Welcome back to the blog readers. Star Wars series over the last 5 years have been really hit-or-miss in my opinion. The Mandalorian (2019-) has been brilliant over its first two seasons with its third being less impactful to me, The Book of Boba Fett (2021-22) was ultimately a letdown, Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022) felt the same way to me, Andor (2022-) was better but I did not rave over its first season like others have, and Ahsoka (2023) was decent for what it was. Going into this series I could only hope that this would be as good as the good Star Wars I just mentioned, but the trailers were kind of dull so I hoped it was a case of bad marketing. So would I eventually end up enjoying the series, or would the bad marketing prove to be true? Stick around to find out.
The Acolyte was created for television by Leslye Headland. The series had multiple writers and featured direction from Headland, Kogonada, Alex Garcia Lopez, and Hanelle Culpepper. The series stars Amandla Stenberg, Lee Jung-jae, Charlie Barnett, Dafne Keen, Rebecca Henderson, Jodie Turner-Smith, Carrie-Anne Moss, Manny Jacinto, Dean-Charles Chapman, Joonas Suotamo, Margarita Levieva, Lauren and Leah Brady, Harry Trevaldwyn, and David Harewood. In the series, set 100 years before the events of Star Wars: Episode 1 -The Phantom Menace (1999), a respected Jedi Master is tasked with investigating a series of murders that will put him into contact with a former Jedi Padawan and will also reveal sinister forces afoot.
NOTE: I will be using spoilers for my thoughts, so DO NOT read ahead if you have not seen the series.
As I said in the intro to this review, I was nervous because I am a lifetime Star Wars fan and the content we have been getting since Disney+ was created has been hit and miss. I really wanted this series to be good for that lifetime Star Wars fan in me, and the first two episodes showed promise. But unfortunately, it went downhill all too fast for me until the final episode, where they kind of redeemed themselves. The two redeeming qualities for this series for me were the action and the performances (for the most part). But the writing was terrible, the story made no sense in areas, and some of the performances felt honed in to me.
The first bit of praise that will come from me here has to do with the action of the series. As you guys know by now, I love me a good action flick. Take the John Wick series, for example. A series of films that kept us engaged by giving us revolutionary action sequences (and the birth of the "gun-fu" style of action) and upgrading their style with every new installment. There is not a whole lot of action in this series, but the little action we do get is nothing short of brilliant. Starting all the way back in the first episode with the fight between Mae and Master Indara, I was gripped the entire way through due to the fast-paced, hand-to-hand action that feels like it came out of John Wick. Then you have the fight between Mae and Sol in the second episode that makes you feel like we are watching an episode of Cobra Kai or something. The entire fifth episode was a fight between Qimir and like seven Jedi that is full of insane lightsaber action that makes you think that we are looking at a samurai film. Then we talk about the fights in the finale (Qimir against Sol and Osha against Mae), which was gripping and full of emotion (surprisingly, based on what we will be talking about later).
The next positive I have about this series is the performance of Lee Jung-jae as Jedi Master Sol. Truth be told, I was not aware of who Lee was but I had heard he was on the series Squid Game (2021-) and people liked him in that series, so I had some hope for him. While his character was not always written the best, Lee's performance in the series was absolutely brilliant. I always found myself gravitating towards his character, even when the rest of the ship may have been sinking. Lee gives the most real, the most raw, and the most grounded performance out of all of them, and I am definitely looking forward to seeing what he has in store after this role. Sol as a character was great at times but at other times I found his character to be flawed, and not the good way. As a Jedi who was involved with the events on Brendok and the death of Osha and Mae's mother, we initially believe him to be a good man who is looking to redeem a mistake he made. What I did not expect the show to do was turn Sol (and the other Jedi like Indara, Torbin, and Kelnacca) into the true villains of the series, and the reason Mae winds up doing what she did in the first place. It honestly feels like lazy writing to me, and the real issue of this series (as I am going to talk about).
Next, I want to talk about the performances of Amandla Stenberg. Yes, I said performances because they portray two characters: the twins Osha and Mae. Stenberg plays both Osha and Mae as well as what they are given in terms of a script, and there are moments where you can really feel a turn for this actor. There are other moments in the series that definitely feel forced in terms of development, but if one thing has stayed the same, it is Stenberg's steadfast performances. Osha and Mae are two copies of the same person from the planet Brendok who were created by a vergence (or a source of power) on the planet by their "mother" Aniseya. When they got old enough, they were to be initiated into their coven of witches, but only Mae was inducted, which is why she never really embraced the Dark Side, and her mission was only one of pure revenge. Osha did not go through the initiation which allowed her to be tempted by darkness and actually complete the plan that Mae started. I think throughout the series, Stenberg played each "twin" with a different fire and a different passion that really gave me a reason to watch whenever there were things bringing it down.
Now we need to talk about the elephant in the room. I am aware that not every series or film or video game or comic book or every piece of media is perfect, but not every piece of media has writing that is as bad as this series is. Now don't get me wrong, the writing in this series is nowhere near the levels of the steaming piles of grade-a monkey crap known as Meg 2: The Trench (2023) and Madame Web (2024), but there were points in the middle portion of the season where I did not even want to watch the next week's episode or even write the review for it. I was left scratching my head at many points over the seven-week run of this series. One of the things that baffled me was Mae's decision-making in the fourth episode, where she was back-and-forth with Qimir on what her plans were. All of a sudden her mission did not matter because now her sister is alive, so she is going to turn herself in to the Jedi, and then in the fifth episode she decided to basically abandon it and beat up the Jedi that is literally trying to detain her. Like what the fuck? Then, all the logic problems about the creation of Osha and Mae that arise and the clear lack of answers on how Mother Aniseya used this vergence to create the girls in the first place. It was a bunch of finger-pointing and convenience if I do say so myself.
The story of the series is also one that was all convenience and lazy. There were things in this series that were easily predictable and took the enjoyment out of watching the series. First off, the decision to feature Ki-Adi-Mundi was kind of dumb; even though his appearance does not break canon, it feels as if it is a fan-pleasing "memberberries" moment, only there for the fans to point fingers and say "I know that guy." That happens again in the finale, where another familiar face is seen (and it is a cameo I predicted months ago), in our favorite little green guy. And no, it is not Grogu, it is Yoda. Confused by these memberberry cameos, I am. Wish for a better payoff, I did. But the one cameo that we did get in this series that actually had me wanting and asking for a second season was that of a good old Muun who just so happens to be tragic and wise. I literally did not expect to see Darth Plagueis in this series at all, and I literally paused the episode and had to process what I had just seen. But in terms of actual story in this episode, one of the things that I found to be predictable was the switch between Osha and Mae. Mae began this story as an antagonist and Osha the protagonist. But by the end of the episode, Mae has broken good and Osha has broken bad, something I think the witch coven had a hand in (there is a series coming out later this year about a witch coven that I hope is better). Overall, I was very disappointed in the story that we got, and I hope that they get better writers if this series somehow does get a second season.
To conclude my thoughts, The Acolyte is a series that started with some promise, but quickly devolved due to terrible writing, uninspired performances (aside from Stenberg and Lee), a piss-poor story, and memberberry cameos that made no sense in the long haul. Thank you all for reading, and I will see you for the next post.
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