Obi-Wan Kenobi

Obi Wan Kenobi

Aired May 27 - June 22, 2022

[Disclaimer: Spoilers for entire Obi-Wan Kenobi)

Set ten years after Episode III (Revenge of the Sith), Obi-Wan Kenobi follows our titular Jedi Master as he lives in hiding. Reprising his role as Obi-Wan, Ewan McGregor plays our aged and grizzled hero. This is not the Obi-Wan we remember. He’s not an enigmatic old man like he was in the original Star Wars. Nor is he the vigorous and cocky young man that we saw in the sequel Star Wars. This Obi-Wan, for lack of a better word, is pathetic. He’s a broken shell of a man.

It was interesting to see how he’d been living his life in exile, but I do think it got off to a slower start than I’d hoped for. I was also not expecting Obi-Wan to be so… hopeless?

The show revolved mainly around Obi-Wan and Leia. It should have been cool, except for the fact that I found myself not liking the child actress playing Leia. I can’t quite put my finger on what it was, but I just didn’t like her, and their dynamic didn’t click for me.

Highlights of the series included the flashback scenes with Obi-Wan and Anakin, and the parallels to their present-day dynamic. The most impressive part of the series, in my opinion, were the two battles we saw between Darth Vader and Obi-Wan. This was what we’d been waiting for all this time. The final battle between the two of them was so impressive that I had to immediately rewind it and watch it again. Seeing Obi-Wan in full form was against his former padawan was breathtaking. I only wished we could have seen more of it.

There were a few things that I thought were definitely pushing the boundary of believability (and that’s saying something, given this is a show set in space with mystic jedi masters!), such as Leia hiding in Obi-Wan’s coat to escape an empire base. Or Reva magically appearing at the end of a series of tunnels where Leia had been escaping (First of all, how did Reva know which tunnel exit Leia would be at? Secondly, how did Reva get there before Leia did when Leia had an incredible head start on her?? SO MANY QUESTIONS!). The plot wasn’t without its faults, to be sure, but at the end of the day, it was entertaining.

I don’t know if I’d ever invest time in rewatching this, but I did enjoy it enough the first time around. Oh, and I really enjoyed the score, composed by Natalie Holt (shout out to Natalie, who holds the honour of being the first woman to compose for Star Wars). If you’re wondering why her name sounds familiar, it’s because she also scored the Disney Plus tv series Loki.

Lastly, I wanted to touch upon the impressive use of The Volume to create this expansive world. I am also pretty stoked that the entire series was directed by Deborah Chow, a fellow Canadian and Asian halfie. I know this review was short and sweet, but so was the series, so I’ll end things here.