Max Nocerino 
The first two episodes of Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord, I said, were cliché and tired. The next 2 proved that they can give die-hard Star Wars fans exactly what they want!
Star Wars is currently in a strange limbo state. It’s under “new management,” and hype for a new movie has never been this low. The Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord series seems like it would be a fanboy’s lifeline. It builds on a character that everyone has loved since 1999, employs a cozy, familiar animation niche, and is directed by one of the (arguably) best modern Star Wars storytellers in the franchise’s history. It checks all the boxes to be the knight in shining armor. Yet, to me, I feel like I’ve been here before.
CHAPTERS 3-4
The next two episodes of the show have introduced a lot of fun plot points, and I have to say I’m not disliking it. Maul’s motivations are a little overplayed – he wants an apprentice so he can get revenge, blah blah blah. But it is executed in a way that pays strong homage to the spirit of the mythos. His terrifying test for the Twi’lek Jedi apprentice, Devon, was very creepy and reminiscent of Vader trying to entice his son into giving in to his anger in that dark under-the-stairs grating on the Death Star. I also liked the Episode I throwback with the Master and Apprentice duel against Maul between Devon and Daki later in the episode. Daki doesn’t (SPOILER ALERT) die as Qui-Gon did, but he is injured, and it was only due to Devon’s quick intervention that he survived.
Also, layers upon layers of this duel were thrown back to The Phantom Menace. Still, Devon intercepting Maul’s blade before it struck her master was just like Episode II, Attack of the Clones, when Anakin saved his master, Obi-Wan, from being killed by Count Dooku. I like but also don’t like all these fractal reverberations in the storytelling. While they invoke tons of nostalgia in me as a lifelong fan, I also feel that they are a recursive loop that traps Star Wars storytelling from diversifying and evolving into something new. In my opinion, to grow well, you must also constantly become different.
A CONTRADICTION?
I also find the silky smoothness of Maul as a villain to be contradictory to what made him so endearing as a villain back in 1999. He’s still terrifying, with his demonic face paint, cranial horns, and rotted teeth twisted in a rictus of rage. But he has lost the air of the mysterious, silent, and brutish (but at the same time elegant) warrior that we were originally introduced to. He’s also a little too merciful. A little too respectful to his foes. I want him to say nothing still. To be full of unbridled rage and take orders from a higher authority. Having him as a criminal mastermind isn’t the right look for him, for me.
RELATED: Check out this week’s Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord Character Posters.
LAWSON’S INVESTIGATION
It isn’t all bad, though. I’m seriously in love with the grungy, detective police work that runs parallel to the Jedi/Sith story. Detective Lawson is a very real, average person in the galaxy who is trying to stop evil on a dangerous cosmopolitan world, in a way that’s very familiar to someone living on Earth. At the same time, enmeshing it with truly alien concepts, like shooting laser guns, reading evidence on holoscreens instead of dry-erase boards, and working with sentient police robots who don’t need to drink coffee to stay awake. This is such a beautiful juxtaposition, and Lawson is actually turning out to be a very endearing character that I want to see more of.
He is truly a good being who wants to keep the Empire off the planet for as long as possible and to balance his hectic (and dangerous!) work with being in time to watch his son’s space lacrosse game. It kinda reminds me a bit of Peter Parker, trying to juggle his lives as a friend and a student with his secret identity as a crime-fighting hero. And I am excited to learn that his wife is an Imperial, which is foreshadowing some hidden dimensions of the plot later in this series.
TWO BOOTS
Lawson’s droid partner, Two Boots, is programmed dogmatically to follow protocol and insists on calling for the Empire, even though Lawson is his commanding officer. He is so fixated on following the rules that Lawson forcibly deactivates him so he cannot send out a signal, but this effort only buys him some time. The Empire is on its way, and things are about to escalate rapidly.
VERDICT
All in all, I don’t hate the Jedi/Sith story element; I’m just bored with the repetitive way it’s being presented. Yet it’s perfect for new fans or those who have stayed perpetually frozen in this way of thinking. Yet, the police stuff is priceless. I would very much love to see an entire series on droid-organic buddy cop police adventures. Sign me up for that.
Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord continues on Disney+ with two episodes each week, culminating in a finale on Star Wars Day, May the 4th.
Max Nocerino is a regular Staff Writer for The Future of the Force. He is a passionate Star Wars fan and loves the literature of the galaxy far, far away. Follow him on Twitter where he shares his love of the Force frequently!
