I don’t see why this show should be anything less than amazing just based on its concept alone. Getting to see Obi-Wan’s grief over having to kill his padawan in his own isolation, while looking over a young Luke Skywalker should’ve been a captivating, and further enriching story; but, I fear the Disney+ series curse has struck yet another victim.
SYNOPSIS: The Jedi Master contends with the consequences of his greatest defeat -- the downfall and corruption of his one-time friend and apprentice, Anakin Skywalker, who turned to the dark side as evil Sith Lord Darth Vader.
Instead of watching this series on a week-by-week basis, I decided to wait until it had all been released, and watch it in one sitting - and honestly - I’m not sure if this helped, or made the experience worse. I have a sneaking suspicion as to why Disney is SO stubborn when it comes to their six-episode format, and (hint hint) it has to do with MONEY! WOW! Disney, a multi-billion dollar company being obsessed with making more money instead of telling meaningful stories with creative visions? Nooo, It can’t be.
Maybe I should step away from the keys for a bit and then continue writing this because if you can’t tell, I’m sort of done with Disney at this point.
Okay (deep breaths).
The most common complaint I heard about this series was the fact that it felt cheap while watching it, and I have to agree with this. What it really comes down to, is how the series is directed. Deborah Chow, who has numerous TV credits under her name for multiple acclaimed shows, breaths little to no life into this series whatsoever. What keeps this show afloat, is the effortlessly intriguing plot between Obi-Wan himself and Vader; and even that isn’t utilized to its full potential whatsoever. I watch a show like The Mandalorian, and I feel the passion, the love of the creators seeping off of the screen while watching it; but here, I felt absolutely nothing at all.
Ewan McGregor is still great as Obi-Wan, but the direction is still lacking. I felt as if I was watching such an iconic character, with none of the legendary filmmaking I associate with that character. It’s nearly unnerving to see larger-than-life characters like DARTH VADER be portrayed in a show like this, because the scale of what’s going on, and how it’s handled, just doesn’t fit whatsoever.
Hayden Christensen doesn’t get to shine nearly as much as I was hoping for, but when he appears (unmasked) it was quite nostalgic to see. He should’ve been utilized a lot more than just a scene or two of him face to face with Obi-Wan, but I suppose that’s hard to work around given the six-episode format (boo) constraining the story.
I didn’t care at all for any of the other supporting characters in this show. They try to shoehorn Kumail Nanjiani into the story in one of the strangest 180s I’ve ever witnessed in television, and Indira Varma’s character wasn’t compelling enough for me to care. O’Shea Jackson is putting his all into his performance, and I can genuinely tell he wants to be there, but as for everyone else, not so much.
There’s a child actress who I won’t go into specifics about due to spoilers, but I thought she did a pretty good job overall. There were definitely certain scenes where they went a little bit overboard with her dialogue and character choices to further the plot, but all in all, her chemistry with McGregor was one of the best parts of the entire show.
However, in terms of chemistry, NO ONE else has any in this show. Reflecting back on the other Disney+ shows as well now that I think of it, A LOT of the actors just don’t work well with each other. I watch a show like The Boys, and I see every single person on screen have amazing chemistry with one another. But here, I felt no real connections not only between the characters but to the characters themselves.
Disney also loves to sideline Darth Vader and never make him the primary villain in whatever material he’s in, whether that be this show or a film like Rogue One; thus, subbing him in for B-list villains like Krennic from Rogue One, or Reva in this show. Reva does make for a fairly compelling villain, but her intentions are revealed all too late for her story to carry much weight - and no matter what - you just can’t put anyone else next to Vader without him effortlessly overshadowing them in every way. I don’t get all the hate Moses Ingram is getting for this performance and it’s honestly disgusting that we’re still in such a place as a country that this kind of racial bigotry is still happening. I thoroughly enjoyed her performance and her character, and it sickens me to see what other people are saying about her.
I can honestly say there wasn’t one memorable action scene in this entire show; now tell me, how does that happen!? Obi-Wan v. Darth Vader should quite literally be the showdown of the century and it just… wasn’t really? It was cool to watch, but compared to their duel on Mustafar, the scale and stakes were ridiculously lowered. The ending to one particular fight between the two was very harrowing and memorable, but it left me feeling sour in terms of the ending.
What keeps this show going for me, is the initial interest I hold for anything Star Wars related and the story thread of Obi-Wan and Vader. If I didn’t know anything about Star Wars, or I simply didn’t care, I would not be able to get through this show. For the most part, it’s bland, uninspired, and doesn’t do what this story should’ve been any justice. It was nice to see familiar faces, but the nostalgia wasn’t good enough to make this memorable in any way.
6/10
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