I’ve been a long time “Star Wars” fan my whole life and its universe setting is one of my most favorite to be submersed in. By extent, I love all the familiar characters that inhabit this setting and am always open to seeing a familiar face or two. That being said, with so many movies and spinoffs, I was ready for something different, something new, something that broke away from the familiar characters and narratives that I’m familiar with.
The 2024 series “Star Wars: The Acolyte” initially seemed like just the thing this franchise needed, as its set 100 years before the events of the movies, has a clean slate of new characters, untapped potential for new stories and was set in the High Republic era when the Heroic Jedi order was at their peak. Lastly, this series also took inspiration from Marial Art and Samurai films like 1950’s “Rashomon” and 1966’s “Come Drink with Me”, which is great because the original “Star Wars” took inspiration from classic Samurai films. Seemed like everything was set for a great series, but like so many projects, a potentially great setup and intent don’t always result in a great show … in the end, it all comes down to the execution of its ideas and that’s where I feel this show sadly didn’t meet its potential.
I won’t dance around the point any longer … I was disappointed with this series … as were many fans … but rather than spend all day criticizing the obvious, I simply want to focus on the opportunity that was missed, and how a Show Runners vision had the wrong backdrop. Following a mysterious string of murdered Jedi masters, former Jedi Padawan Osha is summoned by her old Jedi master Sol to determine the identity of this elusive killer and to determine who’s next on the hit list. It’s soon revealed that Osha’s twin sister Mae is the assassin, who’s serving an evil master. Initially, the plan is to bring the darker sister back to the light, but in a twist, our lead Osha finds the dark side just as enticing, and along with the wicked master, they join forces to take out the Jedi … who they view as the real villains. Show Runner Leslye Headland intended on making a series shown from the villain’s perspective and expose the faults of the heroes … and that’s where my reservations come to the surface.
Ever since the “Star Wars Prequel” trilogy, as well as the following animated “The Clone Wars” series, and even the recent “Star Wars Sequel” movies, we’ve had more than our fill of franchise content that’s explored the grey and faulty sides of the Jedi order.
More to the point, this show is set in the High Republic Era, the great Golden Age of the Jedi order as the heroes of the Galaxy ... this was not the time and place to be exposing faults and corruption within their order. What’s worse, rather than exploring the grey … this show straight up vilifies them, and in doing so, smashes down the pillars which this franchise stands on. In comparison, the 2005 movie “Star Wars 3: Revenge of the Sith” presented Anakin’s turn to the dark side and following transformation into Darth Vader as tragic and grim … as it should be. This show, in a rather sickening presentation, highlights characters turning to the dark side as something liberating and positive, and that our heroes more than deserve to be vilified. To be clear, I don’t mind seeing things and by extent characters from a different perspective … but for me, this just felt like it was in bad taste.
Maybe if the
characters were stronger, this approach could have worked, but despite the
talent in front of the camera, these characters leave much to be desired.
The Twin Sisters: Osha and Mae (Played by Amandla Stenberg)
In general, I’m fond of
the concept of the main leads being twin siblings, with dual personalities, but
somewhere between the writing and the performance, I feel something was missing.
For my two cents, I didn’t get behind either of their motivations, which were
frequently changing over the show, to the point where I just didn’t care where either
character ended up. Also, I didn’t feel much of a difference between the two
sister performances … I knew which was which, but there wasn’t a juicy
personality juxtaposition between the two when they acted off each other. One
would act a little positive, while the other conveyed a little menace, and with
a lack of interesting goals between the two, neither character really engaged
me.
Jedi Master Sol (Played by Lee Jung-Jae)
Easily the best performance goes to Lee Jung-Jae
of “Squid Game’s” fame, and arguably the best of the characters. On
paper, it’s another stoic Jedi character conveying words of wisdom, but haunted
by past faults he feels need to be atoned for and is emotionally lost in how to
face them. He makes for an engaging screen presence and manages to give the
show some semblance of a soul, which I felt was lacking in the main twin
characters. Unfortunately, like most of the characters in this series, he’s at
the mercy of a weak script, which forces him to act incompetently during
crucial events in order for the plot to move forward.
The Stanger/ “Qimir” (Played by Manny Jacinto)
Our main antagonist of the series is a
mysterious dark side wielder, who also takes on the appearance of a clumsy
smuggler, and in both cases is sowing the seeds of discourse between the twins
and the Jedi order. It’s unclear what his driving goal in the series is, other
than prove he can corrupt others to cross over to the dark side. It doesn’t
make for an intriguing character on paper, and his evil Sith design is laughably
silly … but the performance from Manny Jacinto is solid all around. He
effectively runs the gambit of different personalities, is a reasonably engaging
screen presence, and even his seduction methods don’t feel repetitive of the
Emperor from the classic movies … in fact, he occasionally hints at some
interesting viewpoints. While not a perfectly rounded villain, he certainly
could have been had the show continued with another season to flesh out his
backstory more.
Other Supporting
Characters …
I don’t have too much to say about the supporting players, but I will say that I loved the character Jecki played by Dafne Keen. She’s Sol’s young apprentice, and her personality is laced with more “sass” than the other Jedi characters, who are rather one-note by comparison. The actress, Dafne Keen is also a welcome presence. I loved her as Wolverines surrogate daughter Laura, the X23, from the 2017 movie “Logan”, and it was just a cool treat to see her as a Jedi … too bad her character didn’t last long. I suppose Carrie-Ann Moss of “The Matrix” fame was also a welcome presence, but I don’t really have anything to say about her Jedi character. There’s some quick fan serves from characters like Yoda and Darth Plagueis from the expanded EU material, which is cool in the moment, but they add nothing significant to the show.
The series
was cancelled after only one season and had a total of eight Episodes.
Traditionally, when I review shows, I rank my top favorite episodes, but
between the lack of quality and hand full of episodes, I’ll just highlight my
Top 3 favorite episodes.
#3 “Choice” (Ep.7)
Okay, the only reason I’m showing this episode any favorable recognition is because it features a grown Wookie Jedi master with a lightsaber, fighting characters in battle. True, he’s under mind control, but still, a grown live-action Jedi Wookie isn’t something to dismiss. Back to the episode, it’s the second to be shown entirely in flashback, and highlights how this show took inspiration from the 1950’s Samuri movie “Rashomon”, which showed flashbacks from two different perspectives. However, this show didn’t really show a different perspective on its flashback and mainly filled in the blanks which the audience didn’t see the first time … and there is a difference.
For a better example of seeing events from a different viewpoint,
watch the ending of the 2013 movie “Man of Steel”, and the opening of
the 2016 movie “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice”. In both cases, it’s
the exact same event, but we can see how the battle feels different from the viewpoint
of two different characters. “The Acolyte” by comparison gave us a
two-part flashback without much difference, which made for a boring narrative …
but that Wookie with the lightsaber was certainly worth highlighting.
#2 “Lost/ Found” (Ep.1)
For all the issues that came about with this show, it really didn’t start that way. Truthfully, this first episode got me hooked, and had me thinking this would be a decent show. We get an exciting opening action scene with our assassin battling a Jedi master, and it puts an intriguing enface on martial art combat, over traditional sword fighting, which is a welcome change-up. The mystery is properly established, and many of the characters show potential.
While trying to prove her innocence, Osha is given cryptic Force
visions from her sister as a child, which makes for an atmospheric highlight,
and it peaks intrigue to what her backstory is. There’s also a number of fun
details, like autopilot robots that fold into chairs and a number of aliens in
the background … which had oddly been lacking in a lot of recent “Star Wars”
media. There are also dumb details … like fire in space … but for whatever it’s
worth, this wasn’t a bad first episode.
I suppose
before I reveal my favorite episode of this show, my honorable mentions would
be …
“Day”
(Ep.4)
“The
Acolyte” (Ep.8)
#1 “Night” (Ep.5)
After a lengthy investigation, Jedi Master Sol and a fully armed team of Jedi Knights are ambushed by the Stranger, who makes his Dark Side abilities known, and proceeds to massacre everyone in one big, all-night battle. It’s kind of sad when my favorite episode of a show has nothing to do with either “character” or “story” … and simply archives its honors for the spectacle on display. With that said, a good deal of “Star Wars” is built on spectacle, and amidst a mostly boring series, this episode delivered some solid lightsaber action.
The choreography and staging was fierce and exciting, the tension was high, and there was proper variety to the combat on display, so it never felt repetitive. Also, I loved seeing yellow lightsabers … in general, I adore seeing more colors other than the standard Blue, Red and Green. While I really don’t care to re-watch this series as a whole, I’ve re-watched this episode more than once, as it delivered some solid lightsaber action, which most of the recent live action “Star Wars” material hasn’t really impressed me with.
It took a while to finally get a live-action series set years before the events of the movies ... with new characters and possibilities to explore ... but unfortunately, "The Acolyte" didn't fully live up to its potential and just felt like something disposable and inconsequential. While there was certainly surface-level enjoyment, with decent lightsaber action and so-forth, the writing, narrative focus and even character motivations were a complete mess. However, my big sticking point with this series again was the unapologetic sin of glorifying its murderous villains and also vilifying the heroic Jedi ... not good.
Again, I don’t mind the ambition of a narrative which sees things from a different perspective, but it shouldn’t come at the cost of what I feel this franchise was built on. The Jedi are the good guys we cheer for, and the High Republic is their golden age when they weren’t corrupt. Honestly, it’s kind of sad when a Pre-School centered show like “Young Jedi Adventures” had a better understanding of how to portray these characters during this timeline. Believe me, I wanted to love “Star Wars: The Acolyte”, I wanted a good “Star Wars” series with a big separation from the continuity of the films, but the best I can say about this series is … it can be used as a blueprint on how “Star Wars” shouldn’t be done.
Thanks for
reading my review of the 2024 mini-series “Star Wars: The Acolyte” … and
continue to enjoy the shows you Love!
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