Online Series: Star Wars: The Acolyte on Disney+

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

I noticed that.

My PhD was great though!

The very purpose of this thread is to write about this show. Look up its title.

Title of the thread: "Simplistic reading of two scenes used to toot your own horn endlessly". Oh crap, you're right!

you are a public figure

 

[Hint1k]

My PhD was great though!

So you should be allowed to insult people because of PhD? Or because of all the movies your made? Or because you are a public figure?

 

[Bounces R Way]

The writing in this show is frankly terrible. I can't really put anything on the actors because the lines they are given are sooooo so bad. Just one wooden two shot after another. There's very little believable and meaningful conflict between the characters. The main story could be worthwhile but the stuff they're packing around it is just of incredibly poor quality.

Don't really like sorting things either irredeemable trash or enjoyable content (0 or 1) but if I had to pick so far after 4 episodes it would be the former. Episode 5 is apparently the one the creators were most proud of so I guess I'll give that a chance but overall so far this is a C- at best.

 

[HanSolo]

Man I'm really trying to be open minded, but this episode is a tough one to defend. The dialogue is just so amateurish top to bottom. The characters are just blurting out their motivations and internal conflicts in such a basic and unsophisticated/unnuanced way. I mean the best way I can put it is I once tried to write an action adventure novel when I was like 15 years old. I had no creative writing experience to speak of, I just had an idea I wanted to get down on paper and turn into a story. Even back then, I read back what I'd written and balked at my own character writing and decided to give up at around 85 pages or so. This show's character writing and dialogue might be a tiny bit better than that.

The best dialogue in the whole thing was immediately ruined by the last line:

"We're not defined by what we lose, we're defined by what we survive. You've survived a lot." Why? Just why do you need to blurt the point of an otherwise thoughtful string of words? Does Daphne Keen's character think Osha is stupid? Do the writers think the audience is stupid? I typed this up before even finishing the episode because it agitated me that much.

Spoiler

Mae deciding to do a full 180 is, on paper, a decent story decision. A bit contrived but it could be interesting. But it's so rushed and the motivations for it are just so braindead. I've wanted to please and prove myself to my master more than anything all this time but he's given me a task that is too hard to solve. I don't have the creativity or wisdom to figure out how to achieve it so I'm just not going to try and I'm going to try to leverage things to get the jedi's protection and have them deal with my master. Oh and now that I've decided to do this, it turns out that while I always wanted this more than anything, my master will kill me if I fail. Who the f*** reviewed this shit and gave it a green light? This is such a fundamental failure in character writing that I can't believe it ever made it to production. The show is telling us what the writers want this story to be but they are miserably failing at developing that story with any skill. The ground level outline of the writer's intentions should not be the dialogue of the story.

Now that the titular Acolyte has made an appearance and is shown to be quite powerful I'm at least curious enough to see what they cooked up with him/her/it to keep watching, but if not for that I'd probably be tapping out right about now.

I have more complete thoughts in the spoiler tag but I've been pushed well past trying to be fair to this show. The writing is absolute amateur hour. Probably doesn't help that the last episode of TV I watched was the season premiere of HOTD but still, I know not to expect that quality from Star Wars/Marvel tv productions and still I'm reeling at what I just watched. Really bad.

 

[MadDevil]

For any of the old EU readers this series has a very Young Jedi Knights vibe to me. Which is fine if that's what they were going for, but I don't think it was. I did like the ending though.

 

[Hivemind]

I don't think they could beat the "you have to kill a Jedi without a weapon" drum any harder than they did. Yeah, we get it, Mae thinks that she needs to kill a Jedi while she's unnamed, but her master means she needs to kill an unarmed Jedi to prove her fall to the dark side. They really clubbed us in the face with that one.

Not to mention the writer's really want us to think that Mae's companion is actually her master.

 

[BrindamoursNose]

Man I'm really trying to be open minded, but this episode is a tough one to defend. The dialogue is just so amateurish top to bottom. The characters are just blurting out their motivations and internal conflicts in such a basic and unsophisticated/unnuanced way. I mean the best way I can put it is I once tried to write an action adventure novel when I was like 15 years old. I had no creative writing experience to speak of, I just had an idea I wanted to get down on paper and turn into a story. Even back then, I read back what I'd written and balked at my own character writing and decided to give up at around 85 pages or so. This show's character writing and dialogue might be a tiny bit better than that.

The best dialogue in the whole thing was immediately ruined by the last line:

"We're not defined by what we lose, we're defined by what we survive. You've survived a lot." Why? Just why do you need to blurt the point of an otherwise thoughtful string of words? Does Daphne Keen's character think Osha is stupid? Do the writers think the audience is stupid? I typed this up before even finishing the episode because it agitated me that much.

Spoiler

Mae deciding to do a full 180 is, on paper, a decent story decision. A bit contrived but it could be interesting. But it's so rushed and the motivations for it are just so braindead. I've wanted to please and prove myself to my master more than anything all this time but he's given me a task that is too hard to solve. I don't have the creativity or wisdom to figure out how to achieve it so I'm just not going to try and I'm going to try to leverage things to get the jedi's protection and have them deal with my master. Oh and now that I've decided to do this, it turns out that while I always wanted this more than anything, my master will kill me if I fail. Who the f*** reviewed this shit and gave it a green light? This is such a fundamental failure in character writing that I can't believe it ever made it to production. The show is telling us what the writers want this story to be but they are miserably failing at developing that story with any skill. The ground level outline of the writer's intentions should not be the dialogue of the story.

Now that the titular Acolyte has made an appearance and is shown to be quite powerful I'm at least curious enough to see what they cooked up with him/her/it to keep watching, but if not for that I'd probably be tapping out right about now.

I have more complete thoughts in the spoiler tag but I've been pushed well past trying to be fair to this show. The writing is absolute amateur hour. Probably doesn't help that the last episode of TV I watched was the season premiere of HOTD but still, I know not to expect that quality from Star Wars/Marvel tv productions and still I'm reeling at what I just watched. Really bad.

I saw a comment on this show that summed up my feelings on why I really, really hate The Acolyte...

"Andor is what Star Wars can be if HBO got ahold of it...The Acolyte is what Star Wars can be if the CW got ahold of it"

And that's been echoing in my mind ever since. It's so, so bad quality. All-around. Even my love of Jedi Master Sol cannot save my disdain for the entirety of the product.

I don't think they could beat the "you have to kill a Jedi without a weapon" drum any harder than they did. Yeah, we get it, Mae thinks that she needs to kill a Jedi while she's unnamed, but her master means she needs to kill an unarmed Jedi to prove her fall to the dark side. They really clubbed us in the face with that one.

Not to mention the writer's really want us to think that Mae's companion is actually her master.

Which btw wtf she literally DID kill a Jedi without a weapon. Dude poisoned himself, she didn't do anything other than drive him to kill himself.

 

[MMC]

This shit is complete ass

 

[MMC]

I mean why not just let AI write your shit if this is the best you can come up with? Sure there’d probably be some lapses in the cohesion but I doubt it would be this outright f***ing stupid

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

The ground level outline of the writer's intentions should not be the dialogue of the story.

Agree with everything you said, and that line I took out of your spoiler box is especially true. Still, and it's probably a matter of expectation, these weaknesses are not too much of a problem to me right now and I kind of enjoy the show.
I was even hoping they'd wake up the bugs in the forest and go for a more episodic structure just for a while, something I normally hate (couldn't stand The Mandalorian"s structure). Anyway, I'll certainly keep on with it, I've enjoyed much worse, and I still think it could end up in the upper par of these shows.

As for Brindamour's CW comment, it does feel like cheap TV, but let's not get carried away!

 

[Very Stable Genius]

Spoiler

The baddie is obviously that Qimir dude right?

 

[BrindamoursNose]

Spoiler

The baddie is obviously that Qimir dude right?

Seems pretty obvious, yeah.

 

[Hint1k]

nevermind.

 

[Scandale du Jour]

Agree with everything you said, and that line I took out of your spoiler box is especially true. Still, and it's probably a matter of expectation, these weaknesses are not too much of a problem to me right now and I kind of enjoy the show.
I was even hoping they'd wake up the bugs in the forest and go for a more episodic structure just for a while, something I normally hate (couldn't stand The Mandalorian"s structure). Anyway, I'll certainly keep on with it, I've enjoyed much worse, and I still think it could end up in the upper par of these shows.

As for Brindamour's CW comment, it does feel like cheap TV, but let's not get carried away!

This x1000.

Star Wars always had cringey dialogue. Sometimes, I do not know what people are expecting. We are not going to get HBO quality writing.

 

[The Great Mighty Poo]

So the evil twin who was murdering jedi masters, just flat out gave up and turned face because she saw her sister she tried to kill 16 years ago, What the actual f*** sense does that make?

 

[Sad People]

meh

 

[DustyDangler]

This x1000.

Star Wars always had cringey dialogue. Sometimes, I do not know what people are expecting. We are not going to get HBO quality writing.

$22m per episode for The Acolyte.
$15m per episode for Game of Thrones.

How much more would they need to spend on The Acolyte to have quality writing?

 

[johnjm22]

Disney Star Wars lacks ambition.

 

[BrindamoursNose]

This x1000.

Star Wars always had cringey dialogue. Sometimes, I do not know what people are expecting. We are not going to get HBO quality writing.

But we can get HBO quality in a show like Andor. Or Mandalorian S1/S2 (or at least pretty close).

 

[Sad People]

If that was indeed ki adi mundi i find it a bit strange. Like why? Why even do that? Just make them another Cerean or something. Youre just stirring the pot to stir the pot at that point.

 

[BrindamoursNose]

So the evil twin who was murdering jedi masters, just flat out gave up and turned face because she saw her sister she tried to kill 16 years ago, What the actual f*** sense does that make?

It's completely maddening.

If that was indeed ki adi mundi i find it a bit strange. Like why? Why even do that? Just make them another Cerean or something. Youre just stirring the pot to stir the pot at that point.

Credits say it is Ki Adi Mundi ::

 

[Scandale du Jour]

$22m per episode for The Acolyte.
$15m per episode for Game of Thrones.

How much more would they need to spend on The Acolyte to have quality writing?

They do not care to provide "quality writing". They are trying to reach the largest audience possible.

They are failing spectacularly, but it is not because of the nitpicky stuff some people are pointing out (or worse the "woke" complaints). They are failing because the show is mostly boring and bland.

But we can get HBO quality in a show like Andor. Or Mandalorian S1/S2 (or at least pretty close).

Neither of these shows had HBO quality writing, especially not Mando. Mando S1/S2 is a good formulaic show that keeps you invested.

Andor, this is a better decision, but it was clearly a show targeted mostly to adults. Should they do more of that? Absolutely. If they are to do a KOTOR series, I'd love if it were targeted to adults... but it won't be.

Ironically, Disney is doing great with the larger target audience in animation.. it just does not work in live action.

 

[BrindamoursNose]

Alright I'm convinced.

Mae and Osha's mom is the main bad guy and she's the one who did the bad stuff on that random planet.

The drunken tech guy is the evil apprentice.

 

[BrindamoursNose]

They do not care to provide "quality writing". They are trying to reach the largest audience possible.

They are failing spectacularly, but it is not because of the nitpicky stuff some people are pointing out (or worse the "woke" complaints). They are failing because the show is mostly boring and bland.


Neither of these shows had HBO quality writing, especially not Mando. Mando S1/S2 is a good formulaic show that keeps you invested.

Andor, this is a better decision, but it was clearly a show targeted mostly to adults. Should they do more of that? Absolutely. If they are to do a KOTOR series, I'd love if it were targeted to adults... but it won't be.

Ironically, Disney is doing great with the larger target audience in animation.. it just does not work in live action.

We'll say the writing isn't HBO quality for the sake of fairness, but can we also agree that there's a spectrum of which to grade these shows on rather than just it isn't HBO, so it's all equal?

Like to me, it's not even close how much better Mando has been to the Acolyte. Not in the same stratosphere (S3 wasn't great though, FWIW).

 

[DustyDangler]

Disney Star Wars lacks ambition.

They have ambition for DEI. They have no ambition for quality writing.