Obi-Wan Kenobi, starring Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen, released its sixth and final episode and while it has some good scenes, it doesn’t fix the previous issues.
This review will contain spoilers.
The structure of this review will be different from previous episodes. There will be sections starting with the finale itself, then talk about each problem with the show and its characters.
The Finale:
Clocking in at around 45 minutes, the finale contains two major plot points. One being Reva hunting Luke and the other being the fight between Obi-Wan and Vader. Second, it was extremely contrived and overall convenient for the plot. Instead of hunting down both the Rebels and Obi-Wan, Vader decides to turn all attention to Obi-Wan instead of doing both. This leads to Vader facing Kenobi alone, which begs the question of why Vader didn’t have The Destroyer go after the rebels while he takes on Kenobi. However, the rebels had to escape so the Empire had to be comically stupid as usual.
Let’s start with the fight between Kenobi and Vader, which was surprisingly fine besides the camera work. There were a lot of long shots and extreme shaky cam to make the fight look more intense which was unnecessary. It was a bit comical with the rocks being thrown at Vader and him swiping them away, but besides that it was a pretty mediocre lightsaber duel. The fight ends with a damaged Vader saying how Anakin is dead and Kenobi realizes that there is no hope in him turning Vader. The sequence of hunting Luke on the farm was truly terrible to watch.
If Reva died in episode five, not only would it have made sense, but it also wouldn’t have ruined the established canon of Star Wars. While canon may not mean everything, it does matter in ways due to the pre-established storyline for this show. For example, if they made a Harry Potter prequel where an 8-year-old Harry had to fight or run away from Death Eaters, it wouldn’t make sense.
Same deal here. Luke did not have an eventful childhood. He stayed on his farm for two decades which further led to his ambitions of wanting to leave and fight for the Rebellion. However, it is established that when Luke was ten, he was hunted and almost killed by an Inquisitor. This breaks everything because Luke would then have questioned everything about his life and would be scarred. What’s worse is that Reva is still alive, and knows the entire secret which breaks everything again.
Leia also finding out and learning of her real parents doesn’t make sense and only hurts her character. She never knew that she was adopted in the original trilogy nor did she ever care about finding out who her parents were. This was made just for fan service like Obi-Wan saying “Hello there.”
Now, we get into the review of the entire series which will be a doozy. For brevity, some parts will be simplified or not discussed.
Finale Rating: 2/5
Directing:
Obi-Wan Kenobi was directed by Deborah Chow, who directed one episode of Better Call Saul (season four, episode seven), and two episodes of The Mandalorian (chapters three and seven). This is the first show she has ever been a frontrunner for and she does a fine job with the work she is given. None of the blame of this show has been the directing– mostly being the camera work and the acting. The writers also create problems for the show, which will be discussed next.
Writing:
Joby Harold was the head writer for Obi-Wan Kenobi and is easily the worst part of this show. This isn’t a slip up in Harold’s work, if anything it’s consistent. Harold has two previous writing credits for King Arthur: Legend of the Sword and Army of The Dead, two critically panned movies for being completely awful. How Harold got a job writing for Star Wars is a mystery, considering he has claimed to barely know Revenge of the Sith, which is the basis for his story for Kenobi. He doesn’t remember the movie and had to apparently be corrected multiple times by Lucasfilm.
Without repeating what has been said previously in past reviews, Kenobi’s plot makes as much sense as The Emoji Movie. It doesn’t continue the story from episode three, if anything it hurts it, it breaks canon repeatedly and makes the Empire complete bumbling buffoons. Harold’s next writing work will be for Transformers 6, which sounds about right.
Actors:
All of the actors besides two do a pretty good job with what they are working with. No one is putting blame on Reva and Leia’s actors because they are black or female; however, they are given terribly written and confusing characters. Hayden and Ewan are the best in the show but sadly are brought down yet again by poor writing.
Special Effects and Music:
Both of these are grouped together for two reasons. One being there isn’t a whole lot to talk about and two being they are both very good. The special effects and music are the best parts of the show and shows the hard work that was put into them. As said in every review, Natalie Holt is an excellent composer, and hopefully will have more work in the future.
Conclusion:
Overall, Obi-Wan Kenobi is a very mediocre show. Many will disagree and say that this show is great; however, it’s devoid of logic, consistency and heart. It seems like something manufactured for profit instead of creating a new story. In many ways it is a higher budget version of The Book of Boba Fett. Much like many Disney+ shows, Kenobi will be forgotten about in the next few weeks. With Star Wars quickly dying, it is unsure whether we will get another Empire Strikes Back, Revenge of the Sith or Rogue One.
Rating: 3/5
