Oh, boy. I feel like not liking The Acolyte has made me some unwitting soldier in some culture war I never signed up for. I thought the actors were fine and didn’t really care one way or the other if the leads included a Black woman, some Asian men, and a Wookie. Thinking the show wasn’t very good doesn’t make someone a bigot.
I made a whole thread about that very feeling inspired by my meh feelings on The Acolyte.
https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-like-or-dont-like-that-but-not-like-them/
Thats the thing…It doesn’t. It just means you need to be able to articulate the reasoning and be mindful of when to talk about it.
I look at it largely the same way I do with the movie “Logan”…my opinion? That movie is an overrated kind of shitty movie. If someone says “I watched Logan and I really liked it.”… if I run in and say “That movie is so effing pretentious! How can you like!” I’m not the good guy there. Don’t yuck others yum, etc.
I came to the conclusion more than thirty years ago that a lot of what I like is silly. It’s really done me a world of good as it’s allowed to me let other people enjoy the silly things they like.
Yep.
I like pretty much all the recent Star Wars shows. I hear what others don’t like about them and I understand it, but those things just don’t bother me. On the other hand, I’d like what they’re looking for also, and I hope it’s gets made someday.
I think it’s not so much that they don’t bother me, it’s that those same exact complaints apply to all the Star Wars that they LOVE. Shitty writing, acting and dialogue are as much a part of Star Wars as lightsabers and fascists.
I’ve liked every Star Wars TV show to different degrees. And though many of them disappointed me on some level, the overall feeling I still get is it’s great to have more Star Wars, I’m intrigued to see where the story is going, and I want more from the characters I’ve grown to like.
I was part of the Star Wars fan film community in its nascent years (90s/2000s) so this just feels like what we were doing but with some real money and made official canon. I really get excited by that.
Cancelling a series because of low ratings compared to the excessive budget seems like Disney was the one who messed up, committing far too much money to something that was a high risk return (by being a new story with new characters in a new era). Especially since I don’t think that what I saw on-screen reflected what they spent on it. Nothing about it was any more complex than the other TV shows, I can’t figure out where the money went.
It cost more than 670 thousand per minute.
I could retire in luxury on two minutes of their budget.
I have never watched one of those “pitch meeting” videos because of the just awful, horrible eye thing they do with the thumbnails.
People have complained a fair bit about the Acolyte making the Jedi look bad, and I actually thought the initial fight between Mae and Indara was quite well done. How did Mae win? By trying to kill an innocent, knowing that Indara would try to save him. That is, it was so utterly clear to her that Indara (who, remember, she hated) would go out of her way to protect an innocent, that she took advantage of that. Even someone who despised and was murdering Jedi had total faith in their goodness, at least on a micro level.
When people are complaining about the Jedi’s portrayal, it’s often unclear where those complaints fall on a couple of different axes:
-Criticizing the portrayal of individual Jedi vs criticizing the portrayal of the order as a whole
-Complaining that the Jedi are portrayed as immoral, vs complaining that they are portrayed as ineffectual
I can understand that but it’s by Ryan George and I find him hilarious.
“If there’s no miscommunication in this show, then there’s no show.”
I’m still annoyed Jecki didn’t make it. I would watch a show with her in it.
Thanks for the discussion!
I mean, you’re not wrong… but I think they’re consistently a fair bit funnier than one would expect from internet-humor-making-fun-of-things.
There’s none of this in the actual videos, just a presenter talking to a producer (both played by the same guy). I hate the bulging eyes too but the videos are hilarious.
An Acolyte-related comic has just been released. The ad copy was obviously written a long time ago (in a galaxy of wishful thinking):
KELNACCA FROM THE HIT DISNEY+ SERIES DEBUTS!
I didn’t care for the series as a whole, but it had its bright spots and you’re spot on about this, uh, spot. Well, I have mixed feelings about all the Kung-Fu, but from the drama side you’re right. Mae exploited the goodness of the Jedi and was able to be victorious over a superior foe. It was a good, strong start to the series.
Overall I just found the series somewhat dull and depressing. For me, Star Wars should be fairly simplistic, something a child could enjoy. Like the movie serials that inspired the original trilogy. The Jedi are corrupt and they’re idiots in The Acolyte. I’d at least like to feel bad the Jedi order was eventually brought down but at this point I can’t help but think it was a good thing.
Yeah, I want to see the Jedi at the height of their power. Like the scene at the end of Rogue One, where we see Vader in his full strength, cutting through regulars soldiers like they were nothing, and the visceral fear those guys felt, but on the Light Side. Show us why Jedi were revered for so long as the protectors of justice in the Republic. How did this relatively small group earn such a lasting reputation? We caught a brief glimpse of it at the start of Phantom Menace, and that was it. Show us the full Monty!
Apart from Luke tearing through an army of Dark Troopers in The Mandalorian. Nicely set up by showing the second most bad ass being in the Galaxy struggling mightily to bring down a single one.