Andrew Gaunt

It looks cheap and it sounds cheap. The writing is clunky and cliche, while the sets look entirely too full of CGI. It would have been better just to animate the whole thing a la "Clone Wars"/"Bad Batch." The costumes look lame compared to the prequels in the same way "Rings of Power" costumes look lame compared to The Lord of the Rings. There's no excuse for that. Humanoid alien races look like humans with face paint. In a world where we have Gamora and Nebula in the MCU, or even Ahsoka and Hera from "Ahsoka," there's no way characters should come out looking like it's a high school production with a mediocre budget. The plot isn't bad, but it isn't good. It doesn't help that the only fight scene in the first episode was as poorly done as anything in the sequel trilogy and still falls woefully short of anything the prequels, originals, or animated series shot. Characters can't make a single logical decision, which appears to be required so that the plot can move forward, and it's frustrating to watch. I didn't want to watch a show about how incompetent and idiotic all the Jedi are, yet here we are. This is, by far, the most disappointing live action Star Wars project Disney has put out. There are some solid pieces to the show. For one thing, Amandla Stenberg does a decent job playing diametrically opposed twins (Osha and Mae). Lee Jung-jae is also solid as Master Sol, though he has some of the most poorly written lines to deliver. Both have received criticisms for their acting, but it's hard to know how much of the issue is acting skills and how much of it bad dialogue. I lean toward the latter. The idea of a murder mystery is exciting, even if it's set up with no real tension or suspense. Carrie-Ann Moss's Master Indara was also solid, exemplifying the Jedi's defensive fighting style perfectly, even if that fight felt like something straight out of The Matrix, if The Matrix was made by high school seniors. It's also a show that gives fans a look at the Old Republic era, which is fun to see. At the same time, it's also disappointing because of how much potential you can see in it, and how much isn't going to be reached. There are reviews comparing this show to "Andor," but in terms of set, plot, costume design, and (most importantly) writing, it is not near to hitting the bar that "Andor" set.