I love Star Wars. It's been a lifelong obsession and will stay with me forever. Have never got into the cartoons but I've seen every live action film and TV series multiple times. Of the new post Disney fare, I enjoyed The Force Awakens (but not Episodes 8 and 9 and certainly not Solo), and I loved the first 2 series of the Mandalorian, and adored every moment of Andor - for me the best Star Wars Universe live action output that's been created to date. Many of the other TV series have been damp squibs IMO - Kenobi, Ahsoka and Boba Fett (ruining my favourite SW character in the process).
How does The Acolyte shape up in the above context? I watched 2 episodes and this review combines them. No plot spoilers required.
For me there is a huge problem at the heart of The Acolyte which also affected Kenobi and Ahsoka and was similarly problematic for much of the Prequel Trilogy. We all love Jedi Knights. We love the Force. We love a bit of light saber action. But Jedi Knights are BY TRAINING calm and serene, relatively humourless and unemotional, no major mood swings or ups and downs, limited bitterness, anger, sadness, fear, passion - because those traits are trained out. At the extreme, dialogue between Jedi Knights is clunky, awkward, serious, worthy and stilted. I find Ahsoka a difficult watch because she plays every scene the same way - like a Buddhist monk in a Zen like state - no matter the peril, danger, etc. In The Acolyte we have dialogue between Jedi Knights for much of the story - where's the comic relief, where's the recklessness, where's the jeopardy and emotion? Much as with The Phantom Menace where dialogue between politicians is stilted, worthy and boring, dialogue between Jedi doesn't exactly get the juices flowing. For example, Dafne Keen is a brilliant actress (Logan, Dark Materials) but so far her dialogue and required Jedi delivery makes her comes across as simply reading lines.
I hope this series turns out well - as a SW junkie I'll watch every minute - but IMO a non SW fan would find this a boring watch. The original films worked so well because you had Jedi (telling us the background story and providing moral leadership) surrounded by reluctant heroes (Luke, Han), comedy turns (the droids, Han), brave leaders (Leia), scoundrels (Han again), evil types - it worked because of that mix. And, of course, cool creatures, planets, vehicles etc. I'm missing most of that here. Let's see how it all pans out.
