There’s another live-action Star Wars series on Disney+. Yeah, other. What was previously new with the launch of The Mandalorian now it’s a television routine not particularly notable or enjoyable. For every series that is really good like Andorwhich uses the skeleton of the galaxy far, far away to tell its own story, has to go through cathodic disasters like Obi-Wan Kenobi and The Boba Fett book or inert procedures such as Ahsoka or the final season of the mandalorian.
The Acolyte, which is what this new series foray is called, forced from the development phase to harbor a new hope regarding the future of the Star Wars universe. who would have seen Russian Doll, the previous series by creator Leslye Headland, I could understand why: the woman had exuded originality and a sense of fun by addressing the midlife crisis through time travel and narcotic humor. In addition, there was an interesting element for fans of the franchise.
Leslye Headland does not place the plot in the Skywalker chronology but a century before ‘The Phantom Menace’
Instead of placing the plot in the Skywalker chronology explored in the three film trilogies and series produced to date, Headland wanted to transfer the action to the High Republic, a century before The Phantom Menace. It freed itself (and freed us) from the tiresome mania of Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm, and Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau, the main people responsible for the television adventures, of burning hundreds of millions to fill in gaps in the history that we already know. The attitude until now had been cowardly: limit the potential of George Lucas’s infinite universe.
In this High Republic, Sol (Lee Jung-jae), a Jedi knight who is dedicated to training young people who show abilities in the Force, must abandon his duties as a teacher to embark on a mission. A Jedi he had worked with has been murdered, and witnesses and evidence indicate the crime is linked to a former Padawan of his, Osha (Amandla Stenberg), who abandoned training before officially becoming a Jedi Knight. This forces Sol to confront the past, to question the extent to which the order overstepped his duties, and to rediscover his mentoring and almost paternal affection for his best disciple.
Amandla Stenberg in an image from the first season of ‘The Acolyte’.
Christian Black
Headland introduces The Acolyte from a criminal thriller: the first murder is presented to focus interest on both the perpetrator of the murder and the detectives who must apprehend her. The crime, in fact, is almost a macguffin to explore the past of those involved: scars that did not fully heal and that, consequently, led to a wave of murders. The Jedi Order, in this sense, functions like any police force: as the apex of the security of the Galactic Republic system that dominates the Force, it prevents others from using it, and in a society where citizens cannot refute the decisions of the order.
Watching the series, however, is frustrating because of the timidity with which the ideas are presented. The script is based on a criminal thriller but, to allow it to be a production for all audiences, the direction refuses to disturb the viewer. The viewer is educated in a kind of emotional censorship: the young audience is prevented from experiencing discomfort, tension or any non-positive sensation, as if they were going to break.
The script embraces a criminal thriller but the direction refuses to worry the viewer
An anti-system idea is introduced by questioning the monopoly of the force of the Jedi order but without the courage to explore the moral grays that, curiously, Tony Gilroy did dare to cover in Andor with the Resistance. The plot is set in the High Republic but at no time does the camera allow us to feel that it is showing a terrain that has never been explored. And, even though Lee Jung-jae and Amandla Stenberg act competently, all the characters in the series feel inconsequential: yet another irrelevant anecdote from a universe in retreat.
It’s as if The Acolytehaving interesting ideas in their embryonic state, would have been crushed by the pressure of what it means Star Wars as a brand. With a submissive and helpful creative attitude you can make entertainment (quite inert, it must be admitted), but you cannot promote a fictional universe.
