"Obi-Wan Kenobi" The Best and Worst of New Star Wars

    I'm going to be honest, this show was absolutely never going to ever reach the expectations I had for it. Ever since I first watched the prequels I have been absolutely in love with Obi-Wan Kenobi, there was just something so comforting about this bearded fellow who dryly quipped sarcastic lines. Therefore I came into this show hoping to be blown away, and I'd say I was adequately satisfied, as its about what I've come to expect from the new era of Star Wars shows.

    I absolutely adored the first episode of the show, believing it to be great setup for what was to come, setting the tone for a darker show involving a disillusioned Obi-Wan, ruthless inquisitors and an overall theme of Obi-Wan learning to once again believe in the good of people and the force. Sadly, by the end of the show I felt the rest of the series seemed to lack the same tone that the first episode had established, though the product was still overall good.

    Take for example Reva, otherwise known as the Third Sister, who started off the series as this youngling who had transformed her anger towards Jedi who failed to protect her into a powerful tool to hunt them. I found that this concept was interesting, and was something that could be explored further, as Obi-Wan also learns to forgive himself/the jedi for what had happened to the galaxy. However, this never really happened to the extent that I wanted it to, and by the end I was wondering what the entire point of Reva's arc was as her hunt for Luke was interlaced with Obi-Wan's battle with Vader, and it ultimately concludes in no actual consequences for anyone involved. 

    I feel as if that had to do with the fact that the show wanted to have familiar faces involved in order to maintain interest, but these characters are so untouchable its hard to do any sort of minor retcon without angering at least a third of the existing fanbase. Although, at least this time around, I don't have any complaints with the miniseries format, as I think it actually fits with a character as established as Obi-Wan and it didn't really need to be fleshed out as hard as other characters would.

    I think part of my disappointment with this series is that it felt a bit aimless at times. While technically the destination was reached, it had a bunch of filler that felt almost unnecessary at times that should have been filled with something else. While the parts involving Haja and other rebellion characters were cool we did not really get to see Obi-Wan learn to reconnect with the force and I felt that Qui-Gon Jinn should have had a much larger role in the show than he ended up having.

    I thought that a series centered around Obi-Wan's spiritual journey/revival would have been much more compelling than a mishmash of series trying to reference everything from the beginning of the rebellion to the inquisitors, to Vader to the inquisitor base. Moreover, the production quality of these miniseries feels sorely lacking, despite Star Wars being one of the largest franchises in history with the backing of a massive conglomerate like Disney. I saw someone compare this show to The Boys asking why the production value of these Disney+ Series are so low and I have to agree, surely they had a large budget for CGI, or fights/chases that were faster than what was ultimately included.

    It just felt weird, like Obi-Wan uses a blaster more than a lightsaber throughout the series and they never really explore how it represents Obi-Wans sort of forsaking of the Jedi lifestyle due to his failures involving Anakin. Although, in the scenes they did go big, which was basically anything involving Darth Vader, it was amazing to witness and I felt that in terms of costumes they really nailed down the more desperate and rough Obi-Wan design.

Final Score: 63/100 

    Overall, I felt that the show should have had a larger focus on Obi-Wan once again connecting with the force and finding his faith, and I do think that with better production value, this series absolutely could have been something special. While I do recommend it for anyone who wants an extra dose of Ewan McGregor I find it hard to really label it as something that stands above the rest of the Disney+ Star Wars catalogue.

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