Obi-Wan Kenobi: episodes 1-4 (2022)
Rating - 12
Runtime - six 35-40 minute episodes: four released
Director - Deborah Chow
Written by - various
Starring - Ewan McGregor, Hayden Christensen,
Moses Ingram, Vivien Lyra Blair
Obi-Wan Kenobi is a 2022 sci-fi action drama and is a part of the Star Wars franchise continued on Disney+.
Set ten years after the events of Revenge of The Sith, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) is now in hiding on Tatooine, ordered to watch over a 10-year-old Luke Skywalker and prepare to train him in the force. After Luke’s estranged twin sister, Leia Organa (Vivien Lyra Blair) is snatched away from her home planet, Alderaan, Obi-Wan is forced out of hiding to find and return her home in a quest across the galaxy while being on the run, Empire inquisitor Reva (Moses Ingram) and Obi-Wan’s former student and friend Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), who has become the chief enforcer of the Empire, Darth Vader.
The return of McGregor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi has been long-awaited by fans of the franchise. This is both Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen’s return to their Star Wars roles since 2005’s Revenge of The Sith. This is surely McGregor’s best performance of Kenobi yet and Christensen’s return as Darth Vader is chilling and enthralling.
The first two episodes are as good as expected, managing to capture the essence of the franchise and making it worth the 17 year wait. By episode 3, the quality of the writing has gradually weakened as the series has progressed. The pace can feel slow, and the dialogue can be dull. Kenobi’s use of the force is also underused and he appears weaker than we’ve previously seen.
Instead of this, the main plotline takes a backseat to explore Obi-Wan’s conflicted relationship with Anakin and his and Leia’s growing friendship.
I do enjoy seeing young Leia being a main part of the story, subverting expectations that watching over Luke would be Obi-Wan’s main objective in the show. Another expectation proved wrong was that the Grand Inquisitor would be the main villain of the series, though he was killed off pretty much as soon as they introduced him and replaced him with Inquisitor Reva, which was a bad move considering the Grand Inquisitor was actually intimidating and unnerving from what we saw of him. Reva is sloppily written in comparison and not convincing as the villain at all, as she literally has no personality or motivations except the fact that she works for the empire and wants to kill Obi-Wan Kenobi. Moses Ingram has faced a ton of racist abuse online because of this, which is way out of order in general, but also because it’s the fault of the writers for not making Reva a fully-fleshed and plausible character.
The quality of this show is laughable in comparison to other Disney+ shows like The Mandalorian and Marvel’s Moon Knight and WandaVision. It looks extremely cheap and tacky at some points. This is Disney's third Star Wars show on the streaming site, the most recent two failing to live up to their hype. Another Obi-Wan project has been confirmed but it has not been said to be a spin-off movie or another series on Disney+. Hopefully they will not make these same mistakes with their other upcoming Star Wars projects - Andor, a spinoff starring Diego Luna as the titular character, first seen in the movie Rogue One, set for release late summer 2022; and Ahsoka, a series about the jedi who was the main character in the animated Clone Wars show and has appeared in live-action in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, played by Rosario Dawson (arriving 2023).
This is a hit or miss overall which is definitely worth a watch for fans of the prequels. Opinions have been mixed since its release so it’s up to the viewer to decide their opinion on it - though it is likely to leave you dissatisfied. For me though, it has had its good moments but generally feels like a missed opportunity.
Score - 5/10
The first four episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi are available to stream on Disney+. The final two episodes of the series will be released Wednesday 15th and 22nd June.
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