After being rumored for many years at one point being a movie, and being delayed due to COVID. Kenobi has finally dropped on Disney+ with its first 2 episodes. What did I think of those episodes? Let’s get started!
The Good:
Easily the best thing about these episodes is Ewan McGregor and the character of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Ewan McGregor has been in the A-list ever since The Phantom Menace was released in 1999, and when it was announced he was returning for this show I was super excited. Because the prequels get a lot of hate, but Ewan was never one of those reasons. He’s great at playing this older and wiser Jedi, and since this is 10 years after Revenge of the Sith, we see Kenobi at a very different point in time. And getting much closer to seeing Alec Guinness’ Obi-Wan Kenobi in this show. So to no real surprise, McGregor just knocked it out of the park. And he delivered a great performance, and maybe his best performance as the character.
Also, with bringing these characters from the tv shows, books, and different media it just fleshes out the world of Star Wars. Where you get The Inquisitors as the main villain, and they are these interesting characters that have an interesting role in the show. As they are these Jedi Bounty Hunters out for Kenobi, who are working for Darth Vader. And they are intriguing and interesting characters, with the way they look or how they talk to others. It just makes them interesting, pop, and once again fleshes out the world.
And with this show they are doing something just a little bit different, and exploring a different pocket in the Star Wars universe. Sure, this show takes place in the same time period that we’ve seen before. Both Rogue One, Solo, and the upcoming Andor series all take place in between episode 3 and episode 4. But here, we are focusing on what the events of Revenge of the Sith did to the galaxy and Kenobi. And that’s exploring something just a little bit different, then from what we’ve seen before from this time period. And hopefully, Andor can continue that as well.
Finally, the score for the show is really really good. Where you have Natalie Holt doing a large portion of the score and she just did a great job. She also did the score for Loki, which was a very cool score that I think is the best of the Marvel tv show. And then you also have John Williams working on this show as well, and well it’s John Williams nothing more has to be said about that.
The Bad:
And unfortunately…I had quite a few issues while watching these first two episodes. First up, there is some casting in this show that just feels out of place or actors that feel miscast. Acting that feels out of place is Flea. I don’t know why they cast Flea in Star Wars, but hey he’s here now. And No ill will for the guy, no hatred but his type of acting just doesn’t fit Star Wars at all. And then with roles where actors feel miscast as Moses Ingram as The Third Sister, one of the villains of the show. And she seems like a good actress, but I don’t buy her as an intimidating villain that needs to be stopped. Whenever she’s on screen, I’m not scared by her the way I think the show is trying to make us feel. So hopefully in later episodes she does get better.
Also, we are now ⅓ of the way into the show. That means we only have 4 episodes left in the show, and at the end of episode 2 is really when things seemed like they started to get going. Where the main conflict of the season is really introduced at the end of episode 2, and I think that needed to happen at the end of episode 1. I think things that happen in the last 5-10 minutes of episode 2 should have closed out episode 1.
Another thing here and I don’t know if this is something that many other people felt, but it felt familiar. Like in episode 1 when we are catching up with Kenobi and seeing where he is at in life. I got very much a Rey from The Force Awakens vibe. Like just the way it told us the information, and the things that Kenobi is doing just felt very familiar to other things that did these things better. And then where the plot goes in episode 2, feels like something you’ve seen before and done better.
Finally, I was pretty underwhelmed by the action present in this show. It wasn’t terrible, but for what you can do with 2022 technology it felt lackluster to me. So I sure hope that in the rest of the season we get some great action that is handled much better.
Final Thoughts: In general, did I have fun with Kenobi? Yes. Did I like it? Yes. Was it great to see Ewan McGregor back as Kenobi? Yes, yes it was. Was I disappointed with it? Yes. Am I losing faith in these Star Wars shows? Yes, yes I am.
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