[psmith2.0]

No problem. It's the right thing to do...doesn't take any time/effort to type those spoiler tags. And especially now, Brad having fixed that little glitch that wasn't letting them show up in iOS Safari, I feel better about it. I know the tags will appear no matter what people are reading on, so I'll speak freely, guilt/worry-free.

Like right now...

I keep thinking about that sweet, totally unexpected curveball they threw us last night. Because of the main character/show title, the location you knew he would be living, etc. we were probably all expecting any focus on a 10-year-old to be, naturally, Luke. But other than just a brief scene of him running around the Lars homestead and then pretending to fly a spaceship (and him being mentioned in a conversation between Obi-Wan and Owen in town), that was all we saw/heard of him. When that first shot of Alderaan appeared (we know what it looks like, the terrain and architecture from that closing shot in Revenge of the Sith when Bail arrives back home with infant Leia) I was like "wait...what?" And then you see this cute tiny little girl running around, being a bit of a willful handful to her parents, and with a vocabulary and intelligence far beyond her years, you just kinda melt. And then to hear her name again... "ohmigosh, there she is!"...acting exactly how you'd imagine this character to be at age 10. And she's so little. When she was standing next to Bail on the veranda (Jimmy Smits is tall, at least 6'2"), she was so tiny. Even when he knelt down on one knee to console her, he was still about 6-8" taller than she was! She's just a little munchkin, but with the mind of a 29-year-old. In fact, on a couple of occasions her precocity and way of speaking made for some humor. Obi-Wan "How old are you?!" And then he made a nice comparison to "someone I once knew" (a strong, independent and stubborn person) "I'm not stubborn!" (after an entire two episodes of being nothing but). Obi-Wan, of course, was talking about Padme, her mother. Shows like this will help "rehabilitate" and improve how the prequels sit/come across, IMO. Giving an older Christensen a second chance to do a better job, sweet references to Padme, etc. will maybe help re-frame some things, or at least cause the viewer to think back a bit more fondly on those three movies? The "recap" that appeared before the first episode was indeed a montage of important scenes from the three prequel episodes, to fully help set the stage about where everyone is, and why. And during Obi-Wan's dream while sleeping in his cave (he wasn't yet acquired that little house that Alec Guinness had in A New Hope), it was all quick-cut scenes of bad, sad things seen in the prequels. So those movies are going to loom large in this series, and, so far, it's been done really well. It was just a pleasant surprise, and totally nothing I'd ever considered. I thought at some point in the six episodes, Obi-Wan might have a video/hologram call with Bail, and Leia be mentioned in passing ("She's doing well, my friend" or whatever). But to have her actually figure prominently into the plot that spanned both episodes, and to show Alderaan, including inside buildings/rooms, forest, family stuff, etc. was out of nowhere. And I loved it. If you'd told me "Paul, guess who factors in quite heavily into the first two episodes of a show called Obi-Wan Kenobi, ostensibly to be set on Tatooine"...Leia, Bail Organa, Alderaan, etc. would've all escaped my first 50 guesses. "Boba Fett? Chewbacca? Jabba? Qui-Gon Force ghost? FaceTime call with exiled Yoda? Watto? Greedo? Sebulba? Bib Fortuna? Any number of the Mos Eisley cantina patrons from A New Hope? Artoo? Threepio? CGI Tarkin? The Emperor? 10-year-old Wedge?" And on and on. I would've proceeded to pretty much name everyone in the saga except 10-year-old Leia (and her father). Never would've guessed what they actually showed. Someone at Lucasfilm did that on purpose, throwing us that nice curve. "You think we're gonna zig, and be all about "kid Luke on Tatooine", but we're actually gonna zag...here's kid Leia on Alderaan (and elsewhere). You're welcome!" That's "subverting expectations" done right/well.