“Star Wars: The Acolyte” has not been a bad show, and I stand by that. It’s received a disproportionate amount of hate from an extremely vocal minority who has lambasted it in bad faith, with most of the criticism I’ve seen revolving around its departure from pre-2014 Expanded Universe canon and its female leads.
But Episode 4 was pretty bad, so much so that it might derail this show.
This time around, Mae (Amandla Stenberg) is out to kill the wookie Jedi Kelnacca (Joonas Suotamo), Jedi No. 3 of her list of four she needs to kill for her maybe-Sith master.
Meanwhile, we see her twin sister, Osha (also played by Stenberg) at the Jedi temple on Coruscant, which just looks terrible. I concede to Jeremy Jahns … this is “Star Wars” CW. In fact, this whole episode looks cheap, mostly in the set and hair and makeup department. Truthfully, this show never looked good, but its embarrassingly cheap-looking sets seem to highlight everywhere else the show cut corners.
That could be forgiven if the episode’s writing and acting excelled. I’m a big “Doctor Who” fan, so I am very forgiving for cheesy visuals if there’s a compelling story that will make me overlook it. But again, Episode 4 falls flat on its face.
What breaks it is the fact that (spoilers) Mae suddenly gives up on her Acolyte journey when she realizes that Osha is alive. That in of itself isn’t a bad plot point, but it needs to be built up and developed — not sprung on the viewer nonchalantly.
It really made me reexamine the writing of the series throughout and yeah — this writer’s room is devoid of talent. Its dialogue might not be as clunky as the prequels, but I find myself liking this show more for its concepts than its execution of them, and a big part of that has to do with how the shows’ scripts fumble them.
No performance is great here, save maybe Lee Jung-jae as Sol, whose heartful take on the Jedi master is the only thing that keeps the show grounded. Truthfully, these scripts don’t allow for any great performances, as they are devoid of key components necessary to making the shows’ melodrama work.
A big part of that is also on the showrunner, Leslye Headland, and her directors. Right out of the gate, the show’s direction is clumsy and unsophisticated, at times even immature, as it sees Mae and her friend, Qimir (Manny Jacinto), treat life-and-death scenarios as if they’re no big deal, as if they’re Marvel superheroes.
I think it’s clear that Disney does not know how to inject humor into this franchise, as it always seems to come at the expense of the show or film they’re making, never enhancing them. Humor was particularly inappropriate in the sequel franchise, where it was used to belittle the cast of the original films and made it hard to take the new cast seriously (remember the great line: “They fly now!?”).
I don’t think “The Acolyte” is doomed yet, but this was a major setback, as it essentially knocks down everything Headland was building towards. What was the point of last week’s flashback episode that established the rift between Osha and Mae is the show was going to have Mae switch sides the very next episode?
I don’t think Episode 3 was as bad as most think. In fact, I love some of its ideas and how it brings nuance to the Jedi Order. But it was a huge risk, one that Headland needed to capitalize on.
So far, it’s only served to derail what could have been a promising project.
“Star Wars: The Acolyte” gets a 5/10
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