For his part, Obi-Wan mostly gets wrecked, which is to be expected—he’s facing the most powerful former Jedi in the galaxy, a guy who’s been using unchecked power for years instead of hiding in a cave in the desert someplace. But it lacks the drama and power called for by the moment—a poor follow-up to their final battle in Revenge of the Sith, which even most prequel haters seem to appreciate.
The new rendez-vous also calls into question the conversation he has with Vader during their fateful duel aboard the Death Star in the first Star Wars movie, about how when they last met, Vader was his student. As with Leia, who now has canonically spent time with Ben Kenobi prior to her plea for his help in A New Hope, there’s now an extra wrinkle to the Kenobi/Vader timeline, and I’m not convinced it makes sense, or that the payoff here was worth monkeying with the continuity.
And that’s the big question dogging Obi-Wan Kenobi. Is it pleasant to spend more time with Ewan McGregor in the title role? Absolutely. Is it fun to hear James Earl Jones’s voice coming out of Vader’s mask, and to catch blink-and-you’ll-miss-him glimpses of Hayden Christensen as the once and future Anakin Skywalker? You bet. But does the story that reacquaints us with these characters have both the logic and the emotional heft to make it worth telling, in the end? On this matter, the Force is hazy.
I reviewed today’s episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi for Decider.
Tags: decider, obi-wan kenobi, reviews, TV, TV reviews