The Acolyte

I really wanted to like this series. It had Carrie-Ann Moss. It featured a trans actress (Abigail Thorn). There was significant writing and production involvement for Jen Richards, who is one of the most successful trans women in Hollywood. It would really have annoyed the dudebros had the show been a big success.

Sadly, it wasn’t. I think it may have worked better as a book, as that would have given the ambitious plot more room in which to develop character motivations. As it was, and 8-episode series didn’t give the story enough room to breath. Consequently, when we finally got to the point of finding out what really happened on Brendok 16 years ago, the whole thing kind of fell apart.

The highlight of the series was Amandla Stenberg who played both the lead characters: the twin sisters Osha and Mae. She deserved better from the series. So did Dafne Keen whose Jecki was one of the more interesting characters in the series, and who was randomly killed off because someone had to be the red shirt.

I’m also somewhat sad that the idea of interrogating the downfall of the Jedi order by focusing on the inability of individual Jedi to live up to the order’s moral code is not going to go anywhere. Having said that, I suspect that the idea was unpopular with quite a few people within the Star Wars organization. It is hardly very Joseph Campbell.

I understand from Wikipedia that a couple of tie-in novels based on the setting of The Acolyte have been commissioned. Possibly these will provide more insight into the character motivations and the rot within the Jedi order, but I can’t imagine that I will have the time to read them.

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