Posted 29 November 2004 - 04:33 PM
Actually, it is rather bizarre, more strange than "bad" in the sense of any kind of movie, because its not exactly a sequel. It is a "must see" for even those who hate star wars in my opinion. There are the usual things that make people gasp such as Carrie Fisher singing to the star wars theme, the bad TV-special effects, Mark Hammil with 10 coats of makeup and a really shitty cartoon, as well as Bea Arthur. On the other hand there are some interesting moments in it for American Television. The first 10-15 minutes or so are Wookies walking around grunting. Some people have suggested this is the stupidest idea since Howard the Duck, but think about it: for 15 minutes in the setting of a sit-com, two creatures walk around on screen not speaking english, and no subtitles are provided. Its courageous, but not in the over all context. Its funny, yet somewhat noteworthy. Also, its fascinating to also have scenes in a family oriented show, where Imperial Troops invade the home and living room, intimidating an otherwise peaceful and law abiding family of Wookiees. Long before Jackboots pointed machine guns at Elian Gonzales, we see in the heyday of run of the mill American TV, stormtroopers barge into a home, point gun's at Chewbacca's son and terrorize his family, search his house, etc. Its simply eerie. Art Carney, who actually does a reasonable job as the go-between/underground black marketeer gives Chewbacca's Dad what could be considered a virtual-reality sex-machine or electronic nitrous oxide trip. What's even more bizarre is seeing imperial troops dig Jefferson Starship music videos.
There are some truly bad moments in it, and completely farcical skits which most uptight star wars fans would share Lucas' nausea, however, the peculiar moments about unlawful search and seizure, the unusual parody of sitcoms with unitelligible wookiee speech is almost genius. Don't misundertand me, this show is crap, but whoever thought of having a scene where Wookiees in a treehouse walk around speaking jibberish should be commended for the size of his balls. We're talking about television here in like 1980. Fascist thugs invading the household? Black marketeers, smugglers? The scenes are all pretty much crap, the acting is bad, the musical numbers are freakish and overall, its like it came out of another dimension, but it definitely passes on some very strange vibes like you've never experienced before. Not exactly funny, not exactly Plan 9 From Outer Space, its not exactly horrifying, its so far beyond, its creepy.
Those are my thoughts, discredit them now if you like.