Main cast: Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi), Rupert Friend (The Grand Inquisitor), Sung Kang (The Fifth Brother), Moses Ingram (Inquisitor Reva), Benny Safdie (Nari), Joel Edgerton (Owen Lars), Bonnie Piesse (Beru Lars), Simone Kessell (Breha Organa), Vivien Lyra Blair (Leia Organa), Flea (Vect Nokru), and Jimmy Smits (Senator Bail Organa)
Director: Deborah Chow

Wait, wasn’t this show initially announced as a movie called Kenobi a few years ago? I suppose those people decided, in their infinite wisdom, it’s probably best to just pop this one as a series in Disney+.

I’m not even sure why we need a show for a bloke that is already dead, his greatest story already told and concluded in the original trilogy, but I kind of admire the “We’re with Disney so bitches, we can do as we please!” hubris that led to this show being completely canon-breaking and rewriting established lore just because they need to fill the Disney+ slots with some kind of turd, any kind will do.

Part I kicks off with a “the story so far” montage made up of key moments from the prequel trilogy, reminding everyone that the current Disney regime did what most people thought would be impossible—they made that prequel trilogy look fun, compared to the recent output.

Make no mistake, the prequel trilogy is pretty bad, but Anakin Skywalker would always be a greater missed opportunity and wasted potential than, say, the horse-faced what’s-his-name-again.

Now, I’m not saltier than crait, so I won’t be expounding endlessly on what breaks canon and what doesn’t when it comes to this show. I’ll make things simple for the sake of my sanity: for all purposes, I’ll treat this not as a Star Wars show, but a show featuring a character called Obi-Wut Kenobby.

It doesn’t matter in the long run, anyway, because the people behind this show made it clear that this show exists as an advertisement for Reva’s own show. So yes, once again, every Disney+ show is an advertisement for the next show.

So, after the events of Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith, Obi-Wut is a fugitive on Tatooine, stalking and spying on a young Luke Skywalker when he’s not having shaky sleeps haunted by dreams and such. Meanwhile, the Sith Scooby Gang of the Grand Inquisitor, Fifth Brother, and Third Sister Reva, are here to track down a bunch of runaway Jedi kids, and they are also intrigued by rumors that there is a fugitive Jedi in Mos Eisley.

Reva, who turns out to be an over-emotional and impulsive psycho, is obsessed with getting her hands on Obi-Wut.

Oh, and there’s also a young Leia that gets kidnapped, and guess who somewhat reluctantly goes to her rescue.

Part I is actually alright.

Yes, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth that the Disney people along with the media in their pockets preemptively launched an always-obnoxious “all the fans are racist” pogrom just as this show was released, claiming that Moses Ingram was the target of a hate campaign by racists, when nothing of that sort was actually happening.

I know Hollywood people believe that such a campaign would saturate social media and online search results with mentions of their products. Still, I personally find such “marketing campaign” distasteful as it draws the wrong kind of attention to the show and also makes out any legitimate criticism of the show to be racism in action.

Therefore, will I be accused of being a racist if I say that Reva really comes off as a psychotic idiot in this episode? I have zero opinion of Moses Ingram, as I haven’t seen her in anything else prior to this, but Reva is a horrible character. She’s supposed to be… an anti-hero, I guess, as we all know black women can’t be evil these days in Disney programming, but she seems to be running on empty when it comes to brainpower. Reva also has impulse control issues, and her instinctive reaction to everything is to charge and slaughter as many people as she can first, ask questions later.

Oh, and kiddie Leia. Child actors give me allergy reactions, and I’m afraid those in this episode aren’t the exception to the rule.

That aside, this is actually a well put-together episode. While Obi-Wut’s tortured hero shtick isn’t anything new and there is a very predictable arc shaping up for him in this episode, Mr McGregor puts on a solid performance to that character sympathetic and easy to root for.

Also, things are shaping up nicely here, building the stage for some pretty interesting, if not exactly original, events that will take place in the following episodes. Oh, and while I’m pretty sure they are reusing backdrops and set pieces from previous Disney+ Star Wars shows by now, the show looks good to the eyes. Unlike the MCU shows on Disney+, things don’t look progressively cheaper and tackier with each show they poop out onto the streaming service.

So, in the end, I am guardedly interested in watching more of this show. I suspect Reva is going to grate on my nerves a lot if she didn’t get her act together soon, however, so I’m also tad wary about the coming episodes. I guess I’ll find out soon enough what this thing will be like. So far, this episode alone is far more interesting than the first four episodes of The Book of Boba Fett!