Animation
Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord
‘Maul – Shadow Lord’ is darker than previous animated Star Wars fare. It’s still clean, but it may be best suited for older viewers.
A final gesture. That’s all Linda asks of her children as they wait for her mother to die.
She doesn’t have much time left: Cancer and old age have made sure of that. So Linda wants to give her mother one final early birthday celebration. Her youngest, Natalie, understood: She made sure to bring some bowls as a gift.
But her other kids, Nicky and Morgan, came empty-handed. (In their defense, all of this was thrust on them spur of the moment.) Besides, what material thing does one give to a dying woman?
Linda has the answer: a diamond necklace. It’s what her father gave her mom—before she lost it on the honeymoon. It’d be a lovely send-off.
Well, Nicky’s the pastor of a small community church, and Morgan’s an elementary school teacher, so neither exactly have the money for a diamond anything. A cheap knockoff will have to suffice.
They find one such necklace in a small strip-mall store. But when Morgan asks to buy it, the man behind the counter, Yusuf, tells her it’s not for sale. Morgan doesn’t much like his tone, and the two get into an argument. Nicky tries to defuse it, telling Yusuf that he’s a pastor and doesn’t want trouble.
And while Yusuf (and Nicky) isn’t looking, Morgan swipes the necklace.
While they were away, Grandma passed. Still, Linda thinks the necklace is perfect, demanding the two clip it around her mother’s neck so that she can be buried with it. The body goes to the morgue, and everyone else goes their separate ways to prepare for the funeral.
Then there’s a knock at Nicky’s door.
It’s Yusuf, drenched from the outside storm and looking rather intimidating, demanding the necklace back immediately.
“You don’t know what you’ve taken, OK?” He says. “And you have no idea who you’re dealing with. Return it, or I’ll make sure your God gets very upset with you.”
Big Mistakes starts out a little misleading: with the relatively small mistake of stealing that necklace.
But often, small mistakes can be like pulling that single loose thread on a sweater.
In Nicky and Morgan’s case, that necklace happened to be worth far more than the $70-something it had been marked. Turns out, keeping it out in the open like that was just what Yusuf thought would keep the police from finding it suspicious. It’s actually worth thousands of dollars and meant to be in the hands of a man far more powerful than him.
And just like that, Nicky and Morgan find their sweaters have unraveled.
More mistakes follow, ones that result in the duo stuck working for dangerous drug cartels who prefer to shoot their employees than offer any sort of severance pay. As for Nicky, that’s just another secret he must keep hidden from his congregation (the other being his intimate relationship with another man). Who would’ve guessed that the parting gift meant for their grandma may very well part them from their lives?
By this point, you’ll probably have a pretty good idea of the content here, from heavy drug use and crude language to onscreen killings. Nudity and other sexual references show up. LGBT content is central to the plot, too—and all content heavily ties into to a progressive reinterpretation of Christianity.
And with all that in mind, for many families, tuning into Big Mistakes will be like tugging at that loose piece of their own sweater thread.
(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.)
After their mother coerces them to buy a necklace for their dying grandma, Nicky and Morgan find themselves in deep trouble when Morgan steals a valuable necklace from dangerous people.
Nicky works as a reverend, but he is attracted to men. His congregation knows this about him, and he has pledged to live a life of celibacy and avoid engaging in the desire. However, he hides a secret boyfriend from his church, and that boyfriend is often seen shirtless (possibly with less clothing just offscreen) and waking up in Nicky’s bed in his congregation-funded home. We see the two men kiss, and Nicky pledges to eventually abandon his congregation to find one that doesn’t think homosexuality is a sin. The boyfriend likewise spends his time working with an organization called “Out and Loud, raising money for queer people so that they can be ‘out and loud.’”
Morgan is kissed by her boyfriend, Max, in the car as Max drops her off at her elementary school teaching job. When he notes her discomfort, she hyperbolically states that she does not want to have sex in the parking lot.
When someone calls Nicky “Father,” he corrects the man by stating he’s not Catholic. A woman calls cancer a “godless disease.” Nicky jokes that he was praying God would protect him from his sister’s bad attitude. At one point, Nicky’s mother is upset that Nicky wasn’t there when his grandma passed away—forcing her to resort to bringing “some teenybopper from the hospital” to offer the final prayer. A scene contains a rosary. There’s a reference to the Book of Mormon. Nicky states that the Lord gives people the capacity to live through pain. A student describes a disheveled Morgan as looking “like a bad witch.”
A man holds Morgan at gunpoint. We’re told a story of a woman who slipped and broke her neck. Morgan accidentally slams a meat cleaver on her finger. She also steals a necklace. We see a woman’s corpse. A bird slams into a window and dies.
Someone goes to get wine.
We hear roughly 35 instances of the f-word and three of the s-word. Other crudities include “b–ch” and “p-ss.” God’s name is used in vain nine times, including a couple of instances interjected with the f-word uttered by pastor Nicky. Jesus’ name is used in vain once.
Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He’s also an avid cook. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”
‘Maul – Shadow Lord’ is darker than previous animated Star Wars fare. It’s still clean, but it may be best suited for older viewers.
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