This review contains full spoilers for Star Wars: The Acolyte Season 1
This review contains full spoilers for Star Wars: The Acolyte Season 1
The Acolyte Season 1 Review
The Acolyte’s first season was one packed with potential, bringing Star Wars to a new era in the timeline and introducing many compelling themes and concepts that add new layers to this beloved universe. It also boasts some terrific action, including excellent lightsaber battles that rank amongst the best in the franchise – easily the best yet in any live-action Disney+ series. And yet it’s also plagued by sloppy storytelling and baffling and/or infuriating choices that lead to eight topsy-turvy episodes.
Building on George Lucas’ prequel films and the High Republic novels and comics, The Acolyte – set in between those two eras – puts a lot of focus on just how flawed the Jedi are as an institution and how their own methods help put them on the path to their demise. It’s a fascinating topic, especially through the lens of the Jedi’s not-as-popular-as-they-might-seem recruitment efforts. And through both the witches of Brendok and the Sith (or Sith-like – he doesn’t fully embrace the title) known as Qimir (a.k.a. The Stranger, played by Manny Jacinto), we gain more of an understanding of how narrow-minded the Jedi are when it comes to the Force – insisting that there’s only one “right” way to use its powers, causing bitterness and malice to build against them as a result.
Character Analysis
The strongest character throughout Season 1 is Sol. Lee Jung-jae gives a terrific performance as the Jedi Master, imbuing him with a lot of soul (no pun intended) while always appearing like he’s carrying the weight of the galaxy on his shoulders. Though we always understand he has regrets and secrets, showrunner Leslye Headland and her writing team make it clear Sol is a deeply flawed man up until the bitter end. We aren’t meant to hate him – he still clearly has noble intentions in the broad sense – but he’s blinded by his own biases and desire to see himself as the hero of the story. He can’t even admit it was wrong to take the Force-sensitive Mae and Osha (played as adults by Amandla Stenberg) from their coven when they were children, the first in a series of tragic events that leads to Sol killing their mother and the deaths of all her fellow coven members. The character introduces more nuance into the morality of the Jedi, who we usually see as either righteous warriors or unrepentant villains. He tries his best, but his best sadly isn’t good enough.
Flashback Episodes
If only the story of how Sol got this way weren’t told so poorly. The two flashback episodes that explain what happened 16 years prior on the planet Brendok, “Destiny” and “Choice,” are incredibly frustrating. The depiction of these mysterious witches, meant to broaden our notion of how the Force is harnessed, came off as silly and cheesy. What we see of their rituals and customs doesn’t make them look powerful – it borders on cheesy self-parody, despite strong work by Jodie Turner-Smith and Margarita Levieva as Mae and Osha’s mothers.
Character Development
Osha is the better character, with the richer background thanks to her stint as a Jedi – and the uncontained emotions that led to the end of her time in the order. This comes to the forefront in Episode 6 – in one of a couple of times the Jedi’s approach to stifling emotions and attachment is called out.
Season Finale Breakdown
The finale has some high points to be sure, once again proving that Headland and company took excellent care with their fight scenes. We’ve seen so many lightsaber fights across 47 years of Star Wars that they can begin to blur together, but visuals like the sparks flying off of Qimir’s helmet or Sol Force-deflecting two lightsabers flying towards him are genuinely awesome.
The finale also gives us the effective, suitably tragic end of Sol’s storyline, but there’s so much we don’t get closure on, most notably any actual explanation for the vergence in the Force that brought Osha and Mae into being. It’s one thing to leave some plot threads dangling for a possible second season, but The Acolyte says “we’ll deal with this later” too many times for what could be a one-and-done series. The finale opens up multiple new doors – Darth Plagueis is apparently spying on Qimir and Osha, Rayencourt is a new thorn in the Jedi’s side, Vernestra is going to speak to Yoda to possibly reveal the truth about what happened to Sol – without answering basic origin-story questions about its main characters. (Despite those two all-flashback episodes!)