“The Acolyte” Sets a Solid Foundation But Needs to Do More
"Dot and Bubble" pop off the screen for Doctor Who
Today, we will be talking about the most recent episodes of both Star Wars’ The Acolyte and Doctor Who. Coincidentally, both those series have come under criticism for agenda-driven stories, including by me in a recent piece about the first part of this season of Doctor Who. But I also think many current critiques are unfair and represent a failure to rightly understand art. Once again, here’s where we can turn to C.S. Lewis. He literally wrote the book on literary criticism, An Experiment in Criticism, and his thoughts can be expanded to evaluating any piece of art. So next week, I’ll share Lewis' perspective and discuss how we should judge movies and TV shows.
The Acolyte takes Star Wars into a new era for live-action shows, while also bringing in new genre elements. The first two episodes provide an interesting foundation and establish some ongoing questions. Still, the show will need to do more to capture intense attention in a crowded summer of sci-fi and fantasy content.
If you’ve ever wondered what The Matrix, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Kill Bill, and a dash of Law and Order would look like combined in a Star Wars show, The Acolyte may give you that answer. Graceful action scenes mix with a revenge tour being tracked by law enforcement hampered by bureaucrats worried about appearances.
Spoilers for “Lost/Found” and “Revenge/Justice” below
Set a century before the rise of the Empire and Republic, The Acolyte had been described as a murder mystery, but there is seemingly little mystery behind the murder in the opening scene. A Force-using assassin kills Carrie-Anne Moss’ Jedi Master Indara. The murderer is identified as Osha Aniseya, a former Jedi Padawan who left the Order.
Sol, Osha’s former Master, takes his current Padawan, Jecki Lon, and Yord, an overeager Jedi Knight, to find Osha to ask her about the murder of Indara. While Osha’s in their custody, someone breaks into the Jedi Temple where another Jedi Master, Torbin, floats in a silent meditative state.
Mae, Osha’s twin sister who had been presumed dead, is very much alive and on a quest to ensure four Jedi Masters are very much dead.1 She can’t get through Torbin’s quite literal Force field. Later, she returns with poison made by her accomplice Qimir.2 Mae offers him “absolution” for his past. He willingly takes the poison and, as a result, his own life.
Osha and Mae both believe the other, along with their parents, died in a fire on their home planet when they were children. Osha blamed Mae for the fire. Based on her seeking revenge, Mae holds the four Jedi stationed on her planet—Indara, Torbin, Sol, and Kelnacca, a Wookie Jedi— responsible for her traumatic past. After killing two, she must cross the others off her list, including one without a weapon, according to her master who sent her on this quest. The mysterious masked figure appears to be a Sith, as he flashes a red lightsaber the only time we see him.
For better and worse, The Acolyte feels very much like a Star Wars series created in the 2020s.
He wants the Jedi Masters dead, but he wants to do more than kill them. He wants Mae (presumably) to destroy the entire structure around the Order. He tells Mae:
The Jedi live in a dream. A dream they believe everyone shares. If you attack a Jedi with a weapon, you will fail. Steel or laser are no threat to them. But an Acolyte … an Acolyte kills without a weapon. An Acolyte … kills the dream.
The first two episode titles, “Lost/Found” and “Revenge/Justice,” push the viewer into the duality perspective often present in Star Wars—Light side and Dark side, Jedi and Sith, balance in the Force. As twins, Osha and Mae seem to represent the two sides that remain opposed but connected. The juxtaposed titles may also indicate that truth will be a matter of perspective. Which one is lost and which one is found? Is Mae’s quest about revenge or justice?
In this way, for better and worse, The Acolyte feels very much like a Star Wars series created in the 2020s. Institutions are inherently untrustworthy. Power will undoubtedly lead to corruption. The good guys are complicated at best.3 Show creator Leslye Headland said, “I believe, of course, the Jedi are a benevolent, well-intentioned institution, but they are an institution and they have amassed all the power.”
But there is also a rightful questioning of the Jedi assertion that isolation is better than community and a recognition of the value of other perspectives. This leads into some of the complaints surrounding the show.
Frankly, much of the online criticism and the by far loudest criticism is overblown. Yes, in one scene a fire erupts and crackles on the outside of a spaceship. But if we’re knocking Star Wars for being a realistic depiction of physics and science, the entire series should be rejected. We’ve had countless fire explosions and blaster noises in the vacuum of space since A New Hope in 1977.
And yes, many of the leads are ethnic minorities, but that’s merely a fact about the show. Through two episodes, there is no “woke agenda” or an intentional disregard for majority audiences.4 Obviously, that could change, but to make that critique at this point is to do so without any evidence beyond simply seeing people with different skin tones on screen in a show also featuring people with fur, scales, and green skin.5
If these first two episodes serve as a foundation to move deeper into a new age and genre of Star Wars and highlight the mystery aspect, The Acolyte can be a return to form, even if in a different way, for the franchise. While comparisons to Andor are unfair, they are inevitable. No modern Star Wars project, including The Acolyte so far, has managed to approach the heights of Andor. There’s still time for The Acolyte to take hold and capture viewers with a galactic mystery and compelling characters, but there's some ground to cover in the remaining episodes.
“Dot and Bubble” burst disappointing stretch for Doctor Who
“Dot and Bubble” delivers a poignant message under a pastel sheen, correcting many of the mistakes that had been increasingly common for Doctor Who in the last few seasons.
Similar to “Blink,” one of the greatest Doctor Who episodes, “Dot and Bubble” centers on a different character, while the Doctor and companion are mainly seen through screens. While not at the level of “Blink,” this episode does demonstrate the show can succeed with only limited involvement of the main characters.6
Spoilers for “Dot and Bubble” below
Lindy Pepper-Bean is one of the young, beautiful, and wealthy residents of Finetime, an idyllic city surrounded by a protective bubble. Everyone has a “Dot,” an AI assistant that projects an electronic bubble around people’s heads. In the bubble, people can interact with their social circle or watch videos from others. Most residents pull up their bubble as soon as they wake up and only interact with the world through that filter. They’ve become so dependent they need their bubbles to tell them where and how to walk.
On the other side of those bubble screens, however, giant slug-like monsters are devouring residents. It’s a Doctor Who episode so you know it can’t stay safe for long. The Doctor and Ruby work with Lindy to discover how the creatures could get past the protective barrier around Finetime and how they select their victims. Along the way, Lindy meets Ricky September, a celebrity in the city, who works to help Lindy escape.
Eventually, we discover the Dots have become sentient and have learned to hate the humans who spend all their time chattering about nothing of significance. The awakened AI created the monsters to kill the humans and are moving down the list of residents in alphabetical order. Rickey protects Lindy, but she betrays him and has the Dot kill him so she can escape.
When she finally meets the Doctor face-to-face, Lindy reveals even more of herself. The Doctor tells her and the other survivors that he could take them all somewhere safe, but they’re disgusted. Lindy says screen-to-screen contact was barely acceptable but in-person travel is impossible. One survivor tells the others to turn away from the Doctor before they are “contaminated.”
All the Doctor can do is scream in frustration through the tears, the survivors head away from the city in boats out into the woods surrounding Finetime. They’ve just learned to walk without their AI assistants directing them, but they’re now convinced they can “go out there to this planet, and we can fight it and tame it and own it. We’ll be pioneers, just like our ancestors.”
Dehumanization is a corrosive cancer. Once we grant the possibility, that some humans are not worthy of protection and recognition as people, it eats away and leaves nothing untouched.
Unlike recent heavy-handed episodes, “Dot and Bubble” delivers its message subtly and sophisticatedly.7 Everything works on multiple levels. It felt like a Jordan Peele-directed episode of the popular tech dystopia series Black Mirror. On the surface, there is an interesting story of people being unable to resist monster attacks because they’ve become so dependent on their technology. That simple but effective story delivers additional distinct layers the deeper you consider the narrative.
First, we can reflect on a cultural obsession with phones and missing what is happening around us. The residents of Finetime only interact with the world around them through their bubbles. While they have dozens of “friends,” they lack any real human contact. Lindy had never been hugged until she met Ricky.
Second, we should consider how we can live life in a metaphorical bubble surrounding ourselves with only those who share our perspective on life. Both the electronic bubble on residents’ faces and the literal bubble around the city exist to allow only certain people in— those with the same experiences and outlook.
Finally, as the viewer considers the people in Finetime, we should eventually realize everyone is white. The Doctor is the only person of color and from the beginning of the episode, the residents all react with distrust and disgust when they see him.
At every storytelling level, there is a consequence of dehumanization. The residents refuse to experience an actual human life and live only mediated through screens. They work to ignore the complexities and differences inherent in humanity, which blinds them to the humanity of someone who looks different. But not only that, they’ve become so self-obsessed that they’ll deny the humanity of their own to benefit themselves. Even the celebrities they claim to love and follow can be discarded. Like so many obsessed fans, Lindy knew detailed information about Ricky September, but she used that to sacrifice him and save herself.
Lindy and the others of Finetime don’t realize dehumanization is a corrosive cancer. Once we grant the possibility, that some humans are not worthy of protection and recognition as people, it eats away and leaves nothing untouched. We dehumanize others leading to our own dehumanization and eventual destruction.
I’ve seen criticism of the acting, but I bought Amandla Stenberg as both Osha and Mae were superb. Before the twin reveal, I thought Osha suffered from a multiple personality disorder or something that was making her kill without her knowledge. The facial expressions of Mae after she killed Indara were so radically different from the look of Osha.
Played by Manny Jacinto, the amazing Jason Mendoza from The Good Place.
See a recent Twitter thread from the insightful Hannah Long about modern films (or TV shows in this case) no longer allowing someone to be both powerful and good.
Headland says she grew up in a strict religious home and is now a married lesbian, so it is entirely possible the show could move in a more agenda-driven direction that is antagonistic toward religious values.
It seems odd and contradictory for those who often complain about diversity efforts and argue for strictly colorblind decisions to judge The Acolyte based seemingly only on the ethnic makeup of the actors involved and not a colorblind and fair evaluation of the story itself.
While I thought this was the best episode of the season so far, I wasn’t perfect. The Doctor’s claim they would die if they went into the woods seemed forced. The episode didn’t seem to establish that going out on their own would automatically lead to their death. Yes, they had previously been almost helpless but this group had managed to find their way through the city. Other episodes may have had the Doctor encourage them to make the planet their home without the aid of technology. In some ways, the ending felt forced. Finetime residents needed to choose to reject the Doctor’s offer for help rather than reject their racism and for that choice to lead to their inevitable death.
Even in this episode, however, the show can’t help but insert a dismissal of an afterlife and have the racists being driven by the faith. After finding out her mom is dead, Lindy doesn’t mourn she just says her mom is lucky because “she’s gone to the sky.” At the end, one of the Finetime residents rejects the Doctor’s offer because they have a “God-given duty to maintain the standards of Finetime,” by which they mean a God-given duty to maintain racial segregation. Still, I can get beyond those shots because the story is so well-told.