Obi-Wan Kenobi

Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022) 

I'm at peace with it. It's totally unbalanced directorially (the juxtaposition of the opening Jedi Temple scene and the utterly parodic chase between the robbers and Leia is relentless), and script-wise it's a mess, with characters meeting and leaving as if being in the middle of something substantial. It suffers from the Disney SW syndrome - it has terribly limited boundaries because we know where it's going, and it narrows them even further by bringing in completely unnecessary familiar characters in a central role. However, as a collection of pretty set pieces, the dark atmosphere of the Inquisition period and a grim Ewan, who could pull emotion out of a pile of dried dung, it just sort of works. Setting aside the fact that even the best new character, the obsessed Third Sister, doesn't make much dramatic sense in the end, and the expected duel between Ben and "you know who" ends with one team's premature exit to the locker room, it's actually a reasonably entertaining and atmospheric series worth a single watch from a world that's beginning to resemble a coal pit. However, the producers should have come to terms with the fact that a Leia who has barely stopped wetting herself and a digitally-smoothed boomer Anakin might not be what SW fans want. (2022-06-27)