Star Wars: The Acolyte – An Honest Review
There’s been way too much controversy over the latest Star Wars series and I almost feel hesitant to offer my critique of The Acolyte for fear of wading into the culture war morass that a certain group of fans seems determined to create. So before I actually get to my critique, let me make a few simple statements.
First, I am NOT offended by the fact that The Acolyte featured a “coven of lesbian witches”. Star Wars blazed that trail years ago with the Nightsisters of Dathomir, and while the Nightsisters have never been explicitly described as lesbians, they are a matriarchal society that keep the male members in total submission under the thumb of powerful female practitioners of Force-based magic. So, split hairs all you want: Star Wars has been here before. Nobody was offended back in 1994 when the Nightsisters were first introduced in the (now non-canon EU) novel The Courtship of Princess Leia, and nobody was offended in 2011 when the Nightsisters were re-introduced to great effect in the TV show Clone Wars.
Second, I do NOT think that there is a “woke agenda” driving Star Wars these days. And frankly, I don’t care. I just want good storytelling in my favorite galaxy far, far away.
Oh, and third, I really do NOT care how old Ki Adi Mundi is. In my opinion he’s the worst Jedi in Star Wars, but the details of his life are quite inconsequential. Certainly not worth making death threats against the keepers of Wookiepedia…
So, with that out of the way, let’s talk about The Acolyte.
Not the best outing for Star Wars
Overall, my impression is meh. There were some great ideas, some fascinating lore, some excellent action scenes, some interesting characters… But all in all, the series struggled to come together in a really tight package that kept me on the edge of my seat or moved me. It felt in many instances like the story was just “going through the motions” of telling a tale rather than creating a world that I could lose myself in.
Again, because I feel I have to clarify, I have no beef with Disney-era Star Wars. Andor was a sublime TV series that combined top-notch writing and acting with tight pacing and epic cinematography. Rebels (yes, Rebels is Disney-era) is one of the most remarkable TV shows I’ve ever seen in its ability to pack a rich, complete story into every 22 minutes and still keep a longer game playing the entire time. Sadly, The Acolyte just kinda fell short.
It started with promise. Amandla Stenberg did a great job creating two compelling characters – twins Mae and Osha – who enter the story in very different ways. Mae is a dangerous bad-ass and Osha is an easy-going, friendly mechanic. They’re almost exact opposites, but both are convincing and believable. The Jedi characters all come across as a little stiff, but that’s not unusual for Jedi, and there was a hint of something between Osha and her old Padawan buddy Yord.
Romance and the Jedi
As an aside, Star Wars has really got to sort out what the rules are for Jedi romance. George Lucas himself has stated explicitly that the Jedi are not celibate, so there’s nothing stopping our good knights from gettin’ down from time to time. However, much has been made about how Jedi aren’t allowed to form attachments, and indeed Anakin’s inability to resist attachment is a huge part of his downfall. The High Republic novels have been clear that Jedi do sometimes have sexual relationships, both among themselves and outside the order. Apparently it’s frowned upon but tolerated.
Let’s just think about the potential we have here for a more mature Star Wars series. Jedi are free to have sex, but forbidden to form attachments. There’s an awful lot of potential drama to unpack there, in all sorts of ways.
The Acolyte flirted with this idea just a little bit, but it was between Osha and the Sith character Qimir. The few moments we witness implied that sexual desire may be an element of the Dark Side of the Force. If that’s where Star Wars wants to go then okay… But it’s not what George Lucas said.
A lack of tension
Anyway, back to The Acolyte critique. The opening was intriguing enough, right up to the point when Osha escaped the prison ship. But very quickly the story lost the sense of tension it had built. I honestly can’t say if it was the writing, acting, directing or editing that stole this early tension away, but for much of the middle of the season nothing felt like it was high-stakes. As a viewer I could see the drama being presented to me, but it just didn’t seem terribly dramatic. There was a lot of walking, waiting and wondering – far too much, in my opinion.
The lightsaber combat in Episode 5 “Night” is some of the best live-action dueling in all of Star Wars. The fact that not one but two of the “main” characters are killed really adds to the intensity, and kudos to the show for bringing this level of combat prowess to the screen. But even so, once all the blade-swinging is done and our heroes finally confront the revealed villain, the tension just doesn’t maintain.
Manny Jacinto is a talented actor, and he made the choice to play Qimir very calmly. I can understand why – a calm villain can be even more frightening than a crazy one. But with all respect to Mr. Jacinto, I feel that Qimir lacked the fire of constant anger that consumes every Sith we’ve ever met. Qimir’s skill with a lightsaber makes him a threat, but what he’s lacking is the clear wish to bring destruction and mayhem that would make him so different from the Jedi. Really, looking at what we were presented, how is Qimir different from the Jedi?
Boring old Jedi
Another challenge for good drama – and this a systemic one in all of Star Wars – is the fact that Jedi are supposed to be in control of their emotions. It’s hard to present a drama on the screen when the actors aren’t even allowed to get excited. This same problem dulled both Attack of the Clones and Ahsoka, where otherwise brilliant actors like Ewen McGregor, Samuel L Jackson and Rosario Dawson were hamstrung by the requirement to “show no emotion” in scenes where emotion was clearly needed.
The Acolyte has this problem in spades, since almost all of its characters are Jedi or former Jedi. It makes for a lot of awkward scenes and takes away a lot of standard character-building techniques that writers can use to flesh a character out. Like the question of romance, Star Wars has yet to figure out how to portray Jedi in live-action without making them stiff and colorless. (They’ve succeeded in animation brilliantly, but there seems to be something about the live-action milieu that just makes it hard.)
A strong finish
The Acolyte was interesting enough to keep me watching, and the last couple of episodes did deliver a decent payoff. Episode 7 travels back into the past to unfold the true story of what happened on that fateful night, and the revelation is satisfying, not least because the earlier version of that night we saw in Episode 3 was clearly missing key details.
The final episode delivers a number of shocks, which all land pretty solidly, and as the final credits rolled I was able to sit back and nod with new appreciation. “Okay,” I could say, “I see what you were doing there.”
The ultimate tone of The Acolyte is quite dark, and that’s something many Star Wars fans will welcome. I personally think they should have leaned into that darkness even more, but perhaps they were trying not to spoil the surprise. If the show had gone too dark too early, the finale might have lacked some of its oomph. It’s a creative call.
So overall, I welcome The Acolyte into the Star Wars canon. It isn’t my favorite part of Star Wars, but I’m happy to take what it has to offer.
Bennett R. Coles is an award-winning, best-selling author and ghostwriter of science fiction and space fantasy series. His newest novel, Light in the Abyss, is now available here.
