'Obi-Wan Kenobi' is a six episode limited series set in the Star Wars universe 10 years after the events of the 'Star Wars: Episode III' film. It follows the titular Ben Kenobi as he has secrets himself on Tatooine to monitor the raising of young Luke Skywalker in an attempt to ensure the child stays off the Empire's radar. Ewan McGregor who is Kenobi in the prequel trilogy reprises his role in this series. Other returning cast members include Jimmy Smits as Bail Organa and Hayden Christensen as Darth Vader. Deborah Chow, who directed 2 episodes of the first season of 'The Mandalorian', directs the entire season of 'Obi-Wan Kenobi'.
As stated 'Kenobi' picks up with Ben hiding in the desert on Tatooine while Luke is being raised by his aunt and uncle. Obi-Wan remains haunted by Order 66, in which most of the Jedi were killed, as well as the betrayal by his former student Anakin Skywalker. The Empire shows up on Tatooine hunting Jedi and they find one albeit not Kenobi himself at first. One particular member of the Inquistors named Reva seems to have a grudge and is seeking the elusive Obi-Wan Kenobi for some unknown reason. Despite admonishment from her supervision Reva continues to hunt Kenobi and orchestrates the kidnapping of Princess Leia Organa to draw him out of hiding. The balance of the middle episodes involve Obi-Wan trying to remain off the radar yet still recover the kidnapped Princess Leia. This leads to a showdown not only with Inquisitor Reva, but with Darth Vader himself. The whole time Kenobi is struggling with his connection to the force which makes fighting all these Empire enemies problematic. In the final act Reva finds out about Luke and heads to Tatooine for that child only to encounter more resistance than she anticipates, but her own worst enemy winds up being herself. Kenobi is able to track down Leia as well as foil the best laid plans of both Reva and Vader.
The plot of this show is tough to execute because, as these showrunners go back and elaborate on events that occur between the prequels and the original 'Star Wars' trilogy, you have to make sure everything still makes sense. On the good side there are a lot of lost years with Kenobi to work with to make a story, however, it becomes problematic using Luke & Leia when neither ever reference any grand events with Kenobi prior to events in 'Star Wars'. They try to do that dance and make it work for the most part. What we really tune in here for is additional showdowns between Vader and Kenobi which we get finally. They fumble around it for the majority of the show as Kenobi has limited force access to start and is in hiding so runs more than he fights. The final showdown is cool but still lacks the wow factor of some of the better Star Wars universe lightsaber sequences. Reva was a completely botched villain in my opinion. The secret of who she is was pretty easy to discern, and her plans throughout the show are bizarrely complex, and then, along with that, the portion where she goes after Luke at the end makes less than no sense. While it was satisfying to see some Kenobi/Vader action it didn't really live up to how good it should have been, and most of the other characters and plotlines were generally weak. That said it was still nice just to be immersed back in the Star Wars world, and see McGregor back in this role, even if this endeavor fell short in many respects.
Overall: C+
As stated 'Kenobi' picks up with Ben hiding in the desert on Tatooine while Luke is being raised by his aunt and uncle. Obi-Wan remains haunted by Order 66, in which most of the Jedi were killed, as well as the betrayal by his former student Anakin Skywalker. The Empire shows up on Tatooine hunting Jedi and they find one albeit not Kenobi himself at first. One particular member of the Inquistors named Reva seems to have a grudge and is seeking the elusive Obi-Wan Kenobi for some unknown reason. Despite admonishment from her supervision Reva continues to hunt Kenobi and orchestrates the kidnapping of Princess Leia Organa to draw him out of hiding. The balance of the middle episodes involve Obi-Wan trying to remain off the radar yet still recover the kidnapped Princess Leia. This leads to a showdown not only with Inquisitor Reva, but with Darth Vader himself. The whole time Kenobi is struggling with his connection to the force which makes fighting all these Empire enemies problematic. In the final act Reva finds out about Luke and heads to Tatooine for that child only to encounter more resistance than she anticipates, but her own worst enemy winds up being herself. Kenobi is able to track down Leia as well as foil the best laid plans of both Reva and Vader.
The plot of this show is tough to execute because, as these showrunners go back and elaborate on events that occur between the prequels and the original 'Star Wars' trilogy, you have to make sure everything still makes sense. On the good side there are a lot of lost years with Kenobi to work with to make a story, however, it becomes problematic using Luke & Leia when neither ever reference any grand events with Kenobi prior to events in 'Star Wars'. They try to do that dance and make it work for the most part. What we really tune in here for is additional showdowns between Vader and Kenobi which we get finally. They fumble around it for the majority of the show as Kenobi has limited force access to start and is in hiding so runs more than he fights. The final showdown is cool but still lacks the wow factor of some of the better Star Wars universe lightsaber sequences. Reva was a completely botched villain in my opinion. The secret of who she is was pretty easy to discern, and her plans throughout the show are bizarrely complex, and then, along with that, the portion where she goes after Luke at the end makes less than no sense. While it was satisfying to see some Kenobi/Vader action it didn't really live up to how good it should have been, and most of the other characters and plotlines were generally weak. That said it was still nice just to be immersed back in the Star Wars world, and see McGregor back in this role, even if this endeavor fell short in many respects.
Overall: C+