Lost/Found

I had been looking forward to this show for a while, but was a little hesitant to watch it after seeing so many negative reviews. Had some time this evening to give it a shot, and I'm still processing what I just watched.

It's not fair to judge a whole show off of one episode, but I have to say the start is not promising. Some characters (Master Sol) seem to fit and fill out their role well, others (Yord) feel incredibly forced. Dialogue is painful, and the special effects really don't seem too, well, "special". The worst part for me though is that this doesn't even feel like Star Wars.

Having been on several of Disney's newer rides, it felt more like I was watching a play that was moving from one section of a theme park attraction to another. Camera angles were odd, sets looked detailed, but I didn't feel truly immersed in the story. This felt more like a junior high production than something with a Broadway-level budget.

Not sure I'll be able to finish this one off, depending on how the next few episodes play out. I'll give it a try, but this feels like a show without the soul of Star Wars.

Wont go into spoilers. I'll get straight into this by saying that the writing and dialogue is so flat and at times really really bad here. There's so much clunky exposition to get the audience caught up and there's lots of failed attempts at humor. The acting is fine. The only ones who were somewhat good were the girl from Logan and the guy from Squid Game (Sorry, I don't know their names.) The cgi and sets range from not very good to pretty good. It looks better than kenobi and boba fett but nowhere near Andor and some of mando.

The characters are completely hollow so far, and honestly so is the plot. There's just nothing keeping me interested in watching this show. At least we still have Andor season 2 to look forward to.

Very much enjoyed the first episode, the action is well choreographed, sort of reminds me of the matrix and it does well to create intrigue with mystery and many different points of view. It does leave me unsure at this point in time what the necessity of this show will be, what it wants to tell us that we haven't discovered through previous projects, but I imagine in time we will find that out.

Lee Jung-jae fits so perfectly into this universe and his line delivery has you hanging to his every word. You can feel Master Sol's regret and sympathy for Osha and whatever the situation was and it will be interesting to see exactly what those details are. Yord comes across as a bit of a people pleaser, desperate for approval at the moment, I'll be curious to see more to better understand him and also his connection to Osha which so far we only know they had from their first on screen interaction.

The beautiful thing about The Mandalorian and Andor was the discovery. "Here's a character, watch what they do, and you'll figure out the rest as you go along." They left us almost constantly in suspense, wondering what was going to happen next. What's this person's goal? Why are they doing this? What's their next move? The first episode of The Acolyte has decided to do away with all of that.

Right off the bat there's text on the screen explaining exactly when in the Star Wars timeline we are, and the plot is immediately laid out. What follows are 40mins of unsurprising, wildly cliché events with dull, obvious characters that are trying so heavy-handedly to make you feel something they alienate the audience completely. Sorry writers, but giving me less than 5mins to wonder why someone dislikes fire before flat-out telling me is super boring.

The episode's dull writing can't be saved by the mediocre acting, and it leaves me feeling disappointed that a project that could have been so promising and so interesting is off to such a soulless start.

Ep 1 attempts to set the stage for a new Star Wars adventure, but it feels more like a stumbling first step than a grand beginning. The narrative pace is sluggish, making it difficult to stay engaged. The characters, though diverse, come across as flat and unmemorable, lacking the depth one would expect from a Star Wars series. The visuals, while impressive, can't compensate for the underwhelming storyline and wooden dialogue. It's as if the creators were more focused on ticking boxes than delivering a truly compelling tale. Perhaps the series will find its footing in later episodes, but this debut is more of a misstep than a triumph.