Alright, after having slept on it more, here are more of my thoughts…
Things I liked:
- Generally the narrative approach worked for me. I’ve mentioned how much I didn’t like Filoni/Favreau’s Thing™️, so to have this more rooted in character drama and real emotion was all I needed to like this.
- The performances are good. That’s another pretty nothing bullet point, of course it would be, but I like this as a vehicle for more Ewan Kenobi, and outside of Lucas’ stilted direction and dialogue too.
- I liked the pacing. A lot happened in only two episodes, but it was still deliberately told. Every narrative and character element was given just enough time to land effectively. I think the direction in that regard was great for what it was (which is definitely more TV than cinema but I’ll get to that later).
- Reva was everyone’s fear, but she’s honestly the most compelling Inquisitor here. If they really had to save Vader for later, they could do worse smaller fish. Her somewhat personal stake is what grounds the show in character; it’s intersecting motivations crossing paths and coming to a head, not just a plot driven adventure spurred from external incidence. I liked that for this.
- Daiyu Alderaan cool
Things bad:
- Production design felt cheap. It’s very very TV. I like TV so I didn’t mind and was expecting it, but the Inquisitors sans Reva felt like Power Rangers villains and a lot of aliens were fan film tier.
- Everything felt like sets, and actually made me appreciate the way the prequels were shot. When nothing is real, it’s best to lean into it. “The Classic Hollywood” argument for Lucas’ directorial choices has never made more sense to me than right now. The cinematography that could otherwise have been great feels strange and low budget here, particularly with the…
- Lighting, color grade, etc. Everyone is right about it - it’s not a visual spectacle at all. (Other than Ewan’s face am I right heyy)
- Coincidences, weird dialogue moments. Unfortunately, that short snippet last week was the peak of this show’s naturalistic writing lmao. It’s still rooted in more realistic depictions of human beings with emotions, but when they need to exposit, they will. Which is a shame, because it’s always for things like explaining what an Inquisitor is. It’s there for someone who doesn’t know Star Wars like that, and could easily have been removed.
Anyway, everyone who wasn’t excited about this was right to be so, this just about met (and a little less) my generous expectations. I’m just happy to see stuff like this with a character I like.