The Acolyte isn’t a jaw-dropping, groundbreaking revelation like Andor was, but it’s not a mind-numbing waste of time like The Book of Boba Fett either. The Disney+ Star Wars shows have hit every imaginable point on any quality scale, but The Acolyte has a strange position just above the middle. With a stellar martial arts sequence, fun characters, and excellent performances, it’s off to a good start. Its clunky dialogue, bizarre pacing, and offputting plot stand in its way.
Every conversation around The Acolyte focuses, in whole or in part, on the Star Wars brand. The show doesn’t get to stand on its own. Everyone wants to argue whether the callbacks are too obtrusive, whether Disney reigned in the creators, or whether its premise challenges conventions. This is unfair, but it’s also the only logical outcome of Disney’s treatment of the material. Fans want shows that stand on their own, leaving them demanding to know whether new Star Wars shows feel like Disney’s usual reference-fueled, callback-based slop. The ways in which The Acolyte struggles aren’t as familiar as some may have expected.
The Acolyte Answers Questions Fast
|
Title |
“Lost / Found” |
“Revenge / Justice” |
|---|---|---|
|
Director |
Leslye Headland |
Leslye Headland |
|
Writers |
Leslye Headland |
Jason Micallef and Charmaine DeGrate |
The Acolyte was not honest with its premise. Some described it as a murder mystery thriller, but it reveals its killer within its first half hour. Its central idea has less to do with the Jedi investigation and more to do with two twin sisters on opposing paths through the universe. The show opens with the excellent action set piece that filled most of the trailers. Amandla Stenberg’s masked assassin strolls into a cantina and demands a fight with Carrie-Anne Moss’s Jedi Master Indara. It’s fast, fantastical, brutal, and clever in its restraint. The unique trick the assassin wields to defeat Indara deserves special attention.
The show then cuts to Amandla Stenberg as Osha, a humble mechanic working on a distant vessel. The Jedi take her in for the murder, but Osha seems like the last imaginable suspect. She’s such a girl scout that she’s proudly proclaiming her faith in the Jedi Order, even as they wrongfully haul her off to prison. A jailbreak leaves her plummeting, barely able to strap herself in before the transport crash lands. The viewer’s mind races, imagining a perfect holographic disguise, a Force mind trick, or some Malignant-style alternate personality. The show answers most of the questions right away, offering a bizarre level of certainty before the first episode ends.
Osha has an identical twin sister named Mae. She’s the killer, working under an unnamed Sith type to seek vengeance against four Jedi who were in some way involved in the tragedy that destroyed her family. The old “evil twin” horror movie twist is a bit cliché and would likely have been a sad reveal six episodes in, but dropping it in the debut doesn’t make it any more original. Lee Jung-jae’s Jedi Master Sol sets out to speak to Osha, his former Padawan, but any suggestion of her twin’s involvement in the murder seems to agitate him. Osha confirms Mae’s guilt, instantly convincing Sol of the circumstances. The remainder of the first two episodes establish the plot. Sol, his young Padawan Jecki, himbo Jedi Yord, and Osha will work to hunt down Mae before she can kill her targets. They follow her to a new planet, but her second foe isn’t as combative as Carrie-Anne Moss. Instead, he meditates silently behind a force field, but the promise of forgiveness prompts him to lower his defenses and immediately drink poison. The second outing ends with a confrontation that reveals each twin’s existence to the other. It’s a bizarre start that shifts the ostensible mystery narrative into something more straightforward.
The Acolyte Can Still Be Something Unique
The most engaging narrative thread currently dangling in The Acolyte is its exploration of the Jedi Order. Elements of the clunky dialogue suggest a slightly more nuanced take on the heroic group. When Jecki questions Sol’s decision to spend time reminiscing, her concerns sound like chatter from a dystopian future that recently outlawed emotions. This new perspective can explore the Jedi as what they’ve always been: space cops with superpowers and advanced weapons. Addressing the potential of Jedi overreach, accountability, and authoritarianism seems like a perfect step forward for this risk-averse universe. Mae’s second target’s willingness to take his own life certainly suggests some heinous actions that might lend her crusade credibility. The show can lean into these questions and find unique things to say, but it can also take a much easier path. The obvious thing to do would be to treat Mae like a Marvel villain. They could let her make valid points but argue against her methods and eventually defeat her as a victory for the all-important status quo. This show will be a waste of time if it ends with that moral.
Beyond the central narrative thrust, The Acolyte offers a few appealing elements. Lee Jung-jae of Squid Game fame delivers his first English-language performance, and he’s fantastic. The script often saddles him with weak exposition or awkward platitudes, but he masterfully conveys emotion in the role. Stenberg deserves similar praise, successfully separating her two roles with physical acting and line delivery. Manny Jacinto, best known for his work on The Good Place, is an unquestionable delight in his brief scenes. He portrays a smuggler working quietly with Mae, seemingly harboring a similar disdain for the Jedi, but his natural charisma makes him an early favorite. The characters are mostly fun and likable, but the scripts keep dropping lame lines in their laps. The action set pieces remain engaging. Some elements of mystery remain, forcing fans to ask why instead of whom, but it’s a weird amount of information to leave the first episode pondering. It’s hard to imagine a starting point leaving more up to chance, but the next six episodes have everything to prove.
The Acolyte is a strange beast so far. Andor shattered expectations in its first fifteen minutes. The Acolyte isn’t Andor, and it doesn’t have to mirror that standalone series to be great. It does, however, need to carve a new path in a series that increasingly feels too small to allow new stories to emerge. Elements of The Acolyte feel alive with the same sort of heady creativity that made Star Wars sing, but creative decisions in execution might pull this show to the dark side.
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