Star Wars: Skeleton Crew - Disney +

[Big s]

9 minutes ago, jvmacross said:

Well...that's more than I can remember about Skelleton Crew...lol

Personally I’d rather have a forgettable show than a horribly insulting show that just ruins classic characters and if this show just ends up totally forgettable, at least it didn’t make me hate someone like Obi Wan Kenobi or Boba Fett. And this show really has only had one episode so far that I disliked. The others were fun and did nothing totally wrong and I don’t feel like I’m hate watching it like with the Acolyte, while hoping the show could redeem itself and then never does.

forgettable is far better than aggravating 

[jvmacross]

Just now, Big s said:

Personally I’d rather have a forgettable show than a horribly insulting show that just ruins classic characters and if this show just ends up totally forgettable, at least it didn’t make me hate someone like Obi Wan Kenobi or Boba Fett. And this show really has only had one episode so far that I disliked. The others were fun and did nothing totally wrong and I don’t feel like I’m hate watching it like with the Acolyte, while hoping the show could redeem itself and then never does.

forgettable is far better than aggravating 

I guess I have much higher standards....I want quality entertainment start to finish...like I have said before, I'm running out of reasons to keep D+, especially now that they are releasing their shows on disk...the only thing that has been good so far is Andor...a story that pretty much follows the same tactic as almost every other D+ show of giving us the backstory for something or someone that we really didn't need....but for Andor it's working...Skelleton Key seems "new" but I am completely underwhelmed by it....Disney's Star Wars is creatively bankrupt...

[Big s]

2 minutes ago, jvmacross said:

I guess I have much higher standards....I want quality entertainment start to finish...like I have said before, I'm running out of reasons to keep D+, especially now that they are releasing their shows on disk...the only thing that has been good so far is Andor...a story that pretty much follows the same tactic as almost every other D+ show of giving us the backstory for something or someone that we really didn't need....but for Andor it's working...Skelleton Key seems "new" but I am completely underwhelmed by it....Disney's Star Wars is creatively bankrupt...

I feel what you’re saying here. They really have been a huge letdown and who knows, they could easily manage to turn Andor into another turd in the next season. And I really don’t know if this bad fourth episode of Star Wars Treasure Planet is a bad sign for the quality of upcoming episodes.

[jvmacross]

Just now, Big s said:

I feel what you’re saying here. They really have been a huge letdown and who knows, they could easily manage to turn Andor into another turd in the next season.

Yes....this could very well happen....and then D+ will have no series that started good and ended good....

 

 

[Seto Kaiba]

8 hours ago, jvmacross said:

Half way through and this series has already proven to be nothing special....no wonder they opted for a tv series rather than a movie.....on D+ Disney has a captive pre-paying audience....on the big screen this would have been another monumental flop...lol

Nah, it'd probably actually have been better as a movie.  It's a heavily serialized story, so it already basically has the flow of a movie.  I think we'd probably have gotten a bit tighter narrative with fewer digressions if they were building towards a 90-120 minute movie instead of an eight episode TV series.

The biggest problem with the most recent episode is that they had a good concept for At Achrann, but they failed to integrate it into the overarching narrative smoothly.  So it's an interesting built of worldbuilding that comes off feeling like an optional sidequest because there was really nothing stopping the kids from skipping it entirely.

Even with the not-great fourth episode, I'd still rank this head and shoulders above many other Disney+ Star Wars originals like Ahsoka, Obi-Wan Kenobi, The Book of Boba Fett, The Acolyte, and so on.  Skeleton Crew is out there putting in the work to be its own original story in the Star Wars universe, and that's worth something.  IMO, it's worth a lot more than another lazy Skywalker Saga spinoff like Obi-Wan Kenobi or The Book of Boba Fett or a lazy spinoff of a spinoff like Ahsoka or Bad Batch. 

[jvmacross]

3 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Even with the not-great fourth episode, I'd still rank this head and shoulders above many other Disney+ Star Wars originals like Ahsoka, Obi-Wan Kenobi, The Book of Boba Fett, The Acolyte, and so on.  

LOL...that's some brutal bar you've set for yourself!....there has been nothing good film-wise from Disney Star Wars since Rogue One....a Skeleton movie would have been just another Star Wars flop...your tolerance for mediocrity is apparently way higher than mine or perhaps you simply forgot that fact....I think Obi Wan was also initially marked for a movie, but like Skelton Pirates, at the end of the day, it just wasn't good enough and sadly both weren't good enough for TV either....then again, D+ is becoming the place were Star Wars dies....

[Seto Kaiba]

1 minute ago, jvmacross said:

LOL...that's some brutal bar you've set for yourself!....there has been nothing good film-wise from Disney Star Wars since Rogue One....a Skeleton movie would have been just another Star Wars flop...your tolerance for mediocrity is apparently way higher than mine or perhaps you simply forgot that fact....I think Obi Wan was also initially marked for a movie, but like Skelton Pirates, at the end of the day, it just wasn't good enough and sadly both weren't good enough for TV either....

Eh... maybe!  I'm trying to keep my expectations reasonable and realistic.  This is a franchise known and loved for its groundbreaking visual effects work, not its writing. 😅

Of course, what I want to see from Star Wars is also rather different from what the real Star Wars fans want to see from Star Wars.  I look at Star Wars and I see this huge sci-fi/sci-fantasy setting that's almost completely unexplored because the almost nobody involved with it can seem to conceive of a story that doesn't involve the Jedi and isn't within two degrees of separation from the original trilogy.  

Skeleton Crew is, at the very least, scratching that itch to see more of the galaxy and the people who live in it without the reductive, morally simplistic, one-dimensional writing that inevitably accompanies the members of the Glowstick Society.  This franchise absolutely CAN produce compelling original narratives with nuanced characters and more moral complexity than "Sainthood vs. Baby-Eating" as we saw in Andor and The Mandalorian.  It just almost always chooses NOT to because too many of its creatives are longtime fans and lightsaber fetishists unwilling or unable to step outside their Jedi-Sith fan fiction comfort zone.  

The franchise is just going to keep stagnating as long as the people running it refuse to stop mindlessly recapitulating the same tired stories and focus more on telling new and exciting stories than on trying to break the continuity nod and easter egg density records.

[jvmacross]

23 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Eh... maybe!  I'm trying to keep my expectations reasonable and realistic.  This is a franchise known and loved for its groundbreaking visual effects work, not its writing. 😅

Of course, what I want to see from Star Wars is also rather different from what the real Star Wars fans want to see from Star Wars.  I look at Star Wars and I see this huge sci-fi/sci-fantasy setting that's almost completely unexplored because the almost nobody involved with it can seem to conceive of a story that doesn't involve the Jedi and isn't within two degrees of separation from the original trilogy.  

Skeleton Crew is, at the very least, scratching that itch to see more of the galaxy and the people who live in it without the reductive, morally simplistic, one-dimensional writing that inevitably accompanies the members of the Glowstick Society.  This franchise absolutely CAN produce compelling original narratives with nuanced characters and more moral complexity than "Sainthood vs. Baby-Eating" as we saw in Andor and The Mandalorian.  It just almost always chooses NOT to because too many of its creatives are longtime fans and lightsaber fetishists unwilling or unable to step outside their Jedi-Sith fan fiction comfort zone.  

The franchise is just going to keep stagnating as long as the people running it refuse to stop mindlessly recapitulating the same tired stories and focus more on telling new and exciting stories than on trying to break the continuity nod and easter egg density records.

Unfortunately, the itch your are craving to get scratched is quickly turned into excessive fan-service by the brilliant minds at Disney Lucasfilm, but be careful as too much will make you go blind!....unfortunately, the D+ Star Wars MO calls for plenty of it....like a wave from the hand of a Jedi, it muddles the reality of bad story-telling for the real Star Wars fans because who cares about a good story when they just made a character from the Ewok movies canon!...when all else fails...toss in some more Jawas, Hammerheads, and Greedos to as many scenes as possible...and toss in some PT stuff too because the PT is cool now!  Space Goonies is at best a bad fan-fic with lots of fan-service, more than anything we have seen yet from a D+ show....

[Big s]

4 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

"Sainthood vs. Baby-Eating" as we saw in Andor and The Mandalorian.

I only remember a few babies getting eaten in the Mandalorian. Grogu gotta eat and he munch. Besides, the parents didn’t seem to notice, so no harm no foul

[Seto Kaiba]

14 hours ago, jvmacross said:

Unfortunately, the itch your are craving to get scratched is quickly turned into excessive fan-service by the brilliant minds at Disney Lucasfilm, [...]

Oh, I was under no illusions to the contrary.

Like I said earlier, Star Wars is a franchise renowned for its groundbreaking visual effects work... not for the quality of its writing.  

One thing I've had to accept as my friends twist my arm into watching more Star Wars is that the amount of fanservice in any given story is never going to be less than "excessive".  Too many of the showrunners and creatives working on Star Wars projects are longtime fans for there to be any other outcome.  The only real question in any new Star Wars title is whether the kudzu-like tangle of cameos, easter eggs, and references will overwhelm the story or just infest every corner of the scenery like porgs.

Compare Rebels to Andor.  Andor's showrunner is a non-fan and the show's emphasis on telling a compelling story reflects that.  The excessive fanservice is still there, but it's been confined to the set dressing and a few minor in-jokes.  Every curio on display in Luthen's shop on Coruscant is an easter egg referencing a previous Star Wars title, but they have no bearing on the story besides being Mon Mothma's excuse to visit Luthen being her husband's hobby of collecting antiques.  Rebels, on the other hand, bogs down in its fanservice with distressing frequency.  Ezra's pretty much the only all-original character in the show.  Kanan, Hera, and Sabine are all closely related to characters from The Clone Wars, Zeb and Chopper are recycled designs from early Star Wars concept art, etc.  In the course of their adventures, they encounter almost the entire OT cast plus a bunch of other people from past titles including:

Spoiler

• Emperor Palpatine
• Darth Vader
• Darth Maul
• Grand Admiral Thrawn
• Gilad Pelleon
• Rukh
• Governor Tarkin
• Admiral Yularen
• Orson Krennic (mentioned)
• Yoda
• Luminara Unduli (as a ghost)
• Anakin Skywalker (as a hologram)
• Obi-Wan Kenobi
• Ahsoka Tano
• Rex
• Wolffe
• Gregor
• Lando Calrissian
• Luke Skywalker (distantly visible)
• Beru Lars (audio only)
• Princess Leia Organa
• Bail Organa
• C-3PO
• R2-D2
• Mon Mothma
• that one general who gives the Death Star briefing in ANH
• Ursa Wren (Sabine's mom, who appeared in The Clone Wars)
• Bo-Katan Kryze
• Cham Syndulla (Hera's dad)
• f*cking Hondo Ohnaka
• The Mortis Gods (as "alive" paintings)
• Wedge Antilles
• The commander of Gold Squadron who dies in ANH
• Saw Gerrera
• Clone Wars-era battle droids led by a The Clone Wars tactical droid
• A bunch of ghostly Nightsisters
• The last surviving Geonosian

And a bunch of those have actual relevance to the story... which makes it a tangled ****ing mess at best, and gives the impression that this vast galaxy is so small that everybody knows everybody like the Republic were a town with a population of 200 not a million-plus star system polity with a population of a hundred quadrillion.

 

 

14 hours ago, jvmacross said:

[...] unfortunately, the D+ Star Wars MO calls for plenty of it....like a wave from the hand of a Jedi, it muddles the reality of bad story-telling for the real Star Wars fans because who cares about a good story when they just made a character from the Ewok movies canon!...when all else fails...toss in some more Jawas, Hammerheads, and Greedos to as many scenes as possible...and toss in some PT stuff too because the PT is cool now! 

That's why the Glup Shitto jokes are a thing and will never not be a valid way to mock the fanbase.

Looking back, I almost feel like the backlash against Star Trek: Discovery for Michael Burnham being frontloaded as Sarek's foster daughter and Spock's secret sister was unduly harsh when Star Wars gets a free pass for doing the same and worse to most of its key characters.

 

 

14 hours ago, jvmacross said:

Space Goonies is at best a bad fan-fic with lots of fan-service, more than anything we have seen yet from a D+ show....

Skeleton Crew is, thus far, at least a passable young adult "space adventure" story in the Star Wars universe.  It's not going to set the world on fire, but it's eminently watchable and thus far its story isn't bogged down by a bunch of continuity with other shows.  That's more than I can say for most Star Wars Disney+ originals.

[jvmacross]

24 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

It's not going to set the world on fire, but it's eminently watchable and thus far its story isn't bogged down by a bunch of continuity with other shows.  That's more than I can say for most Star Wars Disney+ originals.

In a galaxy where stone fortresses quickly develop into massive jet-fueled dumpster fires....anything is possible I suppose....

Half way in and this series is almost unwatchable....sunk cost or not, guess I'll keep watching...how much worse can it get, right?  Maybe Erkel is revealed as one of Palpatine's top Sith Acolytes!

[Big s]

2 hours ago, jvmacross said:

Maybe Erkel is revealed as one of Palpatine's top Sith Acolytes!

Nah, he’s just a werewolf’s best friend in a dog / human role reversed relationship 

[jvmacross]

47 minutes ago, Big s said:

Nah, he’s just a werewolf’s best friend in a dog / human role reversed relationship 

Guess my sarcasm was set to low for ya.......and speaking of fan-service....Wolfman Jack clearly will generate some additional profits from the sale of more action figures!  No matter how bad a Star Wars show is....those toys will always sell!  Kinda like VFs from a terrible Macross series...lol

[Seto Kaiba]

1 hour ago, Big s said:

Can we appreciate for a moment their commitment to the "We're pirates, but in space!" bit here?

Our boy Wolfman is wearing what appears to be a brace of laser flintlocks across his chest.  Laser. Flintlocks.  This is a setting where laser guns hold hundreds of shots and have detachable magazines.  Wolfman is lugging around a bunch of extra and unnecessary guns styled after firearms that are tens of thousands of years obsolete purely for aesthetic purposes.  That is commitment to the bit, and no mistake.

Someone get this canine a bicorn hat and a jolly roger, stat!

Edited yesterday at 01:33 AM by Seto Kaiba

[Big s]

2 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Our boy Wolfman is wearing what appears to be a brace of laser flintlocks across his chest.  Laser. Flintlocks.  This is a setting where laser guns hold hundreds of shots and have detachable magazines.  Wolfman is lugging around a bunch of extra and unnecessary guns styled after firearms that are tens of thousands of years obsolete purely for aesthetic purposes.  That is commitment to the bit, and no mistake.

Obsolete, I think you forgot that this takes place a long long time ago.

 

2 hours ago, jvmacross said:

No matter how bad a Star Wars show is....those toys will always sell! 

You can still easily find tons of Rose, Reva and the entire crew of the Acolyte in clearance sections. Some Star Wars stuff is so bad that they can never get rid of them

[Seto Kaiba]

1 hour ago, Big s said:

Obsolete, I think you forgot that this takes place a long long time ago.

In a galaxy far, far away... where they've had casual interstellar travel and laser guns for over 25,000 years.

It's totally an affectation.  You just know this wolf-man-thing is going "Arr matey! A pirate I be!" the minute none of his men are looking.  SM-33 is even doing it unironically.

 

1 hour ago, Big s said:

You can still easily find tons of Rose, Reva and the entire crew of the Acolyte in clearance sections.

 

Reva left such a lasting impression on me that I had to resort to Google to remind myself who that even was.  Turns out it's the crazy girl from Obi-Wan Kenobi.

 

 

1 hour ago, Big s said:

Some Star Wars stuff is so bad that they can never get rid of them

Sure you can, it's just a question of how to write it off as a loss on your taxes, rent a truck to haul it to a landfill, or if you're willing to risk prosecution for illegal dumping. 🤔

I'm sure retailers thought they could never get rid of all those unsold cartridges for E.T. for the Atari 2600, until they discovered the magic of landfills in Alamogordo, New Mexico.

[Big s]

1 hour ago, Seto Kaiba said:

In a galaxy far, far away... where they've had casual interstellar travel and laser guns for over 25,000 years.

It’s also a galaxy that hasn’t standardized safety railing around bottomless pits

[jvmacross]

8 hours ago, Big s said:

You can still easily find tons of Rose, Reva and the entire crew of the Acolyte in clearance sections. Some Star Wars stuff is so bad that they can never get rid of them

Well duh....of course there's going to be some shelf warmers....imagine the indignant rage at Disney-Hssbro if they made only the "cool" characters and not the ones that were hated by the collectors that hated the show but still can't help buying the "cool" looking characters and ships, etc....the point was that no Star Wars shows...good or bad....no chance of making extra cash from the merchandising....

[Seto Kaiba]

12 hours ago, Big s said:

It’s also a galaxy that hasn’t standardized safety railing around bottomless pits

Yup... though that may be truth in television, since Earth can't even get its sh*t together enough to do that for just a single planet or often even a single country.

 

6 hours ago, jvmacross said:

Well duh....of course there's going to be some shelf warmers....imagine the indignant rage at Disney-Hssbro if they made only the "cool" characters and not the ones that were hated by the collectors that hated the show but still can't help buying the "cool" looking characters and ships, etc....the point was that no Star Wars shows...good or bad....no chance of making extra cash from the merchandising....

Well, yeah... but it's not like Disney/Hasbro are setting out to deliberately make "uncool" shelf-warmers.  So much of what ends up collecting dust on shelves and in bargain bins is in "What do you mean it's not awesome?" territory.

A bunch of people at Disney and Hasbro sincerely believed that characters like Rose Tico or Reva were going to be beloved additions to the franchise.  Writers and producers and directors fought for the characters and set pieces that audiences absolutely loathed, thinking they were going to be awesome additions to the story.

The same is true for Skeleton Crew.  Somebody working on this series had to propose, and likely defend, depicting a brothel operating on Port Borgo in this series for kids.  To say nothing of its role in the story being Wim making a beeline for it the minute they land or the hooker out front trying to coerce KB and Fern to come with her, possibly with nefarious intent.

[jvmacross]

34 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

The same is true for Skeleton Crew.  Somebody working on this series had to propose, and likely defend, depicting a brothel operating on Port Borgo in this series for kids.  To say nothing of its role in the story being Wim making a beeline for it the minute they land or the hooker out front trying to coerce KB and Fern to come with her, possibly with nefarious intent.

LOL....indeed....anyone who thinks this or any Star Wars being produced today is mainly targeted for "kids" is fooling themselves....unless they mean the kids trapped inside grown-ass adults....no kid I am aware of gives a sh!t about Star Wars...TBH...I'm thankful for that!

[Seto Kaiba]

1 minute ago, jvmacross said:

LOL....indeed....anyone who thinks this or any Star Wars being produced today is mainly targeted for "kids" is fooling themselves....unless they mean the kids trapped inside grown-ass adults....no kid I am aware of gives a sh!t about Star Wars...TBH...I'm thankful for that!

Eh... George Lucas defended Star Wars, and particularly the prequels, as "kids movies" on more than a few occasions.

But yeah, even though Skeleton Crew is being marketed as a kids show it's definitely for... what's that old marketing spin... "Kids of All Ages". 🤣

I'll be interested to see the viewership numbers when Disney releases them a year or so down the line.  I get way too many trick-or-treaters in Star Wars costumes each Halloween to believe for a second that there are no kids who like Star Wars.  On Halloween '22, it seemed like every fifth kid was Din Djarin.

[jvmacross]

26 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Eh... George Lucas defended Star Wars, and particularly the prequels, as "kids movies" on more than a few occasions.

I think it's way past the time when that may have been a legitimate statement....this is no longer George Lucas' Star Wars.....hasn't been for years....which makes the infantile writing and stories even more egregious....let's face it....Star Wars is trying to be cool for the entirely wrong audience....no matter how you look at it...an audience that now has way more options than the original fan's ever had....it's a tough spot for Disney to be in....cater to a dying fanbase....or cater to a fanbase that no longer is forced into few options for their entertainment dollars...

[Big s]

1 hour ago, jvmacross said:

LOL....indeed....anyone who thinks this or any Star Wars being produced today is mainly targeted for "kids" is fooling themselves....unless they mean the kids trapped inside grown-ass adults....no kid I am aware of gives a sh!t about Star Wars...TBH...I'm thankful for that!

I see a lot of kids with Star Wars shirts running around. Just I’m pretty sure they’re not as interested in the toys like the older generation was. But they do tend to like the video games a lot.

[jvmacross]

36 minutes ago, Big s said:

I see a lot of kids with Star Wars shirts running around. Just I’m pretty sure they’re not as interested in the toys like the older generation was. But they do tend to like the video games a lot.

I bet a majority of those kids are wearing them because the parents are fans....most kids can't buy their own clothes...lol

[Seto Kaiba]

1 hour ago, jvmacross said:

I think it's way past the time when that may have been a legitimate statement....this is no longer George Lucas' Star Wars.....hasn't been for years.. [...]

It's not technically George Lucas's Star Wars anymore, I'll give you that.

But, at the same time, Skeleton Crew and Resistance are basically the only two Disney Star Wars titles that aren't 100% built on Lucas-era Star Wars.

The sequel trilogy is exactly what those words imply.  Rogue One, Andor, Solo, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Rebels are all Episode IV prequels.  The Book of Boba Fett is a spinoff of Episode VI and of The Mandalorian.  The Bad Batch is a direct sequel to The Clone Wars, while Rebels, Ahsoka, and The Mandalorian are all spinoffs of story arcs from it.  Ahsoka is also very much a spinoff of Rebels as it directly resumes plot threads from that series.  The Acolyte was set up as a prequel to The Phantom Menace.  Tales of the Jedi is set predominantly during the prequel trilogy and directly crosses over with The Clone Wars in a few places.  Tales of the Empire is two separate stories that both directly pick up plot threads from The Clone Wars with Morgan's one tying directly into Rebels too.

 

1 hour ago, jvmacross said:

[...] ..which makes the infantile writing and stories even more egregious....let's face it....Star Wars is trying to be cool for the entirely wrong audience....no matter how you look at it...an audience that now has way more options than the original fan's ever had....it's a tough spot for Disney to be in....cater to a dying fanbase....or cater to a fanbase that no longer is forced into few options for their entertainment dollars...

Nah, Disney paid a fortune for LucasFilm and the Star Wars IP.  They're going to try to make Star Wars appeal to new and broader audiences to try and maximize their ROI and bring in new fans.  Doing nothing but pander to the long-time fans is a losing proposition creatively and fiscally.

Their main stumbling block is staffing.  They need/want to develop new titles that have broad appeal, but they keep self-sabotaging by hiring longtime Star Wars fans or creators from the pre-Disney era who don't share that objective.

[Big s]

2 hours ago, jvmacross said:

I bet a majority of those kids are wearing them because the parents are fans....most kids can't buy their own clothes...lol

I’m sure that’s a part of it, but even a kid wouldn’t wear something they’re embarrassed of. A good amount of the people playing the games seem to be the kid range in the demographics. Most of us adults have a hard time keeping up with them and give up early 

[jvmacross]

59 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

It's not technically George Lucas's Star Wars anymore, I'll give you that.

But, at the same time, Skeleton Crew and Resistance are basically the only two Disney Star Wars titles that aren't 100% built on Lucas-era Star Wars.

And?....this is a pointless statement when every other shot in Skellingtin Crew ( sorry never seen Resistance...likely never will) consists of winks and nods (aka fan service) to stuff seen or mentioned in practically every George Lucas era story we know....even those that have been universally trashed like the Star Wars Holiday Special and the Ewok Movies....lmao!

[jvmacross]

1 hour ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Nah, Disney paid a fortune for LucasFilm and the Star Wars IP.  They're going to try to make Star Wars appeal to new and broader audiences to try and maximize their ROI and bring in new fans.  Doing nothing but pander to the long-time fans is a losing proposition creatively and fiscally.

Their main stumbling block is staffing.  They need/want to develop new titles that have broad appeal, but they keep self-sabotaging by hiring longtime Star Wars fans or creators from the pre-Disney era who don't share that objective.

Well duh again....of course Disney is going to keep pouring money into their biggest IP cash generator....as I have already stated....good or dismal....these shows generate merchandising profit via the countless licensing fees....no rational business would give up on that....the problem is there is no incentive to need to produce quality shows like Andor....why spend more money for the best talent when you can hire mediocre talent and maximize profit...

So the "stumbling block" you describe isn't even real....it will never be real until whatever ROI percentage they have had their top bean counters set for the House of Mouse is not met....the fact that there have been way more duds than hits shows that quality isn't a must-have...just a nice-to-have when and if it ever happens...in short, a good Star Wars story from Disney will likely continue to be a hit-or-miss proposition for a long, long time....

[jvmacross]

50 minutes ago, Big s said:

I’m sure that’s a part of it, but even a kid wouldn’t wear something they’re embarrassed of. A good amount of the people playing the games seem to be the kid range in the demographics. Most of us adults have a hard time keeping up with them and give up early 

I don't think those self-reported "ages" on online gaming communities mean much....half of them are probably f'ing pedos....

[Seto Kaiba]

19 minutes ago, jvmacross said:

And?....this is a pointless statement when every other shot in Skellingtin Crew ( sorry never seen Resistance...likely never will) consists of winks and nods (aka fan service) to stuff seen or mentioned in practically every George Lucas era story we know....even those that have been universally trashed like the Star Wars Holiday Special and the Ewok Movies....lmao!

No, it's not pointless.  You're missing a key distinction.

Skeleton Crew has a bunch of easter eggs in it, sure.  But none of them actually affect the story in any way.  They're just there as freeze-frame bonuses.  That's completely different from all of the other shows and movies I mentioned in my previous post where the story depends on characters, events, and/or macguffins from a previous work and assumes the show assumes the audience is already familiar with.  To give a few examples:

Spoiler

• The Mandalorian's whole multi-season schtick with Bo-Katan, Moff Gideon, and the Darksaber is a continuation of a plotline in both The Clone Wars and Rebels, which explain the significance of the Darksaber to the Mandalorians and Bo-Katan's role in Mandalore's fall.
• The Clone Wars and Rebels are both required viewing to understand Ahsoka, because everything about Ahsoka is comes from The Clone Wars, while Thrawn, Sabine, and Ezra's entire backstory comes from Rebels.  Without seeing those, you have no idea who anyone in the plot even is, why they matter, of how the situation ended up the way it did.
• Maul's appearance in Solo is total nonsense unless you've seen The Clone Wars, which explains how he didn't die after The Phantom Menace and how he came to be head of a crime syndicate.
• The Bad Batch requires you to have seen The Clone Wars, because it's a direct sequel featuring characters whose only prior appearance was The Clone Wars.

As it stands, there's nobody and nothing in Skeleton Crew thus far that requires the viewer to be familiar with a prior Star Wars Disney+ series.  That could change, but thus far there is no prerequisite viewing required to fully understand Skeleton Crew the way there is for other shows.

 

 

4 minutes ago, jvmacross said:

Well duh again....of course Disney is going to keep pouring money into their biggest IP cash generator....as I have already stated....good or dismal....these shows generate merchandising profit via the countless licensing fees....no rational business would give up on that....the problem is there is no incentive to need to produce quality shows like Andor....why spend more money for the best talent when you can hire mediocre talent and maximize profit...

They absolutely have an incentive to produce quality shows.  They're measuring the success of these shows in terms of viewership hours and subscriptions.  If the shows suck, like The Acolyte, people tune out or even cancel their subscriptions if that's what they were there for.  If the show is bad, people aren't going to buy the merchandise either, which is why The Acolyte saw most of its merchandising cancelled when it bombed.

 

4 minutes ago, jvmacross said:

So the "stumbling block" you describe isn't even real....it will never be real until whatever ROI percentage they have had their top bean counters set for the House of Mouse is not met....the fact that there have been way more duds than hits shows that quality isn't a must-have...just a nice-to-have when and if it ever happens...in short, a good Star Wars story from Disney will likely continue to be a hit-or-miss proposition for a long, long time....

No, that stumbling block is quite real.  It's what killed The Acolyte.  Disney put a longtime Star Wars fan who adores the Old Republic setting in charge of the project, and she totally dropped the ball because she was too interested in showing her love for the setting to bother telling a coherent story.

[Big s]

10 minutes ago, jvmacross said:

why spend more money for the best talent when you can hire mediocre talent and maximize profit...

They didn’t even profit from Andor. Most of these shows usually just end up with smaller and smaller audiences. I don’t know if the new one is doing well though 

[jvmacross]

22 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

No, it's not pointless. 

You were saying that Star Wars was for "kids"....I said not anymore....you then try to support your argument by stating that both Skellington Crew and Resistance have zero ties to any Lucas era show....again....so what?   What does that have anything whatsoever with the fact that Star Wars is no longer being made primary for kids....actually, your statement is not only pointless...it's nonsensical to the argument....maybe you are hitting the bourbon a bit too liberally tonight?  Required beverage these days for D+ Star Wars viewing!....

 

[jvmacross]

25 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

 

They absolutely have an incentive to produce quality shows.  They're measuring the success of these shows in terms of viewership hours and subscriptions.  If the shows suck, like The Acolyte, people tune out or even cancel their subscriptions if that's what they were there for.  If the show is bad, people aren't going to buy the merchandise either, which is why The Acolyte saw most of its merchandising cancelled when it bombed.

You'd think....but nope....D+ subscriptions have steadily increased over time...defying all logic....perhaps customers have a FOMO attitude towards D+....Disney must have some set ROI that has not been breached to call any series so far a complete financial disaster....their formula works and I think it's based on a large loyal subscriber base and a bunch of other subscribers that want to stay "relevant" on their streaming in general or have a FOMO situation for D+ specifically....

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1095372/disney-plus-number-of-subscribers-us/

[jvmacross]

41 minutes ago, Big s said:

They didn’t even profit from Andor. Most of these shows usually just end up with smaller and smaller audiences. I don’t know if the new one is doing well though 

I don't think Disney is going to change their formula for Star Wars....it's just one IP in their huge portfolio....like having a stock portfolio....not all may do well at the same time....but hopefully you have enough winners to get a good return....the aggregate for their audience (subscribers) has been increasing....the competition is getting more crowded....so at some point the required amount of subscribers will be at a point that may trigger a change in how they need to approach specific IPs in their portfolio....however, Star Wars has a built-in audience of hard core fans that will always be subscribers....we just don't know if that amount is enough to keep having them produce content that does not necessarily need to be great all the time....

[Seto Kaiba]

31 minutes ago, jvmacross said:

You were saying that Star Wars was for "kids"....I said not anymore....you then try to support your argument by stating that both Skellington Crew and Resistance have zero ties to any Lucas era show....again....so what?

Have a "senior moment" there, mate?

You launched into this tangent by arguing that Star Wars isn't being produced for kids.  I pointed out that George Lucas is on record as saying it has always been for kids first and foremost.  You asserted that Disney Star Wars is totally separate from Lucas's so Lucas's opinion doesn't count.  I pointed out that practically everything in the catalog disproves that claim directly because all but two of the shows are direct extensions/continuations of Lucas-era stories that were developed for kids, and that even the two titles that aren't direct continuations of Lucas's work are still explicitly developed and marketed as family friendly kids shows per Disney itself.

 

30 minutes ago, jvmacross said:

You'd think....but nope....D+ subscriptions have steadily increased over time...defying all logic....perhaps customers have a FOMO attitude towards D+....Disney must have some set ROI that has not been breached to call any series so far a complete financial disaster....their formula works and I think it's based on a large loyal subscriber base and a bunch of other subscribers that want to stay "relevant" on their streaming in general or have a FOMO situation for D+ specifically....

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1095372/disney-plus-number-of-subscribers-us/

Or maybe your opinions of these shows are not universally held and people actually like titles like Skeleton Crew?

Just a thought.

If one were to go on reviews and what viewership data is available at this point, Skeleton Crew appears to be on a course to finish its first season as one of Disney+'s best-received original Star Wars titles.  Up there with The Mandalorian's first two seasons.