Star Wars: The Acolyte - Eps 3 & 4 Spoiler Review 

So many of these Star Wars TV shows feel artificially drawn out and probably would work as a much tighter / leaner 2+ hour movie.

Dan, I don't think most of us consider you a "reaction guy" in the pejorative sense like a lot of freebooters and reactionary critics. I consider you the chart and critical thinking guy.

My biggest problem with these Disney+ shows is the length. We get an hour experience from something like House of the Dragon. I feel like these Disney+ should be at the level of HBO because of the intellectual property behind it, but instead they are these shallow shows that have zero character development and just don’t get it done.

We’re halfway through the season, and what have we learned? Not much. What has happened? Not a lot. What do we know about these characters? Not much. The overwhelming feeling? Dissatisfied, and underwhelmed.

I'm not at all interested in watching the show but I'll watch these reviews cause Dan's reviews are just a delight.

Anyone else skipping the show and just watching Dan’s reviews?

The sudden change from Mae is completely jarring. She called them jedi scum and was hunting the wookie jedi, then 7 minutes later she wants to turn on her master of 16 years, turn herself in, and go to prison. Whole episode is a snoozefest and they end it so abrubtly as soon as it gets interesting. I can’t tell if its just horrible acting (besides Sol), terribly written, or a combination of both but the show is laughably bad

I really wish they had made this show an actual mystery rather than a “mystery box”. An actual linear Jedi detective story, let’s say about Sol and Jecki investigating the mysterious murder of either a single Jedi or perhaps two would have been so unique and compelling (obviously if the pay off were done well). But as we reach the halfway point of Acolyte with only expanding questions I’m really pessimistic the payoff will stick the landing.

Its simple. Their mother is not dead. The Witch mother is the sith master

I have no confidence in the writing. Besides Andor, most Star Wars shows their biggest weakness is writing. The dialogue is so dumb down that it is awful at times. I have no faith that it will turn it around.

I've seen people do this dance with so many mystery box shows where they're willing to "give it a chance" as it plays out and it almost never turns out good. At what point do people just begin to clock mystery box as a red flag?

Murder mistery in Star Wars? You know who should have directed this? Rian Fucking Johnson😂

I like that you are giving them the benefit of the doubt. I don't have that trust but I do enjoy hearing your positivity. I usually like weekly releases, but I do think this show would've been better served released all at once. Right now. Its frustrating to watch because of the pacing.

I don’t think anybody was “fatally offended” by force using witches. The biggest complaint I saw/read was bad writing and things not making sense in 3rd episode as well as not very good acting in the last few episodes.

Wookie jedi!! aaaaan he's dead

People don't generally have problems with Force Witches. Dathomir witches have been a thing for literally decades. It's _everything else_ that's the problem. It's the laziness and disregard for established lore. Anakin's birth being just one of several. They literally changed the lore of Ki-Adi Mundi and the Cerean species _during_ the livestream of Star Wars Theory's watchalong. It just shows you they haven't done their homework. They don't care. It rubs people the wrong way that nothing seems to matter to them. How are we supposed to be invested when they clearly aren't?

Dan, you keep it real and professional. You da man

Comparing this show and its giant budget vs Godzilla Minus One shows that Lucasfilm and Disney are burning through money as they suffer from creative bankruptcy.

Man Lucasfilm is such a mess. They need to take a 5 year (at least) break from all tv and movies. Get an actually good writers room and plan. Build up a tiny bit of goodwill.

ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY MILLION DOLLARS…..?!?

If the Sith reveal turns out to either be apothecary dude or the horned mother from episode 3 I’m gonna be really disappointed. But I’m actually drinking some copium hoping that it’s gonna be Carrie Anne Moss.

I’m frustrated because I want to love this show.

I instantly felt like the bugs were set up. Next episode, I fully expect an escape scene where someone leads the bad guys through that area and sets off the bugs to keep the bad guys at bay.

Acolyte is Bantha Poodoo

I dont think the Mae turn is out of character or even surprising, it makes perfect sense. For 20 years she thought her sister was dead, everything she has done was to avenge her sister but she realizes her sister is alive (and almost shot her 2 weeks ago) and i think that is enough to make her reconsider some things. BUT ALSO- it seems like they are setting up for Osha to turn Bad and Mae to be good. I was a little surprised throughout the flashback episode to see Osha being so sullen and Mae being so nice and well adjusted. Maybe Maes master was just using her to get to Osha this whole time? Did anyone else think it was wierd that Osha tortures the butterfly a little bit first before letting it go, but then she freaks out at Mae for doing the same thing?

I gave up on Star Wars after Episode 9, which has to rank as one of the most disappointing experiences I've ever had at the cinema. Looking at the reviews and feedback of subsequent shows, I don't think I've missed out on much!

I'm not watching the show at all, only absorbing it through reviews and breakdowns and ironically its really fun and interesting this way haha

The witches of Dathomir are canon. This is something different and worse

14:26 Ki Adi Mundi does not have a canonical age or birth date. Average cerean ages (Ki Adi’s species) was provided in a 2003 RPG reference book which is no longer canon. So they can basically say cerean’s actually live hundreds of years.

I'm a very casual SW fan so I don't have enough background to have a strong belief for or against the Jedi. But drawing from other works, I feel the strongest have been where the show takes a very determined side of good vs evil but writes in such a way that you can understand how flawed characters can end up making the decisions they do, and can even feel for them. I'm thinking the likes of Breaking Bad, Succession, Better Call Saul, and Andor. There's no shades of gray -- in no way are the shows saying both sides are the same or evil is justified. But the flawed characters can be sympathetic, you want to see them redeemed. I think if you can't write nuance well, you should stick to a more tried and true black/white and use your talent in exploring other themes. That can still be very powerful writing.

Every critic wants to dismiss the pandering and focus on the bad writing. But, no critic wants to correlate the bad writing with the writers' focus on pandering. Look at Last Jedi. The focus wasn't on writing well, it was focused on writing subversion. Coincidence? No. Priorities.

Dan's false plan idea is beyond the combined Acolyte writer's abilities.

As interesting as this entire "The Acolyte" situation is... I'm more intrigued by your Buc-ee's plushy in the background 😆

How they spent $180+ million dollars on this show is insane. When you look at the amount of money per minute, Disney seems to be trying to beat their own record for burning cash as quickly as possible.

Hey Dan! Loving the reviews, I agree it seems like every two episodes is a good cadence. I have a small request for the next review: I've held off on watching the show because the word of mouth has been mixed. Like you brought up several times in this review, it seems like a lot of this hinges on whether seemingly unsatisfying moments in the first half have satisfying payoffs/twists in the second half. If this is the case - if episodes 5 and 6 start "redeeming" the first four and start giving satisfying answers, could you say that at the beginning (pre-spoilers) so people like me can watch the show with the back half unspoiled? Thanks!

I've only ever watched the oldest Star Wars movie and I didn't fall in love with the story but those viral tweets about the Acolyte made me give this show a chance especially hearing it wasn't tied to the movies and I must say... The story feels rushed. And I have no idea who any of these characters actually are. What are they like in their usual routine/day to day life? Wouldn't know!

I wonder if the twins not being identical as children, but identical later will become a plot point. Or a massive oversight from the showrunner

I think Smylo Ren is a manifestation of the slain coven, as in “The power of many”, maybe through a survivor witch practitioner. Probably the grand puba Jedi played by Leslye’s wife. Qimir is way too obvious. There’s been some Dark Side foolishness in the Jedi. Force Lightning would explain a lot of episode 3 But man, the writing is awful. Being a mystery doesn’t excuse logical inconsistency and contrivances . If anything, a good mystery has to be extra careful with the pieces and nuances. This show has no nuance lol. You can’t be a sociopath all your life, kill Jedi, align with a ‘Sith’, and then just decide that you’ll do the right thing. All the while your goody two sister just decides to not give af anymore. Like, what? It feels like some stuff has been edited and rearranged, as Dan alluded

The writing on this show is so so rough. Spoon-feeding as a red herring certainly would be a Choice if that’s what it turns out to be, but like you said it really puts the pressure on the reveals to be next level, otherwise it just is terrible writing about plot points you see coming from miles away or you’re surprised in the worst way, with the story feeling random and character turns like Mae’s coming out of nowhere. There are threads of interesting material, such as the hypocrisy of the Jedi, the coven’s view of the force, but it’s all surface level and clumsily done. Calling it now - Mae and Osha are going to switch places - Osha’s going to actually be the Acolyte and join this Sith-like master.

Well... the witches of Dathomir were introduced in the Courtship of Princess Leia book in 1994... so force wielding witches is nothing new in Star Wars lore. The problem is yet again the writing. It feels like they put cool ideas on post-its, threw them on the wall, then try to reshuffle them to make it sort of makes some kind of sense.

"idk if they had the money for a puppet or CGI yoda" 180 million dollar budget 😅 they could've hired George Lucas to write the show with that amount of dinero

Star Worse is all about power

I had the same thought about who the mystery Sith is, and while the age doesn't quite line up I'm afraid they're going to make an excuse for that that doesn't match some of the star wars lore. If they have the money for the show, hire the people who actually know about the lore, the worlds, and the characters.

8:20 - It would explain there is a high % of postive critic reviews on Rotton tomatoes (around 85%). It seems a lot of critics were very lukewarm based on the first 4 episodes, However, as critics cannot give a score out of 10 l(example metacritc), and simply a postive or negative review, many critics could have given a postive review only as a benefit of the doubt based on 4 episodes. This is similar to what happened to shehulk and rings of power, after all the episodes aired, critics were overall more negative then when they reviewed the first few episodes. It raises the question, whether critics should only submit their RT scores when the season is complete. It is like revewing only 50% of a moive.

It feels like a lot of these Disney Plus Star Wars shows were supposed to be movies. Book of Bobba Fett had its runtime padded with half a season of The Mandalorian, but Obi-Wan and The Acolyte are stuffed with so many silly bits that could, and should, have been edited out. There's just so much filler, it's hard to understand why they didn't punch up, or simply add, some subplots.

I like your theory of the "no weapon" challenge. Of course, I personally would argue that convincing a Jedi to kill himself should qualify as no weapons being used. She had the poison, yes, but Mae wasn't the one to administer it.

The short runtimes are absurd. This is clearly a script that could have fit down into a feature length movie and it's jarringly cut between in a poor attempt to get subscribers to stay. It's so stupid

There’s a it’s fine meme that suit this review like a glove …

Basically agree on all points Dan. Also appreictae the Star Trek Generations figures behind you. Pretty sure one is the orbital skydiving Kirk, right? I was disappointed when that didn't show up in the movie. Lol

Dan, I suggest you wait till the last episode for a review. The show so far has been disappointing and I don't want you to go from 1-2 episodes to make a review saying we'll wait and see. I don't know if they will change anything in the series from week to week. It's done. Just save yourself time.

Aside from loving sci-fi stuff I like graphic novels, comics, manga, and anime… having said that because anime in particular (Shōnen & Mecha are the ones that I most watch) I personally did not have a problem with the cliffhanger.

Dan's voice change near the end was hilarious 😂

How do you spend $180 million and wind up with a show that has pretty equivalent writing, SLIGHTLY better visuals, and SLIGHTLY better acting than a fan film? Maybe Dan's right and this thing turns around in a big way in the 2nd half ... but it's going to have to be one Hell of a turnaround.

They have once again made a long, slow paced, movie that they just chopped up into bits to make episodes.

I really enjoy the show and i'm enjoying the fan forums especially. Personally I think the sith master is either Koril, Torbin, or Osha

I wouldn't hold my breath about getting more answers.. 😅😅😅

Spice is a drug in Star Wars. So “spice cookies “ are like pot brownies. Um, they gave spice cookies to 8 year old kids. Wtf.

So let me get this straight, Wookiees chose to walk around naked or does the Jedi Wookiee preferred to wear the robes?

Your optimism that all these mystery boxes will be revealed in a satisfying way reminded me of your gushing reaction to The Force Awakens. It introduced interesting characters and had action but JJ set up so many things for later movies. If Lucasfilm disappointed given years to write and an unlimited budget it is highly doubtful that The Acolyte can pull it off. It’s much easier to set up a mystery than resolve it while also foreshadowing it so it seems set up.

My biggest issue with the show is that I don't really like or even understand these characters. I checked out personally in the second episode when Osha wandered off to stumble on the dead jedi master's body and just awkwardly stood there. Like. Have a reaction. A dude is dead right in front of you. You're already on the suspect list and you just VERY awkwardly wandered away from your group. There's just all these moments like that which are infuriating. People just stop acting like people in order for a plot thing to happen.

The bugs being attracted to the light seemed like a set up. Maybe we'll get more of then. If not then its a pretty lazy explanation for why it went for Sol. I feel like there wont be a battle in season 5, guessing evil mask person just did the smoke bomb then will kidnap osha and disappear.

Yeah, I was really disappointed with not seeing more Carrie Ann Moss. Her death was so out of the blue. This looks like Disney is checking boxes just to have more "content" published. Are we sure this is not written by AI?

It's a shame that the grifters shouting about "WoKe diSnEy StAr WaRs" are always so loud because yes I do wish that Disney + Star Wars was faster, more intense, and had better scripts etc. but the chance of Disney ever hearing the valid criticism over the loud anti-woke whining is slim to none.

As usual, I completely agree with your thoughts on the show Dan. Your Superman reference was great and made me laugh too. Looking forward to your review of the next 2 episodes. Safe travels to NYC!

It’s the green Jedi master lady.

And is it not a valid assessment to say is a bad show when 50% of it has been filler kinda bad episodes and throwing characters letf and right with out having been able to connect with any of them? I'm personally not invest in the twins storyline mainly bc so many tries to establish characters for them to get killed with so little screen time and we as an audience are supposed to care abt them? I think is safe to say is a bad show just like the book of Boba fett, kenobi and many others.

Dan i absolutely agree with you once again. I love how you watch movies and shows, how you evaluate them. I always look forward to your reviews❤

I’m still at “It’s Fine” as well, but episode 4 was my favorite of the 4, so I am intrigued to see where it goes. Oddly, I’m also glad the Internet is finally revolting against the general mediocrity of Star Wars (and Marvel?), but I feel like they’re targeting one of the least awful shows of the bunch.

The idea that Mae would abandon her revenge quest once she realized Osha was alive makes sense to me on paper, but what I don’t get is why that would make her hate the Jedi any less. Maybe it will make more sense once we see her POV of what happened on Brendok but I agree it felt like a somewhat under-developed character turn.

What do you think of the visuals? I find the color pallet to be late 60's or early 70's inspired. The show also seems to have some kind of grain layer applied to it. I typically watch the show on my laptop, and it was so pronounced in some scenes I thought something was wrong with my device or I had dropped to a lower resolution due to streaming issues.

I'm at a lost with mea character like she killed her coven blames the jedi and goes on a murder spree but then switch sides on when she sees her sister.

would love to see you do a special collab episode review/discussions on the series with you and a friend

It seems your only optimism about this show is what you haven’t seen, speculating on future episodes. But largely disappointed at the episodes you have seen. So I’m confused by your rating “it’s fine” what part in this show do you actually like?

Am I the only one who thinks "kill a Jedi without a weapon" means it's the Jedi who's without a weapon? It seemed obvious the way they keep repeating that line.

Hi Dan, What is so weird about this show is that Leslye Headland also did Russian Doll and that show was good/great? either something happened or she is suffering the same thing that Matthew Vaughn is been doing lately with his new movies?

The ability to sense other force users are quite unstable.

For my fellow Canadians i present Darth Polkaroo

Great vid Dan. I agree with you that Mae's switch felt very sudden. A part of me was thinking she was just growing tired to being with him and was trying to ditch him/trick him. I would be pretty disappointed if (insert name) is the sith Master guy. Honesty its bad if I don't remember the character name?????? I think there are some good things about the show as a fan, but like you there are plenty of frustrations - mostly the writing is a bit wonky and the Jedi seem kinda underwhelming. Yeah and duh. Kill of Trinity and Wookie Jedi too soon, and rely too much on flashbacks to fill in their story.

Wow, a well balanced and thoughtful review and criticism about “The Acolyte?” I didn’t think that was possible! Great job giving them the benefit of the doubt!

You got me again! Bringing up the Time Turner? Hahahahahaha Thank you Dan!

yeah that switch from "i'll kill them all" to "yeah ... guess i'm done let's just quit " .. makes no sense

The dialogue in The Acolyte makes the dialogue from the prequels look worthy of an Oscar.

I'm guessing...Somehow Palpatine returned? 🤔🤔

The dialogue is clunky, but that doesn't bother me since the dialogue has always been not great in the original movies as well as several of the current shows. My real issue is the actors are not given direction and the characters feel flat as a result.

Everybody gets the Immaculate Conception wrong. That is not what it is.

Not gonna lie in how I have seen my fair share of negative videos on this series mostly not liking politics or "lore breaking" stuff, but I do appreciate Dan keeps it to the material presented as such, and that his disinterest mostly comes from how it's put out rather than "disagreements" on certain things.

I thought the first two episodes were just fine. I really thought that chant/song from the 3rd episode was LAME. And the 4th episode was to quick where nothing really happened. I’m hoping this all pays off in the end but right now I’m just left disappointed.

I hope that The Acolyte, if it doesn't right the ship (which by the quality of writing so far, I really highly doubt it will), will finally be a much-needed watershed moment for Lucasfilm. The honest criticisms of many of the recent SW movies and shows have been cast aside for years, and instead it has felt like the producers have only drawn attention to the small but obnoxiously vocal segment of online SW discourse that is borderline psychopathic (doxxing Rose's actor, sending death threats to Rian Johnson, hating Rey because she's a woman rather than because she's a cardboard character, etc). The loud, bad-faith criticisms of SW have been used as a shield by Lucasfilm in recent years to say, "look, only crazy people disagree with us or dislike our product - we've actually made perfect shows!" But Dan is a great example of a normal, competent SW fan who was willing to push through the negative press and toxic fandom to watch The Acolyte, while still being optimistic. For those SW fans like Dan to then be terrifically let down by terrible writing, acting, and plotlines laced with personal schadenfreude, will hopefully be a wakeup call to Lucasfilm. When the corporate heads finally hear that normal, genuine fans of Star Wars can't stand their newest batch of rushed, overpriced content? Hopefully it will be a sufficient wakeup call to show them that hiding behind performative politics and the personal lives of their staff will no longer work. I didn't want The Acolyte to suck. But, so far, it does. So at this point, I'm hoping it is so terrible that it acts as a unifying force in the SW fandom; a call to set aside the useless, overblown discussions about gender/race/social politics in SW, and instead turn as one voice to Lucasfilm and demand quality programming - irregardless of who produces it.

I thought Quimir was at least the apprentice. He ran ahead and could have killed Kelnacca and ran back to be captured by Mae. It still could be him, but I now think there is a more powerful person involved. I think the sith is Vernestra Roe. She has hampered and undermined the investigation from day one. I agree that Mae's change of heart was abrupt and should be explained, she would be more confused that Osha was still alive and angry that she was working with the jedi. We are definitely going to get at least one more flashback about what happened on Brandock from Mae's POV, at least I hope so.

1st time watching your review, at least you give it a chance and have the patience to see what the show is at the end, the mysterious format is not for the most, most prefer everything now, but i have the hope that at the end all these things will be answered the right way, so it's good to have people who take this in a positive way, i agree that the episodes are short length, maybe because of what you said about the critics so they engage faster, but the story in general has been better than others before, about Mae's change of heart, yes it was kind of quick, but something to consider is that if she's been doing these things thinking the Jedi killed her sister, all that hate has to go to the floor when she saw that it was not true.. also, Ki-An-Mundi doesn't have a birth date by canon, just in legend.. keep rocking and stay safe!

I’m enjoying this show for the most part, I just wish the episodes were just a bit longer and some of the dialogue was a lil more punchy ha

I feel like if that Master ends up being Kumeer (potion guy) then that character will end up being a laughing stock.? Mae already doesn't have much respect for him and Osha got him apprehended by the Jedi. Unless there's a major change in that character's demeanor, it might feel a bit stupid.

I liked the cliffhanger? It was a major character and action and plot beat?

Dan, as we all know...Ryan started the fire.

by the way, if you leave a person hanging upside down they'll be dead in a few hours from the blood unable to pump through their body properly

I will say that, after last night's episode, the first half of The Acolyte is roughly decent with good things peppered throughout (last night's episode runtime was garbage). Lee Jung-jae as Sol is the standout, while Amandla Stenberg as Osha/Mae and Dafne Keen as Jecki are pulling their weight. Everyone else is either meh or fine. Sadly, the hate and vitriol from the anti-woke Star Wars "fandom" is mind-numblingly sad to witness, especially from content creators who claim to be diehard fans. I think when this show wraps, along with whatever projects come out (as well as willingly watching past stuff), I'm walking away from the franchise and fanbase as a whole. I don't want to, but I can't put up with the toxicity anymore.

Honestly...I 'forced' myself to watch Episode 4 after episode 3...after all I wanted a New Hope for @DisneyPlus #StarWars #TheAcolyte but it was more lack luster writing..and set up...a 2minute force push isn't gonna pull me back in...

The people who say star wars was always bad, are the most annoying Star wars not always bad. That's why it broke the box office and has a legacy that people and creators can build upon today The dialogue might have been bad, but the story, the plot point, character driven story telling, the novelty of space shows, and the underdog story of the rebels set it apart Ps Also there are so many good shows, that I won't be wasting my time on bad ones We have Shogun, house of dragon. Blue eyes samurai, warriors etc.

I'm frustrated I have to wait for the remaining episodes to fully understand the full story. The episodes are not well crafted from a storytelling perspective, loose ends or plot points that don't seem to go anywhere. Episodes are so short as it is, the decent moments aren't making up for the former. After 4 episodes, my rating is a frustrating 6.0/10.

When the Jedi get called back to talk about whether or not they should go after Mae, they were hot on a her trail, and then they get to the planet 5 minutes after Mae. It’s just bad writing and I can’t believe the editor didn’t pick up on it. I just think it’s a badly written show.