There are many fan holidays over the course of a single year and this review just so happens to be written on May the 4th which is the unofficial Star Wars Day. To celebrate this Disney and Lucasfilm have dropped the final two episodes of the show that is actually pretty good and well as I did my first impressions of the show back when it first aired and have been watching the show on a week to week basis it only made sense that I now do a review of the show as a whole and so then join me as I give you my SPOILER FILLED review of the show is alot more better then what we all thought that it was going to be with the show in question being called simply just "Star Wars: Maul Shadow Lord" enjoy.
The plot of this show when former sith lord turned underground gangster Darth Maul lands on the planet Janix he starts a chain of events that includes two Jedi on the run from the empire a policeman and the empire itself. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very show well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very show was in all honesty really good. This shows plot is one that very easily could gave been the bogstandard Disney Star Wars plot where there's no thought and effort put into it and while there is some of that due to the fact that we have more surviving Jedi it's plot on the whole does seem more thought out with it being made clear as day that the purpose of this show was to tell a genuinely good story with everything else mainly taking a step back to that. Which is how it should be as the story should always come first and while yes there are things in this show plot that don't get resolved this is something that does still make sense as there is a second season of this show coming out and therefor there is a strong chance that those plot lines could get picked up then with the main plot of the show being where the plot does shine it's best with all of the characters sideplots like the one with the policeman and his son learning to get along or Devon learning to embrace the dark side being some of the more weaker and less interesting aspects of the shows plot with the plot of this film also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in these episodes is Sam Witwer as Maul , Stormtrooper 2 and A Stormtrooper Commander , AJ LoCascio as Marrok , Stormtrooper Commander 2 and The Crimson Dawn Pilot and Ben Diskin as The Imperial Announcer , Stormtrooper Commander 1. Also starring in these episodes is Charlie Bushnell as Rylee Lawson , Chris Diamantopoulos as Looti Vario , David W. Collins as Spybot , A Commando and Stormtrooper 1 , Dennis Haysbert as Master Eeko-Dio Daki , Gideon Adlon as Devon Izara , Richard Ayoade as Two-Boots , Steve Blum as Icarus , Vanessa Marshall as Rook Kast and Wagner Moura as Brander Lawson.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very show well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very show was in all honesty really good. The fact that this show has good acting in it is something that's not really all that surprising due to the fact that all of the Star Wars animated shows have had some rally good acting in them and with this show taking place after The Clone Wars and even using alot of the same crew from that show and some of the same actors it does make sense that the acting in this show and in these two episodes is really good. With the best actor by a long mile being Sam Witwer as Maul as the man just owns this character by now due to the fact that he does give him a voice that is not only really creepy and scary but it also makes you wonder if you can actually trust him with Sam being able to bring out a side of the character that we haven't seen before as we do get to see him planning and scheming not only in these final two episodes but in the rest of the show as well with us even getting to see a more kinder side to the character and yet due to how Sam plays those scenes it does also make you wonder if Maul is a nice person or not or if he's trying to earn people's tryst before then stabbing them in the back. With the acting that's in this show really being helped by the fact that this shows scripts are just so good that all this shows actors have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of them naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this very show.
Doing the for this show is the legends and the greats that are currently over at CGCG, Inc. and Lucasfilm Animation. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very show well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very show was in all honesty really good. Which much like with the shows acting isn't something that's all that surprising as you can tell right from the very first frame of the first episode of the show just how good that this shows animation is going to be as it does feel more like the kind of animation that you'd want to see in a movie and not something that would be in a Disney+ TV show and it is something that makes you wonder why they haven't done another Star Wars animated movie since 2008's The Clone Wars as they clearly have the technology now to give us something wonderful. There's not one episode in this show that has some bad looking animation as be it from the backgrounds to the character animations to even the characters designs everything about this show from an animation point of view is just stunning to look at and while yes some things could have been done a bit more better like a wider variety of backgrounds and settings would have been nice instead of just keeping us mostly in this one city for the vast majority of the show and while it would have been more nice if we did get more of wider verity of character designs for the background characters a that would help the world of this show feel more real and lived in it doesn't change the fact that the shows overall animation was really good to look at.
SPOILERS START HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In something that could be seen as being a smart move this show does actually tie itself into Solo: A Star Wars Story by not only having a worker from Crimson Dawn show up in the final two episodes but also by having Dryden Vos show up with him being played by Scott Whyte. This is something that does make alot of sense as Maul did appear at the end of that film with it being hinted that he did have ties to the main villain of that film and yet here in this show we do somewhat get to see the origins of that as while Maul does state that Crimson Dawn has let him down before he is still willing to work with them to get him off of Janix. Yet it's never really stated that he and Vos have met before or if they have they haven't spent long together with the show even making Vos out to be this really tough villain by having him offer to help Maul if Maul kills someone that is powerful which is both a good thing and a bad thig it's good thing as it does show us just menacing that Vos could have been if he was written alot more better then what he was in Solo: A Star Wars Story but it's also a dumb thing as its pretty sign posting that Maul is going to kill this character and take all of the credit for himself thus becoming more powerful then Vos is which just makes Vos look bad as he knows that Maul is a sith and could already beat him in a fight if he so chooses to do so and yet he's willing to hire him on the hopes that he will live up to his end of the bargin and be this nice guy and just let him take all of the credit. Even Scott Whyte does a pretty good impression of Paul Bettany and while it was good to see that film get some kind of love as even tho it didn't make as much money at the box office the fact that it ended with Maul still being alive and being involved with this organization in someway is still something that is a good idea and it is something that future seasons of this show could very well explore.
This show thankfully doesn't do the one thing that alot of us thought that they would do and that's the fact that they don't have Maul be the good guy. He is very much still the bad guy at the end of this show with small good thing that he does like for example saving Devon being for his own evil end as he is playing the long game with that character as we see him save her once or twice in the show thus gaining her trust and then in the final episode he lets Vader kill her master while she's watching on thus allowing her to feel rage all of this is because of the fact that he wants to train her as his apprentice with the fact that he's willing to go those extremes just to get what he wants is something that does tell you that he is is still the bad guy of the show even tho there are people just as bad as Maul all around him he really is still the one of the worst ones due to the mental mind games that he willingly plays with people in this show. With Devon herself not really being that interesting of a character which is something that does make sense as she isn't the title character of the show Maul is but even so there still needed to be something about her character literally anything about her character that made her interesting as all of the things about the character that could have made unique are things that are already done in other Star Wars media and the fact that Maul is essentially trying to trick her into joining the dark side is something that doesn't get fully explored despite the fact that it could have added some extra dimension to her character as we could have gotten to see how acting evil does somehow effect her in both a negative and positive way and yet the show does shy away from showing us that which does have the adverse effect of making her a bland character with the same thing also being true for Brander Lawson and his son Rylee Lawson.
For one reason or another they really love making Darth Vader seem like a true Bada** as they did it at the end of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and they did again at the end of this first season. With him being revealed in a really cool way at the end of episode nine and he is just this looming threat in episode ten with him hunting down Maul. This is how you use this character from now on as it gets across just how much of a threat that he is all without uttering a single line of dialog with episode nine even ending in the best way possible as all you see of Vader in that episode is just his outline in some smoke with his breathing being the only thing that gives him and then the episode just cuts to the end credits which is a perfect way to end that episode. With the whole episode ten basically just being one long fight scene with him Maul and Master Eeko-Dio Daki as they are the only two characters that are strong enough to not only fight him but possibly even defeat him and even they not only have a tough time facing him but due to when this show takes place in the timeline also fail to beat him with Maul only barely running away with his life, that is how you make Vader look like a true bada** as you have him be this unstoppable monster think Godzilla but with a lightsaber and you get the point as you don't want Vader to go down that easily and having two strong force users struggle to beat him is a good way of getting across just how strong that this villain is whilst also protecting your main character as having Maul run away is something that does make sense as he is a smart character and he would know that Vader isn't going to be easily defeated therefor the only thing that he could possibly do if he wants to survive is run away.
Now then these episodes has / had an exact grand total running time of no longer then twenty four minuets with episode nine having a running time of exactly twenty three minuets and ten seconds and episode ten has a running time of exactly twenty four minuets and two seconds. With all of the other episode having roughly the same amount of running time as episode nine did which is perfect for this kind of show this is the type of the show is more suited to having a running tike that's just over twenty minuets as it forces the makers of this show to stick to things that are relevant to the episodes plot and nothing more then that. With the show having more then enough plot there to cover that amount of running time in the first place and yet in saying this show the episodes don't really use there respective running times all that wisely as none of the shows episodes take the time to fully develop there respective plots with this being more due to the fact that this first season is only ten episodes long and yet the story that they were trying to tell could easily cover fifteen episodes and with that extra running time it would allow the show to not only fully develop its plot but also pay off things that they set up like for example the set up the fact that these two inquisitors are working for a sith lord that Maul knows and yet they never reveal it when that is something that could have made for some great jaw dropping drama. The show also doesn't take the time to fully develop its characters which in the case of Maul is something that does make sense as we have alot of episodes of The Clone Wars and Rebels for him to get his character development but characters like Devon , Master Eeko-Dio Daki , Rylee and Brander for example get nothing interms of character develop but I really will admit that this show really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is ana action show that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very show well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very show was in all honesty really good. With all of this shows episodes having one maybe even two action scenes per-episode which was something that was completely unexpected as usually you'd just get the one brief fight scene in an episode and that would be it but nope in this show you get a full on action scene in alot of the shows shows episodes with each one blowing away the one that came before it and really upping the game. With the best action scene in the whole entire show also being the best episode of this first season as its the entirety of episode ten as that show is basically one long action scene with very few breaks for the characters to catch there breaths as get Maul and Master Eeko-Dio Daki fighting Vader we also get Devon fighting of a par on inquisitors while the rest of the gang of fighting of horde after horde of stormtroopers all because of the fact that they are waiting for Vos to pick them up and get them of the planet and even when he does arrive there's still alot of stormtroopers to fight off, the best part of this final episode tho is quite easily the fight with Vader as we get to see just how powerful that he is truly against not only a former sith but also a jedi master both of whom are attacking him not only at fully force but also at the same time and yet he's holding them off as if there nothing with the pair of them not even making a dent in his armour with the rest of the shows action being just as good as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
SPOILERS END HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Overall this show is so worth watching and if you haven't seen this show yet stop whatever it is that your currently doing and go and load up Disney+ and watch this show right now because it is one of the few Star Wars shows right now that is worth watching due to how good that this show actually is in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very show in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very show really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly an 8 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official Star Wars fandom wiki page and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very show that I used in this very post being the really great the official Star Wars fandom wiki page really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very show with alot of them really being really better quality then what you'd really think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on the official Star Wars fandom wiki page really are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition and happy Star Wars day everybody and May the 4th be with you.
