I'm glad you're bringing up the editing. There have been all kinds of weird cuts throughout the show. Particularly, one that I had to watch again was at the beginning of episode 5. Mae is checking out the dead wookie and the camera cuts from a wide to another wide at a different angle for no reason at all. It was jarring, and I'm shocked nobody else is talking about it.

Ah yes, another week of watching reviews of The Acolyte instead of actually watching The Acolyte.

It's frustrating how the Acolyte has the classic Disney plus problems. You would think 3 years would be enough to fix these basic issues.

3:08 It's so obvious because she's the only one with a whipsaber and Qimir's scars look like he was whipped and not stabbed.

When this thing finally ends I’m rewatching Andor to restore my faith. I find my lack of faith (eroded by Acolyte) disturbing.

Anyone else automatically think of the Occupational Safety and Health Admin when anyone mentions Osha?

9:47 “organic lightsaber” 😂😂😂😂

Disney has kernels of good ideas, but their continued lack of planning is puzzling. I wish someone would advise them, "please write a detailed outline before writing a series/movie" . That and "have a story worth telling". Seemingly simple concepts.

Its called meatsaber Dan.

I think that star Star Wars wipe to an establishing shot of the planet is for coming back after the commercial break. 🤨 'Knuckles' on Paramount+ also has breaks for commercials. My kids find it to be super weird. Maybe Disney+ is future-proofing this show for when they offer an ad-supported tier?

I am frustrated. It’s another Disney + show that could have been something better.

I wish Dan was reviewing House of the Dragon instead so much better.

That lightsaber hair cut has to be one of the funniest things to happen in all of Star Wars… and I don’t mean that positively lol

The Acolyte has a lot of interesting ideas but the execution hasn’t really done it justice.

This whole show feels like it was written by people who don’t know how to write, which is baffling because you’d think Disney with all their power and resources could find competent screenwriters somewhere but apparently not

Thanks Dan! My interpretation of episode 6 was not that Sol cannot use his powers, but that he knows it’s Mae all along. He needs her to feel that he trusts him before showing his real intentions, and had to stun her when she was about to call for help. There’s something about him that’s not right, and it hasn’t been since the beginning. Personally I’m curious about what’s to come. But don’t get me wrong, I agree that there’s a lot of stuff that’s not up to par with this series.

I'm also thinking Vernestra Rwoh was Qimir's master, those scars on his back looked like whip marks, and we know that's her weapon, demonstrated in this episode.

There's no way that someone, regardless of sexuality or gender, is not going to glance at a naked person's genital region at least once. Even if it for that someone to affirm whether or not the nake person is actually naked, that someone is going to take a glance. That's just a natural human instinct. A guy that has managed a nudist resort for 30 years would still take a look.

There are too many batshit stupid things in these two episodes. But I just found it infinitely funny that a sith that can float and without too much difficulty kill off a whole squad of Jedi, cannot do shit about a flash light on his back. Yep, cannot get it by hand, not hit with a lightsaber, remove it with the force or anything. That is like a child had written the moment.

Thank you Dan for continuing to be a non-toxic but constructive criticism giving critic. It’s nice to have someone not raging baiting to talk about this show.

This kind of reminds me of similar issues the Rings of Power had-- pacing issues, villains were more compelling than the main characters, plot not moving forward effectively, plot holes.

"How do we get the twins to switch places?" - Writer 1 "I don't know." - Writer 2 "Yo. Check this sick transition." - Editor 1 "How do we trick a Jedi?" - Writer 3 "I don't know." - Writer 2 "Just write that he gets tricked." - Writer 4 "I like that." - Writer 1 "What are we doing with the fight aftermath?" - Writer 5 "I don't know." - Writer 2 "What are you even doing here?" - Writer 1 "I'm on break. Watching Fight Club." - Writer 2 "Hey, put The Parent Trap back on. And get back to work." - Head Writer

I also noticed the out of place ADR . 😂

His organic lightsaber? Wooooooow Dan! ...I'm speechless. 😂

Am I the only one who thinks that Osha being finally swayed to hear Quimir out after seeing his abs and dong is, ironically, one of the most sexist depictions of women ever put in the saga??

I did not even catch the ADR on the "lets bury these Jedi" .... that's crazy.

swerving...the writers of this show couldn't effectively swerve if given a 50 page head start...the story and dialogue are SOOOOO bad.

Dude, Sol knew it was her in the ship. He didn’t get “snuck up on”, he was being a Master Jedi

Thank the Lord for Dan and him calling shit like it is. I wish more people would realize that Star Wars deserves better

“Freedom is just another word for nothing left to loose.” - Kris Kristofferson. Although, honestly, I’m sure the sentiment goes back much further than that. Rephrasing that again in the his doesn’t strike me as being out of bounds.

I’m crazy. Im a 37year old, old school Star Wars nerd that has hated everything disney has done except Rogue one, and I’m really liking this show. It actually feels like OT mixed with PT Star Wars to me. Idk why, but I like it a lot.

Its made no sense, that Sol was trying to contact the jedi by hologram at the begining of the episode 6 for backup, but by the time the power came back on and the jedi confirmed they were coming to help out, he switched off the comlink and took off into lightspace (not suere where?!)

Stopped watching after ep 4. Now I’m more entertained by the reviews and breakdowns - first show I’ve ever done that

A mystery with all the complexity of a Scooby Doo episode.

I did immediately recognize Qimir Durden's quote XD

"organic lightsaber" holy sh*t I'm cackling!

Great video as usual As well as good points💯👍

I’m tired of the week to week. I just want movie length. No more cliffhangers, just give me a good story that has a beginning and end.

That line actually made me think a lyric from "Me and Bobby McGee" by Janis Joplin. "Freedom's just another word for 'nothing left to lose.'"

The unknown planet checks out as Bal'demnic from the Plageuis book. There's a shot of a cortosis vein in Qimirs hovel.

Could the line about burying the dead have been added after like episode 4 because we all went nuts when we thought Sol was leaving them there?

That editing choice would have made sense if this show was made for TV, where you go to commercial immediately after the sisters see each other, and then when you come back, there is a quick establishing shot of the planet and we come back to see the sisters. Like how they used to edit the cartoons when we grew up.

One of the few objective and unbiased reviews online. Always been a big fan your honest reviews.

first rule of the acolyte: we do talk about the acolyte, with balanced criticism and great explanations thank you Dan

Manny Jacinto was more fun on The Good Place.

Gives new meaning to the old line. "You can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear".

Disney should have either droped all the episodes available to binge at once, or make them much longer if they drop week to week. Having such short episodes is not working. The Acolyte feels like a long movie being cut up in to 8 parts, rather than a show where each episode contains their own arcs that also advance the plot

Dan one of my favorite things about you evaluating movies/shows is stuff like the editing shot. Things like that, those details. Bravo man! Keep kicking ass❤

I think that specific editing choice you mentioned is the result of the "we now have ads in the middle of the episodes, so this is where it would play" problem with Disney+

Hi Dan. I’m finally watching Season 3 of Picard. Even though season 1 and 2 were not good, season 3 is great. I needed to watch something with more structured writing that reveals the villain properly imo and really shows the stakes.

I love your hat. Do you know where I could find it or what model it is specifically?

The dark side has always clouded the Jedi's intuition even Yoda couldn't sense Palpatine. That said it still needs better writing to make that clear to the viewers.

bumped into Dan recently in New York; big fan from Germany! it was such a pleasure to meet ya! cheers

So, I cancelled Disney Long, Long Ago, but did ANYONE ask for this show???

I liked it how Vernestra removed the tattoos from her face, put them on her head, removed her hair, changed the colour of her skin and stopped ageing - all the while becoming the worst example of a Jedi since Mace. Thanks

Honestly man you are killing it with your reviews of the episodes. Unbiased problems with the show, with specific filmmaking examples of why it’s subpar. No glazing of course, but also no toxic fan base hate for things that shouldn’t matter so much. Example, you didn’t use the word “woke” once. It feels like most boil it down to as simple as Disney cramming diversity down our throat but that isn’t it at all in this case.

"I haven't seen the storytelling..." Dude, with Disney, you won't any time soon 😂😂

When you mentioned the Fight Club quote I had to pause the video because I started thinking: “Wait, does that mean that Tyler Durden was a Sith? Was Edward Norton his Acolyte? Oh wait, that doesn’t work. So was Edward a Sith?” So basically, mind blown Dan. Well done sir! Can’t wait to hear your thoughts on the last two episodes.

Your thumbnail reaction pic should be its own movie review scale 😂. I know what to expect in your movie review

I knew nothing about this show beforehand. And for all the reasons you mentioned, I couldn’t even finish episode 2, let alone keep watching! And I ❤ Star Wars, having been a fan since I saw the 1977 original in the theater with my Dad and little brother.

TBF, going over things that fans probably already know is kinda like in comics where I think it was Jim Shooter or someone else said that you have to write a comic as if it's going to be the person's first comic they're reading. Which is why we get "With great power comes great responsibliity" coming back around or knowing that Wolverine is "The best at what I (he) do (does)". Although that is pretty much has to be thrown out in serialized storytelling.

3:20 This is my problem with the series: lazy writing. I don't agree with the woke and breaking canon arguments; it's the characters' contrived behavior that irks me. Clearly it was just to move the story forwards.

My wife and I have decided that this show is a complete waste of time. It is poorly plotted badly written and they seem to delight in spending time on characters no one cares about and killing off the ones we potentially could care about. We will not be watching the show any further cuz it's that bad.

Dan is 100% no I take that back, 1000% correct about this show

Excellent review Dan! Non-toxic and truly your opinion, which we have learned to trust. I agree with your assessment but I agree that maybe just maybe the last two episodes can get this to it’s fine. But it’s also not helpful to the show that it’s up against HOTD, which feels so much bigger.

The weird cut between Osha and May when they first met, I think the director intended for the episode to end there and we begin with the scene of the island. For whatever the reason it didn't happen that way and nobody thought of removing it out of the show. Either that or place holder for commercial break.

I give this Dan rant a "It's Fine" on the Dan rating scale

I gotta say - I've generally been in the 60-70% range with this show - but this last episode, completely agree with you on everything you said. I'm seeing a lot of people actually turn around and love this episode as compared to others, but to me it was one of the worst.

I almost checked out after episode 4. Qimir in episode 5 was great. Episode 6 shows where the story should have began in the first place. A story about a Sith Apprentice and his Acolyte. I'm not optimistic about episodes 7 and 8. I'm at least hoping we get some epic battles and Sith lore with Qimir.

The cut was a time jump, because that night lasted about 50 minutes. The show's ability to make time completely nonsense is getting impressive really. I agree that Mae's turn to give herself up to the Jedi made zero sense, but her turn back doesn't have that problem. The premise of her giving herself up was that her master wasn't there to catch her. Once he showed up, she wasn't interested in being a prisoner, she wanted to escape him.

Ladies & gentlemen, we proudly present tonight’s Acolyte discourse program, featuring a wide variety of speakers, each of them presenting their very best thesis to the auditorium. Among the finer points expected to be made over the course of the evening are modern classics like: „You’re allowed to dislike the show… after we’re done purity testing your reasons for doing so.“ „You’re expecting Shakespeare from a story about space wizards intended for children.“ „The OT was never great to begin with so The Acolyte doesn’t have to be either.“ „The show is good, you’re just biased against it.“ „If you enjoy trashtalking the show you’re toxic. You’re only allowed to trashtalk the show if you feel bad about it. (On an entirely and obviously unrelated sidenote, wanna join our famous Madame Web, Kurtzman & Snyder trashtalk aftershow party? The more the merrier!)“ „If you don’t like it, don’t watch it. (Let me rephrase that in case your hate-riddled brain didn’t get it the first time: You’re only allowed to watch & partake in discourse if you like the show.)“

I’m still really having a great time with the show so far. It feels very refreshing to see a narrative that puts its characters first (something I felt Mando Season 3 lacked and something I think has been at its best in the animated shows) and I like how it isn’t willing to hold anything back with how everyone feels. Master Sol is definitely shaping to be among my favorite characters in the franchise. However it is very sad to see that the behavior of this fandom has been at some of its worst in recent times. I agree that just like the show should be looked at more with a critical eye just as much as it should be looked at with a more forgiving point of view to give what works its dues and point out what doesn’t. But it is true that a lot of the more just criticisms have been devoured by people who want to use the word “criticism” to spout hate speech or parrot bad faith comments people with bigger followings have made and it has fed into people who want to shut down any less than positive feedback. It’s borderline shameful. It makes me question if people making bad faith comments know what the word “criticism” even means. The show is absolutely not perfect, but we can do better than handle differing thoughts like this.

This is like insurmountable amount of bad toppings on a turd sandwich.... the overwhelming amount of mental off-kilter moments is kind of stunning. And then I watch another review and then a light bulb goes off: Oh yeah, that's what I smelled at that point that I couldn't put my finger on -cuz it was a half a second after yet another something else that was really nauseous... 😢😮🎉😂

They took this beloved IP & perverted the hell out of it.

eps 1+2: intriguing eps 3+4: boring eps 5+6: some great scenes that fall apart due to the poor connective tissue of inconsistent characterization to progress the plot, especially Mae and Osha - I don't know, maybe they're bipolar?

If you say to yourself “it is a small thing” 50 times an episode, it all adds up to a huge thing

I haven't been watching the show. But, I could see here, in the 5 seconds of clips, that the Sith guy and the green lady appear to have the same dark lightsaber hilt.

Absolutely subverting expectations with Yord and Jecki. It felt like we were mid-way through introducing them, and suddenly... wow! I cannot predict what is going to happen; I'm really enjoying this series.

i feel like the fact that everything has been telegraphed and the lack of red herrings is, in and of itself, a red herring. it will, hopefully, lead to something no one really saw coming, because the audience has seemingly seen it coming from a mile away.

perfect insight

I'm surprised nobody brought up the ending. When she puts on the mask and the screen fades to black and the credits just play but the transition felt very awkward.

Hey Dan, where did you get your three barrel shirt from? I’ve been looking everywhere!! Thanks and another banger!

This is such a crazy coincedence, Dan is wearing the same Last Exit to Nowhere shirt that I recently got AND it was just worn by a character in The Boys last week (the pervert director lol)

You are very kind to this show ... two good solid actors: the bad guy and the confusing Jedi Sol ... bad awful writing ...

Outside of the structural issues with this episode, the bigger issue I have with the story is that Mae and Osha have become less interesting as the story progresses. I thought there was solid potential in two sisters going on divergent paths due to a shared tragic event in their past; but neither one seems to have any real character motivation or direction at this point. And you can only do so many story contrivances to prevent Sol from telling the story of what really happened 16 years ago before it becomes annoying.

They're making the Jedi as corrupt or dumb... it's shameful, insulting.

Regarding pacing, I think I've counted at least 4 different times that Sol is going to tell Osha/Mae what happened on Brendock and then imMEDIATELY there's an inconvenient plot thing that happens to prevent him. I get needing to build tension but it's just annoying at this point because it's wildly unnecessary. The setbacks wouldn't be needed if there wasn't so much space to fill with drawn out pacing.

This show absolutely feels like a movie that was broken up into episodic television purely to keep people subscribed for 2 months. I loath that Disney and Lucas film has been doing this. It's killing stories. This should have been a film and I almost wonder if it would have been better received as a film.

Most shows follow a 3-5 act structure for each episode, but with The Acolyte, and most Disney shows, they barely have 2 acts. They feel like the rules do not apply to them. Obviously they are mistaken.

I think Disney's absolute fumbling of the Star Wars brand will be studied for the next century.

The knowledge and experience - of the human - Dan - is part of us now. It has prepared us for all possible courses of action. Your resistance is hopeless - Number One.

Your take is spot on. This entire season has felt very disjointed and more to the point, this last episode with the bukkake scene was the cake topper 👀🤦🏻

Dan, can you review the Shogun series? Would be a more interesting subject for a video

I been enjoying your review and genuine criticism of the show without being toxic like some channels. Tldr I feel like it’s been way too long since we got an update on your anime journey Dan, I first subbed and been watching since when you just began watching demon slayer so I really wish you would make a video discussing at least your thoughts on S2-4 when the dub comes out? or any anime you have watched…?

As an editor, the editing of this show is driving me crazy, especially how every episode ends, it's like they don't know how to do it, every episode just ends, it's so weird. The only explanation I had for the "not change of scenery shot" is that the editor didn't have any shot of Mae and Osha with the sunrise happening and they believe inserting that shot it could help... but it didn't. As a fan of the mystery of the show, I have enjoyed this show so much better than Ahsoka, that show was just self referencing all the time, at least this show is trying something out of the loop, it's not ANDOR, but at least it has the best concept to follow, no more clone wars things.

Atleast Stars Wars quality is consistent when it comes to the villains, who usually outshine the protagonist. The Sith are just compelling story arcs

"Disney+ Star Wars Butt" 😂

The issue as to why everything is so blatant especially when it comes to Osha and Mae is that she has literally 0 acting ability at least in this series

Are we just going too ignore the fact that Osha turned her down when she confessed her love… of course she feels conflicted.

Every time I watch a review on Star Wars where the review gets pedantic in their feedback, it reminds me of what Harrison Ford told Mark Hamill after they shot the scene following the trash compactor scene but were suddenly dry. We’ve really lost what the essence of this universe and fandom is about.