The Acolyte Deserves Its Bad Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score 

Releasing a diss track for critics when your show is still ongoing, is one of the most foolish things I have ever witnessed.

I don’t watch The Acolyte, I watch RU-vid videos of The Acolyte 😂

Its pretty simple...we are the consumer and the acolyte is the product for sell. No one likes the product for sell therefore it gets a bad score.

My respect for you actually grows. You're the only mainstream journalist I trust at this point. Which is kinda sad, really...

"Sorry, I've been absent the last few days." Its ok, we're all playing Shadows of the Erdtree as well.

Boba was cannibalized by Mando. Everything that was cool about this character was given to Djinn. After "the resurrection", there was little left for him. They turned him into a pathetic, overweight, old uncle who thinks he's still in his primes...

Reviewers like you remind me I’m not crazy… good stories used to be a vehicle for subtle messaging, now bad stories are a vehicle for overt messaging.

I think one of the reasons Andor works and for a time the mandolorian was that they were separate adventures, When you try to weave all this nonsense together it becomes this Frankenstein's monster that nobody likes. I personally think this show is a con job made bad on purpose to fuel the "culture wars" in order to obfusticate the fact that "somebody" got rich of this travesty...

I think you are right, The Acolyte is as bad as Boba Fett and Kenobi. Where you are wrong is thinking they deserve the higher scores. They all deserve under 20%. They are easily 2 out of 10 shows. Kenobi might be the worst direction I’ve ever witnessed.

Only a matter of time before Forbes' Taasi gets his Kennedy-Lucasfilm goodie-bags taken away unless he starts publishing articles attacking his Forbes colleague Erik Kain.

The most ironic part is seeing a Nepo Baby(net worth $2.5 mil) on a major television show making a diss track saying she is a victim of fans who are bad for not liking her show

If you design a product for the "mass audience" and your objective is to gain as much of the "mass audience" as possible ... that means you are subject to the opinion of the "mass audience" for the primary metric of your success

Erik is on the path to becoming based after he loses his job for having common sense.

Thanks for being someone from Forbes who isn't saying that the audience ratings for the Acolyte should be embarrassing for the audience. Seriously. Thanks.

Thanks for having the integrity to call out dogshit when you see it, Erik. You may very well be the last "mainstream" critic with a spine.

I wouldn't be surprised if a portion of that $180 mil went to bribing the critics.

Good for you dedicating yourself to your mental health. I just started getting back into my resistance training and it is kicking my ass. Keep it up, it makes a difference.

It's a shame that Lucasfilm can't focus on what makes Star Wars such a neat universe and plate of ideas to work with. It is vast enough to support a lot of differing moods and tones. I just don't know why they can't seem to get a grip on the quality portion, in their live action shows particularly, because it's not helping the franchise. They spent all these millions to beautify completely mediocre not even up to par content. When it could have been used on a show with someone with a vision and the talent to pull it off. I despise the acolyte, not only because it's not good, but because the few cool ideas and the specific time frame it's in are so far wasted. I don't feel like the resources pulled and the actors brought in were used well. I had the same complaint with BOBF, Mando S3, Kenobi. Ahsoka also disappointed me here, with Ray's character I feel not really getting the highlight he deserved as a key example. I still don't know what the great power he was after was referring to, the cycle of the republic... And they bottled it for later instead of laying proper understanding of his motivation. I recall seeing someone describe the Acolyte as subversive, which it is to a degree, but subverting my fairly reasonable expectations with unabashed disappointment isn't particularly appealing. I bet that's why people are review bombing, just tired of the waste.

I was reading your Forbes article on the show and the entire time i thought, "gosh this guy seems to be the only writer at Forbes who's willing to speak about the reality of this show." Then i clicked your youtube link, laughed, and realized it was you (i found your channel during your wonderful Rings of Power videos). Thank you for having this conversation! I'm so tired of watching disney and major publications blame fans and not the boring, lazy shows.

Maybe we should call the low RT score phenomenon as "protest voting" rather than "review bombing"

You have hit on something which unexpectedly revealed yet another aspect of the human psyche in degradation as a mirror of a dying empire. The incessant obsession with nostalgia for "legends" of a bygone era... in place of a genuine effort to expand and explore new territory.

Also, I think the Acolyte has shown very clearly that shillbombing is in no uncertain terms, a thing. You read some of these reviews from these quote unquote critics, and I find it impossible to believe this wasnt taken directly from a PR email telling them what to say. Reading some of these reivews made my head hurt at how obvious they are and its disgusting.

If youre going to make a disTrack, run it by M'nM to check for quality . Unrivalled Master . Otherwise, really appreciate your calm, nuanced, no BS commentary . Thanks for doing what you do .

Thank you for the refreshing and fair take on the state of Star Wars in your article... How come your compadre at Forbes; Paul can't take that BALANCED and nuanced stance?

Fair(ish) take on the review bomb. You read the positive reviews but you should have tied them to positive “review bombing.”

Well written assessment, I'm embarrassed to wear any star wars merch at this point. Bring back Jon Favreau or why not let Simon Pegg make a series? The Acolyte Producer had rubbish credentials. Why would they think this would be any different?

Happy to hear you're caring for your well being 👏

The writers/creators of so many shows seem to have no understanding of "escapism". That's not good if you're writing a fantasy! Also, you want to be virtuous? Great. You want to virtue signal? No thanks.

One aspect of review bombing I don't like is that quite a few of the reviews were probably done without actually experiencing the media. I'm fairly sure I wouldn't like The Acolyte, but I'm not going to rate something I haven't seen.

Most impressive thing the Acolyte has done is made the rings of power look like The Godfather

I've come to hate both sides of the fandom, but especially Lucasfilm and the media that stokes the fire. Spot on video.

Sometimes when I close my eyes I can't see

I tell myself I've had more than my fill of Acolyte coverage and yet I continue to click. Still appreciate your takes Erik, always level headed & articulate.

What I don’t understand is how the critics have given it such a high review when clearly the fans don’t like it

@11:48 "don't do that shit ... encouraging trolls" Way back in the day lots of folks told Rebecca Watson to ignore the trolls. She made another video saying white men who say ignore the trolls are worse than rapists. (This is from memory, what she said may have been more inflammatory). It was at that point I knew with 100% certainty the blowing trolls out of proportion and insulting white men (I'm not one), hurling baseless accusations at them and blaming them for all the ills in the world would become a business model for decades to come - just a couple years later Sarkeesian and Wu made bank with that shit.

Fantastic video buddy, great job!

Thanks for your thoughtful video.

Since the Better Business Bureau can't address things like Star Wars media I suppose review bombing a product is pretty much the only option available for most people.

You’re inspiring me to get back into the gym

a star is born. congrats, erik.

Onnnnne , ah ah ahhh,.. twoooooo, ah ah ahhhh,... Many! When your writer couldn't complete Sesame Street, you have a problem!

Star Wars is so weird man. So much disappointment with shows like Obi Wan, Ahsoka, Acolyte.. But then I hear Ben Mendelsohn will be reprising his role as Director Krennic in season 2 of Andor and I get super excited again. Best Villain from the best Disney era Star Wars project. Please be good.

I can see the audience score going up a few points if, and that's a BIG if, the show pulls off the lightsaber battles and such in the next four episodes (we all know who Smylo Ren/Darth Teeth etc is). I remember hearing scuttlebutt that the directors want to have 'duel of fates' quality lightsaber fight scenes, so they've set themselves a pretty high bar. I guess we'll find out tonight. Say hi to Paul Tassi for the rest of us!

Erik Kain They deserve WAY MORE than a low audience score and endless slating here on RU-vid. We have yet another coalition of people, mostly GHEY, who have decided to blame and slate us for not watching and not liking their product. I'm not taking the bait on that, as I'd rather expend my energies elsewhere. But I don't remember a time in Hollyweird where the parties involved took the audience to task. We need to have a conversation about why all these famous, iconic, and beloved franchises are having their IP twisted and destroyed. I have a theory......

I see the negative reviews as a form of protest by a lot of fans -they are valid and I don't like it when people see it only as negative. it's left to the powers that be to do what they want with that feedback...but something tells me this is a dance we'll continue to see between the fans and corp media until corp media find their senses wherever they left it some 10 or so years back. Also , the lead actress making a diss(respectful) track attacking the fans??? people you want to buy and consume your product? very disrespectful .

13% is representative of the everyday Star Wars fan who has realised that if they want better Star Wars, they can’t just sit on the couch and accept what is being thrown at them. They actually feel the need to make their opinion heard by publicly commenting and rating, and ultimately taking their money elsewhere. And I am that fan. The score is very representative of not only the very poor quality of the show, but also the very aggressive and disrespectful way Kathleen etc has “promoted and marketed” this show even before it came out. It is the slow and painful decent of a well loved IP.

I feel that I speak for all of us when I say you need to make a twerking dis track toward your critics!!!

That thing you said about storytelling first then your worldview reminds me of the Jordan Peele's movie Nope, regardless if you liked or not he put on the forefront the story and unlike his two previous films it was more nuanced his social commentary... By the way I liked Nope 👍

I expect content everyday, ERIK! Get off those videa games! XD

The mistake for Star Wars is Disney. Disney at its core has its own philosophy and approach and direction which was and is not aligned and can never align to the Star Wars Universe.

Good luck on your physical fitness journey. I know it only gets harder with age but just hang in there, the results will show eventually.

Sorry double comment but the bit that makes me really wonder if the writers and show runners want this show to fail is they have a Wookie Jedi, one of the coolest ideas in the entire galaxy and he gets killed off screen 😂😂😂 Even with a totally inept story seeing a wookie swinging a lightsaber about in a dual would have been incredible

Yeah, you make a good point my man. 'Andor' is diverse but not preachy propaganda like 'The Acolyte.' It reminds me of Star Trek Discovery, which seems to have been made for emotionally traumatized women.

The problem with most of what hollywood is doing, and disney just about the worst, is that because modern LA has certain demographics they think every story, no matter where or when it is set, has to look like a crowd scene in 2024 LA. Even worse is in every story people must have the same beliefs and worldview of the hollywood bubble the writers live in. Forcing diversity to check a box where it doesn't make sense story wise isn't a plus but nearly as bad as their constant lecturing their inferiors, or the potential audience.

I say 13% is pretty spot on.

The power of Cringy The Power of trash storyline The Power of 13% 1% lets go Wokolyte you can dew it.

enjoyed your video. i don't think using the term 'review bombing' is accurate here. in my experience, the term is used by directors like headland, or companies like disney, to deflect from responsibility for bad product by blaming unnamed hordes of people will ill intent artificially giving bad reviews as an attempt to hurt a show based on ideological reasons. what if a product gets bad reviews because it's bad and the vast majority of regular people that had no investment in the product failing gave those reviews honestly, as is the case with the acolyte? i think using review bombing only helps the producers deflect from the responsibility of poor performance.

Admittedly, I have not watched a single episode since I'm done with Disney Star wars, but hopefully this show gets the Willow treatment and is just nuked from D+ as a tax write off and never seen again. 04:10 you should make your colleague Paul Tassi hear that i think that's the main point of the review bombing that he seems to be starting to take personally

Well said!

Playing Elden Ring. You're in the majority.

Outside of Mandalorian (season 1 and 2), Disney shows have been a kin to pandering to the lowest common denominator. Rouge One, that movie was dark and to borrow from Star Trek, a real Kobayashi Maru. You felt for characters you never knew. Outside of a weirdly placed kiss and a CGI Carrie Fisher, the movie delivered. Disney has not been able to recapture that grit, until the first two seasons of the Mandalorian. The third season started following Disney’s odd choices and almost became a different story/show. We discovered thanks to Rouge One, Star Wars fans want realism, dirt, and grime with nods to their beloved characters. Yet, Disney decided to kill off all the beloved characters or change their personality to the point of being unrecognizable. They used the same storylines though. It made no sense. Take the Acolyte, it’s supposed to take place in the High Republic era. Why are we doing the twin trope? Why didn’t they head straight for Revan? That’s what people wanted. They could have also used the online game as a jumping point with the infinite army story. The concept being they should have used something fans really wanted and enjoyed. Yet, we keep seeing Disney go nope and head in an odd direction. Asoka was just Rebels, Kenobi was poorly written (it reminded me of the made for TV Ewok movies). As for diversity, there’s 1000+ planets in that universe, you have a ton of choices. Just remember the choices have to be relevant and relatable to the audience as a whole. Ensemble casts would be their best course to cover the basics. But Disney will keep being Disney and nothing will change. They are closed loop. My only hope is the House of Saudi (they are worth trillions) buys Disney and as a sweet surprise gives the company to someone who understands the fans and will definitely deliver. 😂

If you hate Star Wars, then why are you still watching it?

It's just so poorly written with terrible dialogue that is shitting all over the lore. ...plus the forced ideologies are just painful. ... and the whole toxic fans or racist trolls thing is getting really tired. Are there horrible, racist, nasty people on the internet. Yes, of course there are. But they are in walks of of society. Schools, sport, politics. If there were hundreds of thousands of these trolls then House of the Dragon would also be receiving its own hate. The last episode was female lead, had gay relationships in it. No one (am sure there are some) is being racist or homophobic towards that. Why? Cause it's well-written and well acted. Rogue One was female led, has a very high RT score.

Oh Star Wars.... that's all I got! I was literally just typing about The Boys before you brought it up. As usual, it seems like the criticism is a little overblown... And perhaps tardy. There have been the direct political elements since the beginning, but it has gotten a bit more amped up in the last two seasons. My bigger problem is that there's no forward momentum in the series, you can only go to brink of "we need to kill Homelander" and then pull back so many times. Which they seem to be avoiding a little, but replaced it with multiple aimless threads. And of course, you can't actually kill him because he is the show. Seems like a show destined to always fizzle out.

While you do acknowledge the review bombing of the show, and state that you support "consumers expressing their discontent". Do you believe the score itself is organic? The amount of reviews the Acolyte has outnumbers every other Star Wars TV show and some of largest movies of the past couple of years by very large margins. Mandalorian Season One - 10k+ reviews Mandalorian Season Two - 5k+ reviews Mandalorian Season Three - 2.5k+ reviews Obi-Wan Kenobi - 10k+ reviews Ahsoka - 5k+ reviews Dune 2 - 5K+ reviews The Batman - 10K+ reviews The Super Mario Bros. Movie - 10k+ reviews Barbie - 10k+ reviews Avatar: The Way of Water- 10k+ reviews The Witcher Season 1 - 10K+ reviews The Witcher Season 2 - 5k reviews The Witcher Season 3 - 2.5k reviews The only other show I could find was Rings of Power with 25k+ reviews the same as the Acolyte. You really think that this is organic Consumer discontent?

It's weird that I'm the only actual star wars fan who actually likes the show, it's decent so far.

The Acolyte may be beginning of a fundamental change in the morality of Star Wars. The Force is replaced by The Thread. The Power of the Dark Side is replaced by the Power of One/Two/Many. Indeed, The Thread may not even have a Light Side or a Dark Side. Whether the philosophy the Space Coven is extended to the rest of the FFA Galaxy remains to be seen. But for the time being what we have been presented is quite troubling, and justifies the low audience rating.

Oh boy A prequel hater who still hates star wars! Shocking!

Balanced review. I agree. It's not about gay or gender, it's spoiled rich kids exerting power over others by pushing them in some "dumb rightwing" corner. While it's just bad storytelling.

Best Wishes💯👍

When I saw Kathleen Kennedys road map of starwars whe they had a bunch of concepts for star wars shows. I was really interested in the acolyte. But then hearing stuff like "it's the gayest starwars, we actually wanted to make white ppl mad" really started to turn me off. I wouldn't of really given a fuck if they had some gay relationship IN the episodes either. Disney needs to take a fucking break from churning out star wars content. Stop ruining characters/banking on characters we know. That was my biggest issue with book of Boba and it setting up Mando s3. You took all the season 2s ending and voided it by bringing grogu back especially so soon.

Not review bombed, just bad. Like the ford Edsel, pepsi crystal, Google glass, windows vista. Need I go on.

Is it a good show or a bad show? Well everyone told me Obi-Wan Kenobi was crap, and I liked it. As far as The Acolyte, it is quite frankly NOT STAR WARS. I do not care about the leabian BS. What turned me off was 1. Wooden acting 2. Small sets (no flair) 3. May looks like she studied Kung Fu, not the Force. 4. Unbelievable Jedi Deaths 5. Some Lore Breaking things 6. A musical number (didn't work in a Star Wars Holiday Special, and I would rather get drunk and sing along with Carrie Fisher). Other than it supposedly takes place in the Star Wars Universe, the story is just NOT believable. Whoever produced this had zero idea on how to keep an audience interested.

Star Wars characters aren't IMPOSING anymore!! The heroes are ignorant emo's, the villains are arrogant emo's, and the side characters are boring NPC's. The Ukrainian war is more interesting on a quiet day, when the opposing sides are sharing a cigarette while waiting for the soccer ball to be inflated.

It’s not review bomb if it’s true! Plus it’s worse because Disney wants to change the main story into revealing that it was lesbians that actually figured out how to create life - and that the Jedi are the bad guys - give me a break!!!

I dont get the thinking behind continuing watching a shitty show. Your "hate watching " is still giving them viewership. There are so many actually good shows to watch.

Your title of this video literally says the acolyte deserves its audience score, then backtrack to similar to others. The show is a disaster and should have been scrapped. It's worse than 50% for sure.

Good for you taking a shit on rings of power. It is probably the worst show ever made.

More than anything I feel like its the gross disregard for the lore and for the universe consistency that has folks upset. A Jedi master gets killed with a throwing knife? The Ki Adi Mundi thing. And a slew of other astronomically nonsensical events that take place in this series. The writing from the first minute on has been laughably bad as in I was laughing out loud while watching at how terrible it is and the rest of the show is not much better. Terrible set design, bad costuming, I mean theres a laundry list of cringe associated with this series that is so long that you dont even need to talk about diversity in order to shred it limb from limb. The whole diversity thing to me is just stupid and anyone who legitimately talks about that as a main motivator in why they dislike the show disqualifies them from the conversation instantly, but the myriad of other crimes against good taste are reason enough for a bad score. Is 13% justified, I dunno because Im not magic and I cant remove all the fake scores that have been uploaded by trolls and other assholes so that we can get a more accurate measure of what real fans think, but it deserves a very low score based on an object accounting of its crimes lol. Objectively this is a terrible show and for me it would rate in the 30s. Everything about this production is juvenile and feels like someones slashfic from a livejournal around 2003. Its literally laughably bad and given the lead up interviews with Headland and the things she says regarding her "fake it til you make it" mentality and her admission that she doesnt know what the fuck shes doing, it adds another level of insult to injury. Nothing about this is good, but not having seen the entire series I cant write it off completely. The news person in me will see this through til the end and appraise it as a complete thing once its done, but as it stands right now I dont have high hopes for this at all. Given what we've seen to date, this is likely only going to get worse.

I like more Boba Fett but make him like john wick doesn't talk much and gets the job done. I don't get the keep it mysterious shtick we know what a Mandalorian is there is no mystery just let Boba be what he is a ruthless a practical space Spartan fighting monsters pirates gangsters and occasional force users.

My god I hate that term queer. Imagine they picked a racial pejorative and just told, say, black people that that is just how people are going to refer to them now. Some black people might be okay with it but what about the ones who aren’t?

Staged incel backlash campaign. Can't take the Disney outrage seriously. It's just insecure, mediocre boys review bombing whatever Disney puts out because they think that the world should revolve around their pathetic existence. Not a great show but interesting. Hasn't broken cannon yet. If anything it's exploring the Sith obsession with immortality and the roots of Plageaus' and eventually Sidious' attempt to create life which led to Anakin.

At this point, even the SW Holiday Special feels like "Citizen Kane" compared to this queer/diverse/idiotic garbage called the Acolyte...

Good for you taking a shit on rings of power. It is probably the worst show ever made.