The story begins 10 years after the dramatic events of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. Video / Disney
Opinion by Karl Puschmann
Karl Puschmann is Culture and entertainment writer for the New Zealand Herald. His fascination lies in finding out what drives and inspires creative people.
Warning: The following contains spoilers for Obi-Wan Kenobi
For a show that only runs six episodes, Disney+'s Obi-Wan Kenobi enjoyed more than its fair share of controversy. The series got slammed early on for some fairly terrible action sequences and was then roundly booed for spending a lot of timefocused on a character not named Obi-Wan.
Finally, because this is the world we live in now, the bad press hit hyperspace when racists began targeting and abusing actor Moses Ingram on social media. It got so bad that series star Ewan McGregor, Obi-Wan himself, posted a video on social media condemning the "horrendous" people sending her messages.
That's a lot of negative press for such a short series. Especially considering it only wrapped up on Wednesday night. So let's counter some of that now; Obi-Wan Kenobi is a great Star Wars series. It's entertaining, exciting and, in its final scenes, full of raw and conflicting emotions followed by heartwarming feels.
Darth Vader (Hayden Christensen) in Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Now that it's concluded, I can say that its story is extremely satisfying and filled with cool moments that stick with you. I wouldn't have said this last week. Or any of the other weeks leading up to now. If you've also been watching the show week-by-week as I have, it may not have felt like it was going to live up to its admittedly high expectations.
Which is where some of the disconnect between the noise around the show and the actual show lies. More than most, Obi-Wan suffered from its weekly release schedule as people rushed to dissect, pull apart and pass judgment on the whole thing based on each passing episode. The equivalent of making a call on a book based on reading one chapter.
Princess Leia played by Vivien Lyra Blair in Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Indeed, many of my initial criticisms of the show were tempered as the show rolled on. Had I written a review after the first couple of episodes I would have blasted it for having a child in a major role while harshly bemoaning the fact that they seemingly learned nothing about putting kids in Star Wars after The Phantom Menace. Later episodes proved the story value of this choice, while also giving a superb showcase for the acting chops of Leia actor, 9-year-old Vivien Lyra Blair, during an interrogation scene.
By episode three or four I would have said it was dumb that the villain Reva looks just like a normal person while her fellow Inquisitors have full-on, and quite menacingly funky, face paint on. Shouldn't she also be pulling out the make-up and slathering on something scary looking? This was never addressed, I just got over it.
The Grand Inquisitor (Rupert Friend) and Darth Vader (Hayden Christensen) in Obi-Wan Kenobi.
But even the more valid criticisms, like Leia's low-speed chase sequence through the woods, Reva's cartoonishly over-the-top, moustache-twirling villainy, the fact that not one, but two people survive having a lightsaber thrust into their stomachs or the repeated defiance of logic or commonsense for plot convenience throughout can't take away from the end result.
It has its flaws moment to moment, yes. But as a whole, the show really comes together. The sum, greater than the parts.
Reva played by Moses Ingram in Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Obi-Wan Kenobi tells a story of redemption and consequence. It's about facing and confronting your fears. Characters are repeatedly given a choice between the light and the dark and forced to decide their fate.
It's true that all the best parts of the show contain McGregor's Obi-Wan and Hayden Christensen's Darth Vader. While I don't particularly care for the Star Wars Prequel trilogy all that much, there's no denying that it's been a thrill seeing them reunited.
It's also impossible to deny the gravitas and weight that those films give to their relationship in this show, the failed master and the fallen student. Each and every scene they share seeps with the history of Obi-Wan's guilt and Anakin/Vader's hate.
Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) face off during a flashback.
So when, after their final battle, a teary Obi-Wan says to a wheezing, broken Vader, "I'm sorry Anakin, for all of it," it really kicks you in the guts. Even more so as you see Anakin's inner turmoil as he momentarily wrestles with who he was and who he has become, signified by the flickering glow from their respective red and blue lightsabers highlighting his burned-up face and his voice modulating between Christensen's line readings and James Earl Jones iconic Vader vocals.
As with the prequels, the absolute best scene of the whole blockbuster affair is once again these two characters talking.
Obi-Wan Kenobi as Ewan McGregor in Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Of course being set before the events of the very first Star Wars movie, A New Hope, we knew Leia and Luke and Obi-Wan himself were in no real grave danger. But it's a credit to the show how well they tied into the 1977 movie, giving credence and explanation to things people thought would be unexplainable.
Always advertised as a limited series, this is supposed to be it for the show, closing with Obi-Wan riding off into the sunset with everyone safe, and order once again restored to the galaxy. But I really hope this isn't the end of the line for old Obi and that we hear him saying, "hello there," again soon.
