I’m sure you already know why it sucks but you feel the need to be a contrarian like Mike does. There are plenty of posts here and elsewhere about it.
I’ve not seen one convincing argument for “why it sucks” that cancels out all the ways in which it’s great. And we won’t get into it here. Mike’s reflection on what he found interesting about the show upon reevaluation does not sound the least bit contrarian to me. In fact, it’s entirely consistent with somebody who has both 1) made a career out of cynical criticism of late-stage franchise entries, while refusing to weaponise “woke”, and also 2) has an understanding of storytelling and theme and picks up on these things. I understand that not every show is for everyone and that’s okay, but this take that no one can possibly enjoy a critically acclaimed piece of media unless they’re either dumb or a shill or purposefully contrarian is just wacky.
He literally “weaponizes woke” within the same video not 10 minutes earlier, taking potshots at representation and DEI and lesbians, even when that isn’t a sufficient reason why any of the sequels are bad, and bizarrely pinning it specifically on Rian Johnson like there wasn’t anyone else involved and he was the one initiating it. You’ll remember he also did this with Samuel Jackson being Mace Windu back in the day.
You can tell just watching the video that he’s put off by the other people criticizing it. He doesn’t want to be associated with anyone who complains about Ki Adi Mundi’s age for example, because that’s too petty for him. He’s embarrassed by the deep dive youtube complainer critic industry that he created. So he takes the common braindead take people have whenever something bad comes out, “at least it did something different.” It’s completely incoherent because he then explains how it’s not different at all and it’s very similar to the prequels, which he ostensibly hates. He even knows that the media are going to do the same rehab job on it they did on the prequels, again, and makes fun of it (“Gen Alpha are reevaluating the Acolyte”) He knows that it’s bad but he defends it purely on the grounds that the stereotypical fans don’t like it.