Rating: 8/10
Disney+ / Lucasfilm
Who would’ve ever guessed that I wouldn’t have loved Obi-Wan? Definitely not me; it was supposed to be great. It was supposed to be the best Star Wars we’ve gotten from Disney. And it should have been. There were so many potential stories to go about dealing with the fallout of Anakin and Obi-Wan’s iconic duel. And don’t get me wrong… I still liked it… it was okay… but it should have been way better. It had moments that I loved, moments I’ve wanted to see for years.. but honestly a lot of it felt cheapened by it’s technical elements. It’s nowhere near the cinematic quality of “The Mandalorian” and feels more like a fan film at times. VFX isn’t great, the use of the volume stages are very obvious here, and there is so much unnecessary shaky cam during fights that you can’t see what’s happening… it makes it all feel cheap. The one constant is Ewan McGregor who delivers an honest, heartfelt and powerful performance… I just didn’t think this story did him justice. Vader had some great lines and was a beast in many moments, but when they brought Hayden Christensen back I thought they’d use him in a lot more flashbacks than they did, really showing the guilt and regret Obi-Wan has. I also loved how they used Leia in this show, and the casting of the young actress who played her was perfect… she just naturally had all of Carrie Fisher’s sensibilities, the sass, the line delivery, everything was spot on. I was blown away, it just felt like we were really seeing a 10 year old Leia! The music in the show was also a bit of a letdown at times, the score itself was fine, I just felt like they should have used more of John Williams’ classic themes from “Duel of the Fates” to “Battle of the Heroes” or even “The Imperial March”. I did love Williams’ new theme for Kenobi however, and luckily by the final episode Natalie Holt started infusing classic motifs and themes in her original score (and that’s when it sounded like Star Wars)!
Despite all the flaws it does have… I have to say I really did love the finale! It made the whole show worth it… because that final battle between Vader and Kenobi is LEGENDARY! One of the best fights we’ve seen in Star Wars, and just had Obi-Wan and Vader both doing some jaw dropping things! The final episode is what I wanted the whole show to be, and I feel like had the show been a film it would’ve worked much better. We could have cut out all the clutter and just had the best moments that worked so well! Because in this show it really does feel like a 2 hour story stretched out into 6 episodes… as a movie it would’ve been more focused and have a higher budget, making it feel even more epic. Even some of the stuff in episodes 2-4 felt a little underdeveloped, and those are the episodes that sour the show for me a little bit. But I cannot overstate how much I loved the first, 5th and final episodes! Those were exactly what I wanted and made the show for me! That final episode especially is some of the best stuff Disney Star Wars has done! I absolutely loved it! So while this show might not have always worked, and while it is very flawed… there are too many things about it that I loved to say that I didn’t like the show. It just wasn’t all what I was expecting… until that INCREDIBLE final duel! I just wish it was a movie!
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IMDb Rating: 7.2/10
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 84%
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Directed by Deborah Chow
Written by Joby Harold, Hossein Amini, Stuart Beattie, Hannah Friendman & Andrew Stanton
Cast: Ewan McGregor, Hayden Christensen, Vivien Lyra Blair, Moses Ingram, Sung Kang, Rupert Friend, James Earl Jones, Indira Varma, Kumail Nanjiani, Joel Edgerton, Jimmy Smits
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6 episodes
Runtime: ~40 mins each
Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
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Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi watches over young Luke Skywalker and evades the Empire's elite Jedi hunters during his exile on the desert planet Tatooine.
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