Obi-Wan Kenobi Episodes I and II Review

So I just finished watching the first two episodes of the new Obi-Wan Kenobi show. And so far, so good. I'm going to break it down episode by episode, tackling what I liked so far, and didn't like, and then I guess I'll talk about where I hope the show goes.

Episode I

The show kick offs with a brief recap of the prequels. And I don't know if it's because I'm fresh off a bing of Mr. Plinkett's review of the movies, or because I'm just burnt out of Star Wars in general, but I didn't like it. I know that it was absolutely necessary to include that little bit of background for more casual fans who may not be familiar with that part of Star Wars, but I feel like it took away from the story. It makes it feel less like a standalone story and more of a sequel. And although I really liked the prologue scene in the Jedi Temple, it just ends abruptly. It feels a little off. I understand that we're setting up the premise that the Jedi are being hunted down and are extinct, but you just kicked off the show with two minutes of stuff unrelated to the main story. One of those scenes wasn't needed and you could've picked one. 

Things don't feel right. I skipped a lot of the Disney Star Wars stuff, including Rebels and The Book of Boba Fett. So to me, this doesn't really look or feel like Tatooine. Hell, I don't remember a single shot of those iconic twin suns. And the way that Inquisitor ship jets over the desert and these black-suited Sith-wannabes pile out with lightsabers and capes just looks so out of place. This looks like a Star Wars fan film. I'm not shitting on anything, there's some dissonance. A lot of the aliens look either new or different. Tatooine just doesn't feel like Tatooine.

But, Obi-wan is still fucking Obi-Wan. It's almost like there's been one guy who's always writing Obi-Wan's witty one-liners because they never ever miss. This doesn't really shine so much in the first episode so much as the next. 

And I didn't know that Princess Leia was gonna be in this show, but boy, is she in this show. The actress they have playing young Leia perfectly captures that snarky, headstrong energy that Carrie Fisher always exuded. 

Towards the end of this episode, the pace really picks up. Obi-Wan is faced with a really difficult choice. Staying in hiding on Tatooine so he can watch over Luke, or leaving the planet to go rescue Leia, risking exposing himself and both of the kids in the process. And of course he picks the latter, and we see him dig up his old lightsaber, and put on his old robes. And it's a feel-good moment in what's so-far been a somber, melancholic viewing.

Episode I was kind of slow, but it wasn't bad. A little too many flashbacks to the Prequels. 

Also, Flea is in this! And anything with Flea in it gets ten bonus points on my rating scale.

Episode II

This episode was miles ahead of the first in my opinion. The first episode ends on a cliffhanger, where Obi-Wan is pulled back into his old adventuring and wisecracking ways. And he hops right back into it. I meant it when I said Obi-Wan's one-liners are always on point. This episode really showcases that. We see some power struggles between the inquisitors (who I still don't really like, but they're here so whatever). There's also a John Wick ripoff sequence where a price is put on Obi's head and every bounty hunter in the city starts attacking him and Leia. It was definitely a fun watch. But I dislike the same things about this episode, as I dislike about the first episode. Since this is a prequel, the new elements seem blatantly out of place, and the older elements either don't seem the same or they're not focused on enough. Which is what happens when you erase decades worth of established lore, but it what is.

Also, Flea gets killed in this episode, and I won't stand for this kind of disrespect of one of the greatest bassists of all time. So I'm knocking like 1000 points off. 

Things I Hope to See

I really hope that the shitty Inquisitor's (you know the one I'm talking about) "tragic" backstory with Obi-Wan gets revealed at the beginning of the next episode. I'm sure we all picked up on her saying that Obi-Wan owes her something, and then later on Obi tells Leia that some of the Inquisitors are former Jedi. Chekhov's gun. (Or Lightsaber in this case.) I'm getting tired of shows that write these lazy-ass tragic villains. They're not fun to watch, and the writers think they're clever by hinting that there's a reason she's soo ruthless. But yes we picked up on the hints, and no, we don't fucking care. Just let the asshole character be an asshole for once. Take The Mandalorian for example. Grand Moff Gideon was a slimeball, and we didn't need to know why or how he got that way. Because it doesn't matter. And it doesn't help that I'm also pretty sure I can probably guess what her backstory is. She's probably one of the padawans that ran away during that stinger from the first episode. Maybe in one of the later episodes, we'll see that she was a padawan and that Anakin cut down her Master in front of her, so she blames Obi-Wan. Maybe she's Mace Windu's daughter. My point here is that, even if that is the case, we don't care. The character fucking sucks so far. Also, one of the major plot threads of the prequels (and Star Wars in general) is that just because you've had a bad life, it doesn't justify you being a bad person and doing bad things. So engaging in this kind of ass-backwards character-building is just tone-deaf. But I hope I'm wrong.

Also, she's thick as hell, so I'll cut her some slack.

I kind of want to see some different kinds of planets and settings. The Mandalorian did a pretty good job of making sure we saw a diverse range of backgrounds and settings across te episodes. Things that took place on Tatooine were in parts in the planet we'd never seen onscreen before. Episodes that took place on ships made sure that the everything was laid out distinctively from any other ships we'd seen before. All of the settings had character. I'd love to see more of that. 

Also, I'm liking the trend of seeing species and robots that were previously only seen as subservient or unintelligent taking more solid roles. Despite, all the years of lore they erased, there's been some really amazing world-building going on in the Star Wars universe under Disney. At least onscreen.

And I can't wait to see Qui-Gonn. The worse thing this world ever did was cancel Liam Neeson. I don't give a damn what anyone says, he was the biggest action stat of the 2000s hands down, and he's a cinematic legend. But I'll save the Liam Neeson ravings for the episode he shows up in.