Obi-Wan Kenobi series: speculation

Wow, okay, there seems to be a bit of buzz for this episode, skimming the prior page and the responses that have come in, and I see my name has been mentioned a few times...

But, yeah, well... *hesitates, steals Ingram's flame shield*

I dunno.

I mean... it was okay.

NOTE: I literally just got done watching it, so I suppose I need a bit more time to mull things over (and, preferably, watch again).

What I liked:

- The flashbacks involving Hayden and Ewan, even if they were a bit plastic-looking in some shots, and Hayden kinda looked like a 40-year-old man here and there. Sorry, but I was almost LOL-ing at the end, when Obi-Wan pats him on the back. Holy fuck, AGING. Ironically, though, Hayden seemed more Vader-ish and charming this way. I can't really use too much mockery; it just wouldn't be right. Those little scenes (or one sequence chopped into four or five parts?) were very well done and satisfying to watch, and also very cleverly interwoven into the episode. Big win overall. They've clearly got the prequel crowd talking. Also, I guess the palatial aspect of the Jedi Temple is now "official" in this series. Exact same look as in the Order 66 flashback at the start of the first episode. It lends a fantastic, dream-like edge, so I suppose it's okay. Even Ewan and Hayden looking slightly, ah... altered is really an extension of the same aesthetic. Not everything in Star Wars has to have the same reality. Well, that's how my mind is presently rationalising it, anyway.

- Reva and Vader's duel. Okay, this was the one part of the episode that was satisfyingly -- perhaps even surprisingly -- intense. Damn, I loved every second of that. Even if Reva has been used like a chess piece, by both the villains within the series and the writers without, it was nice for some of the mystery-box-ing to fall away and for her character to come alive. Although a part of me thinks she's more a monument to pain and suffering and the fatalism of seeking revenge than a fully-fledged Star Wars character in her own right. Maybe this transformation in her attitude, this revelation of her inner desire to defeat and destroy Anakin, will quell some of the haters now; then again, maybe not. Regardless, I always love me some lightsaber duelling. They also seemed to capture the honourable, samurai-like aspect of Vader and Reva well with those little pauses and the way they readied themselves, like when Vader pulled Reva's saber into two pieces and let her have one of them to come back at him with. A well-done sequence.

tl;dr: Lightsabers.

What I disliked (and/or felt neutrally indifferent toward):

Um... everything else?

Well, not everything. But a lot of stuff.

First off, another short run-time. Paraphrasing Ewan and showrunner Deborah Chow: "Yeah, well, now that Obi-Wan is a miniseries and no longer a movie, we can really delve into the characters and the story way better than if it had been a feature film." Get out of town with that shit. All told, it looks like this series is going to be around three hours long, minus all the repetitive credits and recap sequences. Given the fact that each episode contains at least five minutes of television padding and teasing for the next episode as well, that cuts it down to 2.5 hours. Yeah, I'm starting to agree more strongly with Ingram, now (our Ingram, I mean, not Ingram Moses): this thing could and probably should have been a feature film. Making it for TV to save money is such a cheap move on Disney's part. Selling it to fans as something better, or lying to them that each episode would be an hour-long, is just crass.

Second, the proto-Rebels are fucking boring. Especially that chubby black dude. Cheer the fuck up. No, really. I don't just mean him. I mean the whole sombre mood. Felt more like LOTR than Star Wars. Remember the scenes (I don't blame you if you've tried not to) of all the people in Peter Jackson's trilogy hiding at Helm's Deep in the caves or the weepy women in Minas Tirith? FFS, I don't need that tripe in Star Wars, especially shot in such a mundane, televisual way. Whaa-whaaa-whaa. Obi-Wan's little love interest got shot and they never got to bone. Wow, I didn't see that coming. The dumb robot, too. Fuck me with a bag of spanners. We even got a predictable "Nooooooo!!!" from Ewan in what is probably his worst acting moment in the entire series (the cheesy slow-mo didn't help). Sorry, I didn't feel anything in that moment, save contempt for the stunning mediocrity of it. They never built their relationship up enough to enable the viewer to care. Disney all over!!!

Did I mention those Rebels are fucking boring?

Where were they hiding, anyway? In a crater on Mars?

Where were all the aliens? It looked mostly like people from a Wall Street protest rally.

Sorry, I'm in quite the mood over this one. I appreciate what the episode was trying to do: Link Obi-Wan and Anakin, implying they're still the "same" people underneath, and the hot-headed padawan is still obsessed with "beating" his patient, clever Master. And yes, this aspect was what made the episode compelling. It's just the other stuff, the base-y stuff, that felt so mundane to me; and the television-level cinematography, editing, and effects work that accompanied it. In this one, I was savagely reminded of the limited budget and the hardcore drift from Lucas more than ever. Even Vader grabbing the ship with the Force looked really cartoony here and grossly inferior to the way it was done in TROS between Rey and Kylo in the desert. The effects were very rinky-dink; and when the "real" ship takes off it kinda zips into the sky, very suddenly, like an elastic band? And how come Vader couldn't stop it? Quite the awkward, clumsy scene, if you ask me.

Some bits concerning the passage of time felt off. How long was Leia beavering away in that little access area? How long were the stormtroopers blasting the door? And when Obi-Wan and Reva were having their little chat through the sealed door, well, that was interesting: another little twist I didn't quite see coming. But couldn't the stormtroopers hear? I guess the joke is they're not paid enough to think. They just follow orders. The episode just had these weird kinks in logic, that's all. The scenes of Vader on his Star Destroyer also looked pretty fake. The cheapness of the show, that others have complained about before I did (and which I kinda tried to defend), just seemed oppressively obvious in this episode. Maybe I just wanted some kind of detailed, eye-popping environment to give me a buzz. A whole other galaxy should offer a bewildering array of crazy visual spoils. Not familiar sand planet, followed by grey Death Star base ripoff, followed by a shitty trench on Mars. Like... please! Now that I think about it, what got to me with this episode, is the self-serious nature of the Rebels combined with the bland setting. There was nothing to lift the spirit, engage the mind, fire the imagination. It was like HBO Star Wars.

But heck, come on, even I'm being too negative here. There were some good little pieces. I liked seeing Haja again -- although, he didn't really do much, did he? Leia's LOLA droid initially struck me as not evil enough, but then I realised kindness is probably built into her, by nature (manufacture) and nurture (Leia's warmth). And Reva herself, I guess, didn't want to be too evil. Otherwise why not have LOLA zap Leia or blind her with a laser or something? Leia subdues her and fixes her with incredible ease. Again, I guess that actually fits. It was basically just a pin making LOLA misbehave. Is that some kind of metaphor, perhaps; or just a convenient plot device? The episode just had this cheap, low-fi feel, even in its plot decisions, I guess is what I'm trying to say. But hey, trying not to hate in this paragraph. What else did I like then? I guess I liked the gun the stormtroopers used to break down the door. Better than that idiotic "battering ram cannon" in "The Last Jedi". Actually, now I think about that scene, when Reva orders them to start firing, I bet you Moses Ingram is going to be accused of overacting again. Once more, yes, here's a positive: I really liked Moses Ingram in this again. Of course, those of us who said Reva was the youngling at the start of the series in the Order 66 flashback were right. Well, really: who else could it possibly have been? 

Hmm, perhaps the people here more familiar with TCW detected a TCW vibe in the interaction and dialogue between Obi-Wan and Anakin in the flashbacks? Perhaps this episode was more a validation for you than for me because of that? I'm not saying I dislike that about the episode -- far from it! Just that I couldn't get that extra wave of nostalgia and delightful fan kick that some of you might have. Maybe the entire episode here was more like a TCW installment than the others? Feel free to give me your feedback. They seem to have largely done right by Anakin and Obi-Wan here. I saw Ingram (again, our boy Ingram, not Moses) mentioning Hayden's twinkle and charm. Yeah, that was great (despite his blocky-looking, older-guy face). I think this episode actually added something to the mythos here. Essentially, Anakin is always trying to prove he's better than Obi-Wan, or that his aggressive tactics are more valid than Obi-Wan seems to think. That's maybe a subtle refinement of what's already in the prequels. But then, everything's in the prequels, isn't it?

Oh, yeah, it was good to have the Grand Inquisitor back. I mean The Grand Inquisitor. I did feel for Reva in this episode, though. In fact, I've been feeling for her since the beginning, really. Once I re-watched the earlier episodes and started giving her character more thought, this arc for her felt fairly natural. I could see it coming, but was still gripped by the final result. It was uncomfortable seeing her struggling in the dirt (or regolith). I just knew she would grab that damn communicator. They wouldn't just show Obi-Wan [correction: Haja] dropping it for no reason. So is she a villain now or a hero? What was Obi-Wan sensing at the end? Her watching the remnants of the message? Her mixed emotions about it? The interesting thing here is they seem to have silenced some of the criticism that Bail communicating to Obi-Wan and beseeching him to rescue Leia was very risky. Because, y'know, wouldn't the Empire find out? Well, now, the Empire has found out. Or Reva, at least. That's her little reward. The justification of her struggle. Her determination really has borne fruit. She always knew there was more going on. Smart lass. I'm glad Vader saw through her -- or thinks he has. That would have been pretty stupid if he didn't sense her betrayal from a mile away. Look how Reva tries to kill him: with a swipe to the head. Not like the way she killed the GI. I was kind of cheering for her to succeed in their duel. That's how successful her character has been to me. It's cool how the real cost of Order 66 is actually explored in this series; or at least used as viable background material to explain the triangulation of Obi-Wan, Reva, and Vader.  

I also liked the shot of Luke asleep in his bed at the end. No, FFS -- not those vibes. But it had the same kind of Harry Potter-like innocence about it that was sort of conjured at the end of ROTS. Once again, he is sleeping, blissfully unaware (as in the final scene of ROTS when Obi-Wan hands him as a baby to the Lars). And Leia is the one with her eyes open, active in the world; even if it's bigger and scarier than she can comprehend. This fifth episode, like the second, also relies powerfully on Ewan's up-close eye acting at the end. In fact, this is now three episodes that have ended the same way, with Leia and Obi-Wan on a ship, in retreat. Quite the hollow televisual trick, but I guess it still buttons the episode(s) up nicely and gets you anticipating the next one. But here's my whole issue:

One left!!! I can't believe there's only one to go. I'm not sure we've really seen Obi-Wan emerge from his self-imposed inner exile. In a mechanical sense, yes. But not in a way that is really convincing and defining. While the series has had some very gripping parts, it still feels a bit too cut and dry, and a bit superfluous. The relative shortness and cheapness of this episode, despite a few stronger aspects, has not given me great encouragement that the sixth and final installment will be some monumental, rousing conclusion. Perhaps that's what I'm so bummed about overall. The bloom is off the rose now. This series has a lot of good within it, but so far, has fallen short of greatness. Although that's a funny term. Falling short implies jumping or straining toward greatness in the first place. This series just seems okay, disappointingly, with being a well-done mid-brow treatment of its basic concept. When it could have tried for the stars, or at least the outer planets, it settled for the moon.