Now that Star Wars: Skeleton Crew has come to the end of what will hopefully be just the first of multiple seasons, let’s talk about the best Star Wars series we’ve gotten in years! Buckle up for my spoiler-free review of this phenomenal show!

Right out of the gate, it’s obvious Skeleton Crew was something different than we’ve become used to. The show was sold to us on the premise that it was meant to be a sort of Amblin Entertainment-like kids’ show, and I feel like it definitely lives up to that description. For those of you who don’t know, Amblin Entertainment was founded by Steven Spielberg in 1980 along with Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall. While Spielberg chose not to credit Amblin for E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, that film is perhaps one of the best examples of the style Amblin was known for. But while seeds of E.T.’s DNA are certainly present in Skeleton Crew, they pale in comparison to the most important spiritual ancestor of the series: The Goonies, a beloved Amblin production written by Steven Spielberg (screenplay by Chris Columbus) and directed by Richard Donner.

“The writing on Skeleton Crew is top-notch; brilliantly and organically setting up things that are paid off later in clever ways.”

Created by John Watts and Christopher Ford, Skeleton Crew could easily be called “Goonies in Space,” and while that would be an apt way to describe it, the truth is such a description is also reductive. Skeleton Crew, while peppering in the kind of fun and adventure of The Goonies as well as small hints of the coming-of-age classic Stand By Me, it is also very much its own thing.

We are introduced to four children on the planet of At Attin, an idyllic slice of suburbia tucked away in a galaxy far, far away. I won’t get too deep into their individual qualities because you really should find out for yourself. But the show handles the relationships between these kids as beautifully as any good coming-of-age story should, and fans quickly came to love these kids. But of course, adventure awaits them when they discover something incredible buried in the woods and accidentally blast off for an adventure none of them was prepared for, encountering ruthless space pirates and all manner of aliens and oddities before landing themselves in a pirate-port jail cell where they meet Jod Na Nawood, played deliciously by Jude Law. Jod apparently has Force abilities, which he uses to help get the kids and himself out of the cell, and he promises to help them get home. But Jod clearly has ulterior motives.

The writing on Skeleton Crew is top-notch; brilliantly and organically setting up things that are paid off later in clever ways. The action is well-paced, the character development is solid, and you feel the excitement and sense of peril. And the MYSTERY! Oh my goodness, this show gave us mystery in a way that didn’t feel overly forced but also wasn’t too hard to guess at. But while it was never too hard to guess what the mystery was, it never mattered. It didn’t FEEL predictable in that boring way so many shows often do these days, because it’s just too much fun to care!

And right up to the very last moment of the finale, this show exudes a feeling that is so central to what makes Star Wars great but has too often felt like it was missing in recent outings: Hope!

“We finally got a great Star Wars series, and very few people are watching it. That is a tragedy”

There is a moment right at the end where despite all the fun I had watching this show, I felt that childlike excitement for the future. A moment where I was both satisfied with the wonderful ending we got, and excited for where the story of these kids could go next!

And that’s one of the other great things about the writing on this show. The story could have ended there, and I would be fine with that, because the conclusion was so satisfying, but it was also completely open-ended. There was no real finality to the story of these characters (well, except maybe for one in particular in the seventh episode…), and even the villain(s) of the story have room to continue and grow should Disney and Lucasfilm decide to give us more.

There are so many questions left unanswered at the end of Skeleton Crew, but none of those questions are posed in a way that detracts from the enjoyment of the show by not being answered. Simply put, the show told us exactly the story it needed to, and nothing more, but it left the door open to tell more stories if someone wants to later. And I have a feeling we haven’t seen the last of some of these characters.

My only disappointment with Skeleton Crew isn’t with the show itself, but rather the low viewership numbers being reported. We finally got a great Star Wars series, and very few people are watching it. That is a tragedy, because bringing those viewership numbers up might be the only way to show Disney and Lucasfilm that THIS is what we want! That this is the kind of storytelling this franchise needs. We need them to understand that—THAT IS HOW YOU DO STAR WARS!

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew – Full season streaming on Disney Plus