REVIEW #189 Obi-Wan Kenobi (Season 1)

We rejoin Obi-Wan Kenobi as a broken man, rotting away on Tatooine as he looks over a young Luke Skywalker. However as his old friend Senator Bail asks for his help, Kenobi is forced to face his past and his old apprentice Anakin Skywalker, who has grown more powerful with the dark side as Darth Vadar. 

I think it’s fair to say this was one of the most highly anticipated projects of the year, Ewan McGregor returning as the iconic Obi-Wan and even Hayden Christensen reprising his role of Anakin/Darth Vadar. This in itself had everyone excited and I absolutely loved seeing them both back in action! Witnessing a broken Kenobi hurt, but it made for an excellent storyline, a Jedi no longer one with the force, weak and defeated and in those beginning episodes that was more than evident. The initial running away from Darth Vadar, poor combat skills and a rather pessimistic view on life. But as the episodes progressed we slowly started to see the return of the Jedi we once knew and loved, inspired by Leia, her witt and fiery attitude, inspired by Tala and the network of people who have been fighting to help the Jedi and the force sensitive. These factors slowly brought Obi-Wan back to the light, back to his faith and that’s what made for an epic finale, where we saw possibly his biggest display of strength ever! Now was this a character driven story, yes I believe so! But unfortunately I don’t think it was the kind of story that a lot of people expected and some ‘fans’ are incapable of appreciating any story unless it’s absolutely the one they wanted, anything other than that then they write it off or make up lame reasons to justify their trolling of the series. This review would be hours long if I tried to mention all of the silly things people have raised about the show so I won’t go into it. Now not every criticism is unjustified, it’s far from perfect and I certainly believe that the episode run times and the amount of episodes were just way to short. This meant to the plot progressed at a pretty fast pace and perhaps we didn’t get as much time with certain characters as we would have liked. That being said, the show introduced some amazing people to the franchise, Moses Ingram’s Reva was an incredibly well written character. I hope people can appreciate her after the finale because that character arc was really well done and I have no doubt we will see much more of her in the future. Indira Varma’s Tala Durith was also a nice addition, who doesn’t love a rogue Imperial officer! Of course I couldn’t not talk about Vivien Blaire’s amazing performance as Princess Leia, wow Carrie Fisher would be proud and what a way to enhance the legacy she set up for the character. Although there were some amazing additions to the franchise, I guess it wasn’t a story solely about Kenobi which is probably why some fans are annoyed about it not being the amazing character story they were promised. I kind of understand but in the same breathe, we do need other characters too. Some blame also lies with Deborah Chow, directors need to stop likening their character driven projects to Logan because not many can live up to the elite level of character work that film produced, so it’s almost setting it up for harsh comparisons. 

Now on to the cinematography, I personally loved how Chow and her team created this show. I thought the battles looked amazing, especially the Vadar/Kenobi showdowns. The beautiful contrasts between the dark settings and the illumination of the light sabres always looked great and the variety of landscapes we witnessed across multiple worlds just illustrated how expansive the Star Wars universe is and just how good it can look in the process. I will say that Nur, where the inquisitors base is, did look better in the Fallen order game, the overcast sky did take some of the flare away from the surroundings. The flashback scene also looked brilliant, the mosaic setting combined with the colours just worked incredibly well, meanwhile delivering the perfect bit of nostalgia that played a crucial part of breaking down Anakin’s psyche. I guess this played a big part in the finale and how it ended, that battle was great and it reestablished the roles of Master and Apprentice. So overall I think the series was great, it had its faults don’t get me wrong but I think the positives far outweigh the negatives and it’s unfortunate to see so many silly criticisms that plague not only this show, but every Star Wars project that’s released. I’d love to see a season two and possibly even a show just dedicated to Hayden Christensen’s Vadar because that has so such potential too. I hope you all enjoyed season one and if you haven’t watched it yet, I’d certainly recommend it!

Overall (8.5/10)

Thanks for reading

Callan