No amount of rewatching, revisionism, and distance makes the leaden “Star Wars” prequels good, sorry (lord knows I’ve tried). But teeming with terrifically substantive ideas, just not convincing in the execution of any of them, the most juicy and complex legacy that George Lucas ever left “Star Wars” with—something the franchise always seems to flirt with and yet never fully embrace—is the notion of failure, and the Jedi Order as a deeply flawed and ultimately ruinous organization. Examine closely. If it weren’t for Qui-Gon Jinn’s self-important insistence, Anakin Skywalker would never have been trained as a Jedi—as the Jedi Council maintained he shouldn’t— and the despotic and evil Darth Vader wouldn’t have risen to help throw the galaxy into years of tyrannical darkness. If the Jedi weren’t so arrogant and self-righteously self-assured of themselves, they wouldn’t have been so blind to Darth Sidious and the conspiracy he was hatching right under their noses. And if the Jedi weren’t so sanctimoniously self-possessed about their cause, they might have seen how their role as galactic peacekeepers during the Clone Wars started to curdle into the very same warmongering they were trying to defeat. The prequels, at their most captivating, for all their simple, sometimes-one-dimensional concepts about good and evil, were the idea that the so-called guardians of peace were the false messiahs and the architects of their own self-destruction, lighting the flame that set fire to their immolating downfall by the time the first trilogy was over. Lucas wrote a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions: a false prophet gone wrong, failed by the well-intentioned collective trying to nurture his ascendancy. The prequels are still pretty dire, but the archetypical richness within and the idea that absolute power corrupts absolutely still resonates and feels loaded with possibilities—ones that “Star Wars: The Acolyte” attempts to reexamine.
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Subsequent “Star War” storytelling, the animated ‘Clone Wars’ series, in particular, has acted as reinforcing girders that attempt to redeem the prequels—the Jedi Order’s emotional betrayal of Ahsoka Tano being one of the most heartbreaking stories—enhancing these ideas and imperfections and yet still never fully acknowledging the fundamental failings of the Jedi Order. Like the ‘Clone Wars’ retroactively encouraging the prequels’ most complicated, difficult-to-swallow view of Jedi shortcomings, “The Acolyte,” the new mystery murder series from writer/director Leslye Headland, the creator of “Russian Doll,” appears keen to re-interrogate the myth of the Jedi savior, and it’s also built around a great tragedy. But if “The Acolyte” eventually explores a much darker, even morally bankrupt side of the Jedi—teasing the ethically dubious objectives in peacekeeping, the road to hell paved with good intentions and the likes— it certainly walks a clunky, uneven path to get there.
Set 100 years before the era of the Galactic Empire, near the end of the High Republic age, “The Acolyte” resembles Lucas’ “Phantom Menace”-era prequels a lot, even superficially featuring a similar premise: a sinister Sith that no one knows about lurking in the shadows about to upend Jedi life when it reveals its master plan. Just like ‘Phantom Menace,’ it’s meant to be a time of galactic peace, and the Sith have been absent for so long, so these Jedi Knight peacekeepers don’t even know who or what Sith are when they first encounter them. So, in many ways, it feels like a derivative rehash of the same concept and a similar storyline about enigmatic villains hiding in plain sight with a greater plan afoot.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Captivatingly, “The Acolyte” essentially begins in the middle of a murder spree. A young former Padawan Osha (Amandla Stenberg from “Bodies Bodies Bodies”) is hunting down Jedi, trying to execute four of them, in particular, one by one in some act of not-yet-explained retribution. And she succeeds, at least, at first.
Identified by eyewitnesses as the killer when the first Jedi master is slain, Osha’s former teacher, the respected Jedi Master Sol (Lee Jung-Jae, from “Squid Games”), is eventually recruited to investigate the crimes and bring his former pupil to justice. Butting heads with his own conservative, tightly-wound Jedi superior Vernestra Rwoh (Rebecca Henderson), a High Council Master who believes he’s too emotionally attached to lead this investigation, but seemingly more concerned about the optics of intergalatci Jedi-on-Jedi-crime scandal than anything else, Sol eventually convinces her he’s the knight for the job, bringing two by-the-book Jedis with him, the humorlessly rigid Temple guardian Yord Fandar (Charlie Barnett), and Sol’s own fairly anal and dutiful Padawan Jecki Lon (Dafne Keen).
Of course, when Sol finally finds his former pupil Osha and discovers the initial truth of it all—it’s far more involved and complicated than just a former apprentice turned wicked, connecting to her great tragic backstory (which “The Acolyte” devotes an entire flashback episode to, spelling out, showing and telling a lot in the process). In this clunky rewind to the past episode (the child actors leaving a lot to be desired, unfortunately), Sol rescued Osha from a fire in her youth, her twin sister and family, a coven of Force Witches, dying in the process, and he took it upon himself to raise and teach her in the way of the Jedi arts. Or so, that’s what many we’re meant to believe anyhow.
Without delving into further spoilers, once reunited with Osha in the present day, Sol enlists his former understudy into the who-is-killing-Jedi investigation—much to the chagrin of the rule-abiding Yord, Jecki, and Venestra— and off they go, trying to find the whereabouts of the remaining Jedi, many of them in self-imposed exile, before a mystery assassin can track them down first.
Intermittently engaging, “The Acolyte” often frustrates. Yes, it nails the look, tone, and feel of “Star Wars” and feels lived-in in a way wall-to-wall Volume technology does not. But this should be a given prerequisite, not a feature. More woundingly, the series suffers from soap-opera-y exchanges and, occasionally, wooden and very clunky acting. While the premise of Jedi being hunted, murdered and watching some of them perish early on feels bold and shocking for Disney, rest assured the show doesn’t feel as adult and as dark as that sounds, often retreating to the familiar, like conventional Disney+ era “Star Wars” (groan at the Trade Federation fan service too). Who could possibly be behind all this???” every character asks, the audience ten steps ahead of them, clearly knowing that some kind of villainous, revenge-seeking Sith is behind it all.
In fairness and truth, “The Acolyte” clearly plays with misdirection and red herrings and still has deeper, darker secrets and mysteries to unveil. It’s a show that rewards the attentive viewer, dropping many clues along the way to where it’s all headed: somewhere much darker and potentially shocking, pulling at threads that most Jedi wouldn’t want to know the truth about (its nods to a “Rashomon”-esque take on disaster feels intriguing). However, being as closely invested in the series as it hopes you will be is taxing, given how labored some of it feels.
“The Acolyte” is meant to be emotional, dark, and heartbreaking—especially the story between Sol and Osha— but rarely reaches poignant levels. Credit Lee Jung-jae, at least. He’s easily the shining light of the series, imparting each scene with a deep-seated level of affecting compassion. Amandla Stenberg is perhaps not quite as sturdy but is a serviceable second lead nonetheless. But almost everyone else around them is stiff, creaky, and unconvincing (Manny Jacinto as the smuggler acting on behalf of the lurking Sith baddies, seemingly playing his character like a dumb “yeah, man” surfer dude awkwardly doesn’t work at all). Henderson, Keen, and Barnett aren’t particularly great either in roles that feel like expensive “Star Wars” cosplay that are all one-dimensional. And while Carrie Anne-Moss as the Jedi Master Indara is an excellent presence, as is Jodie Turner-Smith as the Force Witch Mother Aniseya, both are more guest stars appearances rather than active members of the cast, unfortunately.
“The Acolyte” might be best defined by its gripping opening sequence. It’s thrilling, terrifically choreographed, replete with the much-touted Force-Wu ninja-like fighting, giving “Star Wars” a “Matrix”-like dimension. But it’s also so clearly indebted to what The Wachowskis already created that it doesn’t feel like it’s offering anything particularly new or unique, and the rest of the first episode can’t live up to it. Designed to hook and wow the audience with a kinetic, dazzling set piece from the jump, it does just that. However, one wishes the series would have invested that much thought, care, and attention to detail into, you know, the storytelling, acting, emotion, and characterization.
You’re forgiven if you initially think “The Acolyte” has no sense of suspense and lets the air out of its early whodunnits immediately—especially for a mystery thriller series. But there are a few more enigmas teased. It’s essentially a series of mysteries built on top of deeper, darker secrets and lies—some that could potentially shake the very core fabric of the Jedi Order. Still, audiences only receive the most superficial secrets in the first four episodes. As compelling and even provocative as what may come, the execution and quality are often quite iffy, conventional, and rarely inspired. Character writing motivations can either be telegraphed or extremely rickety, too. One character does a 180 about-face from evil to good at the last minute, which leaves the viewer with a wtf? exasperation by the end of the episode.
“The Jedi justify their galactic dominance in the name of peace,” one character says contemptuously early on. Another warns that things aren’t about good or evil but “power and who’s allowed to use it.” And that really nails the show, that’s ultimately—it seems anyhow, so much is still obscured— about control and a kind of conspiracy about power, holding on to it in the name of what you believe is virtuous and true (also think of another riff on Obi-Wan’s “from a certain point of view” assertion).
To the TLDR crowd, yes, “The Acolyte” is marginally better than the aggressively episodic ‘Mandalorian,’ the middling “The Book Of Boba Fett,’ the humdrum “Obi-Wan Kenobi” and the dreadful “Ahsoka,” but that’s not saying a lot and it’s no “Andor” either, though it surely ought to be. The texture of what Headland is toying with in “The Acolyte”— the truths we cling to, the lies we uphold in the name of the “greater good,” who we deem worthy to wield power, and the slippery slope that follows those decisions—feels like it requires a deeper level of sophistication that might be slightly out of this series’ reach. Like the prequels, “The Acolyte” ponders many dark and complex subjects but, so far, lacks proper depth in this consideration. Still, “Star Wars” has always felt too torn to cast its White Knight heroes in too negative a light and thus has never quite committed to what could be much more morally damming parables. Nonetheless, “The Acolyte” feels like it’s going there. Now, it’s a matter of whether they’ll probe past the surface. [C+/B-]
“Star Wars: The Acolyte” episodes 101-102 launch on Disney+ on Tuesday, June 4th at 9pm ET.
