The last month or so has been pretty fantastic for Star Wars on the small screen.   We got a second season of both Light and Magic and Andor, and now we've got Tales of the Underworld.   Like Tales of the Jedi and Tales from the Empire, six short episodes tell a couple of stories about two familiar faces - this time, Asajj Ventress and Cad Bane.   These tales focus on backstory.

But just to be safe, don't keep reading if you don't want the shows in any way spoiled.   In case you're worried you might have to suffer,  they're the best batch yet.  It's worth spending the hour or so to watch all six.

The Asajj Ventress Episodes

Depending on how much you keep up with the licensed paper game, you may or may not be aware that Asajj Ventress.  Her story follows the events of the novel Dark Disciple and precedes her appearances in The Bad Batch, showcasing familiar faces and a story that gives hair to those who had none.   There are a lot of familiar looking background alien models, plus some entirely new beings and new characters in a story that takes cues from all kinds of things you may have seen before.  But it's entertaining, and a pretty good template of the kind of thing I'd like to see more.

The Cad Bane Episodes

These three really surprised me in that the music immediately cued you in to the gimmick - the stories riff on old gangster movies as much as westerns.  If you're a fan of Batman: The Animated Series it reminded me a bit of "It's Never Too Late," which no doubt riffed on a James Cagney movie I haven't yet seen.  (That's a not-well-balanced film education for you.)   The music really stands out, as do strong character designs and lots of space cops in a space urban environment.   I was delighted to see lots of duro in here of various shapes, sizes, and colors - it felt like a lot of work went in the episodes this year.   I was really delighted by the sets they built, and there was something that made me say "oh that's really neat!" every few minutes.

What I particularly love about these stories is that it gives you some backstory while animators are flexing their muscle, but not giving us a full rundown on everything about the character.  They also seem to have a lot of hooks for new stories, which I assume we'll some day see in a comic or a new cartoon.

Confidential to Nobody

Given the high cost of live-action storytelling, I'd really like to see more shows like these. I'm digging Andor quite a lot, but there's something charming about short stories packed with a lot of new characters.  Heck, that's part of why I like Star Wars so much in the first place - every character could be a jumping-off point to a new adventure.   The choice to draw inspiration from old gangster movies was great, and it would  be a hoot to see them find more genres next time.  

Here's hoping Lucasfilm makes "tales" a weekly, ongoing season with a couple dozen episodes a year.   While not a hearty meal, having a 10-minute weekly story throwing new characters at me every couple of weeks would be a lot of fun and a great way to endear fans to some characters while filling in the gaps where it makes sense.   My compliments to all parties involved.