Review: Obi-Wan Kenobi, "Part III"
When a limited series is both epilogue and prologue, can it be a satisfying narrative in its own right?
From a narrative perspective, Obi-Wan Kenobi had two choices when it comes to its most-anticipated element.
The first option was to make six episodes building to what was promised: a showdown between Obi-Wan and his former Padawan Anakin Skywalker, rebirthed as Darth Vader. It’s the natural climax of this story, and withholding it would build a considerable amount of narrative tension that would push viewers to see through the end of the series.
The second option was to make those six episodes an extended game of cat-and-mouse between the two characters, giving them points of contact like you’re in a video game and bumping up against the final boss at earlier stages of the story. This would maybe rob the series of its natural climax, but it would introduce more of an “arc” within the series itself, as opposed to just presenting this as an epilogue/prologue to the prequels and original trilogy, respectively.
“Part III” indicates that Lucasfilm chose the latter approach for Obi-Wan Kenobi, and my basic response is that I can understand their inclination but question its feasibility in this limited series format. I suppose that’s sort of my general take on the series, if I want to put it bluntly: I don’t think any of the ideas behind the series are inherently bad, but the execution suggests that no one fully grasped how to translate those ideas coherently in only six episodes, or to establish meaningful character arcs within them.