Title: The Acolyte
Director(s): Leslye Headland & others
Screenwriter(s): Leslye Headland, Jason Micallef, Charmaine DeGrate & others
Studio: Lucasfilm
Released: 2024
Runtime: 8 episodes, 39m–49m each.
Starring: Amandla Stenberg, Lee Jung-jae, Charlie Barnett, Dafne Keen
My Verdict: Clumsy plotting. Too many cringe moments. Jedi Master Squid Game carries the show.
● Warning: I try to avoid spoilers in reviews but this cannot be avoided for this series. The comments below were made as the series progressed, although I try to restrict any potential spoilers to the earlier episodes.
● Set about one hundred years before the prequel trilogy, a young “lone assassin” turns up at some bar and challenges Jedi Master Inara, a.k.a Trinity, to a fight and kills her. This young assassin, Osha (Amandla Stenberg), is then arrested but then escapes…
● Of course, there is more to it. Osha was a padawan under Master Sol (Lee Jung-jae). He and three other Jedi saved her from a fire some sixteen years earlier. Soon enough, it is apparent that Inara’s killer is not Osha but her twin sister who, up until now, was presumed dead. That is fine except that Sol apparently didn’t mention that fact in the report sixteen years ago, presumably for good reason, but then just outright admits it.
● Osha’s twin sister Mae is meant to be some assassin but she starts a barfight during the day with Jedi Trinity. Not subtle for an assassin. Also, the latter is killed by a small knife when almost everyone else gets skewered or even cut in half and survives.
● Whilst Star Wars has always gone for variety in terms of environment and characters (whether it is alien races or skin color), The Acolyte is blatantly woke. The white man is either a stupid serial killer or a Jedi who succumbs to mind control and later commits suicide just because someone tells him to.
● As for the serial killer, he is restrained on the prisoner transport but the others who are seemingly more capable of causing trouble are not.
● Episode 3 is a flashback episode of what happened sixteen years ago. Osha and her twin sister are quite different in their personalities and aspirations. Both were raised by witches. Witches in Clone Wars arguably works as it ties into Maul, Ventress, their home planet and culture. This coven, however, has really cringe chanting and pretty much cringe everything else. And do we need another series with space witches?
● Apparently, these witches created the twins because…? Anakin Skywalker being special makes sense as he is the central character in the first six films and the (possible) explanation of his mysterious conception ties into the mythology, that Darth Plagueis was messing around with the Force trying to achieve immortality and the Force countered ( “balanced”) this by creating Anakin. Granted, if Plagueis can mess around, then so can anyone else who has the knowledge but these instances have to be earned.
● One can easily imagine what these witches have done will perhaps be connected to Plagueis in the future but, again, nothing in the storytelling has earned this.
● These witches fled from persecution and intended to live in hiding by having a massive and clearly visible fortress at the top of some mountain. And somehow, a fire can bring down this stone fortress in minutes.
● Mae is, as expected, a student (acolyte) of some anime Sith dude. She is under instructions to kill without using a weapon… but then she goes and gets a weapon. Anyway, the actor plays the Sith well, bringing some physicality to the role. Unfortunately, the writing does not make better use of him.
● As already mentioned, Master Sol (and the other Jedi he was with) hid the fact that there were twins. This is understandable but then he outright admits it to his padawan without much hesitation nor a hint of the reason. Granted, the padawan and the audience know by then anyway. Of course, what actually happened sixteen years ago is deliberately withheld until towards the end. The writing is clumsy however one looks at it.
● There are some good ideas. There is some emphasis on hand-to-hand combat by the Jedi. The influence of The Matrix is too much but the idea is fine, at least I’ve always wondered how Jedi handle themselves without their lightsabers. The Jedi have a uniform which is also amusing to see. The problem is that this is merely a hundred years before the prequels. Cultural changes can and do happen within that timeframe but it may be too big a shift given that individuals like Master Yoda are alive through it all to maintain the status quo (if they wanted to).
● It is appreciated that the series tries to touch on the Republic–Jedi politics using Master Vernestra as the viewpoint character. However, for a series of this length, it could go much further.
● The minor Jedi characters are not particularly interesting. One could argue they don’t need to be but they are introduced as something significant without ending up going anywhere.
● Watch out for the lightsaber whip. Yay.
● The nonsense, or at least clumsy plot progression, continues all the way to the end. There are a few cool moments but not enough to make up for the weaknesses. It is arguably better for this story to be set earlier and build up to someone creating the twins.
● Overall, it is as if the writers knew where they were roughly heading but the plot progression is not well-written. If what is shown is a first draft, then I would consider it as good a start as any but I wouldn’t shoot it without a lot of development. Ultimately, it is Master Squid Game who carries the show; the character is something I wouldn’t mind seeing in a series or film.
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