SPOILER: The Acolyte -- Disney+ Star Wars -- begins June 5, 2024

[Phroobar]

I think this illustrates one flaw of the series, that it seems better suited to a binge watch or a shorter episode count with longer episodes.

The Mandalorian works as a TV series because each week has its' own adventure while still having an overarching story.

This feels a bit more like a movie or mini series split up a bit too much.

Mando was nice because he had his large quest but then had a number of side quests to do just like a JRPG. It fits perfectly for episodes.

This one is suppose to be a mystery that keeps leaving stupid clues and the suspects keep contradicting themselves. The master better be Jar Jar.

 

[Disney Irish]

I think this illustrates one flaw of the series, that it seems better suited to a binge watch or a shorter episode count with longer episodes.

The Mandalorian works as a TV series because each week has its' own adventure while still having an overarching story.

This feels a bit more like a movie or mini series split up a bit too much.

Whats funny is that most I think have forgotten what a mini-series is and how it works.

Growing up my parents favorite mini-series from the 80s were "North and South" and "Lonesome Dove", my parents were into period pieces. Anyways we'd watch and every week they'd leave you on a cliffhanger. You didn't get things wrapped up until the end of the mini-series. And you'd even have filler episodes that didn't add much to the story, but you'd still watch anyways.

Now maybe Acolyte might have done better as a movie, dunno. But to me this is a mini-series like the old days, maybe modern audiences aren't used to this format anymore.

 

[CinematicFusion]

Whats funny is that most I think have forgotten what a mini-series is and how it works.

Growing up my parents favorite mini-series from the 80s were "North and South" and "Lonesome Dove", my parents were into period pieces. Anyways we'd watch and every week they'd leave you on a cliffhanger. You didn't get things wrapped up until the end of the mini-series. And you'd even have filler episodes that didn't add much to the story, but you'd still watch anyways.

Now maybe Acolyte might have done better as a movie, dunno. But to me this is a mini-series like the old days, maybe modern audiences aren't used to this format anymore.

Those two series are all time classics.
Acolyte isn’t in the same universe as those two series.
Maybe V: The Final Battle…. But not the first V.

 

[erasure fan1]

Anyways we'd watch and every week they'd leave you on a cliffhanger. You didn't get things wrapped up until the end of the mini-series. And you'd even have filler episodes that didn't add much to the story, but you'd still watch anyways.

I personally don't think it's the format that's the issue. If it's done well, engaging story, well written, likeable characters... Most won't have a problem.

Now maybe Acolyte might have done better as a movie, dunno. But to me this is a mini-series like the old days, maybe modern audiences aren't used to this format anymore.

I would say Andor and the Acolyte would have benefited from a binge format. I don't think a movie necessarily, but being able to watch it in larger blocks would be better. I would say Andor would have worked better releasing it as it was shot, in 3 parts. Acolyte is hard to say since it's not done yet. From what I've seen so far this would probably work better that way as well.

As far as the audience not used to the format goes. Did anyone ever really like it? I know back in the day I wasn't all that fond of it, you just didn't have any other options. Personally I think it all boils down to something simple. If it's good, people don't care, because it gives time for "water cooler conversation". If it's just average or worse, people would just rather get it completed quickly. I actually think more people would complete something meh if it's a binge rather than week to week. And yes, it's my very unscientific opinion.

 

[Disney Irish]

Those two series are all time classics.
Acolyte isn’t in the same universe as those two series.
Maybe V: The Final Battle…. But not the first V.

You misunderstand, I'm not saying Acolyte is the same as those two mini-series. I'm just giving my own personal experience of two mini-series that were around when I was younger. And how Acolyte reminds me of the mini-series experience from back in the day.

The take away is that I feel modern audiences aren't used to the mini-series format anymore. They have been spoiled by the binge model and other quick gratification formats that have become common over the last 20 years.

 

[Disney Irish]

I personally don't think it's the format that's the issue. If it's done well, engaging story, well written, likeable characters... Most won't have a problem.

I would say Andor and the Acolyte would have benefited from a binge format. I don't think a movie necessarily, but being able to watch it in larger blocks would be better. I would say Andor would have worked better releasing it as it was shot, in 3 parts. Acolyte is hard to say since it's not done yet. From what I've seen so far this would probably work better that way as well.

As far as the audience not used to the format goes. Did anyone ever really like it? I know back in the day I wasn't all that fond of it, you just didn't have any other options. Personally I think it all boils down to something simple. If it's good, people don't care, because it gives time for "water cooler conversation". If it's just average or worse, people would just rather get it completed quickly. I actually think more people would complete something meh if it's a binge rather than week to week. And yes, it's my very unscientific opinion.

As I was just saying, I think the audience has become spoiled by the binge model. Up until streaming and internet shows the audience had to wait and be left with cliff hangers and other story arcs that weren't wrapped up until the next week or maybe not even until the end of the season. This was even more true with the old mini-series model, as you they had to keep you coming back to finish the series.

I guess I'm just more tolerant of episodic mini-series than other viewers as I've been through it from the 70s through the early 00s, ie I haven't been completely spoiled by the binge model. Just my point of view.

 

[BrianLo]

Mando was nice because he had his large quest but then had a number of side quests to do just like a JRPG. It fits perfectly for episodes.

Mando is the Heroes Journey arch. Which obviously works in this franchise. Maybe that is all Star Wars is capable of doing? I dunno.

But I appreciate they are trying other narrative conceits.

 

[CinematicFusion]

You misunderstand, I'm not saying Acolyte is the same as those two mini-series. I'm just giving my own personal experience of two mini-series that were around when I was younger. And how Acolyte reminds me of the mini-series experience from back in the day.

The take away is that I feel modern audiences aren't used to the mini-series format anymore. They have been spoiled by the binge model and other quick gratification formats that have become common over the last 20 years.

The Queens Gambit was a very good miniseries

 

[Tha Realest]

do they? I don't think i've ever seen ad with a RT score in it. The question is does a RT score actually effect the performane of a show or movie. I'd say probably not seeing as plenty of RT bombs even with low user scores still go on to be huge hits.

RT scores? All the time. RT audience scores? Hardly ever.

The only time I recall seeing that in an ad was for Black Adam. And we know how that went.

 

[erasure fan1]

There was really no reason to have ep4 & 5 two episodes. It would have been much better as one longer episode. It still wouldn't have been an hour. They wanted an extra episode at the expense of storytelling.

This was the best of the episodes so far. I really hope there's something bigger going on and all they're doing is just fake out stuff. Who the sith was, very predictable. And they even tried to fake you out with, my the mom could do that line. I feel like they're trying to be clever but they're just not very good at it. I'm guessing next episode is where Yoda gets involved. There's too many dead Jedi for that not to happen.

 

[MarvelCharacterNerd]

This one was the least interesting for me so far. But I'll stick with it and see where it goes. Waiting to find out how Sol was involved with the fire that killed the family along with the Jedi who killed himself out of guilt.

 

[Ghost93]

I had been enjoying the show so far but thought episode 5 was the weakest so far. The dialogue and acting and the twists and turns all felt so stilted and unnatural. I'm also so OVER the sibling feud between Osha and Mei.

 

[Wendy Pleakley]

This episode delivered a big payoff just in terms of tons of Star Wars action.

Always fun to see something new, like using a force pull to impale a second Jedi onto a lightsaber.

The amount of violence and death was almost jarring.

The villain reveal though? I vaguely recognized him but honestly have no memory of the character. The reveal felt flat. Did they not establish him enough prior or was it just me?

That point speaks to my earlier comment about this not being paced well for a TV series. If I could binge this or they did longer episodes the character might be fresher in my mind.

 

[mysto]

The Queens Gambit was a very good miniseries

Yes! It was based on literature.

Imagine an aspiring novelist spending 5-10 years writing for a franchise a large corporation already owns all the rights to. No, I can't imagine it.

Unless corporations are willing to overpay the writers the way they overpay the pretty faces this isn't going to change. Seek outside of established franchises. Even with good miniseries, the first season is often the best.

And seriously, I'm not diminishing the contribution of the actors in the Queen's Gambit. Joy was fantastic.

 

[MoonRakerSCM]

I contend this can indeed be poorly written. But one of the Jedi kills himself, pedantically. Something is going on that we don’t have the full picture on yet.

Either these things will add up or the series is poor, which is why I think we’re kind of stuck wondering if the mystery sticks the landing or not. Whenever that’s fully unveiled.

I kept telling myself that during Willow... and that went so badly that you can't even watch it anymore.

 

[BrianLo]

The villain reveal though? I vaguely recognized him but honestly have no memory of the character. The reveal felt flat. Did they not establish him enough prior or was it just me?

That might have been you? He's been in several episodes now and had a ton of dialogue with all the players. Maybe because I know the actor, I kind of figured it was him once you could more visibly see his arms.

He was the top two pick for who we suspected it would be next to their mother.

 

[BrianLo]

I think that was a good episode, but I'm actually finding it kind of jarring how many people they've killed. I figured the extras, sure. But Dafne Keene and Yord? We suddenly went from an ensemble to not at all.

Even for a hot second they killed Pip. I looked it up and I guess it's TV 14-A, but I actually wasn't picking that up from the series until now.

 

[sedati]

In the words of the great Anakin Skywalker...

"Yippy!"

 

[C33Mom]

This was the best of the episodes so far. I really hope there's something bigger going on and all they're doing is just fake out stuff. Who the sith was, very predictable. And they even tried to fake you out with, my the mom could do that line. I feel like they're trying to be clever but they're just not very good at it.

I actually didn’t see it as a fake-out so much as a hint that the sith (apprentice? acolyte?) had some connection with the witch mothers— it sounded like a different kind of mind manipulation than the Jedi mind tricks to influence the weak-minded, like we saw happen to Torbin early on.

The show seems to be heavily suggesting that the Jedi did something awful to the witches, but I wonder if they just had their minds messed with by dopey-friend-turned-Sith guy or whomever trained him. He said tonight he had to kill everyone who discovers his identity, so maybe he had a reason for disposing of the witches but convinced the Jedi to blame themselves? My theory is that Sith were on that remote planet, hatching something with some of the witches, but obviously something bad happened and we know that Sol and his crew didn’t actually properly document important facts (like Mae’s existence) in the incident recap.

Finally, it’s suggested that Osha was brainwashed by the Jedi…but in this episode Mae acts just like we saw in Osha’s memory— weirdly obsessive and violent.

 

[lazyboy97o]

The villain reveal though? I vaguely recognized him but honestly have no memory of the character. The reveal felt flat. Did they not establish him enough prior or was it just me?

He made her the poison. It was through him that Osha and the Jedi found Mae. Then he was with Mae for most of the previous episode. They spent the whole time talking about her training and decision to abandon it.

I actually didn’t see it as a fake-out so much as a hint that the sith (apprentice? acolyte?) had some connection with the witch mothers

He says he wants a pupil which suggests he might still have a master out there.