Throwing Copper

At least I think most of polite society has figured out that Disney ain’t that great with the Star Wars series.

Other than Baby Yoda in Season 1 of Mando, which isn’t that great of a series to begin with, these shows simply aren’t very good.

OldBoy

I think The Mandalorian (both seasons) has done a great justice and homage to the OT while telling a completely different tale. Engrossing and emotional. You feel those characters. The writing and craftsmenship in everything the series uses are top notch and it’s everything a Star Wars series should be.

csant

Mando's show is a billion light years better than anything else Disney has put out on SW.

The script/story for Kenobi is just plain bad, and I can't believe it was allowed to move forward. Reva is a terrible character, the actress playing her is terrible in this (she might be good in something else, I've never seen her before) and 60% of it is cuz of the writing the rest is her acting. lol

B.A.

++++++

disappointing it has been.

Artman

Not sure how involved he was creatively.(I think he had approval power over the choice of director) But look, it's a job and probably one of his biggest paydays. Not going to fault him too much.

Joe Schmoe

Much better episode than Part IV, but... they should have de-aged Hayden and Ewan or at least avoided close-ups during the flashbacks. Why didn't Vader stop the second ship from escaping with the Force? Why didn't Reva use the Force to retrieve her weapon at the end of her duel with Vader or at least run away? Why just sit there and wait for Vader to strike her? Reva betraying Vader wasn't a huge surprise, but it happened too easily. It sure looked like Reva was in the blast range when the thermal detonator went off. Some here seem to think Reva automatically read Ben's mind and knows Luke and Leia are Anakin's kids, but wouldn't the show have shown that happening? That's pretty significant info, so I'd think we would have gotten a scene with her reacting to it and contemplating telling Vader about it (and another scene where Vader learns it by reading Reva's mind).

xe.kilroy

At the end of the episode....cut to Obi sensing with the force, worried, cut to Reva finding the device Obi dropped and listening to Bails broken transmission (vader ..not find out....the children....Owen....Tatooine), shot of her putting 2 and 2 together in her mind, Leia has a brother on Tatooine under the care of Owen, who she knows now from episode 2, and she already knows Leia isn't Bails real kid, Vader mustn't find out they're his kids....cut back to Obi still sensing Reva, Obi says "hmm i think it'll be ok".
Probably we see Reva go to Tatooine to help Obi protect Luke.
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xe.kilroy

2% of the 30 minutes was interesting, the two flashbacks and Vader's force powers. There was nothing riveting about the story, or the character interactions, no intrigue putting you on the edge of the seat.

That's a common flaw with D+ SW content....each show is like a new year's eve fireworks display rather than an internal interaction for the viewer. We just show up, sit there, and see something predictable or known. Whereas most usual tv shows it's the story itself that's holding your attention, the character relationships, their evolution, you having internal dialogue about it....omg i wonder what so and so is gonna say to them when they get back, wow, she really did that to him, if i was him id do this and that, etc. Like you're watching an episode of Mad Men, or Breaking Bad, or something, wondering what's gonna happen.

More often than not The Mandalorian had that dramatic touch. Boba Fett living with the Tusken Raiders and episode 1 of Obi had that too. A sense of interesting drama. As an example

Cecile

But if they kill her off for good, how will we get next season's inevitable Reva Redemption arc, where she eventually teams up with Kenobi and tries to make up for her past?

Cecile

But you're forgetting that he was smart enough to change his first name to Ben which was apparently enough to fool everyone on Tatooine into thinking he was someone else. Maybe Kenobi's their version of Smith

Joe Schmoe

I guess you're right. I assume this means she'll die in the next episode before she has the chance to tell anyone this news or Vader reads her mind.

MLBFan24

Action packed, enjoyed it. Had some issues with the shootout, but I’ll just forget about it and enjoy the episode.

Cool lightsaber scenes and learning more about Third Sister.

xe.kilroy

Either she dies protecting Luke, or she survives for a Reva spinoff series.

Joe Schmoe

I hope we get an explanation as to why Reva didn't die after being impaled by a lightsaber seeing as how Qui-Gon suffered the same wound and died. Maybe she's not human? I'm sure that's why the Grand Inquisitor survived his wound.

milo bloom

This was the best episode yet. The flashbacks were so cool to see, the kind of scenes the prequels really needed in the first place.

And full raging Vader is just too cool. The two ships thing was a neat reference to The Rise of Skywalker. And Obi-Wan finally starting to understand just how badly mentally changed that Anakin has become.

I get the feeling that this part of the story was the meat of the original idea for the movie and survived the transition to tv.

xe.kilroy

I loved Boba Fetts experience with the Tuskens, and Episode 1 of Obi series. There was great stuff there. SW shows don't have to be all serious drama like that but there's too much sheer slapstick and very poor easy-outs and infuriatingly silly plot devices when it comes to all the action scenes. Why cant they be done with a bit more gravitas? Nothing wrong with having edge of seat action/battles. Like Fett and the Tuskens trying to take down the fast train, there was edgy adult-like action scenes in that. Obi hasnt had an iota of such action thruout the series.

You can see that there was a bigger budget for Boba than Obi in that I'm describing. They invested money in the first half of Boba, the action scenes, stunts, etc, that whole Tusken angle looked movie-like. Then it got silly cheap budget in the second half when the Pikes invaded. Seems like all Obi so far has been low budget in terms of action, stunts, set pieces.

xe.kilroy

Long shots establishing environ. But the sets for all the acting to take place still look small and cheap, the usual ways low budget sci-fi movies do it to keep costs down....shooting all/many scenes in a room or house.

It seems to me Disney gave this series a tinier budget from the outset, whether that's partly because D+ shows been tanking, or partly Disney are pouring hundreds of millions into big budget movies and feeling stretched, so LFL were forced into creating a story that centered completely on chase and rescue missions across 5/6 episodes. So its almost always people in a cave, a tunnel, a fortress, a hall, torture room, etc.
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story

I liked this one a lot.

There are a few moments that made me frustrated as a viewer. Point-blank range firefights with one-sided casualties. The hallways are long or short as needed. Leia taking forever on the wires (who said she's a tech whiz? Come on!). Letting those go, it's a good episode.

I'm looking forward to the ending. Yet overall, I think this could have been an excellent movie. Tighten the story up and you've got a good 2.5 hour Star Wars movie. I know, I know, subscription money is too delicious a cookie for Disney to let go of, I get it. But I really think it could've been done. I wouldn't be surprised if some day someone finds a way to do exactly that. A few people have already commented on the actual screen time vs. run time with recaps and credits. Here's what I'm thinking:

5 episodes in, we're at 228 minutes total with credits and recaps of around 43 minutes.
In terms of screen time, we're at 185 minutes, or essentially 3 hours.
If the average episode length is 45 minutes, and take out the 8 minutes of recaps and credits, call it 37 minutes.
6 episodes completed, that's likely 273 minutes total and 222 screen time, or 3.7 hours.

If you...
1. Lightly used Episode III flashback as diagetic daydreams but no full on scenes,
2. Edit down the padded chase sequences, lingering and repetitive shots, which are ample,
3. Edit the story by at least one planet to streamline the overall chase,
4. Punch up the dialogue, and
5. Tighten the story
...you've got an exciting, satisfying 2.5 hour Star Wars movie.

I'd cut Part IV and the Underwater Inquisitor Base on Nur in the Mustafar system altogether.

Instead, Riva puts a tracker on Lola while Vect Nokru and his bounty hunter gang have Leia on Daiyu.

She uses it to trace them to Mapuzo and Jabiim. From there, let the finale play out.

I want to see how the final episode goes but so far I like my idea.

All of that said, I have always been in the camp that some Star Wars is better than no Star Wars. And I am enjoying this and I've enjoyed all of the new Star Wars movies and shows so far. For me, there are some parts that are really clunky or even just plain not good (even The Mandalorian, much lauded around here, has its clunky moments) yet I believe the whole is better than the lousy parts. I'm digging this and I see myself revisiting it. I think I'd revisit it more if it was a tighter story as a movie, but I'll revisit it.

Bring on the finale!

Eric F

I hate all these unrealistic depictions of lightsaber play. Before you know it there will be Tic-toc challenges daring kids to run through their friends with a lightsaber.

rw2516

$25M per episode budget
GOT was $16M per episode towards the end with the extended 75-90 min episodes
If you break down by minute Obi-Wan has twice the budget of Game of Thrones
I think the Star Wars features had around $250M budget vs $150M for the tv shows

xe.kilroy

Google searched for an article...

https://movieweb.com/most-expensive-tv-shows/

It's the mcu/disney shows that are getting 25m, but The Mandalorian specifically was 15m, and they say Boba also got 15m.


You can tell by looking at it, they gave Obi a smaller budget than TM/Boba. Or, after paying actors like ewan, jimmy, hayden, it meant less left for the actual sets etc

ViewAskewbian

I used to think this of the name Skywalker when, really, you think: "Ok, you have to hide this boy from his father, a Skywalker, and you've made the choice to hide him with his relatives named Lars. By the way, keep his name Skywalker."

B.A.

I’m staring to wonder if he needed a big payday after the divorce.

rw2516

The MCU shows are getting $25 because the guy in charge of MCU at Disney doesn't want viewers to tell difference between theatrical and tv. If you see a clip, you can't tell if it's theatrical or tv. Everybody can decide for themselves whether they're succeeding.

Yes, Mandalorian and Boba Fett are $15M per episode

Obi-Wan is $25M per episode. Star salaries definitely figure into it. Less money to spread around. There are also ways to mitigate that with back end deals and other types of compensation. For all I know McGregor's executive producer credit may be in lieu of salary.

May just be me, but I think all the Disney Star Wars stuff, even theatrical, look lower budget than the first six theatrical films. The first six had a more fantastical look. Now everything looks more real. Could just be modern film tech. In the older films Tattooine looks like an exotic desert planet. Now it looks like Earth desert. Probably just me.

xe.kilroy

Cheers for the further feedback. It just seems less is being spent on sets, action scenes, stunts, even compared to Boba They look even b-grade TV standards. It's how they usually do it...write a story mostly taking place in a room, building, etc. And we see that in Obi.

I agree Disney SW movies do look less theatrical, likely the cinematography, choice of lenses, lighting, and other such tech choices that often happen from film to film.