Last time, I got culture shock at a montage of prequel scenes as we rejoin the story of Obi-wan Kenobi.
A theory starts to suggest itself, fairly or unfairly. At the beginning of A New Hope, Vader’s position within the Empire seems diminished compared to what we might have expected from his vaunted position at the Emperor’s side during the final fall of the republic. Previously I might have considered this to be a reflection of Vader’s loss of physical capability following him becoming char-grilled on Mustafar. In this new story, informed by the first two episodes of Obi-wan, I’m starting to wonder if he’s brought low by the lingering embarrassment for everyone involved with the Inquisitors.
The episode starts out all well and good, with Obi-wan tracking the kidnappers from the previous episode down to the Blade Runner planet, which naturally gets introduced with another one of those interminable market square scenes where an oddly low number of people mill about for whatever reason around some stalls in the middle of the night. The unrefined writing from the previous episode hasn’t gone away, with a charming young waif turning directly to the camera and saying “I am representation of the ill future plausible for our kidnapped child protagonist”.
Ewan McGregor is the pure quality component of all this, his Obi-wan voice not diminished in the slightest by the years, along with a brief uneven character role for Kumail Nanjiani of ‘Kingo’ fame. In hopefully not a sign of things to come, his contribution to the episode is trimmed down to exactly three moments, one where we find he’s a villain with a heart of gold, one where he considers being just a villain, and one where he still has the heart of gold. It’s so terse that we don’t even see him reconsider, he just walks out of one frame holding a gun and enters the next scene a reformed man.
But those Inquisitors! The episode’s shabby treatment of them is typified by the extended, somewhat dull rooftop shootout where Obi-wan remains pinned down with Leia in peril as we see intercut shots of the third sister, played by Moses Ingram, bouncing along like Ezio Auditore on her way to cut down the trapped Jedi. Except the scene ends and Obi-wan walks off with Leia, then we cut back to her and she’s still jumping about. She was no-where near! All this builds up to the grand finale where she murders her commander in a dispute over who gets to claim credit for capturing Obi-wan, a feat neither of them have yet managed. There’s a fourth one this episode who looks like a shit Borg.
All of which is just to say that as a villain faction, not much effort is being put into making them a threat. Perhaps the rest of them are going to melt away and Ingram’s Third Sister will become the sole antagonist, hopefully in a better fitting costume.
The rest of the episode reaches the ‘fine’ mark once more. Getting to see Obi-wan go places and do things is still a grand novelty, for now.
Ranking, best to worst:
- Flashback recap of the prequel trilogy
- Obi-wan: Episode 1
- Obi-wan: Episode 2
If you like my writing, please subscribe to my Letterboxd reviews or watch Sixteen attempts to talk to you about ‘Suicide Squad’, available on Youtube now. Previously I watched and wrote-up season 1 of ‘Invincible’, in reverse order.
