Perhaps the best instance of carrying on Jim Henson's legacy I've seen. Though it's easy to see that it was Henson's passion project, The Dark Crystal was a beautiful yet over-ambitious film that somewhat lacked in story and character. Age of Resistance takes his notes on the deep lore that never made it into the film, and adapts it into an engaging series that makes for the perfect companion piece.

The design of the world and attention to detail feel incredibly faithful, like it would all fit right into the original. The modern puppetry is highly advanced and expressive, with CG used as a suitable supplement rather than a crutch. It didn't take long for the Gelfling to close the uncanny valley for me, which is a great improvement. The characters are largely well fleshed out and likeable, with excellent performances by a surprisingly star-studded cast (disguised by their voice acting talents). The Skeksis in particular are made all the more fascinating, and the depth of their pettiness and cruelty gives you plenty of reason to hate them. The tone is even darker than the original film, not shying away from death, torture and even mild alien gore. And the story is engaging and creative, retroactively enhancing and improving the original film. While the plot could stand to be continued (and hopefully concluded) with a second season, the showrunners wisely gave us a satisfying climax that loosely sets up the film nicely.

There were a couple of decisions I was less fond of, small as they may be. Some scenes and scenarios with the Skesis started to feel a bit repetitive after a while, though I really liked them too much to consider it annoying. I also felt Seladon's character was pushed too far to make such a quick redemption arc convincing. So much time is focused on making her unlikeable that it's pretty hard to see why she should be forgiven so swiftly. My biggest actual grievance would have to be the decision to manifacture a vague romance between Deet and Rian. Hup has a far better relationship with her that was built up over the season, but eventually they write him out of the way to just be kinda jealous. After Rian is proven innocent he doesn't have much to do, but I didn't feel like he had enough chemistry with Deet to warrant a love interest. It just feels odd to have a same-race relationship forced with alien fantasy characters.

All in all though, Netflix really shot itself in the foot by cancelling one of its most critically acclaimed and fantastic productions. As much as I want a follow up, I have to admit it doesn't feel like a likely thing to get picked up by another studio any time soon. As it stands you need to fill in a lot of the gaps between this prequel series and the film yourself, but they still work wonderfully together. I'm incredibly impressed and moved by the passion and dedication to continuing the craft of the world's greatest puppeteer.