Jay’s ‘Ahsoka’ Season 1 Review: A Fun, Entertaining Show That Could Be More Focused
Now that Ahsoka season 1 is complete, we here at Star Wars News Net want to provide our thoughts on the series overall. Over the next few days, members of the team will give their reviews of the season. Each will provide their different takes and opinions that vary greatly from one another. Stay tuned for even more coverage and reviews of Ahsoka in the coming days ahead.
Before Ahsoka began, I remarked on SWNN Live! (our weekly podcast) that all I wanted from the series was a good show. And that’s exactly what we got. Ahsoka is a fun, rousing, spectacle-filled adventure with a lot of fan service and pomp. There are plenty of scenes for die-hard fans to scream excitedly at. However, it also has a few glaring issues. These issues are annoying, but they don’t break the show. Ahsoka is still a fun time to be had that gets fans excited for the inevitable season 2.
What I Enjoyed Most Out of Ahsoka
I’ll start by listing what are some of Ahsoka‘s greatest strengths. Kicking things off is #1: The Characters. Watching Ahsoka, it is clear that the series is written by an individual who is passionate about each one of its characters. That’s because it is. Writer and series creator Dave Filoni understands his characters. Each character has unique personality traits, forms of speech, and habits that only come from a deep knowledge of who they are. The love and passion for these characters are so high that I found myself invested in minor characters I didn’t think I’d like that much. Characters like Baylan Skoll, Morgan Elsbeth, and Shin Hati are all fleshed out and fully realized with great range and gravitas and I wanted to learn more about each one of them.
Moving on to #2: The Score. Kevin Kiner cemented himself as a legend even before Ahsoka began. With work on The Clone Wars, Rebels, The Bad Batch, and Tales of the Jedi, Kiner helped push what Star Wars could sound like. But Ahsoka pushes it forward by a country mile. Utilizing a swath of traditional Japanese instruments such as the shakuhachi and the shamisen, Kiner turned Ahsoka Tano into a full-on samurai. Feel free to check out my breakdown on Ahsoka’s end credits track for a full writeup on the score’s complexities.
And now onto #3: The Cinematography. Coupled with the huge, sweeping sounds of Ahsoka, the visuals of the show are also stunning. It’s something I commended the show earlier in my review of “Part 6: Far, Far Away.” Shots like The Chimaera approaching the Nightsister’s tower, Sabine exploring Peridea, or earlier in the show when Anakin transitions into Darth Vader, are all breathtaking. Some scenes don’t look quite as good, but overall, Ahsoka has a lot of memorable scenes that are filmed perfectly.
I could go on and on about specific scenes that are amazing. The World Between Worlds, Ahsoka’s first duel with Baylan, Ahsoka training Sabine, and so forth. But I wanted to select these three aspects that stood out to me and that are general pros that I loved about the series as a whole.
Possible Improvements
Even though Ahsoka has a lot going for it, there is still room for improvement. And I’ll start with what I think could be the biggest improvement, which is #1: The Formatting. What I mean by this is how the series was released, including the length and number of episodes. One of the popular refrains about Ahsoka while it was coming out was that the episodes were too short. And I wholeheartedly agree with this. At times, it felt like each episode ended right when it was just getting started. It’s fine to leave viewers hanging and waiting for the next episode, but sometimes, the wait doesn’t feel worth it. I often pined for more answers and more content from each episode, feeling like the producers were dragging out the series just so that they could have eight episodes. If the series was condensed to somewhere around six or four episodes, each around an hour or an hour-and-a-half, I think the weekly wait would’ve felt more worth it and produced a more tightly-knit story.
This leads me to my next point: #2 The Focus of the Story. Ahsoka is in the unfortunate position of being the culmination of years of storytelling. But it also has to get viewers caught up on all of it. Because of that, it leads to a lot of plots and subplots, all of varying qualities. Rescuing Ezra from Peridea, Ahsoka and Sabine’s tumultuous relationship, Thrawn’s plans to return, Hera fighting against the New Republic’s policies, Morgan Elsbeth and the Nightsisters, … there’s a lot. And that’s not all of them. Understandably, the show has all of these plots as it is helping to get fans caught up. It’s also trying to set up future projects, including other movies. Yet, it takes some precious time away from plots I wish we could spend more time on. Things like what happened between Ahsoka and Sabine, Ahsoka’s relationship with Anakin, and even what Baylan and Shin are up to. Even just a little bit more time on some of these plots, putting a more precise focus on the story then and there, and not future stories down the road, would be a big improvement I would’ve liked to have seen.
There are other nitpicks I could point out, such as some immersion-breaking CGI, hit-and-miss action choreography, and a few tonal shifts that may feel out of place. But these are minor and can be overlooked.
Ahsoka is a Fun Show That Will Likely Only Get Better Over Time
At the end of the day, Ahsoka is the entertaining show that I wanted. Did it fulfill all of my expectations? No. But then again, it’s very hard for Star Wars to live up to everyone’s expectations. And a few years later, when future movies and shows have also come out as well, many of these complaints will likely go away as we get a better understanding of Ahsoka’s purpose overall.
And, Ahsoka will likely also improve over time, getting better and better overall. Just look at Dave Filoni’s two other major projects: Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels. Many will say that those two shows began on rocky foundations that grew into some of the best Star Wars content in recent years. It’s highly possible that Ahsoka could do the same, with the series likely becoming a highlight in the franchise in the near future.
For more on what lies ahead for the Star Wars franchise, check out our article on where Ahsoka season 2 could go next, and what’s next for Star Wars on Disney Plus.
Born and raised in Hawaii, Jay Goodearl runs the YouTube Gaming channel “Good Games, Dude” His channel aims to open up video games to beginners and immediate players and help them understand what makes games the art form that it is.
