PrimeWire

You mustn’t have gotten the e-mail. Jar-Jar Binks is dead like Bucky. It’s canon. And Abrams hated that minstrel show as much as the rest of us—so much that he wanted to include Jar-Jar’s bleached bones out in the desert as an easter egg in Episode VII. “Three people will notice,” he said, “but they’ll love it.” Ultimately the decision was made that it’s best to forget Jar-Jar and the dodgey prequel movies as best we can. So even mentioning his name is tantamount to heresy. Anyway, Bad Robot is a solid production company. Not everything he makes is great (cough-Cloverfield-cough) but it’s impossible to hit a Homerun every time, right?

Having said that last bit, and watched the first episode, I’m not sure if I like this yet. I need to watch a few more episodes to decide. Sometimes setups can be slow so some shows deserve a healthy benefit of the doubt. A bunch of otaku and incels harassing and speaking crassly to a grieving widow is hardly an enthralling premise. But maybe this was King imagining his own death a la John Lennon/George Harrison? Did you know Stephen King’s wife hates being referred to as “Stephen King’s wife” because she feels she’s her own person with her own list of accomplishments to be proud of? I couldn’t help but think of this as I watched this premiere. If King was gunned down by someone off his lithium who read The Catcher in the Rye one too many times, would Überfans and nutcases be pestering Tabitha for scraps of unfinished work?

If anything is a portent of evil it’s the “An Apple Original” part. They’re the M Night Shyamalan of big tech companies. I’ve given the streaming service’s original content a few looks a few times and the rolling of my eyes was audible.