Drama
The Faithful: Women of the Bible
Fox’s ‘The Faithful’ explores stories from the Bible through the eyes of biblical matriarchs, highlighting these women’s incredible faith.
When was the last time you saw Darth Maul?
You might be thinking to yourself, Maul … wasn’t he the Sith lord with the red-and-black face and double lightsaber from The Phantom Menace? Didn’t Obi-Wan cut him in half? Well, yes, Obi-Wan Kenobi did slice Maul in half after Maul killed his master, Qui-Gon Jinn.
But Obi-Wan didn’t kill Maul.
Maul, powered by his hatred and his mastery of the Dark Side of the Force, managed to survive the bisection. Fans of the The Clone Wars series (Disney’s animated TV show that documented events that occurred between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith) know that Maul then went insane. He scrounged up some droid parts to create spider-like legs for himself. Then his brother, Savage Opress, found and rescued him. And their pseudo-mother—Mother Talzin of the Nightsisters, aka the Witches of Dathomir—used her magic to restore Maul’s mind and create new legs for him.
After that, Maul tried to seek revenge against Obi-Wan. (He failed.) He trained Savage in the ways of the Dark Side and went after his old master, Darth Sidious, aka Palpatine. (Failed again.) And he even tried to convince Ahsoka Tano, former padawan of Anakin Skywalker, to become his apprentice. (You should be sensing a pattern of failure by this point.)
But in the midst of all of that, Maul also formed the Shadow Collective, a crime syndicate uniting several other criminal organizations in the galaxy.
No surprise, the Shadow Collective failed, too. And given all those Clone Wars antics, Maul has had to do a lot of regrouping since the fall of the Jedi and rise of the Empire.
But now Maul is back with more hatred than ever.
With the help of some loyal followers—a Mandalorian warrior named Rook Kast, two fellow Zabraks named Scorn and Icarus and a clever, sinister droid called Spybot—Maul plans to reform the Shadow Collective and kill each of the crime bosses who betrayed him.
Ultimately, Maul’s plot involves revenge against Sidious. (I guess old habits die hard.) But even he’s not arrogant enough to rechallenge his old master without some help.
Luckily—for Maul, at least—the revenge-minded Zabrak stumbles across the young Devon Izara.
Devon was training to become a Jedi when Palpatine issued Order 66. She managed to escape with Master Eeko-Dio Daki, but the two have been struggling to survive since the fall of the Jedi Order. The pair can’t reveal their past or knowledge of the Force: Agents of the Empire would kill them without question. But when your résumé only consists of skills with a laser sword (a dead giveaway to said past), it can be hard to find a job that keeps a roof over your head or food in your belly.
And Devon is tired of struggling and starving.
The Jedi are no more. She and Eeko-Dio must adapt or perish. And right now, helping Maul shape the galaxy’s seedy underworld to his will seems like a pretty good option to her.
Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord isn’t the Star Wars you might be familiar with. The tone is darker. The painterly animation style gives the series a noir feel. And the story plays out more like a gritty crime epic—complete with a work-obsessed cop, Brander Lawson, hunting Maul down—than a battle between good and evil.
But there are plenty of good vs. evil dynamics. Eeko-Dio tries to guide Devon down the path of the Light Side. He tells her that they share a common enemy with Maul—but that doesn’t mean they can be his allies. Meanwhile, Maul promises to teach Devon things that the Jedi never could, things that can only be learned from the Dark side of the Force, things that might keep her alive and her stomach full.
Content-wise, you’ve obviously got all the lore dealing with the Force (and the witchcraft employed by the Nightsisters). But the language is completely clean. And bloody sights are kept to a minimum.
That isn’t to say there’s no bloodshed though. While not gory, Maul mows down droves. His henchmen fire blasters and other weapons without pause. And before the first episode’s end, Maul succeeds in ending the life of one of the crime bosses he’s hunting.
That certainly makes for more intense viewing than some Star Wars fans might be expecting. And I’d say that even if you watched The Clone Wars with your own padawans, you may want to wait until they’re a bit older before exploring this series.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at letters@pluggedin.com, or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
When Maul is linked to attacks against crime syndicates on the urban planet Janix, Brander Lawson (the detective assigned to the case) asks his colleagues not to inform the Empire, fearing what an Imperial presence might bring for the people of Janix.
Members of a crime syndicate attack members of another. Many droids (which are treated as semi-sentient beings) get blasted, and credits (galactic cash) get stolen. The criminals flee when police show up, activating a booby trap that destroys one police vehicle (likely killing those inside). A second police vehicle gives chase, and the criminals shoot at it. Eventually, the officers trap the bad guys on a roof, and backup arrives. Unfortunately, Maul is on the scene, and he uses his lightsaber to dispatch everyone. Elsewhere, Maul and his henchmen attack a police station, killing human, droid and alien officers with blasters and Maul’s lightsaber.
A character smashes objects in anger. Several characters threaten revenge against those who have allegedly done them wrong. We learn that Maul is trying to provoke different crime syndicates to war so that their leaders will come out of the shadows, allowing him to kill them. A droid head (barely functioning) is delivered to a crime boss as a threat.
More shooting matches ensue. One crime boss shoots and kills another with a blaster. During a chase, vehicles crash into civilian transports, sometimes knocking them off the elevated streets entirely.
A starving girl named Devon steals food even though her mentor warns her not to: “We can always rely on the kindness of strangers,” he says. (Although a stranger immediately ignores the man’s alms request.) Devon gets caught and arrested. Because she stubbornly refuses to cooperate, she winds up in a cell for the night.
Maul says he has been having visions of his future apprentice. He believes his syndicate’s actions will “serve a greater purpose” in the Force.
Police engage in blaster fights with Maul and his henchmen. They commandeer a civilian transport to give chase to the bad guys, which results in many crashes and explosions. The pursuit ends when a Jedi master uses the Force to flip one of Maul’s vehicles. Unfortunately, Maul then uses the Force to collapse a pedestrian bridge. The Jedi uses his powers to keep the bridge intact while police save the civilians.
Maul pushes a crime boss down some stairs. He then uses the Force to levitate heavy gold bars above the guy’s head, threatening to drop them (and kill him) if he doesn’t give Maul the information he wants. Elsewhere, Maul uses his laser sword to annihilate everyone aboard a rival syndicate ship (and he steals the money they were transporting).
Maul kidnaps Devon and a crime boss from a police precinct. He has his followers patch Devon up, since she got injured in the fray. Maul tells her that he knows she used to be a Jedi, and he tries to entice her to join him on the Dark Side of the Force. (It’s suggested he wants to use her as a weapon against Darth Sidious.) Devon refuses, instead using the Force to open her cell in his lair and escape.
Brander Lawson appears to be divorced. His son says he wants to visit his mom, but Brander tells his son he’ll have to wait until his dad can accompany him—which is difficult, since Brander is always working.
Two characters toast with alcohol. A woman flirts with Brander.
Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.
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