I don’t like how this episode looked (as well as other scenes in the previous episodes) but I don’t want to blame the crew members because I think it’s more than likely a budget issue. Deborah Chow and Chung-hoon Chung have proven themselves to be fantastic in their field in the past. I just don’t think this series, which was always going to be a big deal, has a big enough budget to make it work.
For example, I love the idea of travelling to a once-beautiful planet which has been ruined by the Empire and I think that’s a great, grim setting for an Obi-wan vs Vader duel. However it feels like they didn’t have the budget to really make it imaginative or expressive enough. Compare it with Corvus from The Mandalorian, which might be my favourite location from the Star Wars Disney+ shows so far. It’s particularly jarring since we were just at Daiyu, which mostly looks great.
It’s definitely a budget issue. And it makes me wonder how the budgets and Disney subscription buys look as they’re chucking their wad with these TV series. It started out grandiose with Mando but now with this and Bobber Fett - combined with the other upcoming series - it seems like Disney are Roger Corman’ing the same Tatooine sets till the wheels come off. Is it cause the budgets are decreasing? If so, the longer this goes on, the lesser the production values might become. We might even look back at this as still one of the better ones. Who knows.
Again, though, I’ve enjoyed fan films and read SW comics with lesser art - as long as the writing is good, the characters are fun - I’m willing to look passed decreased production values.