The problem is with the runtime of the show. Therefore anything that isn't pushing the show forward feels like a waste of time. For me anyway, I feel like there has been a lot of filler for 26/27min episodes. Is it a big issue? I think that's still TBD. If they sprint through the ending and leave a bunch of hanging threads that are relevant to this season. Then it's a big problem because there was plenty of room to cut for the more important stuff.
Fast is fine and yes, Andor suffered from not having enough of the fast paced star wars to balance the slower parts. I'd say the big difference between the acolyte and andor is this. Andors "slow" was really building to the overall story where as Acolyte a lot of it I'd consider filler.
Correct. Andor had a story. Acolyte suffered from no story and/or bad editing and pacing.
How can it end in a cliff hanger with no season 2?
Agreed, it's been the issue with the show this whole season. This episode was a complete waste of time. Sure we learned a couple things but it was nothing that couldn't have been put in the earlier episode. They basically made us watch the same episode twice. Sure the wookie fight was cool. But I don't think they really accomplished what they were trying to accomplish. Maybe Sol has a reason to question himself but Kelnacca and Torbin have nothing really to feel they did wrong. They both were possessed by the witches so it's not like they could help what they did. A better solution would have been to limit the flashbacks to the new information that was most important to the story. That way you could still move things forward while answering the questions from that encounter. The sad thing is we've now spent two whole episodes and yet we still don't have all the information. We will need another flashback or information dump to complete what happened. There's so much wasted potential in this show. You can really tell there's a lot of inexperience working on it.
There's likely 3 ways this ends. A cliffhanger like you said. They rush through the last episode making it completely unsatisfying. Or we get a 60+ min episode to neatly tie everything important up. A zebra doesn't change it's stripes so I'm not putting my money on the 3rd option. I think we see a rushed ending, it's a D+ series signature. I would think cliffhanger if they had officially greenlit season 2. But as of a week or two ago it's just speculation from what I see.
I get it!!
The show runner confirmed the other day that they're setting up the story to have a second season. And she probably has greater knowledge on these internal affairs with season renewals than the public does. In particular, she said much of Qimir's backstory won't be revealed until season 2. Same for the reason why cortosis doesn't exist in the modern era. She also said there will be four to five major mysteries and plots that would be left hanging for the second season to cover.
screenrant.com
I am not advocating that they should have revealed all of this early in the series. I am of the opinion that episode 3 shouldn't have existed at all as an entire episode. It's mostly terrible, with most of its important stuff having been retread in episode 7. I advocate they should have cut like 95% of episode 3 entirely and just have its important bits be conveyed through episode 7. Still leaves all of the "twists" for later on, but would snip some of the worst scenes out of the show.
That’s a lot of guessing.The show runner confirmed the other day that they're setting up the story to have a second season. And she probably has greater knowledge on these internal affairs with season renewals than the public does. In particular, she said much of Qimir's backstory won't be revealed until season 2. Same for the reason why cortosis doesn't exist in the modern era. She also said there will be four to five major mysteries and plots that would be left hanging for the second season to cover.
I think a season 2 is likely. Acolyte is the second worst performing Star Wars live action show. However, according to Nielsen ratings, Acolyte's premier still beat Andor's in terms of total minutes watched by a considerable amount. 208 million for Andor versus 244 million for Acolyte. Even Andor still got a season 2.
Is The Acolyte A Success? Viewership & Rotten Tomatoes Score Explained
How is The Acolyte performing?
Keep in mind that Andor also had a significantly higher budget than Acolyte. So relatively speaking, Acolyte is probably considered quite a bit more of a success than Andor. Even if it had a drop-off in views during episodes 2-4, I'm guessing Episode 5 was a substantial boost.
None of what I said is guesswork, it's hard factual data. Disney does not care about critic and audience reception. They care about views and profit. I don't personally think this is a good thing or should be used as a measure for whether a series should be continued, but it is the reality of how things work. It is an objective fact that the series is financially outperforming Andor.
Almost no one likes Ep3 dude. Even fans of the show generally hate it and consider it some of the worst content in Disney canon. I was one of the more open minded about this series and didn't mind the first two episodes, but even I think Ep3 is awful. You're one of the only people i've seen who likes it. Your opinion of course and you're entitled to it, but lets not pretend that many others will agree with you.
I think some people forget, its about the journey not the destination. If you just skip all the details to get to the end as fast as possible there is no payoff.