Star Wars: The Acolyte - Season 1 (2024) Cre: Leslye Headland
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It is no secret that this show, the latest foray into the Star Wars universe, has been met with intense scrutiny and, from some, downright hatred. Showrunner Leslye Headland seemed to have an uphill battle from the show's very conception. My expectations were low, but I hoped to enjoy the show, regardless of the waves of hate it has been receiving.
The visuals effects were a really mixed bag, to be honest. Some of them looked great, while others were borderline embarrassing. I will say, there was more good than bad in this sense, and the physical effects looked decent. I also noticed fewer of the poor effects as the show progressed. The finale was especially good, in that sense.
The writing was pretty abysmal throughout substantial chunks of the series. There was a lot of clunky exposition in the first few episodes. I know there's a move towards shows being 'second screen viewable' - I wonder if this is a contributing factor, not just for this show either. Either way, the series was full of bad writing.
The characters were paper-thin, even with their backstories and pre-formed relationships. There was basically only one character I liked in the whole show, and that's because of their performance, not the writing. Some of the later episodes did help, but, by that point, a lot of the damage was already done.
One thing I will say that I enjoyed was the action sequences. The lightsaber duels were all genuinely very cool. I thought that the choreography was fast-paced, intricate and exciting. The hand-to-hand combat wasn't as strong - it looked too choreographed to be believable.
The story suffered greatly because the decision was clearly taken to value mystery over character. This was a large reason that the first half of the season felt so shallow, in my view. Things did improve in the second half of the season, but I can understand why so many people were put off.
Episode 5 in particular was legitimately very enjoyable. The reveal wasn't great, but everything else worked for me. The final few episodes did lose a bit of the momentum, and the finale left me pretty frustrated, but it was still an improvement on the first few episodes. The ending left too many unanswered questions to be satisfying, and seems to depend on a second season that might not even happen at this point.
Amandla Stenberg lacked a significant screen presence, but she did have some vaguely endearing qualities. I found her dialogue delivery disappointing - it came across as though she was overacting. She was trying too hard to be dramatic.
Lee Jung-Jae provided the show with its only truly likable character. His character had a combination of depth and development. His performance was solid across the series, though perhaps it was made better by the average acting from those around him.
I had mixed feelinge about Manny Jacinto's time on the show. He did show some good acting qualities, but a lot of what he did felt overacted. In some respects, he felt like he was there to be a thirst trap. It was really quite bizarre to watch.
As for the supporting cast, I felt that there were a few who gave fairly good performances, those being Dafne Keen, Rebecca Henderson and Carrie-Anne Moss. There was one person who I really didn't enjoy; Charlie Barnett. He was a horrible casting choice, to be honest. It was genuinely hard to watch him.
Overall, this show may not have been amazing, but it was nowhere near as bad as a lot of cynical people would have you believe. It has its weaknesses, but there are also some positives, which I think a lot of people are choosing to ignore. Was the show successful? Of course not, but does it deserve the horrendous and rampant dog-piling of hate? No way.
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