Mini Series The Acolyte 1.01 - Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

My mistake; an aborted reply to one of your comments that I failed to fully delete, got the quote tags mixed up

 

I'll admit that I used the term incorrectly, but I stand by my point that it was still difficult to understand everything that he was saying because of that thick accent to the point where it was distracting for me. He essentially had a crash course in English for this role.

Meanwhile Carrie-Ann Moss had the 10 minute cameo and she's essentially done. Maybe after I watch the second episode I'll understand these decisions.

 

Maybe the decision was made because he's a great actor, and it sucks to be restricted by English-speaking actors only? Rogue One also cast two guys who didn't speak English (Chirrut and Baze) and they were fan favorites.

 

The Carrie-Ann Moss thing was precisely because she's famous--you don't expect her to die. Hitchcock did the same thing. I'm guessing she accepted the role because it was short.
Anyway, I'm guessing we'll see her again in flashbacks.

 

One odd thing. On the prison transport ship, Osha says she trusts the Jedi and is willing to be brought to the Temple in Coruscant to be tried or whatever. But then after she sees the Jedi ship show up on the planet she crash-lands on, she tries to get away and that all ends in the "Fugitive" moment, where she's reluctant to go with them (to the point that she almost falls to her death). Why was that? Was it because the vision of Mae made her think that perhaps the Jedi were not to be trusted?

 

Sorry, meant to just say Wen Jiang as Baze didn't speak English, remembering that Donnie Yen translated for him in some interviews prior to Rogue One.

And yeah, it's annoying that there's a view that one must speak English in order to be cast in major international films and TV shows, which by their nature, are almost all English language. It's really great that Lucasfilms rejects that. Not to mention that there are many examples of non-English language films casting stars that don't speak those languages.

 

I never said that they should only be hiring English speaking actors. But to hire an actor in a lead role and essentially force him to take that crash course in English?

But it is what it is. And you know what? Everyone's entitled to their opinions. He is a great actor, and I would vouch that I certainly couldn't have imagined ANYONE taking that lead role in Squid Game instead of him. None of the characters in this new series, including Sol, has really grown on me as of yet (and that's through the first two episodes).

 

I don't believe anyone was forced to do anything.

 

8/10 for me.

This was a very good start. As much as Andor was everything great about SW without featuring a single Force user, we're going full-on tilt Jedi here as I love seeing/learning more of the Jedi Order in their prime. The action was intense but also sparse which I liked. All the new characters feel compelling in their own ways but yeah, Master Sol seems to be the standout.

 

Was the prison transport droid a little Cylon-like to anyone else?

 

That ship looked very cool to me.

 

As to the whole accent thing? I thought it was fine. Could understand him perfectly fine even if his accent was thick. And as to if that makes sense lore wise. Again in the real world just in my family alone. My brother has a very pronounced American accent while me and my sister are both said to retain our Canadian accents. Plus even if that wasn’t based on reality that isn’t a deal breaker. I would rather have a good actor and he’s a great actor.

 

Goodness forbid someone knows the meaning of English words while criticizing others for not speaking English well.

 

Goodness forbid someone not having perfect hearing and not understanding someone

edit: point being what a ridiculous thing to chastise someone over.

 

You folks are talking about Sol speaking English when he's not...he's speaking Galactic Basic Standard. Not all humans in the GFFA spoke Basic as a first language, (Cassian Andor didn't) so I just assumed that basic was not his mother tongue and thus the accent, which I didn't find distracting at all and feel it adds some diversity and verisimilitude to things. Plus I think Sol is the best acted character in this show so far.

 

I gave this a 9/10.

I think the beginning scene set a good tone. I did like seeing Venestra though, but wasn't expecting her to be bald. Regardless, it was nice seeing her on screen.

The new characters are interesting and I like the mystery vibe. Master Sol seems especially interesting as well as Osha. I don't think we've seen enough of her sister to tell what she's like beyond being an assassin. Jeckil seems like she could offer a lot as a Padawan. I'm a fan of Dafne Keen though. I'm looking forward to seeing more of her. Now, Yord seems a bit stiff. I know that's his thing so we'll see how that goes.

I liked it. I'm intrigued and think it was a good first episode.

 

No they shouldn’t. But using the word woke automatically disqualifies any points you were trying to make. There are real reasons one could dislike the show. But I do think that most people who have rated it on IMBD or RT have not seen it

 

I really enjoy seeing leads/main characters in Star Wars with pronounced accents other than English and American e.g. Andor. It just makes Star Wars seem a bit more cosmopolitan to me.

in terms of Carrie Ann Moss. I think everyone knew she was going to die… (another leek that was on the money) so I was a bit bummed that I couldn’t be ‘shocked’ by that moment, but I appreciated the effort to discombobulate the audience.

 

The Jedi ship taking off from Coruscant felt like it was lifted straight out of Ko/TOR with how it was framed, paced, and scored

 

I liked it how everything reminded me of Ko/TOR a bit. They have used a lot of same visual style to High Republic. In fact these new Live action TV shows/movies have a lot similarities to TOR game. They follow similar storylines like Bounty Hunter (Mandalorian and BoBF), Smuggler(Solo movie), Agent(Andor more or less), Jedi Consular (Ahsoka and this), Jedi Knight (Obi-Wan), Inquisitor (Obi-Wan in regard to Reva and this) and this too as Sith acolyte is much like storyline from the dark side. Then we should have Sith Warrior and Republic soldier too. Even though to certain extent Bad Batch was about Republic soldiers for sure but it was not live action. Andor too had story of rebel soldiers in a way with Aldhani storyline though. Anyway I think they have taken inspiration from games and Expanded Universe which is just good I guess.

 

Agreed. I think it adds greatly to the worldbuilding. Everyone sounding American or British or whatever flattens the galaxy too much. In fact, I wish Vernestra had another accent for that reason. There’s something about that standard American accent that says “not a Jedi” to me. But all good. Variety is key. And Lucasfilm has given us a good amount of that, including with regards to accents.

 

One of the common complaints of past and current D+ SW shows is that they are tooo sloww. It looks like somebody finally got the memo. It feels like we're back on track.
Also, they managed to create moments that are not only visually almost identical to the Republic-era SW films, but there are constant recognisable sound effects, familiar-sounding dialogue, and brief music cues, that when combined evoke multiple specific moments from the classic films. It's almost like the soundtrack is based on a temp track consisting of passages of music from the original six. Someone really is trying to capture the rhythms of Star Wars, and it's starting to work.
I have to admit, the conspicuously "no white guys" type casting had me cautious, but the cast is very good, and the story and characters feel genuine, not in the least bit fabricated, preachy, or condescending. Which is, a big relief. Hopefully, this can last a full season or more without jumping any sharks.

 

I like it a lot, but it went too hard in the “fast” direction. Things happen far too quickly without enough buildup. I’d like it more if the episodes had another ten minutes or so to breathe.