Quarantine Control #116: Hello There, Disenchanted Colors
We have perhaps reached the point where COVID-19 will never be the dominant news conversation again, as society at large has decided that living with it is the best outcome despite the risks. But don’t worry, because it’s not like we won’t have other pandemics to deal with. There’s monkeypox, dominating the conversation even less with cases very slowly popping up. Even better, there are once-dormant viruses like polio returning, which manifested in the UK for the first time in about 40 years. The anti-vaxxers will forever screw us with present and future sicknesses.
Geoffrey Barnes
Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)
Source: Disney Plus
Episodes: 6
I was of two minds for the Obi-Wan Star Wars series before it aired, perhaps of the same many non-racist and misogynist Star Wars fans were. A part of me longed to see Ewan McGregor reprise the titular role for the first time since Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, one of the examples in Star Wars of an actor replacement (Alec Guinness from the original trilogy, in this case) being perfect. I also wanted to know precisely what the character was doing between the end of that movie and the beginning of this one, outside a short appearance in animated series Star Wars Rebels. On the other hand: What if they screwed it up? What if they created even more retcons in the story? What if the end result felt like fanfiction with a budget?
Fortunately, the series was largely a good and entertaining time. But you’ll want to note the emphasis there on “largely.” The stumbles were notable.
The Obi-Wan series picks up ten years after the end of Revenge of the Sith, and nine years before Episode IV: A New Hope. Obi-Wan himself is now a shell of his former self, a former Jedi trying to make due while living in a cave a decade after most like him were hunted down and killed. After so many years, however, the Empire has finally tracked Obi-Wan down in Tatooine thanks to the efforts of Darth Vader’s Inquisitors, in particular new character Reva, The Third Sister (Moses Ingram). While Obi-Wan encounters a young Luke Skywalker (Grant Feely) and foster father Owen Lars (Joel Edgerton), the series seriously kicks into gear when the Empire comes to kidnap young Leia Organa (Vivien Lyra Blair). This incident prompts foster father Bail Organa (Jimmy Smits) to contact Obi-Wan for help to save her. Though he’s initially reluctant, he ventures across the universe to get her back upon remembering how important she is.
The story had to walk a careful line, making sure not to introduce too many characters to each other to avoid retcons. It largely succeeds. The series initially felt like it was reusing a concept from The Mandalorian through pairing an older warrior with a younger child, but the dynamic between Obi-Wan and Leia made this different enough for it not to feel like a rip-off (undoubtedly the result of the rewrites). Leia herself is a precocious child wise beyond her years, and her young actress put a great effort in channeling what a kid Leia as played by the now-late Carrie Fisher would have acted like. At the same time, the tension comes in how Obi-Wan nearly has to relearn how to be a Jedi after not using his powers for so long, meaning many enemies he initially encounters overpower him. Given the state Obi-Wan was in come Rebels and A New Hope, it’s easy to piece together what will happen to him.
Returning characters get a lot of focus, but the series also introduces new characters for them to interact with. In addition to the aforementioned Reva, there are also characters like Haja (Kumail Nanjiani) and Tala Durith (Indira Varma). They make a good enough impact. But none of them compare to the title character, who was inevitably going to encounter his former apprentice, Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader (Hayden Christensen/James Earl Jones’ voice — the latter likely recreated with AI). There are plenty of worthwhile criticisms for the way Disney has handled Star Wars thus far, but it’s difficult to deny the solid job they’ve done in reestablishing Vader as an intimidating force. It may still be hard to see how he was Anakin Skywalker, but credit to this series for trying its damnedest to convince watchers of that.
There are stumbles along the journey that gave the series an unpolished feel at certain points. The fight choreography wasn’t the best it could have been, even for a TV series instead of a higher-budgeted film. I’m aware there aren’t that many excellent fights in the series when you think about them hard, but a number of them here were filmed with excessive jump cuts and shaky cam overuse. The exceptions here were those in the final episode, which feature two good battles. And between two in this show and the legendary one from The Book of Boba Fett, Star Wars has a recent problem with filming good chase scenes. It’s almost enough to make me think the solid one in The Mandalorian’s second season was a fluke.
While I feel bad for the inevitable abuse Moses Ingram suffered from, the writing did Reva no favors despite the concepts for her character development being solid. The Queen’s Game and her small part in Ambulance (which I reviewed here) show how Ingram is a good actress; she simply needed better material to work with. There’s a similar story for Natalie Holt, who, despite being a good composer, turned in a generic score here. The only memorable track was the main theme, itself the sole contribution of longtime Star Wars composer John Williams, and the reprises of it used in the series.
Fortunately for the Obi-Wan series, it nails the ending with a solid finale, and delivered where it counted the most. It gave every Star Wars fan the battle they wanted to see, and made for a fun show despite stumbles along the way. Disney billed this as a limited series, though enough room is left for another season, and they won’t have to think too hard about where to take it. It appears McGregor and Christensen are up for it, though the production team is hesitant. The remaining question, given this series’ popularity, is whether Disney likes money or not. Let’s leave that question open. If, or perhaps when, they go for it, they’ll ideally continue with the direction of the final two episodes, which had improved writing and cinematography.
Angela Moseley
Reality continues to suck. Thankfully distracting entertainment is abundant.
Disenchantment (2019)
Source: Netflix
Episodes: 40
Disenchantment was actually written about twice before on this blog. Drew wrote about the first season in his regular Tuesday updates for the blog back in 2018. His original review of the first season made me curious enough to check the series out. Later in 2021, I would go on to write about it in a Geek Babble column. Mainly how I was behind in catching up with the second and third seasons. Fast forward to 2022 and I’ve completely caught up with all four seasons.
The biggest draw to Disenchantment is that the series was created by Matt Groening and Josh Weinstein, two names in adult animation that hardly need an introduction. The Simpsons explores the present, Futurama imagines the future, and this series is Groening’s love of medieval fantasy brought to life. Monty Python and the Holy Grail being a big influence among other things for his newest project. Disenchantment feels closer to Futurama than The Simpsons in terms of comedy and drama.
Dreamland is a medieval kingdom ruled by the belligerent King Zog. The kingdom is in rough shape, especially compared with its neighbors. Princess Tiabean, aka Bean, is strong-headed, rebellious, and a general troublemaker. She barely gets along with her father, her stepmother, and her stepbrother. On the day that she is to be married off, she meets her personal demon, Luci. Through a series of drunken exploits, she manages to get out of her marriage and also meets Elfo, an elf who’s left Elfwood in search of a more interesting life in Dreamland. From there the trio stumble upon reviving Bean’s mother (who turns out to be evil), various plots from various factions to take over Dreamland, they travel to places outside of their kingdom, and began to learn of an unsettling secret about how Dreamland came to be ruled by humans.
The series is a little bit of a slow burn, but the mix of episodic and serialized elements are a real treat. While there’s nothing wrong with episodic shows, especially comedy, I do like the weight a serialized approach takes. Terrible events aren’t always reset and actions have consequences. In this case, Disenchantment feels as if it’s trying to straddle the line– not unlike Rick and Morty. Thanks to a world filled with fantasy magic (and touches of technology), deaths don’t always stick, if they actually happened in the first place.
Events may be resolved and things might seem to go back to the status quo, but they are absolutely not forgotten about. Fortunately, there is a huge overarching plot that is tying everything together. A future season promises to pull back the dark shroud of backstory that’s been permeating this entire series. The creators also seem to be simultaneously prepping us for major events that will occur once all of the character’s machinations are revealed.
As for the characters themselves, I’ve found them all to be unlikable while being extremely fascinating to watch in action. My sole exception may be Luci, a literal temptation demon voiced by Eric Andre. I enjoyed Bean’s (Abbi Jacobson) antics and her sense of independence, but her stupidity can be frustrating at times. Elfo (Nat Faxon) ranges from annoyingly cheerful and naive to very jaded. His passing resemblance to Bart doesn’t help either. King Zog (John Dimaggio) is a character who’s growing on me, as more of his story and motivations are revealed. In fact, as each character has their hopes, dreams, and fears explored they become more relatable. Disenchantment is an absolute case of good writing and character growth helping to smooth out a hit or miss cast.
I can’t say anything is really laugh out loud funny in Disenchantment, as it takes more of a dry and sardonic approach to its humor. Dreamland is a place that despite its name is in the darkest timeline and in a way it feels closer to reality despite being a medieval fantasy. I definitely say this show is worth at least checking out. I’m fully looking forward to the start of season five.
Joseph Daniels
So a few days ago, on a whim, I decided to see who was the best tiger in the world. The list I found was pretty lacking. Number one on the list was a human, number four on the list was a shark… only three of the top five were actually tigers. Many others on the list were also humans, including several sports teams named after tigers. One entry wasn’t even an animal, it was a flower. This was a disaster of a list, and I feel like they needed to rename it to reflect that many of the tigers were in name only.
It might also benefit them to watch more nature documentaries so they know the difference between an actual tiger and a shark.
Life in Colour with David Attenborough (2021)
Source: Netflix
Episodes: 3
Tiger content: Of course!
One of the most recent nature documentaries to make its way to Netflix is this one, which explores nature’s use of colour, as well as takes the time to explain the new technology they came up with in their attempt to show us a world that we otherwise wouldn’t be able to see. We technically still can’t see it authentically, we’re getting as close to it as we can, but Life in Colour does its best to present the world that many animals, including insects, live in. Just like how a deer could only imagine what life must be like seeing the colour red, we can only imagine what life must be like seeing outside our own visible spectrum of light.
Tigers are used quite effectively in episode two to show how this inability to see the colour red affects deer. Their orange stripes instead make the big cat appear green, thus blending into the jungle even more than they already do. The only reason animals like the chital aren’t completely at the mercy of India’s tigers is because there are animals that can see as humans do, and they alert the deer that there’s danger.
It’s quite an innovative series, which is what we’ve all come to expect from David Attenborough, and it shows us a world that most nature documentaries could only dream of.
To continue from the lede: It’s easy to see why COVID is rarely the top topic when there are so many other matters to discuss. The news can be overbearing in how consistently horrendous it is, yet it’s difficult to tune out due to the need to stay informed. This is unlikely to improve in the near future. Have a nice week.
About The Author
dcstaff
The collective will of the Damage Control staff combined into a single article.
