IR TV Review: STAR WARS - AHSOKA - EPISODE 3 (“Time To Fly”) [Lucasfilm/Disney+]
The intent with a show like "Star Wars: Ahsoka" especially with someone like Dave Filoni mostly at the helm reflects on an idea of deep cuts. The series relies heavily on lore from "The Clone Wars" but more heavily "Rebels". However the issue is that many people haven't had a chance to see most of those seasons (especially of the latter). The context of Ezra Bridger and what he did to combat a certain Admiral Thrawn is key to understanding the lore here but also the essence of the life between certain time we see in this series. With Episode 3: "Time To Fly", there is a reflection of time that we missed in certain ways but also not in others. Star Wars can't explain every minute. It tries in comics but we get glimpses here.
As far as Ahsoka, Rosario Dawson is actually playing the character even closer to the bone than even "The Mandalorian". That is expected since that is the idea of who Fulcrum is. We never see her demeanor relax into warmth, which is interesting because she was nothing but a ball of emotion in many ways when she was apprenticing under Anakin...granted this is set 40 years after all that so no matter what she is likely 55 or older depending how her species ages. But that bright burn that Ashley Eckstein brought needs to exist in a way (a flashback will definitely help...and hopefully it is coming). Ahsoka does say something interesting in episode 2 about when she walked away from Anakin but also when she walked away from training Sabine Wren. This episode talks about the re-establishment of that in a way.
The beginning is a cool training sequence on the ship that harks back to "A New Hope" but also to samurai movies which influenced Dave Filoni's Mandalorian episode that was so good in Mando Season 2. However, like Episode 2 of Ahsoka, the director is Steph Green and it is written by Filoni. One would hope because this is his complete baby that he would direct all episodes (because there is a certain touch that Filoni does give -- not to take anything away from Green). This episode without giving anything away does take Sabine and Ahsoka to a key space that does set up an interesting focal point. It does feel more like Star Wars and that is by design. A certain space fight has remarkable throwbacks but is also it's own thing.
That is what Filoni brings and what is tricky about Star Wars. You want to see relatable and similar things but also make them new. This is of course the problem that the Kennedy era sequels had. Even the MacGuffin of the episode is a direct reference to "Rebels", since that story pushes this entire structure. "Ahsoka" is less gritty than "Andor" to be sure but in many ways, superior. However Sabine, Hera and even Huyang (the Jedi library robot voiced by David Tennant) are very empathetic and capture their animated counterparts. Ahsoka as Dawson plays her is very stoic. There really needs to be a slight vision of the Snips we knew because that is what wretched the heart when we saw Anakin start to fall apart (which is what made some of the final "Clone Wars" episodes so brilliant and heartbreaking). The show here is good, if not more of a deep cut, but depends where it goes. A-
By Tim Wassberg
