Over all, this show was… I honestly don’t know how to describe it. I do know I didn’t like it, though.
Like I said after the premiere, the show’s number one saving grace is definitely Ewan MacGregor as Obi-Wan. He is clearly a caliber above his mostly amateurish co-stars, and he elevates a ton of moments that would otherwise be mediocre or even embarrassing. However, a good main actor can’t fix everything, and the mountain of deep-rooted issues with the show smother out what could be an amazing character-driven drama.
Plot-wise, this show feels like the “first draft” was really just a Lucasfilm-mandated check list of things the writers needed to include: Cool Force powers, big dramatic moments, callbacks to previous installments, all that typical Star Wars stuff. However, it doesn’t seem like the writers knew how to stitch all that corporate-mandated fanservice in to an actual coherent story. There were so many moments that didn’t feel earned, didn’t make a lot of sense, or were just plain stupid. It started out with just a couple minor issues, but slowly escalated until I had to turn my brain off completely during the final episode. Obi-Wan and Vader throwing mountains at each other has got to be one of the dumbest moments in the history of the franchise.
Also, everyone has already said it, but the cinematography and editing were really amateurish, and didn’t feel like “Star Wars” at all. Just like the plot issues, this didn’t bother me during the first couple episodes, but the weird editing and constant shaky cam got really bad in the second half. The climax of episode 3 breaks one of the most basic rules of editing, and it only goes downhill from there. Give me a fancy camera and a Disney budget, and I would probably be able to create a much more professional final product.
In a nutshell, both Boba Fett and this show seem like signs that Star Wars’s overreliance on callbacks and cameos has finally resulted in the franchise collapsing in on itself: The creators are relying on people’s memories of better installments to compensate for flawed storytelling, rather than actually attempting to tell a good story. Luckily, it seems like this trend might be broken pretty soon: Taika Watiti has promised that his standalone movie will feature almost no pointless fanservice or appearances from previous characters, and both Andor and the upcoming “Acolyte” series seem to be much less rooted in the mainstream saga than recent installments have been. If Lucasfilm can stop relying on cheap callbacks and start telling good stories again, I might keep being a Star Wars fan. It it doesn’t, however, I’ll vote with my wallet and move on to something better.