Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022) Premiere Review
“The jedi will hunt himself.”
Hey there! Thanks to the delay of the series premiere we get to enjoy a two-hour introduction to a former friend, Obi-Wan Kenobi. But this man is not the once-revered Jedi master, no, meet Ben, a man who lives in defeat and has lost his courage.
It’s been a decade since the events of Revenge of the Sith, and the Jedi are all but gone. On the heels of any surviving Jedi are the inquisitors, making their live-action debut, their ideology for hunting Jedi is patience. The Jedi code is like an itch that they cannot resist — they cannot help who they are — their compassion leaves a trail and in that regard, they hunt themselves. A compelling argument teased in the marketing of the series, and one I hope it explores further.
The series wastes no time to show there is a rift amongst the ranks of the inquisitors. It should be compelling, but I share their irritation towards Reva. It should be a clear indication that Moses Ingram is doing her job for me to dislike her, but her performance seems out of place.
But she’s not the only one who is out of place here. Nari, played by Benny Safdie, a talented writer/director in his own right, shows how inexperienced he is as an actor here. Or maybe it is the poorly written lines, it’s hard to tell. It ultimately wastes an opportunity to remind Kenobi the fight rages on, and that people still need the Jedi. Even if it didn’t change his mind, it would provide a juxtaposition to his frame of mind: the fight is done, and we lost. Maybe Safdie should have lent his writing talent to the script (or show, too early to tell), it could have benefitted from it.
The last thing that struck me as out of place was the return of Jimmy Smits as Senator Bail Organa, who while welcome, looks older here than he did in Rogue One. I find this error in continuity bothersome, but alas.
While franchise creator George Lucas believes he made the series for children, I hate to see childish goofs. A sequence where a young Leia runs away from hired bounty hunters in a series that is supposed to explore mature themes is silly and out of place. The acting capabilities of an 8-year-old notwithstanding.
Ultimately, the show aims to illustrate the absence of hope within Kenobi as he tries to remain hidden and live some semblance of a normal life. It is a far departure from the character we used to know and the show is certainly a journey towards restoring his former self. We see early signs of this by the end of the first episode, where he is forced to dig deep to find his courage and embark on one last fight.
