The Acolyte

"This isn't about good or bad. This is about power, and who is allowed to use it."

So, The Acolyte has ended. I screamed incoherently about one episode a while back, but that was just one episode. How did the full season fare?

This review contains spoilers for the entire season!

I suspect that this will make a better binge-watch than a weekly drop. I don't know who is in charge of episode count, length, or deciding when to end an episode, but whoever it is did an incredibly poor job. Episode four had a listed runtime of 32 minutes, but that included the credits. Twelve minutes of credits. Just normal, blue text on a black background credits with no teaser or anything at all during or after them. That's not the only time that this happened either.

Now, don't get me wrong. People should be properly credited for their work. Absolutely. But your credits should not be a full third of your runtime! Especially not when the episode ended in such a weird, unnecessary cliffhanger! It just makes it feel like the story was contorted to fit a mandated episode count as opposed to letting the story play out in a natural fashion.

So let's talk about the story. From the press that I read before the series began, I was really excited. I adore murder mysteries, and the fact that we were going to be in the High Republic era was especially nice to hear. Finally! I thought We'll have a wholly unique story completely divorced from the Skywalker Saga! Yeah, let's put in a pin in that, and we'll circle back to it later.

From the first episode, it was very clear that this wasn't the whodunit that I was expecting. Instead, it appeared to be a whydunit, which is equally fun. The characters appeared to be logical and intelligent. People who knew that Osha, our lead (I guess?), had an identical twin immediately considered that a possibility as opposed to stubbornly insisting that it was impossible. It was a promising start, especially if there were characters that I could enjoy spending time with.

And I did like them. I hated Osha's name, but I liked her. She seemed smart, resourceful, and like she had a strong sense of self. Yord was a bit of a stick in the mud, but there seemed to be history between him and Osha that intrigued me. (Plus, he's admittedly very easy on the eyes.) Jecki took longer to grow on me, but the Padawan got there eventually. And, of course, we had Sol, who was one of my favorite characters.

Lee Jung-jae kills it in the role, and he made every scene that he was in better. Something that can also be said for Manny Jacinto as Qimir. I've only seen a couple of episodes of The Good Place, but he really impressed me here, especially in the back half of the season. He also, though, best highlights some of the weaknesses of the story.

The mystery, the entire driving force of this season's plot, was incredibly weak. Every twist or reveal was blindingly obvious from the very start. There was no surprise. Nothing felt satisfying, cathartic, or earned. It was all very matter-of-fact. As soon as Qimir walked on screen, it was obvious that he was Mae's master. He was the only option.

They tried to do a Rashomon effect in places, but it was poorly executed. When done well, it doesn't necessarily feel like you're watching the same events happen again and again because you learn new details, or have a different context for each viewpoint. You can hear the same line of dialogue and come away with a completely different interpretation of it. When done poorly, it just feels like you're wasting time. Here, they just completely remove lines of dialogue in order to change how a scene is interpreted. It's lazy and frustrating and not how you write a good mystery.

But I did still scream about this show, and that was during Episode Five. This is up there for my favorite episode of television so far this year. It's everything that I hoped this show would be: shocking, satisfying, and a little bit mature. It leaned heavily on the show's strength: its fight choreography. Star Wars has never had better fight scenes than right here. Lightsabers truly felt like deadly weapons that had an impact on the world around them, but lightsabers also aren't a Jedi's only weapon. They really leaned heavily into martial arts and "Force-fu" and it was wonderful.

And it made the other shortcomings all the more frustrating. I don't think that The Acolyte is a bad show. All of the pieces are there. The foundation is sound. The execution just fails it at all of the critical moments.

Random Thoughts

Let's circle back to that pin we left. Even though we predate the prequels by 100 years, we're still connected to the Skywalkers. Osha and Mae seem to be created via Force the same way that Anakin was. They're either the initial test run or the inspiration for him. Darth Plagueis is lurking in dark shadows. Yoda shows up at the last minute. It's just... exhausting. Can we please finally leave this family behind? Please?

Lee Jung-jae learned English for his role.

Bleeding kyber crystal is very, very cool. That is all.

Wookie jedi is very, very cool. I was very pleased to see him in action. That is all.

Carrie-Anne Moss continues to be very, very cool. That is all.

Not enough Star Wars leans into the idea of being properly seduced into the dark side, The Acolyte included. But Manny Jacinto's arms got pretty close to it.

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An Honest Fangirl loves video games, horror movies, and superheroes, and occasionally manages to put words together in a coherent and pleasing manner.