{"id":73682,"date":"2025-05-04T11:05:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-04T11:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/73682\/"},"modified":"2025-05-04T11:05:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-04T11:05:09","slug":"the-worst-tv-show-of-2024-doesnt-deserve-the-hate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/73682\/","title":{"rendered":"The ‘worst TV show of 2024’ doesn’t deserve the hate"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"Mae??(Amandla
\n\t\tI think the mob may have been too quick to judge a certain series last year (Picture: Christian Black \/ Lucasfilm Ltd.)<\/p>\n

There are plenty of TV shows so dreadful they deserve to be labelled the \u2018worst of the year\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m thinking of dreck like The Idol<\/a>, Mrs Brown\u2019s Boys, Jersey<\/a> Shore, and whatever that US<\/a> remake of The Inbetweeners was supposed to be.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, far too often these days, I think people are too quick to judge a show before it has the chance to properly find its feet.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

And I must admit, I\u2019m as guilty as the next fan of getting my pitchfork and flaming torch out when some poorly thought-out series lumbers onto the small screen like the televisual equivalent of Frankenstein\u2019s monster.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With that in mind, though, I think the mob may have been too quick to judge a certain series last year, and we\u2019re probably going to regret it in the future.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m talking about The Acolyte, a Star Wars<\/a> TV show that was cut down by the red-hot lightsaber blade of fan indifference before it even got off Coruscant.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\"(Center
\n\t\tA lot of the vitriol directed at The Acolyte comes from a small group online (Picture: Christian Black \/ Lucasfilm Ltd.)<\/p>\n

If you didn\u2019t watch it, The Acolyte was set a hundred or so years before the events of the main movies, and it was basically a murder mystery involving Jedi and Sith.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

While it was met with decent reviews, it did not land with audiences \u2013 the show has a healthy 78% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes but an audience score of just 19%.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

But I\u2019ll be honest, I really don\u2019t think that fair. So, as it\u2019s Star Wars Day<\/a> (May the fourth be with you to those who celebrate), I thought it\u2019s the perfect time to defend this underrated series.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Before I begin, however, we have to address the elephant in the room. A lot of the vitriol directed at The Acolyte comes from a small group online who led a virtual hate campaign against the series and showrunner Leslye Headland<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tbrowser that
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsupports HTML5
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tvideo<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t<\/video><\/p>\n

This involved review bombing, which is part of the reason the series has such a low audience score.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

That said, The Acolyte was the lowest-viewed Star Wars show, and a quick search of social media will find plenty of regular people who didn\u2019t enjoy it, so it\u2019s an issue that went beyond the troll community<\/a> (if that\u2019s a thing).\u00a0<\/p>\n

So why did I enjoy it so much? Well, The Acolyte dared to be different. So much of the franchise\u2019s recent output has revolved around the Skywalkers, the Galactic Civil War, and the legacy of the original trilogy.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\"Jedi
\n\t\tThe Acolyte\u2019s action scenes were mind-blowing (Picture: Christian Black \/ Lucasfilm Ltd.)<\/p>\n

That can work \u2013 Last Jedi, Andor, and Rogue One<\/a> prove that \u2013 but it\u2019s also a bit tiring and, dare I say, boring, that in a galaxy far, far away, we keep running into the same six or so people.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Acolyte, then, was a breath of fresh air, set in a new time period with (mostly) new characters. All of which made the show feel exciting and fresh.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Also, The Acolyte\u2019s action scenes were mind-blowing. The show blended the traditional Chinese storytelling format of Wuxia with sci-fi to create something that, while still distinctly Star Wars-y, was still unique and interesting.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Honestly, I think it\u2019s some of the most impressive choreography we\u2019ve seen since Darth Maul\u2019s final duel in The Phantom Menace<\/a>, and Qimir\u2019s Jedi massacre might be my favourite fight in the entire franchise.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\"(R):
\n\t\tThe way The Acolyte showed Osha (pictured) slowly becoming disillusioned with the Jedi helped me understand why people fall (Picture: Lucasfilm Ltd.)<\/p>\n

Finally, the most underrated part of the show was the way it depicted the Sith. In the movies, those who fall to the Dark Side have a bad habit of becoming cackling loons or literal monsters (and sometimes both).\u00a0<\/p>\n

That makes the attraction to waving around a red lightsaber<\/a> a bit odd. Yet the way The Acolyte showed Osha slowly becoming disillusioned with the Jedi helped me understand why people fall.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

More than that, it did so while presenting a whole new side to the Jedi, one that was unflattering (covering up a massacre isn\u2019t exactly the behaviour you expect from a noble knight) and made us question everything we knew about the order.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"(L-R):
\n\t\tI was looking forward to seeing that idea explored more in season 2 (Picture: Lucasfilm Ltd.)<\/p>\n

I was looking forward to seeing that idea explored more in season 2. Sadly, though, with the news that Disney cancelled the show, that\u2019s unlikely to ever happen.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now I\u2019m not going to say pretend The Acolyte was perfect, the pacing was bad, it looked cheap, and the story was weak.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yet to paraphrase Luke Skywalker talking about his dear old dad, Darth Vader, there was still good in The Acolyte. I could sense it (well, I could see it, it was a TV show).\u00a0<\/p>\n

I wish, then, that the show had been given the time to find an audience and improve.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After all, the annals of TV history are filled with great shows with bad first seasons \u2013 Star Trek: The Next Generation, Parks and Rec, and Rings of Power spring to mind.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

By cancelling the series, I fear Disney may have robbed us of one of the most exciting stories from a galaxy far, far away and condemned the audience to an eternity on the front lines of the Rebels\u2019 war against the Empire.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

And I don\u2019t know about you, but that doesn\u2019t fill me with hope for the future of the franchise.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Do you have a story you\u2019d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jess.austin@metro.co.uk<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Share your views in the comments below.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Arrow
\nMORE: Celebrate Star Wars Day with an authentic Scout Trooper helmet<\/a><\/p>\n

Arrow
\nMORE: The eight best sci-fi series of all-time according to Rotten Tomatoes<\/a><\/p>\n

Arrow
\nMORE: The greatest Star Wars game ever created could never be made today<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tTV Newsletter<\/p>\n

Sign up and tell us which TV shows you love to watch to get personalised updates every morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I think the mob may have been too quick to judge a certain series last year (Picture: Christian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73683,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3937],"tags":[5762,77,391,4242,382,29707,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-73682","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-columnists","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-opinion","11":"tag-star-wars","12":"tag-tv","13":"tag-tv-reviews","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114449240821342710","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}