A Review: Star Wars: The Acolyte Season 1

As someone who has been obsessed with Star Wars for over 3 decades, I was cautiously optimistic approaching The Acolyte. Having been let down by several of the more recent Disney Plus Star Wars shows, I didn’t want to get my hopes up again. To quote Han Solo in Return of the Jedi, I took the “fly casual” approach to it, not diving fully into it and just taking it as it came. After the 8th and final episode dropped on 7/16/24, I can now speak on the show as a whole. I must admit, I thoroughly enjoyed this latest installment in a galaxy far far away.

Preface

Leading up to the show there was a lot of negativity in the media (most of it was false reporting). People were trying to bring real world politics into everything and accuse the show as being “woke”. For me, Star Wars has always been an escape. During some of the darkest periods of my life the Star Wars universe served as a place where I could get lost in another world with amazing stories, characters, and locations. I dove into the lore and details of the universe and talked about them as though they were real events, histories, and people. As crazy as it sounds, other than my family and my faith, those stories, characters, and locations were the things that most shaped my life and made me who I am today. All that to say, when I consume Star Wars, I don’t care what the political, social, or religious views of the actors or creators are, I just look for a good story and characters. The Star Wars universe isn’t our universe, so it shouldn’t have the exact same issues we have, but it does mirror ours because it is created by those in our universe. Morals, spiritual elements, and social elements do seep in from time to time, but they are never made into big story points, they are always in the background. If the creator is an atheist or lesbian or transgender or a socialist, I don’t care, as long as the story and characters are compelling, I’m in for the ride. So when I approached this show, I did so with a blank slate. No expectations, no presuppositions, no agenda, just optimistic because I was getting more Star Wars to watch. Another adventure in my favorite galaxy.

Overview

Not having really any expectations, I was blown away by this series. I feel like it has a better story and writing than Ahsoka, Obi Wan Kenobi, and The Book of Boba Fett. Ahsoka had its moments but was not friendly to casual viewers who had never seen The Clone Wars or Rebels. There were also a lot of story bits that were never explained and frustrated many fans. Obi Wan Kenobi also had its moments, but some of the characters were not well written and that caused issues with the story. The Book of Boba Fett was the one I was most excited for. I have always been a big fan of Boba Fett and when I met the lead actor of the show in 2012 he was talking about wanting to do a Boba Fett project. That show was not written well and had horrible dialogue. The story could have been much better. For The Acolyte, I feel like it improved on most of the things that I considered bad in those other three shows, so that led to me liking it more. This show takes place 100 years prior to the events in Star Wars Episode I, making it the farthest back we’ve seen Star Wars live action on the timeline. The show gives everything a Star Wars fan loves: Jedi, Sith, lightsaber fights, force abilities, exotic planets, wonderful aliens, great musical score, a mystery, awesome spaceships, cool practical and CG effects, good vs evil, seeing things “from a certain point of view”, compelling characters, annoying characters, dopey looking characters, light comedic moments, surprise reveals, and a complex story.

The Power of Two

The story of The Acolyte is presented in 8 episodes, giving us approximately 4 and a half hours of new Star Wars live action story telling. The show puts a lot of emphasis on the number 2. The main characters are twins, there is temptation of the light side and the dark side with a teacher on both sides, there are 2 flashback episodes that each share a different point of view of the same events, there is emphasis on multiple 2-way master/student relationships, the story is set in motion by someone who has to make a choice between 2 options, and there is visual symbolism throughout showing yin/yang symbols and duality. The episode titles seem to present a dichotomy. The first episode is entitled “Lost/Found”, the second is “Revenge/Justice”, the third is a flashback episode called “Destiny”, the fourth is “Day”, the fifth is “Night”, the sixth is “Teach/Corrupt”, the seventh is another flashback episode entitled “Choice”, and the eighth is simply “The Acolyte”.

The Characters

This show has a big cast of characters and as with any show or movie with a big cast, not all are equal.

The biggest standout in the show was the character of Master Sol, played by Lee Jung-jae. This marks Lee’s first English speaking role and he blew it out of the park. He plays the kind, compassionate, and skilled Jedi Master with a past that haunts him. Lee does a great job of capturing both the emotions and lack of emotions that Sol deals with.

Amandla Stenberg plays the twins, Osha & Mae Aniseya who were separated at a young age and grow up on very different paths. I enjoyed how Stenberg was able to show the different personalities of each sister, however, I feel like the writing of the characters were a little rushed. some of their choices seem abrupt and without much buildup. This is something that is the fault of the writers, not the actress. Both characters end up in very different places than when the show begins.

Charlie Barnett plays a young Jedi Knight named Yord Fandar who is very much a by-the-book Jedi who takes great pride in the customs and rules of the Jedi. This makes him an easy target for several characters to pick fun at him and he somewhat serves as a comic relief. He is the first Jedi in the order that we see wielding a yellow lightsaber, which somehow fits his character. I wish we would have seen more of this character than what is shown in this show.

Dafne Keen plays the young Jedi Padawan Jecki Lon, who is training under Master Sol. Even though she is the youngest of the cast, she has a certain maturity about her that stands out. She’s quite talented with a lightsaber as well. Having seen this actress in several other things, I know she is a fantastic actress, however, I think the choice to give her character no eyebrows was a mistake, as Keen is very expressive with her eyebrows when she acts. The lack of eyebrows gives her and odd appearance and demeanor.

Rebecca Henderson plays a senior Jedi Master Vernestra Rwoh. This character has her origins in the High Republic novels, but still stands up in this show if you haven’t read those books. The character is very serious and blunt and has potential, however I think the actress wasn’t the best choice to play her. The fact that she is married to the showrunner makes me wonder if that wasn’t why she got the role. Despite her wooden portrayal of Vernestra, she makes a good representation of a stoic Jedi who is always on the lookout for trouble.

Jodie Turner-Smith does a beautiful job of playing the force witch coven leader Mother Aniseya. She brings a regal element to the show and gives off an intimidating yet compassionate air. She does a great job of capturing the loving and protective nature of a mother.

Manny Jacinto plays Qimir (aka The Stranger), the quirky and seemingly clumsy sidekick to Mae. He seems to know more than he claims to know. Halfway through the season we find out he is the Sith that Mae is training under. His demeanor changes drastically and he does an amazing job of playing a very unsettling villain. I also must commend his lightsaber fighting skills. The lightsaber fights are better than anything in the sequel trilogy. They are very reminiscent of the Nick Gillard fighting from the prequels.

Don’t Give into The Hate

As a life long Star Wars fan, I have to say, I have never seen so much hatred and toxicity from so-called “fans” towards a show than with The Acolyte. It was disturbing to say the least. Multiple times when I would comment online saying I enjoyed the week’s episode, I was ridiculed and accused of being a paid commenter by Disney and Lucasfilm trying to hype up the show. I’m not quite sure why people thought that, but it was a weird accusation.

This show was predicted to fail as soon as it was announced. People wanted to hate it from its conception. To hate the show before it even aired seemed to be a bandwagon that “fans” were jumping on because it was the “cool” thing to do. I believe well-known “YouTubers” with massive followings played a big part in influencing audiences and spreading propaganda about the show. Their video titles served as clickbait to further enrage potential viewers, they confidentially stated blatantly false things as though they were facts, and people believed them. One “YouTuber” in particular started attacking the popular Star Wars website Wookieepedia about the show accusing them of actions that were demonstrably false, leading to the “YouTuber’s” followers sending death threats to the volunteers that upkeep that site.

Many of the outrageous things that were making headlines about the show were false and sensationalized. Much like how biased political journalism is. One such headline was that supposedly the third episode was going to “break” or “kill” Star Wars and destroy everything we knew about Star Wars. That episode was also predicted to be “totally woke” and politically pushing a sexual agenda. This led to many political and religious news outlets that never report on Star Wars to weigh in and speculate and attack the show before the episode even aired. Many were calling for a boycott of the show and calling on people to “cancel” it. Even though I didn’t believe those absurd claims, I was cautious when I watched that episode, bracing myself for something horrible to possibly occur. However both of those claims proved to be completely and utterly false. The only thing that might could be interpreted as sexual was one brief 5 second scene of one female witch caressing the face of another female witch to calm her down. This could imply some sort of same sex romantic relationship, however this was subtle and not really of any focus or value to anything. It was one of those “blink and you miss it” moments. After that episode aired, news outlets continued their propaganda claiming that the episode was all about “lesbian space witches and LGBTQIA rights”. They claimed that all the exiled witches were gay and the episode implied that this was to show that gay people are ostracized from society. This is certainly not something that the context or dialogue of the story implies and it is most defiantly the hateful people trying to read their own social and political views into this.

I can’t quite exactly figure out why all the hate was there. Some claim it was because the showrunner was a lesbian, or because the show had a racially diverse cast, or because one of the leads was a bi-racial female. I’ve heard all those used as excuses to hate the show. It wasn’t enough for these people to hate the show before it aired, but they also openly mocked and attacked people who were excited about the show or liked the show. One of the most horrendous things I saw was on a Facebook group for Star Wars collectors. A man posted pictures of the action figures that he bought of the characters from The Acolyte and said that he bought all them to help cheer himself up because he was expecting to be diagnosed with cancer that week. The people tore into him mocking his health, attacking him for giving money to support the show, attacking him for liking the show. It got so bad that the man removed the post. He posted again how he was shocked and upset about how people treated him and once again people attacked him making fun of how he might have cancer. This is absolutely despicable.

As previously stated, it is hard to pin-point what exactly started the hatred. It is one thing to watch the show and not like it, but to have hatred for a show and root for its failure before it aired is something else entirely. The dark side was definitely at work. As horrible as it sounds, I can’t help but wonder if those so-called “fans” would have had a different reaction to it if the show was run by a white male and had a mostly white male cast. I know for me, it makes no difference what someone looks like, shat they believe, what they are attracted to, or what gender they are, as long as the piece of art is decent, none of that matters. But it would appear as though many do not view it that way.

The Force Works in Mysterious Ways

One big story point in the show was the fact that the two main characters, the twins Osha and Mae, were conceived through the force. This concept is not unheard of, as it is how Anakin Skywalker was conceived. We know from Revenge of the Sith that Palpatine’s master, Darth Plagueis, “was a Dark Lord of the Sith, so powerful and so wise he could use the Force to influence the midichlorians to create life.” In the Star Wars Legends novel named after him, Darth Plagueis is shown studying and manipulating the midichlorians and it is hinted at that his meddling in the force might have brought about the conception of Anakin Skywalker. Given that Plagueis is shown in this series lurking in the shadows, it seems as though he was either behind the attempt to create the twins, or that he was inspired by the witches’ attempt at creating the twins. This is an interesting element that fits it into the larger picture and I’m excited to see where it goes should the series get a second season.

Trouble in Paradise

One other major plot point of this show was the corruption and fallibility of the Jedi Order. We know what will become of the Order, how they will fall apart and be destroyed. As an elderly Luke Skywalker recounts, “Now that they are extinct, the Jedi are romanticized, deified But if you strip away the myth and look a their deeds the legacy of the Jedi is failure. Hypocrisy, hubris.” We see the beginning of that in this show. The Jedi are at their peak and they are well regarded by many in the galaxy, but they are keeping some pretty big things covered up in order to preserve their image. Some in the political realm start to take notice of their rising unchecked power and are concerned about it and seek to bring investigations on them. We know that they will eventually get more involved in the politics of the galaxy to the point where their vision is clouded and they are destroyed from within. I believe we will see more of this theme if later seasons come about.

What I Didn’t Like

There are several things I didn’t like about the show, but I’ll just list a few of them here. Although I think the storytelling was loads better than some of the other Star Wars shows, I feel like it was a bit rushed in the flashback episodes. In the later episodes, when it became apparent that the twins were switching roles to some extent, I feel like that needed more build up. It happened a little too fast and Osha’s turn in particular was very sudden.

I also feel like Sol’s reasoning behind wanting to train Osha was not spelled out enough. I feel like more exposition was needed to better understand why he did what he did.

Conclusion

As stated in the beginning, overall I thoroughly enjoyed the show. It was Star Wars. It had all the things that make Star Wars Star Wars. Are there changes I would have made to the story? Sure, but at the end of the day, I enjoyed it and was delightfully surprised with it. If you’re on the fence about it, I would encourage you to give it a chance. I think the show will flow much better watching it all at once and seeing it like a movie. Ignore all the hype and criticisms and interviews, and just allow yourself to get lost in a galaxy far far away.