OBI-WAN KENOBI

 

Like all original Star Wars fans, I had my own ideas about what Obi-Wan Kenobi was doing during his hiatus on Tatooine. 

I certainly didn't think he was sitting on his behind for twenty years. In my mind, he was staying alert, keeping ready, and maintaining contacts with the burgeoning Rebel Alliance. I also believed that every so often he would go off world and participate in special missions for the Rebels. 

So, the Disney+ series OBI-WAN KENOBI kind of matched what I felt old Ben was doing while keeping an eye on young Luke. But I was underwhelmed with the entire production. It wasn't terrible...but I didn't get near enough excitement from it as I thought I would. 

A 13 year old me probably would have thought it was the greatest thing ever, but I'm not 13 anymore. This is also the third Disney+ live action Star Wars series, after THE MANDALORIAN and THE BOOK OF BOBA FETT, and the plots and themes of these shows are starting to be very similar. 

To take one example, one of the episodes of KENOBI revolved around the old "Let's sneak into a supposed impregnable Imperial fortress/facility and break someone (or something) out." That happened on THE MANDALORIAN about...what, three of four times?? For all of the assumed overwhelming evil of the Empire, breaking into one of their facilities is becoming as easy as going down to the local mini-mart. 

I'll go even further. Each of the three Disney+ live action Star Wars shows features a main character who is a loner, and who is dealing with past traumas. Through the episodes, the loner regains his self-respect by fighting for a just cause and interacting with various supporting characters. 

Each of the three series has a badass independent female character who wears a cool outfit. The twist in KENOBI is that the badass woman is set up as what is assumed to be the main villain. As for my thoughts on the Third Sister, or Reva, I honestly wasn't impressed. If ever there was an example of a performer trying too hard to be a badass, and not succeeding, this was it. 

You could even say that in KENOBI little Leia was the equivalent of Grogu, and Reva was the equivalent of Moff Gideon. Except I think it worked much better the first time around. 

I've been thinking about why I liked THE MANDALORIAN much better than THE BOOK OF BOBA FETT & OBI-WAN KENOBI. I believe the main reason is that I knew nothing about the characters in THE MANDALORIAN. They were fresh, and new...yet they inhabited what I felt was a proper interpretation of the Star Wars Universe. 

The shows about Boba Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi feature characters that I have literally been familiar with for over forty years. I very much have my own ideas about how they would act and respond in certain situations. If they do or say something that doesn't feel right to me.....yeah, I'm going to notice. 

The Boba Fett and Kenobi shows also remind me of the Star Wars comics currently being published by Marvel. These comics are constrained by the fact that they are set during the Original Trilogy. They constantly set up what appears to be epic confrontations (such as Luke and Vader running into each other every so often), but they still have to fit into the parameters of the Official Star Wars historic timeline. 

I knew that in KENOBI Vader and Obi-Wan were going to confront each other--how could Disney pass up that opportunity??--but for me no matter how their confrontations were going to play out, it wouldn't be satisfying enough....and it wasn't. 

OBI-WAN KENOBI isn't a bad show, but....it just seemed a bit off to me. What worries me is that it's starting to feel as if I'm watching the Disney+ Star Wars shows out of a sense of obligation instead of expecting to be entertained by them. There's going to be plenty more Disney+ Star Wars product--the company is going to milk the franchise for all its worth and then some. The main reason I haven't followed any Star Trek series in years is that there got to be too many of them, and too many different things to follow. I've got a bad feeling that the same thing is going to happen to Star Wars--some say that's already happened. 

*Oh, one more thing about OBI-WAN KENOBI that bugged me--the revelation that lightsabers are not as lethal as everyone always thought. Too bad Qui-Gon didn't know about that.