'Obi-Wan Kenobi' – Episodes One and Two.


Sorry, this post was meant to be up a lot earlier but I hit the 'perfect storm' of having to sort all my work out (I'm on leave next week) and having a big ol' hangover all at the same time. Not the best day to be me then (although I would absolutely do last night again, I don't regret it at all...) but I got there, eventually, and I've had a bit of time to get caught up with 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' as well. So... Here we are :o)

Disney+ has got into a good routine of alternating between Marvel and Star Wars and it's given me loads of both for my money so I can't complain. I wasn't sure what to expect from 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' though... Before I started watching, it felt like one of those shows where you wonder what the point of it is. 'Old Ben' lived out beyond the Dune Sea and then Darth Vader kills him in 'A New Hope', do we really need to fill in that backstory? And then I watched it and realised that yes, we really need that story. And I'll tell you why in a sec. Before that though, here's your standard 'No Re-Caps Here' announcement. If you want any of that, Tor is the place to visit. That means probable spoilers here by the way, just so you know.

If you're still here, lets go...

I love these little glimpses the Star Wars TV shows are given us into the shadowy depths and darkness that we never got to see in the movies, And there's nowhere as dark as the inside of Ben Kenobi's head, experiencing massive personal loss as well as the loss of everything that he had based his life on. And if that wasn't enough, Ben is looking losing access to the whole reason that he has got for living, Luke Skywalker. He is a beaten man then and Ewan McGregor doesn't pull any punches showing us what that means. It's powerful stuff and that's before you even get to the Inquisitors who are trying to track him down. Is there anything that can give our man a little purpose again?

Well it just so happens that Princess Leia has been kidnapped and ol' Ben is the only person who can save her...

This of course leads to the kind of bounty hunter/Jedi action that all Star Wars shows are famous for and it's no different here in terms of the action and spectacle. What I'm about though is the relatioship that immediately starts to grown between Ben and Leia (and Vivien Lyra Blair is damn near perfect in the role by the way, seriously), offering a potential way forward for Leia along with a potential way out of the abyss for Ben. I'm pretty sure that they won't just go straight back to Alderaan, next week, so I'm really looking forward to seeing this partnership (because that's exactly what it is) develop.

I'm not too sure about Third Sister/Reva Sevander though. Nothing wrong with the character (Moses Ingram does brilliantly with not a lot to go on) but it just feels like, after the opening scenes (which are intense, damn...), her backstory/motives are a little too obvious for me. I'm hoping to be proved wrong but... we'll see.

Not a bad couple of opening episodes all in all then (albeit with some tiny reservations). I'll definitely be back for more of the same next week :o)

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