The Acolyte (TV)
As the world of “Star Wars” has expanded, light and dark has turned into shades of grey. There’s a fundamentalism to the Jedi Order that can cloud the light, and there’s a degree of nuance to the dark side that makes it tantalizing in the face of the Jedi’s dogma. This is one of the most exciting aspects of “The Acolyte”; watching it unfold, we’re left contemplating whether Mae or Osha are served well by the Jedi Order, or whether The Stranger has a view of things that is more reflective of the complexities of the world. The storytelling unfolds in a way that is rough around the edges, but this is one of my favorite pieces of “Star Wars” storytelling since Disney took over.
My main interest in “Star Wars” is in the movies, and the TV shows. There are some of the latter that I have not yet caught up with, but I’m very much someone who takes in stories best when they engage my visual and aural senses. As such, I have not really delved into the High Republic era of the “Star Wars” universe that “The Acolyte” is set in. I might have to change that, however, and take in some audiobooks to get more familiar with this time in the “Star Wars” universe, because what creator Leslye Headland laid out here makes me excited to see/hear more.
The story begins with an assassin taking on Jedi Master Indara (Carrie-Anne Moss) in a crowded bar, and killing her. The Jedi Council hopes to bring the assassin to justice, sending Master Sol (Lee Jung-jae) after her with Yord Fandar (Charlie Barnett) and Jecki Lon (Dafne Keen), two Padawan, in tow. When it appears that a long-considered dead young woman is the assassin, Sol recruits a former Padawan learner, Osha (Amandla Stenberg), to assist in the search. Osha left the Jedi Order due to “internal turmoil” regarding her Force connection, but when it is revealed that her twin sister, Mae (also Stenberg), is the assassin, she is pulled back into the battle of light and dark, which grows more complicated when uncomfortable truths about Osha and Mae’s backgrounds are revealed, and a dangerous new force enters the story.
Seeing “Star Wars” attempt to transition from a story connected to multiple generations of the same family to a larger universe has been my biggest hope since Disney took on the franchise in 2012. While nostalgia and the central Skywalker storyline is an important factor to its enduring popularity, a world as vast as “Star Wars” only grows and expands by allowing different points-of-views, and different stories, to be told. This is why I was, arguably, more excited for “The Acolyte” than a lot of other movies or series being considered; apart from it seeming to take its cues from some of the richest veins of Jedi/Sith philosophy we’ve seen in the films and shows, Headland and her co-writers were also giving us largely new characters to connect with. And with the series set a century prior to the events of “The Phantom Menace,” overlap in characters was going to be minimal. In other words, the type of “Star Wars” I’d been waiting for.
One of the challenges in a series like “The Acolyte,” with its 8 episodes at a run time barely above two feature films, is pacing and structure. Overall, I think the series found the right way to tell this story, which includes moments of tension and suspense (best exemplified in episodes 4 and 5, “Day” and “Night”); flashbacks where we learn about the origins of both characters and conflicts (episode 3, “Destiny,” and episode 7, “Choice”), with the central story being moved forward along the way. Some of “The Acolyte’s” episodes are less than 30 minutes while others are around 45 minutes, so it’s a mixed bag in terms of consistency from episode to episode; I think it benefits a series to have an internal guideline to how long each episode should run to maximize its storytelling strengths, and here, that lack of consistency makes the series feel rougher than it probably is. I never lost interest, however, and that’s because the writers were bending archetypes, and establishing new ideas from past elements in the franchise, in a way I found entertaining.
If “The Acolyte” has an overarching idea at its core, it is that light and dark are part of the same spectrum, and both have a place in the world. Defining one as inherently good, and the other as inherently bad, is a fool’s errand. Certainly there are extremes- as we are fully aware of in the real world- but there are always two sides of every story. Being led by emotions makes the good vs. evil a challenging battle, because even good people can make mistakes, and bad people can lead us to discover something about ourselves we didn’t realize was possible. The dichotomy between Master Sol and The Stranger (Manny Jacinto) is a compelling one, where people’s choices might dictate a specific side, but their philosophies are open to interpretation. It’s obvious early on that Osha and Mae are drawn to different sides, but they are- quite literally, we find- two sides of the same coin, and as such, they are not immune to influence from either side. The performances by Stenberg, Jung-jae and Jacinto are all superb, and illustrate the complexities of life, and morality, as they exist in our world, and in a galaxy far, far away.
“The Acolyte” may be rough around the edges in its storytelling, but its thematic heart is strong. I love the mini-adventure that turns the tables in the series, and gives us some of the best lightsaber action we’ve seen. I love the inclusion of the witches, and their relationship with the Force, and how it relates to Osha and Mae. The characters are intriguing, even if some (Wookie Jedi Master Kelnacca, played by Joonas Suotamo) do not get enough screen time. And I love Michael Abels’s music for the series, which forges its own path forward while also playing off of previously-established musical ideas in the franchise. As I write this, it does not appear that we will be getting more of “The Acolyte” in the future (at least on TV), but if we get more of these characters in other mediums, I may have to take those stories in, because this delivered what I hoped it would.
