Why the Titanic?
Well, you remember that film by Jim Cameron about a boat sinking? You knew how the film would go down (no pun intended) before you went in to see it. It was no surprise.
Well, Obi-Wan Kenobi is just like that, except in this case, you know what is NOT going to happen.
You know that Obi Wan, Anakin, Uncle Owen, Aunt Beru, Luke and Leia are all going to survive the series. It's not like you can even say "maybe some of them will get really hurt" because we all know they survive unharmed until episode IV rolls around.
What this does is completely invalidate any and all tension and suspense in the series. Those fight scenes between Kenobi and Vader? Pointless. Kidnapping Leia? She'll be fine. Reva going to kill Luke, Owen and Beru? Hmmm...Let me think...I suspect they'll be alright.
Suspense is non-existent when you know the character can't die. All you are doing at that point is wasting time. The viewer's time, that is.
Now, I likened this to Titanic, but Titanic wasn't about the ship sinking, of course. That was incidental to the human story being told. But the Kenobi series doesn't have any kind of strong story to run alongside the "nobody dies" narrative. Unless of course, you count Reva. But since her redemption-arc story was more obvious than a street-hooker standing below a neon "All you can eat" diner sign, it too was not exactly a surprise. Nor was it executed in anything other than a perfunctory, by-the-numbers way.
So what are you left with? A chance to see a few old Star Wars characters again for nostalgia purposes? A few more glimpses of the Star Wars universe? But not much more than that.
I guess we should be thankful that even Kennedy and Co realised there was not much here to work with and limited it to six episodes. Dragging it out to thirteen episodes (or God-forbid, more) would have been painful.
In short, this felt hollow and empty. Nothing of any consequence to the Star Wars universe happened, except some awkward stretches of the existing lore to fulfill some kind of "member-berry" requirement that they think the fans wanted.
So things I went "hmmm" about regarding the lore?
Well, there's the fact that Leia knew Kenobi personally now, when she clearly only knew of him from her father's stories before.
Then there is the fact that Luke was chased by a lightsaber wielding lunatic now but had no idea what one was when Ben shows him his father's in episode IV.
You get the idea? Little things...perhaps not worthy of getting bent out of shape over, but they all add up. Add up to writer's not caring enough about what has gone before to make the effort not to screw up stuff.
All in all, not a very good series. Better than the sequel movies, and Solo, but not by a lot.
Also, are they really thinking anyone cares what happens to Reva now she has turned from the dark side? Will they laughably attempt to make an entire series around her? Only time will tell.
SUMMARY: Empty, hollow, suspense-less time waster. Writers that don't care enough to check what has gone before. Nothing really happens at all other than abusing existing lore. Not really worth your time unless you are very bored.
Well, you remember that film by Jim Cameron about a boat sinking? You knew how the film would go down (no pun intended) before you went in to see it. It was no surprise.
Well, Obi-Wan Kenobi is just like that, except in this case, you know what is NOT going to happen.
You know that Obi Wan, Anakin, Uncle Owen, Aunt Beru, Luke and Leia are all going to survive the series. It's not like you can even say "maybe some of them will get really hurt" because we all know they survive unharmed until episode IV rolls around.
What this does is completely invalidate any and all tension and suspense in the series. Those fight scenes between Kenobi and Vader? Pointless. Kidnapping Leia? She'll be fine. Reva going to kill Luke, Owen and Beru? Hmmm...Let me think...I suspect they'll be alright.
Suspense is non-existent when you know the character can't die. All you are doing at that point is wasting time. The viewer's time, that is.
Now, I likened this to Titanic, but Titanic wasn't about the ship sinking, of course. That was incidental to the human story being told. But the Kenobi series doesn't have any kind of strong story to run alongside the "nobody dies" narrative. Unless of course, you count Reva. But since her redemption-arc story was more obvious than a street-hooker standing below a neon "All you can eat" diner sign, it too was not exactly a surprise. Nor was it executed in anything other than a perfunctory, by-the-numbers way.
So what are you left with? A chance to see a few old Star Wars characters again for nostalgia purposes? A few more glimpses of the Star Wars universe? But not much more than that.
I guess we should be thankful that even Kennedy and Co realised there was not much here to work with and limited it to six episodes. Dragging it out to thirteen episodes (or God-forbid, more) would have been painful.
In short, this felt hollow and empty. Nothing of any consequence to the Star Wars universe happened, except some awkward stretches of the existing lore to fulfill some kind of "member-berry" requirement that they think the fans wanted.
So things I went "hmmm" about regarding the lore?
Well, there's the fact that Leia knew Kenobi personally now, when she clearly only knew of him from her father's stories before.
Then there is the fact that Luke was chased by a lightsaber wielding lunatic now but had no idea what one was when Ben shows him his father's in episode IV.
You get the idea? Little things...perhaps not worthy of getting bent out of shape over, but they all add up. Add up to writer's not caring enough about what has gone before to make the effort not to screw up stuff.
All in all, not a very good series. Better than the sequel movies, and Solo, but not by a lot.
Also, are they really thinking anyone cares what happens to Reva now she has turned from the dark side? Will they laughably attempt to make an entire series around her? Only time will tell.
SUMMARY: Empty, hollow, suspense-less time waster. Writers that don't care enough to check what has gone before. Nothing really happens at all other than abusing existing lore. Not really worth your time unless you are very bored.