Finn and Rose and often feels rushed and not very well thought out.  The Palpatine re-emergence and lineage especially feel out of left field and are disappointing developments because they appear to be retconning bold choices made in the previous film.  Thankfully there's still enough great moments to off-set these shortcomings.  Enough that I still ended up enjoying the movie.  And I for sure love the sequels and pray that some how this is not the last time we see these characters.

See?  It's not that hard.  I could do an even harsher criticism for Episode 1 The Phantom Menace, as I truly feel that is by far the weakest Star Wars movie - but again, my love for Star Wars goes so deep I couldn't bear to do it without pointing out what did work and what I liked.

I can't imagine writing an entirely negative screed, or even worse going on youtube and ranting non-stop about how much I hated Episode 1, even if I did genuinely despise the film - which I don't.

There is only one of these movies that truly dislike, and that is "Nemisis" - not  Star Wars.  It's Star Trek, the other great sci-fi love of my life.  That is a truly awful movie.  I would be hard pressed to say much positive about it.  The sandwich technique probably wouldn't soften the blow too much.  But I don't waste my time thinking about it, pretty much at all.  I likely haven't thought of that film at all in over a decade.  I'm almost positive as I'm writing this that the movie "Nemisis" literally hasn't entered my brain in 10 years.  Whereas the average Star Wars hater, or you could say the average 50 year old Star Wars "fan" probably thinks of Last Jedi and Phantom Menace all the time.

But, still,  I don't hold the awfulness of "Nemisis" against the creators, including Brent Spiner and Patrick Stewart who had a hand in the story.  I certainly forgive them and still hold them in high regard. And in the end - if I'm ever flipping channels and stumble across "Nemisis", I likely somehow won't start screaming at the sky.  I'll probably crack a smile and maybe even watch it for a few minutes.  Maybe.   It is a truly God awful movie.  But I'm looking forward to watching the new show that is out right now called "Picard" and I would certainly love it if they incorporated the "Nemisis" story line, and that would no doubt make the last Star Trek feature film (and the franchise as a whole) that much stronger.

So I didn't really mean to make this a rant about Star Wars fans - as insufferable as they can be - but I think I've made my point.

Star Wars is wonderful and amazing - and when it's at it's best it can even be transcendent.

Let's hold on to that transcendence and love in our hearts and remember that it won't always be this great - and when it isn't - it's okay to lead with kindness and a be a positive "force" instead of being a ranting dickhead.

Oh yeah - and when that green lightsaber busted out I was like "Daaayum!  Luke!!!!"   That was awesome!

       

TOS - 1.06

Mudd's women was the sixth episode broadcast on Star Trek The Original Series (TOS) - airing on October 13, 1966.

This one I understand is a fan favorite, widely acknowledged as a classic - primarily for the impressive and memorable performance of guest star Roger Carmel as the title character.

I can agree that Mr. Roger is formidable, and very much iconic in the Star Trek canon.  But I'm afraid the rest of this episode falls far down my list of TOS shows that hold up to a critical and/or modern eye.

I can certainly appreciate the intent behind the "message" of the episode - beauty that is only skin-deep ultimately is meaningless.  At least I'm pretty sure that's what Rodenberry (who conceived the story) was trying to say here.

And look, I get it - it is undeniably a historical truth that beautiful women have been at the crux of many conflicts and wars over the years.  Yes, beautiful women can turn men into simpering animals; but this show is so ham-handed about it, it's pretty much cringe from beginning to end.

I've watched this show twice before writing this - and I must say, I really can't understand what happens to Mudd's ship at the beginning.  The Enterprise is chasing him through space, and Mudd's ship breaks up or something (for no real reason) and they beam aboard him and then the women - who immediately turn the crew into slack-jawed horn-dogs.  Ok.  It's not particularly written or acted well, and it's not at all intentionally funny which is a real shame.

And then it turns out Mudd is trafficking the women to become wives of miners on some random planet. Um, anyone find this objectionable?  Anyone?  Bueller?

Apparently sex trafficking is a thing in the future and Kirk and co. are ok with it, even if they don't like Mudd.  

Then a ticking clock is clumsily thrown in with the last dilithium crystal cracking.  Shout out to the first appearance of the mother-effing Dilithium Crystal up in this biznatch.

So then we are down on the planet in some different show where random guest actors play the miners and all the sudden it's Seven Brides for Seven Brothers with everything but the song and dance.  Oh those Sobbin' Women!

And then there's a Venus Drug which creates illusionary beauty and now the women are ugly or something, but they're not - it's just less make-up and different lighting.  An intriguing an idea, much like the rest of this episode, that unfortunately is not elegantly pulled off at all.

And in the end, the women are content to stay with the miners and one of them even goes so far to tell Kirk that (paraphrasing) "Sorry, we can't bone because you've got this lady up there called 'Enterprise"  Yes, that's pretty much the actual dialogue.

I'll repeat - I don't mind what Gene Roddenberry was trying to say - at least I think what he was trying to say; that beauty is temporary and to some extent subjective, and that what matters is a deeper human connection.  That's all good, and I think if you watch this episode closely and pay attention that's the message that you'll get.  However, you reeeeally have to pay attention - and that's very difficult considering how slow this episode is.   Like I mentioned, I watched it twice and I'm still not sure I'm right about what the show was trying to say.

The Iron Lady and The Crown

 Have been greatly enjoying the Crown on Netflix, but I do have one tiny nitpick - I'm a bit disappointed that their portrayal of Margaret Thatcher is once again bordering and often crossing over into cartoon territory. I say again because the first time was that dreadful Meryl Streep movie that failed spectacularly at showing what was so amazing about the Iron Lady.

Gillian Anderson does an amazing job disappearing into the character - so bravo to her - but I can't help but feel a bit deflated as the show often falls back on leftist myths about Thatcher to boost it's own progressive outlook.

I was happy with the first episode featuring Thatcher, it expertly showed exactly what was great about the prime minister with a wonderful portrayal of her famously disastrous visit at Balmoral. I loved how the episode had us sympathizing with Maggie and portrayed the Royal family as they can be, infuriatingly elitist.

But this last episode we watched, which went into great detail about the nutcase who broke into the queen's bedroom and made a great effort to portray him as sympathetic because he was mad at the politics of Thatcher, just very disappointing.

I'm not saying there isn't an argument to be made for a balanced and fair portrayal of what Thatcher's policies did to the country - but this was all pandering to the left. I doubt very much the queen in real life would find such a sympathetic portrayal of a nutcase (yes, when you break into Buckingham Palace you are screwy in the head) acceptable.

I still love the show, but it's at it's best when it recognizes that the Royals and the government and Great Britian as a whole are complicated - that it's not just a matter of a war mongering heartless conservative at Downing Street, but there's actually a lot more going on than the simple, Berkeley-tinged historical revisionism. Margaret Thatcher was a remarkable and entirely formidable woman, who brought her country back from the abyss of socialism and much like Reagan re-instilled a pride of country and exceptionalism. She deserves much better than the Crown gave her in episode 5.