Force in Focus: The Star Wars Holiday Special

As you may or may not know, earlier this fall Saved by the Bell Reviewed, the weekly podcast that Dr. Bitz and I co-hosted along with two Oregonian cartoonists, finished its run reviewing every episode of the series (along with some extra stuff).

Shortly after that wrapped, we launched a new podcast, A Very Special Episode, which takes the Saved by the Bell Reviewed format of crass TV analysis and applies it to a wider swath of pop culture, examining "very special" episodes from across TV (rather than looking at just one show), as well other media. Earlier this week, in light of the holidays and the release of Rogue One, we dedicated our latest episode to the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special, a 70s-style variety show featuring Chewbacca's family and phoned-in appearances from the principal Star Wars cast, alongside everything from a blackface cooking demonstration, a performance from Diahann Carroll specifically intended by the creators to be as much like softcore porn as network censors would allow, and large swathes of time in which the only dialogue being spoken is a series of unintelligible Wookiee growls and howls (without subtitles).

Force in Focus: Rogue One

Unlike The Force Awakens, which I saw three times in the first 24 hours of its release, I've only had a chance to see Rogue One once as of this writing. So my thoughts on it are less formed; details haven't cemented themselves in my head, I haven't had a chance to watch it in more detail without being as focused on plot & character beats while wondering what was coming next, etc. So with that caveat in place, here's some thoughts on stuff I liked and didn't like about the movie, at least after my first viewing.

Spoilers, obviously. If you haven't seen the movie yet, probably skip this.

Force in Focus: Rogue One Trailer #2

The second full Rogue One trailer (and third look at the film counting the initial teaser) was released earlier this week (along with the official movie poster), and it was once again packed with a ton of cool images and teases about the film's story. By all accounts, this will be the final trailer for the film (barring the likely TV spots as it gets closer to release), so here are some final thoughts on the images presented thus far, at least until the movie is released.

Force in Focus: Rogue One Trailer

We've learned a little bit more about Rogue One since the first teaser trailer was released back in April, notably that both Jimmy Smits as Bail Organa and Darth Vader will be making appearances in the film, and that Forest Whitaker is playing Saw Guerra, a character first introduced in one of the better Clone Wars arcs (there's also been some info released about some of the planets seen in the film and a few snippets about some of the other characters). This week, Disney unveiled a new trailer during Olympic coverage on NBC, which shortly thereafter hit the internet. Here's five standout things from the latest look at the new movie.

Atmospheric Star Destroyer 

Old Star Wars canon suggested that Imperial Star Destroyers (as opposed to the ones used by the Republic during the Clone Wars) weren't atmospheric, but here we've got a pretty amazing shot of one hovering over some kind of mesa on a planet, so that's apparently changed. Which is fine, because that's a pretty awesome shot.

Force in Focus: Rogue One Teaser

The marketing for Rogue One, the next Star Wars film due to be released this December, has been oddly quiet (particularly for a franchise known for being less-than-quiet on the marketing front), with most of the Star Wars-related press focused (understandably) on the aftermath of The Force Awakens and then its Blu-ray release. Scuttlebutt has been that the first Rogue One trailer would be released with Captain America: Civil War in May, and while that still may be the case, this week saw the release of a quick teaser - timed, not coincidentally, I'm sure, with the Force Awakens blu-ray release (corporate synergy at work!).

It's brief, but there's nevertheless a bunch of cool, fun, and jaw-dropping stuff packed in there.

"This is a rebellion, isn't it? I rebel."

Boom. One line of dialogue that speaks volumes about a character.