(courtesy IMP Awards)
If you ever wondered, and honestly haven’t we all at one point or another, what it would be like if you blasted Agatha Christie into space where she played Cluedo/Clue (a Jedi master in hyperspace with a lightsaber) and got to sleuthing with Sherlock Holmes and far ore spiritually aware Sam Spade, then you should be absolutely watching Star Wars: The Acolyte.
Launching on June 4 with two episodes, “Lost/Found” and “Revenge/Justice”, The Acolyte is the Star Wars franchise’s first real foray into the mystery genre, but as you might expect from a franchise that has always taken its myriad influences and twisted them into wholly new and pleasing shapes, the series doesn’t necessarily follow all the conventions of a usually heavily circumscribed genre (though later that is even changing with many modern day writers from Stuart Turton to Benjamin Stevenson playing merry with its tropes and clichés).
Sure there are bodies – the first ten minutes of “Lost/Found” see ———- SPOILERS AHEAD !!!!! ———- Jedi Master Indara (Carrie Ann Moss) killed after a fierce battle by a Force-trained murderer who walks straight into the bar where Indara and her friends are eating dinner, and with no mask or hint of an attempt to cover her tracks or identity initiates a fierce fight that ultimately leads to the Jedi’s death.
And yes there are clues, both of the red herring and far more muted and un-fishlike to follow, and there are even rash assumptions made by even the lead Jedi investigator Sol (Lee Jung-jae) – The Acolyte is set 100 years before the rise of the Empire in a peaceful and prosperous time known as the High Republic and here the Jedi act as law enforcers as much as spiritual mystics – about who may culpable of not just one Jedi Masters death but two (the second shall stay in the realm on non-spoiler territory but suffice to say, it establishes a pattern and sets in train the revelation of a wider mystery than simply who is killing who).
———- SPOILERS AHEAD !!!!! ———- Where it starts to get really interesting is that in that first episode we see the same person in two places at once, which, even in a galaxy used to screaming everywhere at greater than lightspeed is clearly impossible, and it’s not immediately obvious how Mae, the killer (this is not a mystery where you’re trying to figure out who the killer is; it’s the why that dances in the sleuthing spotlight here) and Osha, a mechanic onboard spaceships who specialising in spacewalk repairs, are even connected.
It turns out they are twins separated by a cruelly traumatic incident in their past, with each thinking the other dead, and while has taken a wholly powerful trip into the dark side of the Force, Osha once trained as a Jedi, serving as padawan to Sol, before leaving for non-spiritual pursuits.
It’s the linking of these two figures and the first two victims that begins to pull back a very dark and heavy curtain on events many years earlier on Osha and Mae’s home planet of Brendok; it’s here that they why, and not the what takes centre stage and a far deeper and more beguiling mystery than the older one begins to unfold.
To say much more about various narrative touchpoints would be to venture too far into the realm of spoilers but this shift by The Acolyte from your good old garden variety type of mystery to something far more conspiracy-laden – Sol and his Jedi team of stickler-for-the-rules to an almost comical degree, Jedi Knight Yord Fandar (Charlie Bennett) and Sol’s current padawan, the far more grounded and intuitive Jecki Lon (Dafne Keen) are given the case, somewhat reluctantly by Jedi Master Vernestra Rwoh (Rebecca Henderson) who seems to have lots to hide.
That’s never explicitly said of course but you get the sense she would rather this all be swept under the carpet but that’s never going to happen so Rwoh does what she can to limit the revelations; that’s not going to last of course because the rapidly-moving events of the first two episodes suggest that this mystery of 16 years-gestation is about to blow wide open and reveal some rather nasty hitherto hidden home truths when it does so.
It’s exciting path for The Acolyte to take because while the show is bountifully ticking the show’s usual boxes such as Jedi knights, light and dark sides of the Force, ramshackle planets and cute droids – you can help but love Osha’s all-in-one droid Pip who’s a very cute and you get the feeling opinionated delight – and yes, even a Wookiee Jedi known as Kelnacca (Joonas Suotamo), it’s also daring to go all mystery noir and serve us up conspiracy wrapped in a mystery surrounded by an enigma.
If it isn’t enough that The Acolyte has a immersively muscular and thrillingly engaging narrative, it also has characters who very quickly form into compelling people you want to get know better and whose role in whatever the grand conspiracy is really matters.
It’s an excitingly enthralling mix of storyline and character that mixed with the exotically humanistic mythos of Star Wars really makes The Acolyte comes quickly and abundantly alive, infused by the very personal stakes at play for Osha and Mae who have been separated by time and distance but you suspect too a moral code that might see their reunion when it fulsomely happens (they interact from afar briefly on the planet Olega but not long enough to make any real impact at that point) not go quite as smoothly as either might hope.
At beginnings to a Star Wars series go, The Acolyte is right up with the very best the franchise has offered to date, and while we are just at the beginning of all the revelations and uncovered truth, it’s clear that this one show that will blow the lid off the Jedi Order, the galaxy and likely viewers watching it too.
Star Wars: The Acolyte streams on Disney+