Not a flicker of nostalgia for those unrepentantly living in the real world, Kenobi is the latest piece of Disney fluff hoping to engage with and cash out on the childhoods of millions. Well played. Knowing the audience is half the battle, the other half is making space in the wallet for the cash flow still to come. At what stage does creative indifference start impacting the production of action figures and bedspreads? Didn’t everyone have a Star Wars blanket at some stage? The words and critical thoughts of Mark Ruffalo would hold water had he not swung through the vineyard of more oversized, duller products. His scathing analysis of similarities found in the new era of Star Wars is understandable and even somewhat accurate, but is mired by his defence of Marvel, Disney’s other cash cow. Still, only one of these projects has Ewan McGregor.
As grand a return it is for the Obi-Wan Kenobi actor, it is also an entirely forgettable one. A miniseries mired by having to fill in the gaps between projects that know the impact and outcome of the character he portrays. Better Call Saul encountered this issue but manoeuvred around it with smart writing, a sophisticated cast with an array of newcomers and a study of how a character can change to fit the new mould. But Kenobi has none of that. It has the same special effects and explosive action, the usual back and forth expected of a series pulling no punches and hoping its audience will find appeal or comfort in the common denominators. A twist here, a cameo there, and it all feels a bit frigid. A bit unconcerned with itself.
Half the characters are sourced straight from the backlog of Star Wars ideas and the other half look like they’re ripped straight from the original Star Trek series. Aliens with little design beyond black hobs over ears or silly little hats. Kenobi is changed from the uplifting spirit of optimism to a shyster looking to avoid his greatness and soon has it rekindled. Inevitable. Unexplored. Dull. Those are just a few pointers for where McGregor can take this leaky plot and the uneventful characters that come through for this journey. Tremendously simple choreography and direction make the rounds just as simply and unfortunately as most other miniseries that are trying to suction out little flickers of life from an otherwise dead idea. Kenobi has the good graces to make it obvious, never hiding its hatred.
Audiences, presumably, do not want quality. They just want explosions to ogle, characters to reap nostalgia from and storylines simple enough to follow while they browse Twitter threads of the latest episode on their phone. Well done Kenobi for appealing to the right market. An echo chamber for the obsessive Star Wars nerd, giving detail to backstories that didn’t need it, new roles to actors who needed a project to tide them over to the next season of blockbusters and a universe that has crumbled the more it expands. All it takes is a vague face or call back to something that has grown in popularity, and the algorithm makes it so. Six episodes of events occur in the right order. At least that goes down smooth enough.
