Star Wars: The Acolyte, the new TV series and mystery thriller from Lucasfilm that introduces a new team of Jedi, set a century before the events of The Phantom Menace during the final days of the High Republic Era, is already a huge win with critics, but not so much with general audiences, according to Rotten Tomatoes, which has the show currently listed with a 94% Tomatometer Score but a 44% Audience Score. Counting Carrie-Anne Moss (Jedi Master Indara), Carrie-Anne Moss (Jedi Master Indara), and Amandla Stenberg (Mae) among its cast, the first two episodes of The Acolyte are streaming now on Disney+.
Top critics are saying:
- “What perhaps makes The Acolyte such an engaging and addictive watch (over the first four episodes screened for critics, at least) is its commitment to not treating the Jedi (or the Star Wars franchise writ large) as untouchable.”
- “[I]t’s the ideas that flourish in “The Acolyte”—mining the rich mythology of the universe to explore how our childhoods scar us, and what we do with that pain.”
- “The Acolyte has many times that production budget [of Doctor Who], but its heart, rather charmingly, is hewn from that awestruck past that had space as an endless adventure playground, not one long dark dystopia.”
- “The Acolyte feels like Star Wars — someone even says “I have a bad feeling about this!” The only thing that makes it stand out from past Star Wars stories is that it has a lot of women in it, actively participating in the story. (What a concept.)”
The scores at the time of this writing:
Some of the latest promos for The Acolyte:
The StarWars.com Team on Sol and actor Lee Jung-jae’s enthusiasm for the franchise:
Master Sol is very powerful in the Force and well respected by his peers,” the actor says. “He’s also incredibly warm-hearted.” Getting cast was a dream come true for the longtime fan. “I can’t forget the first time I saw Star Wars in the theater,” Lee says. “The shock, the tension, and the emotion. Honestly, I can’t believe I played a part in Star Wars. I’m still trying to be cool about it.”
Discussion (19 replies)
Join Discussion →Always red flags for me when there's such a gulf between the professional critic and audience scores.
I've been hearing more bad than good. Will probably try and watch it soon.
I'm in the middle but hopeful. It at least didn't completely annoy me like Ahsoka did. I'm still kind of pissed off about that one.
We tried watching both episodes last night but due to exhaustion from the day we both fell asleep before the end of the 2nd episode. I will say though, I've seen worse but that's still not giving it praise. You can definitely tell it has a specific target audience and if they like and embrace it then all the power to them. There are some moments where I start to get annoyed and want to check out but then some, where I'm like, that's kind of cool.
I'm still optimistic about it though and it was at least refreshing to see something not wholly dependent on Skywalker or the more current storylines. I will say though, that these shows are more and more feeling like fan films than full-on productions. The effects and costumes are okay but something about them seems more like a low-budget fan films. Maybe its the camera angles, I don't know.
I haven't watched this one yet, but from the other Disney shows, what annoys me the most is you can tell they are on Disney's video screen sound stage. They all have this empty feeling.
We finished watching the 2nd episode last night and we're in, for now. It's obvious the show is aimed at teens to YAs and really has a CW-verse feel to it after a bit but I don't mind. Still on the fence, but like I said before, I've seen worse.
I'll just leave this here:
I admit I noticed it immediately when we were watching and thought about it, plus all the times I heard similar things from scientists regarding explosions in space with SW, ST, and Sci-Fi in general, and chose to ignore but yeah, that was pretty bad.
I read a number of things with cast and creators for this one today, both in and out of context, and I'll say I'm going be keeping it all in mind as we watch future episodes. I very much believe in having an open mind but if it gets too far into being like Ahsoka, I'm out with an instant push of the remote button. I'm not going too far into it because we do try to keep things civil here but I'm more than a little uneasy with some of the things I read today from them. There's folks on every side of the fence I could argue with but ultimately I'm more like Treebeard when it comes to such things and I'll leave it at that.
In episode 3, Communist lesbian space witches renamed the force and can produce babies with immaculate conception and the Jedi have been re-framed into child abducting war criminals. It's good to keep an open mind, but not so open that your brain falls out of your head.
This show is straight trash. It's far worse than Ahsoka. It's worse than the Last Jedi, and that's an achievement and not in a good way.
This show screwed up when the pulled w thin red line. You se thin red line was going to be the Vietnam movie with George Clooney and I was hyped. It sucked horribly and he was in the last ten min only.
They took an actress that would have made an awesome dispassionate jedi and killed her in the opening episode damn near the opening credits. I've been meh ever since.
That sounds like the plot line for a new Flesh Gordon film.
Such a bummer. Haven't watched ep3 yet and honestly, now I don't want to. Oh well.
It's not that good, nor that entertaining.
Even episodes 1 & 2 are a shit show. Bland, boring, ridiculous, plot holes that Vader's Super Star Destroyer can fit through with room to spare, no likable characters, etc. This is worse than most fan-fiction and that's a pretty low bar.
I didn't think it was possible to create something in the Star Wars franchise as ridiculous or as bad as The Last Jedi. As of Acolyte Episode 3, I have officially been proven wrong. It's not just the worst Star Wars episode of all time, its one of the worst episodes of any show ever created. I'd rather fucking marathon the Voyager warp 10 lizard episode, the Enterprise finale, Spock's Brain, the Vic Fontain episodes of DS9, the Ghost sex episode of TNG, and then hate fuck my brain with a full Discovery series marathon than see another piece of shit committed to film with the Star Wars name on it.
not touching this one with a 10 foot lightsaber. critical drinker is bashing hard on it. [embedded media]
Watching the episode 3 review now.... "communist lesbian space witches" hahaha
Looks like this is going to a pass for me based on the consensus here and my own findings.