Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022) While we realize that the entire Star Wars universe exists solely as another cash cow for Disney to forever milk, we won't mind if the Star Wars spin-offs they generate come out like this one.......
This 6 episode limited series got just about everything right.
First, it has the look, the feel, the pacing and the performances of the original 'Star Wars' trilogy that captured the imagination of the entire world and made the George Lucas space operas a landmark in 20th century culture.
And by original trilogy, you'd better believe we're talking about what's now known as Episodes 4, 5 and 6, (or as we ancient SW fanboys knew them, "A New Hope", "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return Of The Jedi")
Here's the good stuff in no particular order:
A grand new John Williams theme for Obi-Wan and a solid, Williams-like score from Natalie Holt. And the glorious, most welcome return of James Earl Jones' iconic voicing of Darth Vader.
A solid supporting cast, with the exception of appearances of the ever woeful Hayden Christensen....(part of the collateral damage left over from George Lucas's ruinous casting decisions for the infamous 'prequels'.....)
Terrifically staged lightsaber battles between Ewan McGregor's Obi-Wan and Darth Vader.....and come on, let's face it......why else would anyone want to devote 6 hours of their time to an Obi-Wan series except for see some seriously punishing whoosh-whoosh smackdown duels between those two?
A special nod to actress Moses Ingram, taking on an especially challenging role of a vile, violent villain with a far deeper backstory and character arc than anyone imagined. Sadly for us all, the actress suffered racist attacks from that cadre of bottom-feeding Star Wars twitter trolls who've yet to move out of their parents' basements. To hell with them and here's hoping one day they choke to death on their primary nourishment of super-sized fries....
Our one and only quibble......
Two different characters endure a full lightsaber impalement here, right through the gut.......which we would have thought is a fatal "bye-bye, no more sequels for you" kind of injury. But no, they somehow both recover from these seemingly catastrophic wounds.......with little explanation as to how. Wow. Even in a galaxy far, far away, these folks must have found some excellent health coverage.......
But then again, the lightsabers and assorted ray blasters do the usual grievous bodily harm to scores of Imperial Stormtroopers......once again, these nameless, faceless minions do their duty by dropping like flies in almost ten foot high piles.
Other than those quibbles, we'd say no Star Wars fans should pass up "Obi Wan Kenobi" (not that they're likely to.....). It's a more than worthy 4 star (****) addition to mythos. May the force be with you.....
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