I'm exhausted. This tension, the politics, the intrigue, even to the last second. So much is happening in this episode. So much concealed under such elegant garments.
In one way I look forward to the finale next week, however I'm not sure how they are going to fit what I was anticipating to be in this episode into the last, unless it is a 3hr episode, but I think it won't be such.
The other way I'm looking forward to the finale, is I no longer will need to invest all my emotion and attention in this concentration of spectacle and the craft of each Actor performing to perfection their role, and appreciating each word, glance, and interaction with their counterparts in such a magnificent, stunning location.
I'll be ready for this finale but until then I'll be soaking in what I've watched today. What a pleasure it is to witness what the Arts can deliver if given a proper opportunity.
Thank you to the Creators, Actors, Crew, and Those That have painstakingly brought this masterpiece to us.
The conundrum has set in... I desperately want to see the last episode now, but I don't want it to be the last show. 10/10
"Why tell a deadman the future?"
I couldn't have asked for a more fitting finale for this "piece of an art" mini-series. The bar was set high. It could've been either like the GoT finale or Breaking Bad finale. So glad they stayed consistent from start to finish. Undoubtedly, this ranks among the greatest miniseries ever produced.
Many people may be dissatisfied with the finale if they expected to watch an all-out war, which contradicts the entire idea of the show.
The secrets of Vaults 31-32-33 are so far the most interesting thing going on, which is pretty on par with how exploring vaults in the games is some of the most interesting thing to do.
I'm convinced none of you know what 'filler' actually means, this episode was a banger, not the best episode but a certified banger still. Got context for Lady Ochiba, more romance between Blackthorne & Mariko (their chemistry is actually very strong), more behind the scenes politics with the council and a great set up for 'Crimson Sky'. Another great episode!
It's so hard to heap enough praise on this show and do it justice. The complexity of the story, the beauty of the land. The cinematography, direction, acting from the stars to the extras, and crew giving 100% to the production of this masterpiece, it's such a pleasure to watch.
Such a beautifully told story.
I don't know if it's the actress, the character, or both, but "Auggy" is the most obnoxious and irritating character I've seen in quite a while. Tiresome af, tarnishes any scene she's in.
This episode broke me. Masterful episode!
The score when Lucy saw the NCR flag… chills! I have nothing against Ramin Djawadi, he really know how to make a great score, but the show is very much missing out without the ambient music made by the dudes who composed the games.
This sucked. The rest of the season better be better.... I love Ncuti. And have been super excited even after the dismal Ruby Road troll thing. But this was both disgusting and too childish. Maybe Disney involvement is ruining the messaging that Whovians are accustomed to. This came off as made for children rather than the fan base. I hope it gets better.
Maximus would’ve known to never leave your power armor if he had had any experience with settlements:joy:
A giant fucking spider?!?! literally anything in the universe and you had to pick a giant fucking spider.
The fifa logo for the banner :skull::skull:
UPDATE 3/18 6:50 PM EST: they finally updated it :joy:
[8.5/10] Well, if you want to get my attention with a new Star Wars show, kicking things off with a badass wire-fu fight with none other than Trinity herself, Carrie-Anne Moss, as a Jedi Master, will absolutely do it!
What a breath of fresh air this is! From that action-packed opening sequence, The Acolyte grabs your attention with verve and character. There are lived in touches, a sense of mystery and excitement, and most of all an immediate whiff of who every major character is and what they mean to the story. It’s easier to set up interesting things than it is to pay them off, but if this first hour is any indication, it’s going to be easy to be along for the ride.
I cannot say enough good things about the opening sequence. Maybe I’m a sucker, but so much modern action, including in Star Wars media of recent vintage, is chopped up all to hell in the editing bay. That kind of choice neuters the impact of the fights for me. So taking a cue from Moss’ turn in The Matrix and not only embracing those wire fu influences, but letting us see the fight in longer shots and a more measured pace and cinematography really lights my fire.
Plus man, for all of the Japanese cinema influences in Star Wars, I’m not sure we’ve ever gotten a legitimate kung fu fight on screen in the franchise. (“The Duel” from Star Wars: Visions has a bit of that, and I guess we get brief glimpses of Qi’ra from Solo doing a bit of martial arts as well.) The frantic motion of Mae and the more measured movements of Indara’s response help sell the difference between one who’s still learning and full of emotion versus a centered master. The fight itself is glorious, with well-staged action and strong visual storytelling and choreography. And the clincher -- that Indara falls not from mistake or being bested in combat, but from saving an innocent, makes her a noble and tragic figure, while justifying how this skilled but comparative amateur could take her down.
And that's just the opening scene! Dayenu -- it would have been enough.
From there, the episode splits into two story threads that eventually intersect: Osha, a former padawan being questioned and detained for the murder, and Sol, her former master, deciding to track her down. Both stories work, and the place they weave together is especially meaningful.
I appreciate the twist here. The show does a good job of suckering you into thinking that Osha committed this crime on her day off from being a “mechnik”. She has the ability, given her former training. She has the reason for resentment, having seemingly been expelled from the order thanks to Master Indara. And she has a tortured past, of great loss of her family that, as we saw with Anakin, can lead a young force-sensitive person to some inner demons. So it’s entirely plausible, even expected, that she’s the one going toe-to-toe with Indara in the opening.
I’m not always a fan of big twists, but I appreciate the reveal that it was, in fact, her twin sister who went against Indara for a few reasons. One, it’s meaningful for Osha. To learn that the sister she thought was long dead is still out there and assassinating her former allies leads to complex emotions. For another, it portends an intriguing opportunity for “for want of a nail” storytelling, showing where the different paths of daughters from the same family led them.
Most of all, it puts is in the position of Master Sol and the other Jedi, being intuitively sympathetic to this young woman who seems friendly, funny, and earnest, while wondering if the difficult things she’s been through have caught up to her in some way. Playing with the audience’s sympathies and expectations like that, to connect them to the characters’ perspectives, is the right way to use a twist, instead of just using a reveal for shock value.
Osha’s misadventures along the way are fun and sympathetic. I love the sense of her scraping by as a low-rent nomadic mechnik after leaving the order, keeping her spirits up but just getting by. I like that, through Yord at least, the Jedi seem like smug cops rather than noble monks, who are railroading Osha. I like her excitement on the prison transport, where she’s bitten by her altruism, but empathizes and saves others, which should be our proof that she’s not the one who took out Indara. All these scenes reveal character in a compelling way, and Amandla Stenberg does a stellar job inhabiting the role.
There is also such exquisite texture! The opening scene has a real old world village cantina vibe, and should make Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon fans cheer. Her talking tool droid, Pip, is frickin’ adorable and endearing, and I can easily imagine every nerdy kid watching this show wanting one of their own. The ship designs are memorable and distinctive inside and out. (I especially like the droid-run prison transport.) And the different species represented are memorable and original. (The cyborg dude is especially striking.) Plus hey, the Trade Federation aliens are well done and familiar to anyone who watched the Prequels growing up.
Speaking of which, this version of the Jedi feels particularly indebted to the Prequels. There’s great discussion of the danger of attachments, of training someone who’s too old and has been through too much, of the Order’s political enemies. Setting this show a century before Revenge of the Sith frees you from a lot of the continuity shackles other Star Wars stories have to contend with, so it’s interesting that The Acolyte seems to be picking up themes and concepts from the Prequel era.
That not only includes Yord, who already seems to be the show’s stick in the mud, but from Master Vernestra, who seems more interested in wrapping up this matter quickly than in seeking justice. Heck, Master Sol even feels a bit akin to Qui Gon Jinn, someone who’s patient and wizened, but who allows himself a more emotional connection and less rigid view than the Order.
I like Sol a lot. Making the deuteragonist a master who still cares for his padawan, and is trying to balance that care and trust against his obligations to his order, makes for a compelling mix. He’s a good match for Jecki, his quietly caustic current padawan. And he’s a good counterpoint to Osha, someone who represents a difficult part of her past, but who still plainly has her best interests at heart.
The moment where he seeks her out is well done too. There’s a real The Fugitive vibe to the confrontation, with an appropriately Jedi twist. And most importantly, Sol believes his former pupil. When she’s desperate and running for her life and confronted with destabilizing surprises about her past and her family, he still trusts and accepts her. That is powerful, and portends worthwhile things to come.
The Acolyte leaves us with teases of potential sith-adjacent interlopers and weaponless threats and internal politics within the High Republic. Those are tantalizing enough as teases. But what I appreciate most about this opening hour is the good nuts and bolts work we get: in the cinematic craft, in the well-defined and sympathetic character dynamics, and in the way the script plays with our expectations. If The Acolyte can keep this up, it has a promising future ahead.
(Spoilers for Star Wars: The Clone Wars: There’s many ways in which Osha’s story seems like a reinterpretation of Ahsoka’s. Everything from the fugitive hunt to the master who still loves and trusts her, to the Jedi Order dealing with political pressures give you the sense of what Anakin’s padawan went through. Obviously Ahsoka never had an evil twin, but it’s interesting to see the franchise revisit that story shape in a different time and place. I’m not complaining! I love that storyline, and I’m excited at the notion of exploring Osha’s relationship with the Jedi and the Force through this lens.)
As every good thing has an end, we have come to the end of this beautiful series. The guys did an excellent job. It is one of the rare TV series that I watch without interruption and without getting bored. I haven't seen anything better among science fiction. It was an amazing season and the series has barely started. See you in 2025, thank you for your efforts.:thumbsup:
What the fuck is this?
Absolutely outstanding, while I really liked the characters in episodes 1 & 2 i felt like this was the episode that made me fall in love with the majority of them, while also getting more attached to the actual plot. Music, action, acting, cinematography and special moments like the final scene there make this episode a 10/10 for me. Incredible stuff!
It was a episode that approached the quality of legendary television episodes like "Ozymandias" from Breaking Bad and "The Rains of Castamere" from GoT, it's the best episode of the series so far, and it got me hyped for the finale. :star_struck:
Fuji's silent reaction shots during the tea negotiation are all gold
I LOVE this. I don’t understand how people can’t believe the women were capable of this. The Klan did it all of the time while fat and overweight. In the Country, we all have guns. We have meetings too. It doesn’t matter the type of country, cold or hot. Old school get backs happen in the dead of the night.
The fight scenes were quite impressive. I was not happy that Carrie Ann Moss was killed off right away. But overall a decent episode.
Everyone's crazy for not giving this a 10. The tension was so good, music and lighting great. Acting superb. Mariko drew a line in the sand and forced all the other lords to acknowledge it. The music during the stand off was amazing. Some big pay offs like the last minute intervention by Ishido, the short intimacy, the betrayal, the meeting between former friends, and twists and reversals was crazy. I loved this episode. Can't wait to see what happens in the finale. I'll miss the romance subplot though =(
This was such an excellent episode!
It was most definitely a deep and expansive foundational narrative for the whole saga. The nuances, the meaning, spiritual significance, and subtleties I fear of certain acts of this episode are lost to the viewer.
I would imagine the significance would only reveal itself to those that have read Clavell's book prior to watching this amazingly crafted miniseries.
My hope is more of Clavell's Asian Saga is made with the same detail and love that Shōgun is clearly made and acted.
My further wish is this beautifully crafted series challenges others to put their heart and soul into future movies/series that rivals the quality we have in this miniseries. While at the same time putting the sword to the trash we've had to endure as quality entertainment enthusiasts seeking our next love, and yet being disappointed time and time again.
This episode really gets the story pushed along.
As a person who never actually got into Halo the video game, and didn't know anything about the story, this series is still just as captivating and epic and well made. Easily one of my favorite things to watch!
this show is so fucking good been a while since i watched a show this good
Hey, I really wish they'd shown Navarro's visions were from water contamination, to tie it to the case, but it seems the mysticism was just for kicks, to fool us and give us a scare.
Checking fingerprints on the trapdoor after all that chaos with visions, someone falling into water, finding out it was the female indigenous milita lol, and then dropping it felt a bit random.
Anyway, wasn't what I expected but kinda liked it. Haven't seen the second or third season, so can't compare, but first one's still the best.
And see you later, Liz and Navarro.
(Sorry for my English)
The first episode was ok. be interesting to see how much woke shite they push in the following episodes. at times it was like watching paint dry. I dont think even Jodie Foster will save this show... I might be wrong !!
I'm coming into this knowing nothing of the novel or the premise. Based on the first episode, I'm hooked and hope it pans out for the best.
This was a great episode but it made me wonder why did they lead the show and even bothered producing those first two absolute garbage episodes when they clearly are able to have decent ones like those last two?
2024-01-01T00:00:00Z2024-12-31T23:59:59Z