Josh Reviews Star Wars: Maul: Shadow Lord

I really enjoyed The Mandalorian and Grogu, though sneakily I think the best recent Star Wars project was the ten-episode animated series Maul: Shadow Lord!

Maul is an interesting character, because fans who have only seen the live-action movies still probably just know him as a minor character from Episode I: The Phantom Menace.  For me, for a long time, Maul was an extremely disappointing character.  Like many fans, I was super-pumped to get a glimpse of him and his awesome double-bladed lightsaber in the first trailer for Episode I.  We spent months and months talking and wondering about who this cool new character was.  And then when he was just in the movie for a few minutes, before being killed off, I was so disappointed!!  Maul’s only other appearance in a live-action Star Wars project was his brief cameo in Solo, something which I loved but I suspect was either confusing or anti-climactic (or both) for general audiences.  (Presumably, the hope was for Maul to be a major player in Solo sequel films, but none ever happened.)

However, for fans of the animated Star Wars shows, Maul stealthily became one of the most layered and interesting characters in all of Star Wars!!  Maul was an important player in both Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels.  In those shows, we got to explore Maul as a genuinely menacing villain and also as a character with one of the most tragic arcs in all of Star Wars.  Through beautiful storytelling overseen by Dave Filoni and his fantastic teams of writers, and an incredible vocal performance by Sam Witwer, Maul quickly became one of my favorite characters.  I think a love for Maul (along with a love for Ahsoka Tano) is one of the main dividing points between Star Wars fans who have watched these animated shows, and those who haven’t.

And so it’s a joy to get a new show centered on Maul, and one clearly designed to explore his life in between Clone Wars and Rebels, and to expand upon the tease we got in Solo of Maul’s involvement in the criminal underworld.

This show is wonderfully designed so that it can be enjoyed by newbies and long-time fans alike.  These ten episodes tell a complete and enjoyable story.  If you’ve never seen any of the previous animated shows, but just know from Solo that somehow Maul is still alive during the period of the Empire (the twenty-ish years between Episode III and the original Star Wars), you’ll be able to understand and enjoy this show.  (You won’t get the full story of how Maul survived being cut in half by Obi-Wan Kenobi — you’ll have to go watch Clone Wars for that — but I bet that after watching this, you might even be driven to track down more of Maul’s story, from Clone Wars and Rebels!)  And, of course, if you’re familiar with all of the great Maul stories we got from those previous shows, this new show will be a delight.

Maul: Shadow Lord is mostly populated with new characters (which is part of what makes it so accessible to newbies), and they did a wonderful job in developing real emotional and physical stakes, so that when the shit hits the fan at the end of this season, it has true weight.  This is one story told over ten episodes, and I was impressed how they were able to make each episode enjoyable on its own, and also a piece of this ten-episode puzzle.  While there is clearly more story to be told — thank goodness a second season is coming — I was so happy that this season does come to a satisfying climax (and doesn’t end on a frustrating cliffhanger like so many streaming shows do).

The animation is absolutely extraordinary.  I can’t believe how far Star Wars animation has come since that extremely-clunky-looking first animated Clone Wars movie!!  (That was the first four episodes of the show, released theatrically, not that too many people took notice at the time.)  This show looks amazing, with gorgeous, painterly backgrounds, and remarkably sophisticated character animation.  The subtleties to the emotion on these characters’ faces is impressive.  And the action: holy cow!!  This show is jam-packed with one terrific action sequence after another.  There are a number of thrilling car/speeder/ship chases, and the lightsaber fights… oh my, the lightsaber fights!!!  There are so many jaw-dropping lightsaber duels on this show!!!  These are truly some of the coolest lightsaber fights in all of Star Wars.  I’m particularly taken by the close-quarters duel in the Lawson’s kitchen between Master Daki and the Inquisitor.  And that six-way fight in the finale between two Jedi, Maul, two inquisitors, and you-know-who (you can probably guess, but I won’t spoil it here) was absolutely riveting.  Amazing.

I loved this season.  Whether you’re already a fan of Star Wars animated shows, or you’ve never seen any before, go watch this.  I don’t want to oversell this, but it’s pretty much just what I want from a Star Wars TV show.

SPOILERS AHEAD, so stop here if you haven’t watched this season yet!!

But if you have, shall we dig in a little?

Solo gave us the tantalizing idea that Maul went and became a huge crime boss during the time of the Empire.  When Dave Filoni & co. were able to go back and finish the final season of the cancelled Clone Wars show, they wove in some hints of that.  I loved getting to see that story point getting developed and explored here in Maul: Shadow Lord, as we see Maul in control of several criminal syndicates (including the Pykes, who we’ve seen a lot of in various Star Wars shows, including in live-action in The Book of Boba Fett), and the first hint of his getting his fingers into Crimson Dawn, the major crime empire introduced in Solo.  By the time of Solo, Maul seems to be the top dog in Crimson Dawn, so I hope future seasons show us how that happens.  I loved that Dryden Voss (from Solo, where he was played by Paul Bettany) was a part of this show in the last few episodes (though I was bummed they didn’t get Mr. Bettany to return to voice the character).  I hope Voss is more a part of season two.

While one of the best surprises of Clone Wars and Rebels was how strangely likable they made Maul, I was a little worried that here in a Maul show, the writers were going to make him too much of a hero.  I’m glad that wasn’t the case.  Maul is still a selfish bastard, and I’m going to have a hard time getting over the way he fed Master Daki to Vader in the finale.  What a great twist that was, to see Maul still be so evil.  And at the same time, I love how we get to see Maul’s point of view.  He HAS been wronged by so many people over the years, especially by Palpatine, so his grievances are real!  I love that.  Also, he’s not lying when he tells Devon that giving into rage and hate is the only way to win and beat Vader and the Emperor.  Maul isn’t lying; he does truly believe that!  This is the perfect way to play this character.

I wasn’t sure at first about the two new Jedi characters introduced in the show: Master Daki (voiced by 24′s Dennis Haysbert) and his apprentice Devon (Gideon Adlon — the oldest daughter of Pamela Adlon!).  I always get a little twitchy when a Star Wars show introduce more Jedi who survived the Purge.  (We’ve come a long way from Yoda’s “the last of the Jedi will you be” line to Luke in ROTJ.)  And I was a little frustrated by what a bumblingly poor job those two did of escaping from Janix when it’s clear the Empire is about to take over in a big way.  (And also how thoughtlessly they put Lawson and his son Rylee in danger, when they decide to hide out in the Lawson apartment!)  But by the end of the show I’d fallen deeply in love with them both.  Daki’s constant advice to be patient and to stay out of trouble could have become tiresome, but I liked that Daki was willing to fight when he had to, and while he had a clearer view of Maul than Devon did, I also liked that Daki was pragmatic enough not to resist when it was clear they had to try to work together with Maul to survive.  I also liked that the diminutive Daki was such a bad-ass fighter when push came to shove; fighting off Inquisitors and even holding his own with Vader for a while, until Maul betrays him.  Hearing Dennis Haysbert’s dulcet tones also helped give Daki a tremendous gravitas.  It was clear from the start that this Obi-Wan Kenobi character was destined to die; I’m impressed by how much the writers made it hurt when that finally happened.

Meanwhile, they gave a truly juicy story to Devon Izara.  We understand why she’s frustrated by the life she and Daki are being forced to live.  She is genuinely the victim of an enormous, galaxy-wide injustice, and so we understand why she doesn’t think any of this is fair.  When we first meet her, she’s using the force to steal a piece of fruit.  We understand why she’s doing what she’s doing, and yet in a beautiful way, narratively, that first tiny step into something not right is what gets her and Daki drawn into all the trouble they go through in the show.  (“Once you start down that dark path… forever will it dominate your destiny.”)  Devon is smart enough not to trust Maul too easily.  (She’s thankfully more skeptical of Maul than Ezra was, on Rebels.)  And yet we also see why Maul’s message is appealing to her.  As the season unfolds, the slow story of Maul’s seduction of Devon is beautifully played out.  This is arguably a much stronger story of a Jedi’s fall to darkness than we got with Anakin in the Prequels.  (It IS remarkably similar to the story we got in The Acolyte, which is a little strange.  Hopefully Maul: Shadow Lord will get to complete Devon’s story in the way the cancelled-too-soon Acolyte show wasn’t able to do.)  Speaking of the conclusion of Devon’s story: is she going to become Darth Talon?  (This is a now non-canonical character of an evil Twi’lek Sith, who George Lucas was rumored to have been interested in incorporating into his versions of Episodes VIII-IX.)  That’d be an interesting path… we’ll see!

Wagner Moura (Oscar nominated this past year for his lead role in The Secret Agent) was a great get for the show, and a perfect choice for aptly-named Detective Lawson.  I laughed at how much of a cliche Lawson started as: the noir-ish good cop who’s a terrible father but a devoted police detective.  Mr. Moura’s vocal performance brought a lot of life and heft to this character, ensuring I was rooting for him all the way.  I liked the way his story unfolded, and they gave him a great death at the end.  (Though actually, I suspect we’ll see him again in season two.)  I also fell in love with his droid partner Two-Boots, so named because of his stylish boots that he wears!  I loved Two-Boots.  They don’t make a big deal of it, but it’s adorable how much Two-Boots wants to be human, carrying around a cup of coffee he can never drink, and choosing to differentiate himself from all the other police-bots by wearing his boots.

Two-Boots wasn’t the only great new droid introduced on this show: I also loved the evil Spy-Bot!!  I loved his near-gibberish mutterings; and I thought it was funny how he was by far the most competent member of Maul’s cadre of criminals.  I spent the whole show fearing that Two-Boots was going to die a tragic death, and then they shocked me by killing off Spy-Bot!!  I was so sad!!  Bravo for the creation of these two wonderful new droids.

I was thrilled that the show incorporated not one but two Inquisitors.  Interestingly, they’re both characters who we know will eventually be killed by Ahsoka!  (The one with the awesome bird-skull mask, knows as “Eleventh Brother”, gets killed by Ahsoka in Tales of the Jedi, while the other one — Marrok, the “First Brother” — gets killed in Ahsoka season one.)  I really like the look of both of these characters, and it was fun to see them both in action here.  Because Marrok seems to be some kind of zombie when he’s killed in Ahsoka, fans like me have guessed that he was killed earlier, and was somehow brought back by Vader or the Emperor.  I was really hoping we’d see that first death here.  It’d also have been nice to have better established Maul’s skills by having him succeed in killing one of these Inquisitors.  (Oh well — maybe next season?)

I was hoping Vader himself would appear, and I was a little puzzled why we didn’t hear his breathing when Marrok was clearly talking to him mid-season.  I guess they wanted to keep his appearance in the finale a surprise, and I can’t complain when what we got was a final episode filled with Vader being a kick-ass bad-ass.  I loved getting to see Vader in action.  There’s a great aspect to his animation in that we see him fighting one-handed for much of the battle, subtly conveying that he’s so far above everyone else in skill.  I was a little disappointed that we didn’t get to hear Vader speak.  There were reports that Lucasfilm had paid the late James Earl Jones for rights to his voice, so that they could use A.I. to have Vader continue to be voiced (sort-of) by Mr. Jones in the future.  Maybe that system wasn’t quite up to snuff yet, so they didn’t want to use it here?  I wonder if this was a creative choice or one driven by technical realities.  I really would have appreciated getting to hear Maul and Vader actually talk while they were fighting.  Star Wars has done this several times in recent years, where they’ve given me a character match-up I was dreaming about, but didn’t go as deep as I’d wanted in exploring what those characters were thinking or feeling.  Luke and Ahsoka met in The Book of Boba Fett, but they didn’t really talk about how Ahsoka feels about Anakin, how she feels about Luke trying to train Grogu after she refused to, how she feels about his quest to rebuild the Jedi Order, etc.  Nor did Luke ask Ahsoka any of the million questions I’d think he’d want to ask her about his father.  Ahsoka and Anakin reunited in Ahsoka season one, but they didn’t really talk about the elephant in the room of Anakin’s two-decades wreaking havoc across the galaxy as Vader.  Does Anakin feel remorse?  Does Ahsoka feel anger or resentment towards him?  Can she forgive Anakin for what he did as Vader?  And here in Maul, we see Maul confronted with the being who has replaced him as Palpatine’s apprentice.  How does Maul feel about that?  Does Maul even understand that’s who Vader is?  What does Vader think or feel, confronted by an earlier apprentice who Palpatine cast aside?  Does this plant a seed that Palpatine might one day cast him aside as well?  Isn’t that something Maul would try to convince Vader of?  I wish the show had dug into some of those questions and emotion.  I hope it does in the second season.  (We also get a classic “Vader watches a ship fly away” shot at the end.  Does it weaken Vader that lets Maul and Devon get away in the end?  I think it works; I think the show succeeds in showing Vader as an unstoppable force, and Vader does succeed in killing Master Daki.  So this works OK for me.  But it’s a very careful line the show will have to walk, if we see more of Vader in season two.)

I quite enjoyed Chris Diamantopoulos as Looti Vario, the fast-talking, very little crime-boss who finds himself a part of Maul’s plans.  I’m glad he made it through the season alive!  I hope we see more of him in season two.  I was happy to see Maul’s Mandalorian ally Rook Kast (Vanessa Marshall) back, though it’d have been nice if she had more to do.  Does she get brutally murdered by Vader at the end??  I think so!!  Wild. I also liked hearing John Carroll Lynch as Nico Deemis, another Crime Boss.  I mentioned above that Devon was voiced by Pamela Adlon’s daughter Gideon Adlon; I was thrilled the show also involved Ms. Adlon herself, as Lawson’s shady friend (and more??) Rheena Sul.  I really hope they bring Ms. Adlon back and give us more with Rheena Sul in season two!!

Speaking of hopes for season two, I really, really, really want Hondo Ohnaka to appear!!  Come on, this is a show about the criminal underworld, and we know that Hondo is alive and well during this time-period.  I’d love to see him!!

I quite liked Klyce, Lawson’s doomed Police Chief boss (voiced by Keiko Agena).  I also really loved the loathsome Imperial officer (Blake, voiced by Alastair Murden) who comes in and takes charge.  They gave him a very distinct and interesting-looking face.  Does he get killed in an explosion at the end of the season, when Sul tricks him and blows up her ship?  I’m curious if we’ll see him again.  I was intrigued that we learn that Lawson’s wife (or ex-wife?) now works for the Empire.  When we see Rylee call her via hologram, I’d assumed she’d enter the story in-person by the end of the season.  I assume we’ll see more of her in season two?

The music for this show (by Kevin, Sean, and Deana Kiner) was spectacular.  I was thrilled we got to hear a bit of Duel of the Fates, John Williams’ iconic theme for Maul from Episode I.  (Though I still wish we heard MORE of that music, as we saw Maul in combat throughout the season!)  And I need to add in one more sentence of praise for the gorgeous animation on the show.  It’s thrilling to see Star Wars brought to life so beautifully.

I really dug this show.  It was enjoyably dark — appropriate for a Maul show set during the time of the Empire — and they didn’t shy away from killing off some of our heroes.  At the same time, the show had the fun that I want to see in Star Wars!!  There were some funny bits interspersed amongst the darkness, and there was so much great action/adventure!!  I’m really blown away by how many cool fights there were on this show, especially in the back half of the season: Daki and Devon’s first fight with Maul; Marrok’s close-quarters duel with Daki in the Lawson apartment; Devon and Daki’s fight with Marrok on the train; Maul’s fight against both Inquisitors and a ton of Stormtroopers when he and his gang get cornered; the great chase with Devon piloting a stolen ship through the highways of Janix; the jaw-dropping battle between Daki, Devon, Maul and the Lawson family against the pursuing Inquisitors and Stormtroopers, as our heroes are trying to escape across a lake of acid; and of course the entire season finale.  Just incredible stuff.

This show was a blast.  I want more of this type of amazing Star Wars animated storytelling!!  I can’t wait for season two.  (I’m hoping we get many more seasons of this show, following Maul’s rise to the top of the underworld, and his eventual fall.  I want to follow his story all the way to his getting stranded on the Sith world of Malachor, where Ezra, Kanan and Ahsoka find him in “Twilight of the Apprentice” on Rebels!!  Here’s hoping!)

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