Heart Wars

Jon Watts and Christopher Ford returned to pen last night's penultimate episode of Skeleton Crew. It was kind of odd because I recognised the story beats of a kids' adventure story from the '80s and Treasure Island and felt like I ought to be enjoying it. Unfortunately, I still feel like the show is out of touch with how sympathy works.

I don't believe stories have to be about sympathetic characters but one thing you need sympathetic characters for is illogical writing. If your audience sympathises with the characters, they're generally more willing to overlook leaps in logic that allow them to win. When a leap in logic favours a character you don't like, you feel cheated. Brutal but sound logic can be devastating but part of a good experience.

When the droid, SM-33, cited a piece of Pirate Code that said a captain could only claim one ship at a time, it was part of the leap in logic that allowed the kids to escape. If I liked the kids, this would've been a happy and exciting moment. But never did I prefer them over Jude Law's character, Jod. So it felt like a cheat. The rule doesn't make any sense. Real life pirates commanded multiple ships. Pirates like plunder and the ships themselves were part of that plunder. Maybe if Jod changed his title to "admiral" the droid would've been more amenable.

So it turns out that there's truly a massive stockpile of wealth which At Attin's gated community is sitting on. Do I have the slightest desire to see Jod prevented from obtaining this wealth that's apparently just gathering dust in over a thousand vaults?

I realise full well that this is likely all a set up for Jod to be revealed as a less villainous character in the final episode. I mean, that is the only way this could be satisfying. But the writers seem to think I'd be conflicted at this point and I'm just not. Is it supposed to be endearing when Wim shouts, "Attack!" and tries to take the whole pirate crew with his fists? Am I supposed to be impressed by Fern's calling "unclaimsies"? I had to check the closed captioning before I even understood what she said. The fact that that worked was a huge leap in logic and maybe I'd have been willing to go with it if I thoroughly despised Jod. But I have the exact opposite feelings so it was entirely a frustrating experience.

Skeleton Crew is available on Disney+.