Ahsoka: The Complete First Season (4K UHD Blu-ray Steelbook Review)
Star Wars was always at the top of my list of film series as a kid. I loved the battles, the spaceships, the speeders and those characters were just so cool to me. After the original trilogy, the prequels were fine, and then as I was much older the next trilogy of films came along and initially felt like they were closer to the original trilogy. Between all the gaps in film trilogies, Animated series, novels, comics and more dropped out of everywhere to entice even bigger fans of Star Wars than I ever was. Ahsoka comes from an animated series, Star Wars Rebels to be exact, and then the character appeared in The Mandalorian capturing a villain and teaming with Din Djarin. Now, Ahsoka is her own character with her own show. Is it any good? And how’s the 4K disc?! Read more about Ahsoka: The Complete First Season, and may the force be with you!
Season:
Set after the fall of the Empire, Ahsoka follows the former Jedi Knight Ahsoka Tano as she investigates an emerging threat to a vulnerable galaxy.
The above synopsis may be one of the shortest and most to the point I’ve ever read. The interesting thing is that it fits the show to a T. Ahsoka (Rosario Dawson) is a former Jedi apprentice who is called back to help prevent one Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) from overtaking the New Republic. To do this, Ahsoka teams with fellow former apprentice Sabine Wren and Hera Syndulla. Baylan Skoll, a Dark Jedi mercenary has other plans, and works with Morgan Elsbeth, a Nightsister witch of Dathomir. Whew, that’s all a mouthful.
As the season progresses, a reluctant Ahsoka becomes further involved in keeping the New Republic moving forward without disturbance. In the progression of the show, we are given a slew of lightsaber battles, a meeting with Anakin Skywalker in “The World Between Worlds”, and Ahsoka begins to accept and use her Jedi skills even more as she wants to restore order in the galaxy.
I recently recalled in my review of the 3rd season of The Mandalorian (which you can see HERE), that there seems to be a lot of care taken to cater to fans, newcomers and the integrity of the original Star Wars vision. I think this is fine to a point, but as I’ve been making my way through the series as they’re being released, something I’ve noticed, save for a few shows, is that the stories feel padded to make the 8-Episode quota. Long tracking shots of the environments, or of grand spaceships flying by, or set-your-watch-to-it timing for comic relief all feels forced and contrived. The other thing is giving every noteworthy character a series – is it necessary? In my extremely humble opinion, no. I wonder what people, me included, might think of the powers that be pursuing perhaps a mini-series or one-off Disney+ original film for these characters instead. I believe that could make for a better use of money and time.
I realize writing the above paragraph is a controversial moment, but I don’t mean to degrade the series or the workmanship that goes into each one of them. At this point, for me anyway, these 8-episode series feel like bloated overkill. As for Ahsoka, I feel like it’s well acted and expertly crafted, just as the shows before it have been. The problem is that after all these shows, films, shorts, and the overall saturation of the Star Wars universe, I feel a little overwhelmed. The stories aren’t as compelling, and the lore has become ubiquitous to the point that non-fans know things about the franchise without having to do much research. This makes each new Star Wars property feel stilted and that shows in the shows 8-episode progression. By the time we get to the end of the season, we may or may not be compelled to know what happens next. I wish I didn’t feel that way, but I do.
Again, as for Ahsoka, I see the care taken in the world building, makeup, effects and the performances, but I must wonder will these shows have the staying power that the films have had? Will we refer to a show like Ahsoka as a milestone in the franchise? Will it be a show we remember briefly in the timeline? It all depends on who you ask, I guess. For me, It’s a one and done affair. At least the collectors out there have a lovely artifact to refer to in these 4K UHD Steelbook releases.
Video:
Encoding: HEVC / H.265
Resolution: 4K (2160p)
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Layers: BD-100 (4 Episodes per disc)
HDR: Dolby Vision
Clarity/Detail: Ahsoka: The Complete First Season comes to 4K UHD Blu-ray with a triple-layered 4K disc that boosts the clarity of the digital stream and makes the show sparkle! Even the Dolby Vision is better on disc. The special effects on the show can sometimes overtake the aesthetic of the scenes, but the efforts to make things look almost staged is a good thing. The set pieces are full of detail, and you can see the care the crew took in this tack-sharp presentation.
Depth: Dense sets and detailed clothing textures are rendered beautifully in the depth department. Background shots can be out of focus but do not look blurry or incoherent, with close ups looking expertly rendered too.
Black Levels: Inky blacks look perfect throughout the episodes.
Color Reproduction: Colors are gorgeous on this show. Reproduced on disc, the color space opens up a bit more with lighter colors truly popping off screen.
Flesh Tones: Skin tones look just as expected, save of course for the heavily made-up characters.
Noise/Artifacts: Clean.
Audio:
Audio Format(s): English Dolby Atmos, English Descriptive Audio 2.0 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, French 5.1 Dolby Digital
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French
Dynamics: Disney+ series are available with Dolby Atmos, but those mixes always feel hobbled and not up to snuff. Toggling between my 4K set and the Disney+ stream, I noticed better surround activity and bass response and an overall better listening experience on disc. Compression will never be a good thing for video and audio quality and this mix is proof of that.
Height: From above, ships fly, fights happen, lightsabers clash, and creatures roar!
Low-Frequency Extension: Music, battle moments, Purgills hit hyperspace, rumbling space craft and vehicles all keep the subwoofer active!
Surround Sound Presentation: Lower surrounds keep you in the series with ambience, city noise, speeders, Purgills, other creature sounds and all lovely sounds of Star Wars that you can imagine surround you.
Dialogue Reproduction: Dialogue is reproduced perfectly.
Extras:
Ahsoka: The Complete First Season comes home on 4K UHD Blu-ray in the third wave of Disney’s 4K UHD Steelbooks for their Marvel and Star Wars series from Disney+. As with the other releases that came with this wave, the artwork is gorgeous and the steelbooks are glossy. The release comes with 2 4K UHD Blu-ray discs and art cards inside. No digital code or HD Blu-rays are included as has been the case with previous series releases.
BONUS FEATURES
- Ahsoka: Legacy — Join cast and crew for a look at developing Ahsoka’s live-action series.
- Path of the Apprentice — Explore the dynamic of Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka within the world between worlds.
- Ghosts of the Past — Go deep with a spotlight on Ahsoka’s allies: Sabine, Hera, Ezra and Chopper.
- Darkness Rising — Uncover the secrets of Ahsoka’s foes.
Summary:
Ahsoka presents another beloved Star Wars character from the animated realm of the franchise. The parts are well acted and the scenery is fabulous, but overall the experience feels a little empty to me. I feel there is great intention in the creation of these shows and spin-offs, but at this point, I feel a bit fatigued by the drawn out staging of each season that comes out. I know this is one of many other Star Wars properties on the horizon, and I just hope that the next wave of shows either shorten their series orders or get turned into Disney+ original films instead of series. I think that if they could condense the lore a bit and make something quality and wholly engrossing without so much fan service and callbacks inside, they could make something more everlasting. As it stands, collectors will love this 4K UHD Blu-ray steelbook of Ahsoka. The artwork is fabulous and the presentation is heads and tails above the streaming counterpart.
Buy your copy of Ahsoka: The Complete First Season HERE
Adam Toroni-Byrne
Adam is a lifelong physical media collector. His love of collecting began with a My First Sony radio and his parent's cassette collection. Since the age of 3, Adam has collected music on vinyl, tape and CD and films on VHS, DVD, Blu-ray and UHD Blu-ray. Adam likes to think of himself as the queer voice of Whysoblu. Outside of his work as a writer at Whysoblu, Adam teaches preschool and trains to be a boxer although admittedly, he's not very good.
