Maul - Shadow Lord was pretty good
As someone who actually quite likes TCW, and who also hasn't watched much Star Wars in years (though I've recently started checking out some of the media I missed, largely because of this show), this was a pretty fun ride. Honestly, it might actually be the most solid first season of a Dave Filoni show (unless you want to count Avatar: The Last Airbender, as, though he wasn't the creator, he did do a lot of directing and storyboarding).
The early days of the Empire I always feel are kind of unexplored. As much as I'm kind of mixed on The Bad Batch, it certainly had an interesting premise in showing the transition between Republic and Empire through the eyes of clones and other characters we saw in TCW. We kind of see that as well here, as the Empire hasn't fully cracked down on every planet yet and are still sort of getting their footing.
It's got a pretty solid cast as well. Surprising lack of "glup shittos" in this show, and the past characters that do appear make sense (yes, even the big one at the end). Most of the cast are straight up new characters, and they're all acted really well. Always in support of Wagner Moura getting more voice work, and I like his portrayal of just a cop who is willing to do everything he can to stop the Empire from coming to his planet. His son, however, is just pretty basic. Just your standard kid character. I actually more liked his relationship with his droid partner, who surprisingly kind of gets an arc in this show. The two Jedi are pretty interesting as well, though I'm a little mixed on Daki. He's got a great presence and voice, but I don't really get a lot of the choices he makes, especially in regards to feeling a little too calm when Devon ends up with Maul.
As for Maul himself... it's more Clone Wars Maul. I certainly love that, but I know some people don't. Sam Witwer continues to prove he is the MVP of the Star Wars voice cast. His crime group, however, I honestly don't remember a lot of their names. I guess that Mandalorian girl was in Clone Wars Season 7, and she's just kind of fine (don't know if she's some iconic character in other media, so I might have pissed someone off with that statement). I do like Maul's psychotic pet droid, and the short crime boss he ends up capturing has some funny lines, though his plot armor in this show is a little much. Most of these characters are just there to get killed by the Inquisitors though, because they gotta kill someone.
Speaking of the Inquisitors, this show is probably their best appearance in a while. Their fights really showcase just how great the show's animation is. The animation in general is just some of the best in any Star Wars property. I love how most of the fights in this show aren't pure 1 v 1's, and how a lot of the fights take place while the main cast are trying to escape at the same time, especially the final fight. It's kind of like if the whole hallway scene in Rogue One was extended to episode length. The tension is constant, though, I'll admit, I did kind of lose track of where each character was several times (though I did watch the episode after two in the morning, so maybe that was just me).
And, yeah, Darth Vader does appear in the final episode as the big "final boss." Honestly though, given how big a deal Maul was in TCW, I think it would make less sense if Vader wasn't sent to deal with him. We see in Vader comics that a lot of what he's doing in the early days of the Empire is leading the Inquisitors to hunt down Jedi, so why wouldn't he be sent to deal with a former Sith Lord? Not sure why he wasn't the one on their tail the whole time though. I mean, I know why, since they want the big reveal before the finale, but you could have had still kept that moment and just moved it earlier. Not a huge deal though, as you could just say Vader was only going to step in if the Inquisitors failed.
Overall, yeah, I really enjoyed myself with this one. Granted, if you haven't seen TCW (specifically the Maul episodes), you probably aren't gonna get as much out of this show, but, as someone who has, I'm glad it exists. Though when we get a Season 2, could they at least cast someone who sounds even a little bit like Paul Bettany as that guy from Solo instead of... the new voice of Crash Bandicoot? What?