After three stellar episodes, Skeleton Crew takes a nosedive with Episode 4, which comes across as pure cringe. The episode feels like a complete waste, packed with bad writing, clichés, and dumbed-down moments. It even makes me question whether the show has any budget at all.
Following last week’s episode, where they obtained the coordinates to their home planet, they arrive only to discover that everything is not what it seems. Okay, cool—more mystery.
Have they been stuck behind some kind of planetary barrier that also shields them from time? Did escaping the barrier break the time shield and jettison them to the present day? That was my initial thought.
It would explain why the kids aren’t up to date on history. It could also deepen the mystery by raising more questions about what the planet was doing to be shielded and barricaded from the rest of the universe (which still holds true).
Nope. Out of the millions of planets in the galaxy and universe, the FIRST one they land on is full of cringe-worthy kid warriors (eye roll).
It’s also becoming painfully clear that the girls in the series are being portrayed as the bestest ever. The girl warrior they conveniently meet is a total badass, doing unnecessary jumps, flips, and slides just to look “cool!”
The cringe doesn’t stop there. The kids are handed guns and have a blast shooting them—literally. Then there’s Neel’s conversation with the girl, where he confesses how much of a wuss he is, but he gets the cliched kiss, and then he stands up to 33 and promptly passes out. Bruh!
Or how about this: They’re told information might be at a secret location, and that they’ll need to pass a trial to get there—it’s a long journey, apparently.
Well, how about one of the kids says, “We have a f’n starship!” Hello. They can just fly there. At the very least, you need a line where one of the kids suggests keeping the starship a secret if the writers don’t want them to use it. Otherwise, [in Keanu Reeves’ voice] “Yeah, we have a f’n starship.”
Come on, man! Make it make sense!
The end is horrible and rushed. The opposing tribe finds Jude Law. He just gives up. Jod finds the children, returns the animals, they go to the supervisor’s tower, episode over. Reeks of having no budget.
This episode does nothing to advance the story. You wouldn’t miss a beat by skipping it. It teases a few things at the very end by revealing that the droid knows something—but we already knew that. It’s back to square one.
The only good thing about this episode is the practical effects (assumed), look great. However, just like the episode, they are completely wasted, as nothing significant happens. No battles, just blah blah blah talk—it’s pure cringe. The episode could have been good. It had good setup, but there is no delivery. It’s a filler episode. It’s like someone came up with the idea, “Let’s have another cool female kid. Let’s make her a warrior. We’ll build the episode around that.” It doesn’t come off anyway as organic to the story.
What’s even more disappointing is that this episode marks the halfway point of the series. The episodes are short, only about 30 minutes long (with nearly 10 minutes of credits at the end, so don’t let those runtimes fool you). The episodes really need to pack a punch, but Skeleton Crew swings and misses with Episode 4.
My rating: 4/10.
