Warning! Spoilers ahead for the first two episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Lucasfilm’s latest Star Wars streaming series, the long-awaited Obi-Wan Kenobi spin-off, has finally arrived. The first two episodes, aptly titled “Part I” and “Part II,” have dropped on Disney+ ahead of weekly releases of the next four installments. The series isn’t perfect, but it’s a huge improvement over the disjointed Book of Boba Fett and the show’s main selling point – Ewan McGregor’s return to the role of Obi-Wan – doesn’t disappoint. The actor is as brilliant as always as the titular Jedi-on-the-run, effortlessly slipping back into his most iconic role at a much different time in the character’s life.
McGregor brings a ton of pathos to a jaded, aging Kenobi. The series picks up at the darkest time in Obi-Wan’s life, a decade after his once-promising apprentice turned to the Sith and massacred the Jedi Order. He’s given up the fight against evil (for now) and he’s riddled with guilt over his failure to save Anakin. When Bail Organa comes calling to recruit Obi-Wan for one last adventure, he becomes a classic reluctant hero. Director Deborah Chow wastes no time diving into the story. By the end of the premiere episode, Obi-Wan is dragged out of hiding and sent on an intergalactic mission with a clear goal. And there’s a twist: as it turns out, he’s being lured into a trap.
Unlike The Book of Boba Fett, which turned the legendary eponymous bounty hunter into a harmless crime lord who has no interest in being a crime lord, Obi-Wan Kenobi gets its titular Star Wars icon’s characterization right. Bitter and disillusioned after 10 years of the meat-packing hermit life, Obi-Wan still can’t avoid his natural inclination to do the right thing.
Young Leia Steals The Show
Genuine surprises are few and far between in the modern franchise landscape, but there’s a great one in the Obi-Wan Kenobi premiere. As it turns out, the trailers hid what the series is really about. All those shots of young Luke in the trailers were a misdirect, as Obi-Wan Kenobi instead focuses on a young Leia, played brilliantly by Vivien Lyra Blair. After a shaky beginning, the young Leia reveal kicks the series into gear. By the end of the second episode, Blair has even started to steal the spotlight from McGregor himself. She recaptures Carrie Fisher’s signature biting wit to provide the series with some much-needed comic relief, like when she’s talking to her pompous, spoilt cousin. He mocks Leia’s politeness toward her droids and says, “You don’t need manners when you’re talking to lower lifeforms,” at which point Leia quips back, “So I guess I don’t need manners when I’m talking to you.” This plucky younger version of Leia shows plenty of glimmers of the fierce rebel leader she’s destined to become – and she has a great repartee with Obi-Wan as a kid with too many questions.
After seven sandy episodes of The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi mercifully leaves Tatooine behind early on. Star Wars fans have spent a lot of time there in the past couple of years and its neverending desert wasteland is arguably the least visually engaging ecosystem in a galaxy far, far away. Even before Obi-Wan leaves Tatooine, Chow starts the saga’s trademark planet-hopping with a trip to Leia’s childhood home on Alderaan. But the show’s depiction of Alderaan has the same problem as the TVA in Loki. Computer-generated establishing shots introduce huge, extravagant structures and dazzling, boundless landscapes, but every scene is confined to an aesthetically uninteresting room. The second episode steps it up with some stunning visuals on Coruscant. Chow sinks her teeth into the Blade Runner of it all, with neon-soaked streets, shady alleyways, and danger lurking around every corner.
The first two episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi don’t have as much action as Star Wars fans expect, but that might be because the show is just getting started. The pacing and intensity might pick up over the next four weeks. And the two-episode premiere isn’t entirely action-free. The chase scenes are too slow to be engaging, but there’s a thrilling rooftop shootout on Coruscant. It’s fun to see Obi-Wan forced to fight with his fists and a blaster as opposed to his trusty lightsaber.
The Inquisitors Are A Let-Down
So far, if there’s one major issue letting down the series, it’s the villains. The Inquisitors make an appearance before Kenobi himself and they’re a disappointment from the outset. They introduce themselves as three ruthless, unstoppable Jedi hunters, but they can’t even stop a single Jedi with all their combined force. They interrogate an entire village to find Kenobi’s location and fail to spot him hiding in a stable about 20 feet away. They don’t seem to pose much of a threat to the surviving Jedi.
The live-action rendering of the Grand Inquisitor was wildly controversial when the trailer first dropped, but it would be possible to overlook a dodgy costume if the performance was sinister enough. Rupert Friend’s innocuous turn is more difficult to overlook. This is the bloodthirsty leader of the Jedi hunters. Audiences should be on the edge of their seat whenever he appears on-screen. Friend even gets a Hans Landa-esque monologue to chew on about the sadistic pleasures of tracking down and killing people. But his performance as the Inquisitor has no sense of menace whatsoever. Hopefully, the return of Vader – teased in the final moments of episode 2 – can make up for it.
Obi-Wan Kenobi Is Off To A Promising Start
With a solid pair of opening episodes, Obi-Wan Kenobi is off to a promising start. The first episode gives the series an intriguing setup with a kidnapped Leia, then the second episode offers a fun standalone Coruscant adventure with an unexpected (and delightful) team-up. Over the course of the next four episodes, Obi-Wan Kenobi needs to maintain this momentum and build to some satisfying payoffs. If the first episodes are anything to go by, the series is in safe hands with Chow and co.