- Created by Leslye Headland
- Based on Star Wars created by George Lucas
- June 4, 2024 to Present
- Disney+
So The Acolyte has come to an end. So sad?
I have never been as disappointed by a Star Wars project as I was by this. There was some interest on my part since it was a show that moderately stepped away from the Skywalker Era though by only a century. I felt interested in seeing what they could do. Almost far enough back to be free but definitely close enough to play it safe.
Three characters were heavily hyped for the show in its marketing. More so than the supposed central protagonist. I honestly can’t recall hearing anything about her-at least in a significant amount before the show started. Everything was about Carrie Ann Moss, the Wookie Jedi, and the guy from Squid Game. There was certainly the impression they would get more play. And what do they do? Kill off two characters and relegate them to flashbacks with the third making no real sense as a character.
The characters that we do get were superficial two-dimensional caricatures with one defining superficial quality whose motivations turned on the whim of the writer as needed to push things forward rather than figure out how to make events happen naturally within the story. Mae in one episode was planning to turn herself over to the Jedi and by the next episode occurring on the same day changed her mind and decided to keep hating them.
Leaps in logic and assumptions were made by characters in the show as if doing so were an Olympic sport. Other times they just made really stupid decisions like putting a presumed Jedi killer on a regular prison ship with regular robot security rather than escorting her back for questioning. And that doesn’t take into account that she appears to have been too far away to have actually done what she was accused of in one if not at least both instances.
Acting was disinterested to be kind to just bad to be honest by all involved. As the show went on it looked like the actors stopped caring. They decided to put in a halfhearted effort and collect their check. Manny Jacinto and Lee Jung-jae did give more effort than most such as Amandla Stenberg. And if there had been some better material or just a generally better show, I think Manny Jacinto could’ve shined as the villain Qimir.
If you ever needed proof it pays to sleep with a producer in Hollywood then here it is. Leslye Headland’s wife Rebecca Henderson is an untalented actress. She has no range at all and the expressive abilities of a marble statue. Yet as the show progressed she garnered increasingly more and more screen time in the part of Vernestra to the point the purpose of the season long arc was not to tell the story of Osha and Mae but to discuss the return of a most likely former padawan.
Pacing was an issue throughout the series. It never felt as if the narrative was building to a conclusion of any kind. Eight episodes and the finale came off as if there were a few more to follow. And maybe that is the point. The speed picked only at the very end. The VERY end. But not by too much.
And the show had not one, but two flashback episodes. The second flashback episode did little to flesh out the narrative but instead came off as the Special Edition or Director’s Cut of the first flashback episode. And it broke whatever stride they may have had.
Much like Ahsoka this season felt like a set up to Season Two rather than the telling of a season long story arc. And when all was said and done the set up for Season Two looked an awful lot like the set-up of Season One just being a step or two further down the road. Evil twin became good twin and good twin became evil twin and now good twin is in the custody of the Jedi and helping them look for now evil twin which is pretty much what the first couple episodes are all about.
The tone overall was uneven. Were we supposed to take this seriously or was it comedy? Was it about two sisters separated by time and space or was it about evil Jedi? What is with making the Jedi villains? Flawed is one thing. Being the outright bad guy is another. The Sith originally represented ultimate evil. The Jedi originally represented ultimate good. Maybe the writers are small people and don’t think there is such a thing as a good person. If you can’t conceive of something or somebody being truly good then everybody is evil and there are no heroes. And that’s not Star Wars.
They said the theme of the show was power and who gets to use it. Maybe. Possibly. But what was more obvious was it was more about sexuality and being hunted/attacked because of that sexuality or as benign sexism (whatever that is)-at certain moments. At others I have no idea if there was even a message.
The Jedi have often been referred to as an order. At least for much of the existence of Star Wars. I think Han Solo and perhaps even Tarkin generically refer to them as a religion, but it was more often referred to as the Jedi order. Why do I bring this up? The characters in The Acolyte keep calling it a religion. I don’t think enough people behind this show had any idea of what religion was. At least in practice. The Knights of Columbus are a group, but they are not a religion. That’s in comparison to Jews or Hindus which are a religion. These nuances can be lost on people who haven’t had much contact if any with religion. A prime example of the creatives cluelessness on the topic was that ridiculous chant the witches uttered.
Maybe that says something about the people behind this. They see the superficial and have no ability or desire to go deeper. The surface is all they know and believe all that there to be. They never took the time out to understand religion or Star Wars. Not that can’t hire somebody unfamiliar with something or that only sees the flash and assumes at first there is nothing more. Nicolas Meyer knew next to nothing about Star Trek and ended up creating the greatest of the Star Trek films. But Nicholas Meyer took the time to understand the universe he was dabbling in.
The Acolyte had potential, but it failed that potential in numerous ways. It’s insipid and inept. Or you can call it just plain bad. It’s just something that we should not get more of.
Warren Watched A Movie 