Obi-Wan Kenobi Part III Review (Patreon)

To say this was better than most Star Wars movies isn't the compliment it sounds like, given that most Star Wars movies are The Phantom Menace or Solo or The Rise of Skywalker. It's still rough in the way a corporate streaming show with multiple creative visions is doomed to be. But Part III of Obi-Wan Kenobi is not only 80% functional, but the functional bits are properly brilliant television that intelligently execute some of Star Wars' most important unasked questions.

Much of this comes down to director Deborah Chow, who understands geography and space better than any Star Wars director since Rian Johnson. She combines crannies and open spaces in ways that truly enhance the show's drama. The deliciously awful scene where Vader gratuitously slaughters villagers brilliantly combines claustrophobia and spaciousness.

That scene gets to the heart of why this episode works so well. Obi-Wan Kenobi marks the first time we've seen what life under the Empire is like for civilians, and it's properly awful. The refugee thread in Part II gets picked up and elaborated on fully here. Obi-Wan and Leia's trek across Mapuzo is unlike anything Star Wars has done before: two pop culture icons forced to be anonymous refugees from a fascist regime. And the story does push a narrative about how fleeing from the law destroys identity and forces anonymity, and that such brutal conditions does form strong social bonds.

The choice fits the characters surprisingly well. Rather than rehashing Star Wars' endless obsessions with patriarchal iconography, it looks at the social context of its characters, who are all emotionally in different places. It's dramatic in a way Star Wars hasn't been since, again, The Last Jedi, and has a political gravitas even that movie lacked.

Part III lacks The Last Jedi's sheer narrative savvy of course (nobody can plot a movie like Rian Johnson). Despite Moses Ingram's best efforts, Reva as a villain is relegated to the Anakin/Kylo Ren paradigm of petulant apprentice desperate for more power. The bits about the Inquisitors just aren't as interesting as everything else around them, and one feels a show more geared towards Obi-Wan and Leia's relationship would be stronger.

We can't talk about villains without addressing Darth Vader's return. Or more importantly, the fact that Hayden Christensen is playing Vader again. That Christensen was the weakest actor in a poorly cast trilogy is well-known: bringing him back was always going to run the risk of incurring fan wrath (not that fans' feelings, or indeed lives, matter). So having him swagger around in the suit and look menacing is a wise call. Giving him gleefully sadistic moments like his attempt to contrapasso Obi-Wan with fire boosts his profile even more.

The sense that each character is in a different place emotionally helps the show too. Obi-Wan is at his nadir, while Vader is never more powerful. Their duel halfway through should be stupid and undermine A New Hope's already tepid sword-bashing sequence, and yet the drastic difference between this and the Mustafar and Death Star duels does it a massive favor.

So yeah. This ruled. I kinda loved it. It was intelligent and political and sad in ways Star Wars doesn't allow itself to be very often. Bar none, it's the best Star Wars TV show I've ever seen. Certainly Obi-Wan Kenobi isn't the show the world needs right now, but it's the best case scenario for an extraneous spinoff. Turns out casting Ewan McGregor is a quick path to making a good TV show.