Obi-Wan Kenobi

Review Time! 10 years after the fall of the Republic, the Jedi are all but extinct, and those that remain are being ruthlessly hunted by Darth Vader and his Inquisitors. On the barren desert planet of Tatooine, Obi-Wan Kenobi ekes out a meager existence, all the while keeping a watchful eye on Luke. But when Leia is kidnapped, Bail Organa begs the Jedi Master to save her. So Obi-Wan leaves Tatooine, and soon comes into the crosshairs of a certain Inquisitor named Reva, who knows a dark secret from Obi-Wan’s past, involving Anakin Skywalker. Obi-Wan Kenobi is a mixed bag to say the least. On the one hand, it has excellent performances from Ewan McGregor, and they absolutely nailed the impending dread and terror that Darth Vader can unleash. The flip side of this, however, is the absolutely atrocious writing decisions, that fly in the face of canon and the characters themselves. The very fact that Obi-Wan leaves Tatooine, leaving Luke undefended, is a horrible idea, and goes against who Obi-Wan is in the first place. Moses Ingram as Reva is mostly just constant rage, except a few stand out moments. It makes me think that they needed either better material for her, or the director had her lean into that hatred angle too much. So many moments in the show happen either by pure luck, or happen because of a plot hole. Obi-Wan himself is also heavily nerfed for a good chunk of the series, which is sad to see. It is almost like seeing what happened to Luke in the Sequel trilogy, except he doesn’t die thankfully. By the end, I was reeling from everything that had happened, mostly from just how badly it was bungled. I honestly can’t recommend this series to those who like Star Wars, because if you are a fan of Obi-Wan or Darth Vader, you will only get superficial enjoyment out of it. Obi-Wan Kenobi is one of the most beloved characters in all of Star Wars, and his series deserved to be so much better. Though from what I heard, they plan on doing a second season, to which I say “I have a bad feeling about this…”