The Acolyte

TV series, release 5. June 2024, PG-14, TV-14, 35 min
SPOILER-FREE!
Oh dear, yet another prequel … Well, surely I have seen excellent ones (e.g. Rogue One or recently Furiosa), but, people, can’t you really think of anything else? This new Star Wars series takes us to an investigation into a shocking crime spree which pits a respected Jedi Master against a dangerous warrior from his past. As more clues emerge, they travel down a dark path where sinister forces reveal all is not what it seems. This series takes place in the final days of The High Republic era roughly 100 years before the events of Star Wars: Episode I. And once again the Jedi Knights and their bitter enemies take centre stage … Aren’t there any other residents in galaxies far far away worth to be portrayed, which worked pretty well with eg Mandalorians?

On the positive side, the plot resembles an Agatha Christie whodunnit with a kind of Hercule Poirot of the Jedi Order to solve various mysteries. The surroundings, the settings, costumes, exotic worlds and their even more exotic inhabitants are an absolute feast for the eyes.
On a less positive note, those surroundings aren’t treated well, skipped over far too quickly for my taste or only used as backdrops and unfortunately I found neither the plot nor all the action or the acting of the main protagonists – including Amandla Stenberg as Osha/Mae, known from Hunger Games and Spider-Verse voice role, Dafne Keen as Jecki Lon (known from Logan, His Dark Materials) and Lee Jung-jae (known from Squid Game as Master Sol) – more than Star Wars routine average. And the joy of seeing a Carrie in the Star Wars universe again was just as short-lived as Carrie-Anne Moss’ (The Matrix and TV’s MCU) Indara role in this franchise.

I was much more impressed by a prequel like Andor, where the everyday lives of the “little people” on various other insignificant planets and their path to rebellion are portrayed in such a gripping and absolutely relevant (!!) way. Although various online forums have pointed out “relevant themes” in this series, it’s a little too subtle for me, or is it yet to come? Probably it’s not this wonderful 1980s punk/new wave hairstyle of Charlie Barnett as Yord Fandar.

Well, the first two episodes on Disney+ didn’t really knock my socks off. But there is a ray of hope with the Finnish involvement in the series: Joonas Suotamo is playing a Wookie again, this time Kelnacca. So let’s give the Acolyte another chance…

UPDATE after watching all 8 episodes – improved rating, from 6 to 7,5. Luckily Carrie had more to do, thanks to various flashbacks. It was only episode 7 that surely satisfied everybody – we finally got to see a Wookie Jedi in action, yet it could have been more of the like. Summing up, there was an awesome Shakespeare-tragedy concept behind it, which might have worked better in a more condensed version, maybe less of “Rashomon” storytelling and a more straightforward cut to 6 episodes? Which was great: The credits music, finally something else, teenie Pop chart stuff instead of orchestra pathos. And it seems a second season is in the works …

Series development: Leslye Headland
Directors, 2 episodes each:
Hanelle M. Culpepper, Kogonada, Alex Garcia Lopez, Leslye Headland
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