When Disney dropped the trailer for its newest Star Wars series, "The Acolyte", it looks terrible, but that’s not a reflection of the show’s content, as much as it is Lucasfilm continuing to produce content that looks dark, muddy, and cheap. From "The Mandalorian" to "Ahsoka" and everything in between, Star Wars on Disney+ lacks the visual fidelity the franchise deserves.
One of the most obvious reasons that a show like "The Acolyte" doesn’t look as visually appealing as, say, "The Last Jedi" (whether you like the movie or not, you have to admit that it was visually stunning) is budget. Shows produced for television or streaming usually have much smaller budgets than their big-screen counterparts. Obi-Wan Kenobi reportedly had a budget of US$90 million spread across six episodes—a far cry from the US$447 million that Disney spent making "The Force Awakens".
A smaller budget means corners are cut, resulting in subpar lighting, equipment, crew, etc. With a television/streaming budget, you’re going to get a product that reflects that lower budget in every category, including visual fidelity. Now, obviously, picture quality is the least of Disney’s worries when it comes to "Star Wars", but a bad picture certainly doesn’t help.
Ultimately, the washed-out, muddy look of shows like The Acolyte might not be a Star Wars problem but rather a Disney+ problem. A quick search for why Disney+ content looks so bad brings up countless forums where members are complaining about the streamer’s use of HDR. HDR, or High Dynamic Range, is a technique where the broadcast tells your TV which colors to display and at what brightness level, seemingly on the fly. While, in theory, this should result in a better picture, the result is often the opposite.
Aside from the budget, the series also has one of the most distinguished bad writing imaginable.
What "The Acolyte" writers have done is create their coven of lesbian witches (not a bad idea if done right), made one character a white bloke and everyone else diverse in some way (again, fine), and then thrown millions of dollars at an under qualified team of writers, producers, etc. Casting decisions don’t make a good story – good writing does. Add some music that actually evokes the emotion of a scene and sets that don’t look like they are reused Star Trek sets from the 60’s, and you’re golden.
The creators of "The Acolyte", and several big media outlets are blaming fans rather than looking at these obvious mistakes. Fans don’t like the show because the show is not good. Sure, some idiot is going to complain about the lesbians having kids, but for most of us viewers who happily live in the present day care about only one thing; the quality of the story, and the continuation of something we love.
Change is good and exciting, but these people are making changes that purposefully don’t work within the lore and ignore a rich history of the franchise. If they do this, then it’s not Star Wars anymore, it’s the Kathleen Kennedy Takes a Dump on an Asteroid show, plus magic aliens, and no one is going to pay for Disney+ to watch that shitshow.
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