Spoilers for Obi-Wan Kenobi
I’m a sucker for Star Wars stuff.
That’s not to say I’m blindly beholden to defending the series. Or even watching every piece of Star Wars media that comes out. I just like the idea of Star Wars. It has so much potential that often gets bungled in production.
And I think Obi-Wan Kenobi did the best with the hand it was dealt.
I’ll admit, it was hard to go into this show with level expectations. I’ve heard a ton of people say it was absolute trash and a fair amount of others say it was a pretty good experience. I like going into a show with conflicting reviews like that. When positive perception of a show is through the roof, I often get my expectations up too high. And when all people do is trash on the show, I won’t even watch it. But having both sides duke it out gives me the interest to watch it and keep an open mind, since I have no idea which side I’ll fall on.
I’m definitely on the “it’s pretty alright” side.
Obi-Wan is a character a lot of people have a soft spot for, me included. I’m not the biggest prequel defender out there, but I’m willing to acknowledge those movies got a couple things right here and there. Most relevant to this review, is the casting of Ewan McGregor.
There’s just something about how he handles the character that feels right. To a lot of people, his portrayal of Obi-Wan is what defines a Jedi. Quick-thinking, powerful, and wise. And his acting prowess brought out all those traits. Regardless of the quality of those movies as a whole, I think most people appreciate Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan throughout the trilogy.
And it should have been no surprise that Disney, a creatively bankrupt media conglomerate, would make a show about this fan favorite character.
If you read my review of The Mandalorian, you’d know I hate nostalgia-bait shit.
And people writing Star Wars can’t fucking help themselves from referencing old media.
Bringing back old characters, referencing old plot points, trying to add on to those older movies, they can’t just let them be.
No, Boba Fett can’t just be this cool guy that was in the original trilogy for a couple scenes. We gotta learn about his dad! And then we gotta learn that he survived after everyone thought he was dead!!! It’s just exhausting.
So why do I not hate the Obi-Wan Kenobi show?
If I’m honest… I don’t know.
There’s so much in this show I should hate, but for some reason, I just don’t. I don’t hate seeing Princess Leia as a kid. I don’t hate that there’s no stakes, because we know what happens to all the characters considering this is before the original trilogy.
I don’t hate that Obi-Wan fights Darth Vader.
That should really have pissed me off. That’s primo fan service right there. It feels like it only exists to strengthen people’s emotional connection to Star Wars as a brand. They want people to make reaction videos, podcasts, whatever, about the latest episode finale.
But again, I don’t hate it. I kind of enjoyed the Vader/Obi-Wan fight.
What does that mean? Did I fall victim to their cheap emotional manipulation?
After some self-reflection, I don’t think that’s a fair way to represent the situation.
On one hand, the show Obi-Wan Kenobi is a product. It exists to be one of the dozens Star Wars shows and movies on Disney+ to keep people subscribed. They want to make it emotionally satisfying so people don’t feel burned and get less interested in Star Wars. So there’s the motive to make it as “fan-servicey” as possible.
On the other hand, this is a piece of art. Regardless of why Disney wanted this show to be made, it had people writing it, directing it, acting in it. And for what it’s worth, I enjoyed some of those aspects.
It’s inoffensive. It doesn’t take any CRAZY risks but it doesn’t play it TOO safe. Obi-Wan chasing around young Princess Leia was unexpected for me. The original trilogy spent a lot of time focusing on Luke as a character before shit hits the fan, I forgot that Leia was growing up in the same universe. It’s cool to see how she was growing up alongside him, both in vastly different socio-economic situations.
Another thing that sticks with me, this show should have been a movie.
I vaguely remember hearing this WAS supposed to be a movie until Solo bombed and the higher-ups said “no more spin-offs focusing on one character”. The show definitely has the pacing of a movie that was stretched out to three times its length. There’s a bunch of stuff in the show about some resistance group Obi-Wan and Leia follow around, and I barely remember anything about them.
I think the better lesson to take from Solo… was to do a spin-off movie right.