Speaker #0hello everyone and welcome to the concession stand here on the kb radio network i am your host kevin reed and this is the review of star wars mall shadow lord the first two episodes of the disney plus two animated television show this is created by dave frioni who also created the uh Clone Wars in Rebels And coincidentally, this takes place after Clone Wars, probably around a year after Clone Wars chronologically. And we find former Sith Lord Maul rebuilding his criminal syndicate and seeking a new apprentice on a planet not run by the Empire, doing the reign of the Galactic Empire. Shockingly, I was I was a little skeptical about going into this, even though. I'm a big Star Wars fan like every other chap out there in the world. I just didn't want to dive headfirst into it because I didn't religiously watch Clone Wars. I watched a couple of seasons of it but I didn't just sit down it was premium viewing in my house. I don't know why it wasn't that I didn't like Clone Wars it was just a lot you know when I did kind of get detached from it and wanted to go back and watch it it was so much to get caught up on and it i just i just gave up i gave up midway through but i did i did enjoy uh the portions of clone wars that i watched but that that's besides the point the point is i i didn't know if I was going to be lost watching this and uh Are there references to Clone Wars that I need to know going into this? And then something dawned on me. And this is a bigger picture than Star Wars Maul, Shadow Lord. This is a Star Wars problem overall. And lately, the reason Star Wars has kind of been suffering is the fact that we're doing a lot of reverse engineering when it comes to the content. that we're getting out of Star Wars, out of Lucasfilms as of late because nothing is moving forward. The last thing to move forward was Rise of Skywalker, which was pretty much universally panned. And from that on, everything we've gotten out of Star Wars has been in the past. You go back to Andor, even though Andor was a great show, we knew how that was going to end. you know we knew the end of that you know the the movie that was a spinoff of uh rogue one we knew how that was gonna end even though that was a good movie uh solo we knew how that was gonna end and so it was nothing new coming out of here then you go to the disney plus shows with with uh obi-wan kenobi we know how that's gonna end we know how uh uh ahsoka is going to end we know how the mandalorian essentially is going to end because they're not in future films this is those those shows are set between the old trilogy or the original trilogy and this new trilogy so it doesn't make sense we're just reverse engineering we're going back to characters that don't exist chronologically in present time, I guess you could say, in Star Wars. And so, for me personally, it's kind of wasted. You know, it's wasted material that we could be moving forward with. Now, I understand we want to revisit some of these characters. Who doesn't want to see Obi-Wan Kenobi again? Who doesn't want to see Darth Maul again? Who doesn't want to see the Mandalorian? Those are good characters. you want to see more stories from you want to see more from the skywalkers i get all that but that's been the sole focus of lucas films if we haven't gotten anything new with we want to see new stories new characters new adventures uh in this galaxy far far away and so i that's been my big bugaboo now going into this darth maul well not darth maul but star wars maul Shadow Lord? I wanted to see if there was something to keep my attention, something that will show a different side of the Star Wars universe, not the good guy side, but the bad guy side. Because at the end of the day, Dolph Maul was a character going back to the Phantom Menace that I wish we would have got more of, but we only got one movie. Technically, we only got two scenes with Dolph Maul. and you know it down it was it was enough those two scenes were enough and he only had what one line in that movie and you wanted to know more about him i guess this is the same thing as uh bubble fat from empire you know you we wanted to see more of that character even though that character was only on screen for maybe five minutes and that's collectively between empire strikes back and return of the jedi But we wanted to see more, and then when we got more, we regretted it. But that's besides the point. The point is, is Darth Maul an interesting enough character to hold his own show? Two episodes into this show, and I will say yes. So far, so good. First and foremost, I can't go without speaking about the animation. The animation is absolutely... gorgeous on this show i loved the look of this animated show there were portions of this that i forgot that i was watching animation it was that crisp looked absolutely beautiful i i'm a big fan of the animation style here on this show it's similar to clone wars and all that but it just looked i don't know it looked better in 4k Yeah. He just looked real good on my television. I was entrenched in how phenomenal the animation looked on this show. The voice cast, I mean, top notch. You have Sam Witwer returning as the voice of Maul, and he is brilliant. Look, the first time I ever saw him on screen and acting was in Smallville. He played Doomsday. on Smallville Hill and uh he kind of primarily works in voice acting now but he he is phenomenal as Dolph Maul I loved how he carried his uh voice and for this character it just gives it a a level of how can I describe it gravitas or uh I can't think of any other action but it is great. is great it's continuation from the work he did on clone wars as maul and and so on and so forth the rest of the voice cast was also good i didn't have a problem with any of the voice actors here and not to mention the story the story worked well for me i i wasn't lost you know being as though i didn't watch the entirety of clone wars i still could follow the story i could still follow the characters And the story that they're telling on this show, I'm all in for, you know, because we're getting a more underworld vibe. You know, this is the criminal underworld that we are diving into, at least in these first two episodes that I'm all for, man. We don't need Jedi and, you know, the emperor showing up and Yoda. limping into a scene we don't need all that it let's tell a different story a darker story and the story is working with uh maul trying to take control of his empire that he lost and uh seek vengeance on all them that betrayed him in the meanwhile and he's just this quote unquote shadow lord who's working in the background uh taking out these criminal bosses systematically it is it's beautiful i i love the story i hope and pray that they keep it going for the remaining eight episodes i enjoyed the show and i'm here for it every monday as they release a new episode of star wars mall shadow lord on disney plus i would like to know what did you think of the shadow lord uh you did you like it did you love it are you are you burnt out on star wars are you ready for some new content some new jedi some new uh sif some new adventures i i would love to know um i'm with you i'm with you uh it's time it's time to let luke skywalker uh get his rest man let him let him let him rest in peace dog we've we had enough of the skywalker saga let's move on to bigger and better things but i would like to know your thoughts email the show kbradiopodcast at gmail.com you can also search for the show on all social media platforms just search for the kb radio net Also, don't forget about YouTube. Subscribe to the KB Radio Network channel and like this video if you don't mind. Don't forget about the five stars, the reviews, and sharing this show. If you're listening on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, wherever, you are currently listening to The Concession Stand here on the KB Radio Network. Everybody, thank you for joining me for this review of Star Wars Maul Shadow Lord. currently on Disney+. Want you all to know that I love you. Continue to love everyone and until we speak again, you all be blessed.