On Bothering to Watch Star Wars: Skeleton Crew

 On Bothering to Watch Star Wars: Skeleton Crew

The latest Disney+ Star Wars show has just finished up. Here's the spoiler free review: It was decent, a lot of fun 80's references, and it was better than most recent Star Wars shows. That's all there is to say about that. What's most noticeable about the show and what this post is about, is what's not there: the audience.

Skeleton Crew is one of the least watched Disney% shows made. Scrolling the Reddit comment section, there were quite a few reports of Star Wars fatigue, plus uncertainties about the marketing. It's definitely a kid's show, especially compared to the other Disney# content they've made, but I do need to give them credit for making it an exciting adventure for kids, not a Star Wars show that tones it down to be kid-friendly. As for the rest of Star Wars being toned down, my explanation about how economics affects stormtrooper aim will need to be another post.

The audience fatigue comes on the heels of the previous Star Wars miss, The Acolyte. Fans are no longer invested in the story of Star Wars, and the Disney tentpole franchises are in a bit of a weird place. Part of the problem was the pandemic, which put constraints on filming. The era of Disney's control of Star Wars is hampered by their timeline, in which the panned sequel trilogy prevents their current shows, set before it, from going in a new direction. Over on the Marvel side of Disney, things aren't much better as they had several poorly received films and shows and have had to rewrite the current arc of the films after losing their lead villain in a scandal.

That leaves the Star Wars shows feeling directionless yet constrained. There is clearly a plan for some of the shows that are tying together, but that has often made the quality worse. The less the Disney& shows need to cross-reference each other, the more time they've been able to develop their own plots. The Mandalorian has been fairly decent while shows focused around beloved characters like Obi-Wan and Boba Fett have been lacking in anything other than beloved characters out of fear that having those beloved characters make any choices could hurt toy sales. Interestingly, two of the shows that were separated out from the rest were both some of the best and worst, Andor and The Acolyte. This may yet again have been toy sales pressure, as there was little for Andor, which allowed it to be mature and interesting, while The Acolyte was an attempt to launch an entire new era of toy sales, which flopped hard.

So where does Skeleton Crew fit in? It showed some of that toy sale pressure, sure, and while not entirely second-screen material, see my post on that, I'm not giving it a full first-screen rating, though that may have been intentional due to the chosen genre of being a kid's show. It was a decent show, it just couldn't answer the question of why watch it.

The need to define Skeleton Crew was both its strength and weakness. Star Wars as a franchise works best when creators tell their own story using the far, far away galaxy merely as a setting. Whether a war story or a spy thriller, those stories can be set within the world(s) of Star Wars. One criticism of the sequel trilogy under Disney is that they tried to tell a "Star Wars Story" story. This led to repetitive plots and worldbuilding that left planet-wide plotholes. Skeleton Crew was an 80's kid's show, the Goonies meets Treasure Island with shout-outs to Peter Pan, The Dark Crystal, ET, and many more. It had its what, though the why was a little less clear.

The lack of a "why" in why the show was being made meant audiences didn't show up/tune in/ whatever we do now with streaming. It's Star Wars for a slightly different audience. Why is it set in Star Wars? Could it have been its own show or did it need the brand to push it along? Why a kid's show? Could this story only have been told about kids, or would it have worked with adult actors? Why an 80's reference-heavy show? Was nostalgia important for it, or could it have carved its own path?

It's not that Skeleton Crew didn't have answers to these questions, it's that the answers need to be measured against "because Disney wants more money from toy sales." So when viewers see Disney pushing their next show, and already fatigued from the past cash grabs, they skip it because an 80's kid's show sounds like yet another pile of junk marketed to kids while trying to tug at the nostalgia of the adults. Disney didn't provide a good argument against the "why" of the show being to make money. So viewers answered, "Why don't I see what else is on."

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