Storytime with Rachel F Hundred

A strong and mysterious beginning to what is shaping up to be an intriguing story

Spoiler Warning

Having heard an early pre-release review that extolled the strength of the beginning episodes, I decided to take a look myself at The Acolyte, despite not being particularly enthusiastic about the Disney Star Wars shows themselves. 

I was one of the few who enjoyed Obi-Wan (2022), although I agree with the criticism that the story would have worked better as a movie. I liked aspects of Ashoka (2023), mostly to do with Anakin’s involvement.  I disliked The Book of Boba Fett (2021) and I’m not at all in love with The Mandalorian (2019-present) for all Grogu is cute and I love the idea of the Mandalorians from a mythology perspective.  I am yet to watch Andor (2022) which, while I’m told it’s great, I just haven’t been able to bring myself to watch it because I love Rogue One (2016) so much I don’t want to risk seeing something which might affect that.  My expectations therefore were low.

The first two episodes of The Acolyte are surprisingly strong – certainly they are the strongest of any of the shows I’ve seen.  There are many reasons for this but centrally there looks to be a clear and well-thought storyline providing a spine.

The writing and production team have set out the mystery of what happened on Brendok, what the role of the Jedi was in the tragedy that follows the two main female protagonists of Osha and Mae, and what is going on with Mae and her potential Master in the Dark Side really well.  It’s compelling.  I want to know more.

There are themes here that also touch on aspects of Star Wars mythology which I’m interested to see being explored: a potential Force Dyad between Osha and Mae as suggested between Rey and Ben Solo, the rise of the Sith during a time when the Jedi were arguably at their zenith, the idea of who are the bad guys here – is it the Jedi and Mae is justified in her revenge?

If the story is strong, so to are the characters introduced, particularly the twins Osha and Mae.  They are set-up within the story as definitively different – Osha struggles with the Force, Mae does not; Osha left her training as a Padawan, Mae is the Acolyte; Osha is filled with grief, Mae with the idea of revenge; Osha seems to morally want to do the right thing, Mae does not; Osha is practical while Mae has embraced the Force. 

Lead actor Amandla Stenberg does an outstanding job with both roles.  She is physically different playing Osha to how she plays Mae.  There is a softness in her facial expression when she is Osha and a hardness when she is Mae.  Her voice changes subtly.  Yet, she doesn’t overdo it either as in soap opera land where twins are often played in very black and white caricatures, this is much more subtle and lends itself to that idea that it is not as easy as to say the Dark is Evil and the Light is Good.         

She is ably assisted on acting duties by the sombreness that Lee Jung-jae brings to the role of Master Sol.  He is an archetype of the type of Jedi Master venerated in the mythology – the wise Obi-Wan figure of the original Star Wars (1977), or the hero Anakin believes Qui-Gon to be in The Phantom Menace (1999).  He is shown calmly teaching younglings, believing in his former padawan, and being an outstanding fighter.

They are ably supported by the solid performances of the rest of the cast.  The best of these is Manny Jacinto who is perfect as Qimir, the slimy criminal who aids Mae and who is in league with the Dark Side Master.  Dafne Keen does struggle a little under the prosthetic make-up as Sol’s current padawan, Charlie Barnett doesn’t get much to explore story-wise with Yord, and Rebecca Henderson feels hogtied by her character’s Jedi leadership stoicism – but the acting is on a par with any good serial television series – believable performances if constrained by the episodic nature of the series and supporting nature of their roles.

In the first episode Carrie-Anne Moss was utterly brilliant in the short scene she had as Master Indara. She completely sold the character in such a short space of time, and was utterly terrifying in her fight scene for all she embodied a defensive approach to the fight.  Similarly, Dean-Charles Chapman had very little to do in his scene in the second episode, but conveyed a great deal of grief and guilt as Master Torbin – it felt very reminiscent of Obi-Wan’s mental state after the fall of the Jedi.

The performances are also backed-up by a wonderful production value.  The world-building has been fantastic.  The depth and breadth of the alienness of the universe was on full display throughout these two episodes.  Yes, there are humans, but there are also truly different aliens.  The series has already shown six different planets and shown three different space-ship environments – all adding to the depth of the universe.  Costumes, make-up, CGI and music are all on point and nothing detracts; everything adds a touch of polish.

Finally, I love Pip, the new pocket droid who accompanies Osha.  I want one.

Are there any negatives in these first two episodes?  Eh. I might wonder what happened with Yord’s very prissy padawan Tasa Lowa.  Surely if she’s his padawan, she should be accompanying him?  And maybe there is a lack of banter between the characters, but then the story does not really provide the context for such as Mae’s revenge quest has already resulted in two Jedi deaths.  On the very nitpicking side, there is also the story beat that the escape pods get picked up in the asteroid field and the prisoners returned to Coruscant, but nobody already goes down to the planet to see what happened with the actual ship…that’s a tad unrealistic.     

Still, ultimately there’s very little to complain about here.

In conclusion: I’m really interested to see if the series retains its strong start.  This has been the most captivating Star Wars show on Disney Plus I’ve watched yet and I’m interested to see more.