Star Wars Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)

[CD Xbow]

As I said, there's clearly some common themes in the criticism of the show. These videos highlight them but it's mostly things I have pointed out already.

This series adds nothing to the development of the main Star Wars characters. And actually detracts from them in some cases. Apparently Obi-Wan is now an idiot and 10 yo Leia is smarter than him in several scenes. The Grand Inquisitor has a very minor role.

The writing and direction was horrible with so many silly moments. A few examples. Obi Wan abandoning his sole purpose of looking after Luke. Obi Wan also doing a s**t job of looking after Leia - he could have flown her home on a ship with hyperdrive. He becomes aware that the psycho killer Reva knows Luke and Leia's identity but doesn't kill her. Characters teleporting. Characters recovering from lightsabers to the guts. Characters not killing other characters when it's makes more sense to kill them. An Empire battleship with no fighters. The Empire battleship disappearing after the fight with Vader. The ridiculous Leia chase in the woods. Leia hidden under a trenchcoat. Scenes ripped-off from previous shows.

Reva's motivations are all over the shop. The main plot was about Reva but they gathered in fans by a bait and switch about Obi-Wan and Leia.

I'm not a big SW fan, though I am a bit of a space cadet, and I've found it entertaining. My expectations are probably less than yours. Like you I have found the wimpy Obi Wan frustrating, but overall I think the leads have played it well. The episode where Obi Wan escapes because of fire I found very unbelievable, Vader is powerful enough to pull a starship out of the sky, I'm sure he could of done something to those flames with the force or pulled Obi Wan back to him. It's got good production values as did Bobba Fett and the Mandolorian, in part due to the use of the video wall. To be honest I've enjoyed these series more than the recent SW movies which I've found boring and repetitive.

Added - SW lost me early with it's space battles (for many reasons) perhaps the worst error is when ships in orbit get destroyed they don't sink into the atmosphere like ships in the sea. It's an unforgivable sin and SW have done it repeatedly. I can live with errors like sounds in space, 'space fighters' with WWII physics and a complete absence of guided munitions.

 

[SM]

Everybody involved in this series should watch Stranger Things S4, and then be absolutely ashamed of the crap they served up.

What a lazy, low effort and garbage waste of potential.

What a strange thought trajectory.

"Everyone who made this show should go watch this other show of a completely different genre and style that runs for 4x the length of this one and realise they should have made a similar show"

 

[King Elvis]

What a strange thought trajectory.

"Everyone who made this show should go watch this other show of a completely different genre and style that runs for 4x the length of this one and realise they should have made a similar show"

Completely different genre?

Arguably both are Sci fi, but what relevance does genre have to do with quality?

And yes, they made decent length episodes, not bullshit ~30 minute ones, exactly my point.

 

[Frank Bunn]

Completely different genre?

Arguably both are Sci fi, but what relevance does genre have to do with quality?

And yes, they made decent length episodes, not bullshit ~30 minute ones, exactly my point.

I like many different genres including Sci-fi. Examples of recent, well written Sci-fi shows are The Leftovers, Westworld, Open Range, Severance, Station Eleven, Black Mirror. Shows of other genres I have watched recently are Squid Game, The North Water, Better Call Saul, Sherwood, Slow Horses.

Star Wars is almost its own genre of Sci-fi. We have got used to cringe dialog, pew pew pew lasers, dumb-ass Stormtroopers, noises in space etc. It's part of its charm. But that doesn't excuse the awful writing we saw in Obi-Wan Kenobi. It's like a bunch of children wrote it. The writing and direction of every show I have listed above is a few levels of quality above the amateurish rubbish we saw in Obi-Wan Kenobi.

 

[SM]

I love that we've snowballed from 'there were a few bad elements' to 'a bunch of children wrote it' soon it'll be on TLJ levels of 'Deborah Chow ruined my childhood'.

 

[Kram]

Just watched this, think it scrapes in for a pass mark, just.. It's just great to see Ewan and I guess even Hayden again.

Best thing about it though was it got me to finally get around to watching The Mandalorian. Up to the start of S2 wow what an awesome show. Is it just me or does the Obi Wan series look quite cheap as a production compared to Mando? The later is almost movie quality whilst the first is very TV.

 

[SM]

Just watched this, think it scrapes in for a pass mark, just.. It's just great to see Ewan and I guess even Hayden again.

Best thing about it though was it got me to finally get around to watching The Mandalorian. Up to the start of S2 wow what an awesome show. Is it just me or does the Obi Wan series look quite cheap as a production compared to Mando? The later is almost movie quality whilst the first is very TV.

I don't agree at all, found Mando season one pretty low quality production wise. Season two was a lot better though.

 

[Kram]

I don't agree at all, found Mando season one pretty low quality production wise. Season two was a lot better though.

Fair enough, do you think this was similar or worse though?

 

[SM]

Fair enough, do you think this was similar or worse though?

In production quality? I thought it was pretty similar to Mando S2.

 

[edgie]

Cobra Kai episode length is usually around 20 - 25 minutes and it's damn near flawless.

Episode length has nothing to do with it.

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[edgie]

Just watched this, think it scrapes in for a pass mark, just.. It's just great to see Ewan and I guess even Hayden again.

Best thing about it though was it got me to finally get around to watching The Mandalorian. Up to the start of S2 wow what an awesome show. Is it just me or does the Obi Wan series look quite cheap as a production compared to Mando? The later is almost movie quality whilst the first is very TV.

I definitely felt a lot of this looked like a TV show unlike the others which look like short movies.

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[SM]

Strange, felt the opposite to me, particularly as the cast were actually in the, you know, movies. Mando felt very made for TV in S1. Very limited background characters, very small sets and settings. Limited CGI.

 

[Anja_Nees]

Just watched this, think it scrapes in for a pass mark, just.. It's just great to see Ewan and I guess even Hayden again.

Best thing about it though was it got me to finally get around to watching The Mandalorian. Up to the start of S2 wow what an awesome show. Is it just me or does the Obi Wan series look quite cheap as a production compared to Mando? The later is almost movie quality whilst the first is very TV.

A few people in here thought the same, me included.

They apparently went as far as starting to film a series with different scripts and stopping production so it could be rewritten.

I reckon they torched a lot of dough on that, plus McGregor and Christensen who I’m sure were paid well, and just didn’t have the budget.

 

[edgie]

Strange, felt the opposite to me, particularly as the cast were actually in the, you know, movies. Mando felt very made for TV in S1. Very limited background characters, very small sets and settings. Limited CGI.

Yeah the cast was, but the sets, the extras (lack of aliens in background for example) the dreadful action scenes, it just felt like TV. Good big budget TV, but TV made by people that work in the television industry. Not like Mando or even Boba. Boba had ******* awful action scenes too but something about still seemed like a mini movie.

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[SM]

Yeah the cast was, but the sets, the extras (lack of aliens in background for example) the dreadful action scenes, it just felt like TV. Good big budget TV, but TV made by people that work in the television industry. Not like Mando or even Boba. Boba had ******* awful action scenes too but something about still seemed like a mini movie.

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Lack of aliens in the background? The sets? Again, I thought these were vastly superior to Mando S1 which most of the time had him walking around pretty sparsely populated areas. Compare Mando S1's Tatooine with all of two people on Tatooine to Obi-Wan's. There's no comparison.

 

[edgie]

Lack of aliens in the background? The sets? Again, I thought these were vastly superior to Mando S1 which most of the time had him walking around pretty sparsely populated areas. Compare Mando S1's Tatooine with all of two people on Tatooine to Obi-Wan's. There's no comparison.

Mando S1 tatooine is set in small places isn't it? I can't remember much.

I do remember some of the actions scenes being very good. It felt like TV because of the quest of the week plots, but the production seemed solid enough.

A lot of Obi is so dark and washed out. Bland colours. The two lightsaber battles are both bloody dark and flat looking. The only colourful things are the sabres. Not at all vibrant like films, or Mando, or Boba. Less saturation maybe.

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[SM]

Mando S1 tatooine is set in small places isn't it? I can't remember much.

I do remember some of the actions scenes being very good. It felt like TV because of the quest of the week plots, but the production seemed solid enough.

A lot of Obi is so dark and washed out. Bland colours. The two lightsaber battles are both bloody dark and flat looking. The only colourful things are the sabres. Not at all vibrant like films, or Mando, or Boba. Less saturation maybe.

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It's set at Mos Eisley.

There's a space fight in Mando S1 which is just in empty space. No planets or anything nearby, just nothingness. In Book of Boba Fett his fight in the first ep is just on flat empty sand. There's a lot of nothingness in those shows too due to minimal set pieces.

 

[edgie]

It's set at Mos Eisley.

There's a space fight in Mando S1 which is just in empty space. No planets or anything nearby, just nothingness. In Book of Boba Fett his fight in the first ep is just on flat empty sand. There's a lot of nothingness in those shows too due to minimal set pieces.

Yep I remember that Mando 1 space chase it was very TV, not so much the setting but the way it was filmed and that. Very sci fi tv.

The Boba don't in empty sand makes sense. It is a desert.

I don't mind emptyness and nothingness sometimes not every place is supposed to be thriving hive of activity.

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[SM]

Yep I remember that Mando 1 space chase it was very TV, not so much the setting but the way it was filmed and that. Very sci fi tv.

The Boba don't in empty sand makes sense. It is a desert.

I don't mind emptyness and nothingness sometimes not every place is supposed to be thriving hive of activity.

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The desert on Tatooine still has rocks, skeletons, etc. just go watch ANH for a frame of reference. That was one example, the broader point was that when they use the Volume for filming it has a limited range for props and sets and then fills in the background with nothingness.

 

[Frank Bunn]

Here's another Youtube random (with 781,000 subscribers) reviewing the series. Pretty much points out the same nonsense as the other reviewers but treads a little lighter. As the first comment says

The beauty of these Pitch Meetings is that they basically just recite the plot points - and rather than criticising them, let their ridiculousness speak for itself.​

 

[Kram]

Geezus, what a dork.

 

[edgie]

The desert on Tatooine still has rocks, skeletons, etc. just go watch ANH for a frame of reference. That was one example, the broader point was that when they use the Volume for filming it has a limited range for props and sets and then fills in the background with nothingness.

The Tuskens lived in the dune sea didn't they?

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[Ghost Patrol]

Here's another Youtube random (with 781,000 subscribers) reviewing the series. Pretty much points out the same nonsense as the other reviewers but treads a little lighter. As the first comment says

The beauty of these Pitch Meetings is that they basically just recite the plot points - and rather than criticising them, let their ridiculousness speak for itself.​

wtf is this s**t?

 

[SM]

The Tuskens lived in the dune sea didn't they?

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The broader point was that when they use the Volume for filming it has a limited range for props and sets and then fills in the background with nothingness.

 

[JackOutback]

The broader point was that when they use the Volume for filming it has a limited range for props and sets and then fills in the background with nothingness.

I read an article that pointed out the issue. The Volume makes for beautiful landscapes but then it can feel less lived in because you can't fill it in with extras and props and the like (though I do wonder why they can't add computer generated props or animals). The actors all crowd into the centre of the scene. I hadn't expressly noticed it but something had felt a little off in some of the Obi-Wan scenes.