The Acolyte has received significant backlash, much of it before the show even premiered, but, like many Disney Star Wars projects, true criticism of The Acolyte is being swallowed up in outcries about the show’s supposed ‘wokeness.’ The Acolyte is the newest addition to Star Wars movies and TV shows, and it represents a thrilling new era in the Star Wars timeline to be depicted on screen. Set 100 years before Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, The Acolyte explores the High Republic Era, the golden age of the Jedi and the Republic.

Unfortunately, excitement about the new opportunities the show and this era make possible is being drowned out by review bombing and floods of trolling comments on social media. Even so (and while the show has plenty of merits, too), there are legitimate problems with the show that have nothing to do with the diversity of the cast. Here are 10 issues with The Acolyte that don’t pertain to the show supposedly being ‘too woke.’

The Episodes Are Too Short

Just As An Episode Gains Momentum, It Ends

The Acolyte is also suffering from a few issues pertaining not to content but to structure. In fact, the most recent episode, episode 6, made clear that The Acolyte’s episodes are simply too short. Episode 6 included three separate plot lines: Osha being trapped on the Unknown Planet with Qimir, Mae deceiving Master Sol by pretending to be Osha, and Jedi Master Vernestra Rwoh leading a group of Jedi to Khofar to uncover what had happened on the planet.

While this braided narrative would be a lot to fit into an hour of television, The Acolyte episode 6 was just thirty minutes long. This meant that each unique plot felt rushed and, worse, just as the episode began to gain momentum, it ended. Unfortunately, each of The Acolyte’s episodes is around the same length, meaning that this problem is not unique to this episode but rather applies to the show as a whole.

The Hot Sith Pattern Might Be A Bit Too Much At This Point

Star Wars Has Used The Hot Sith Twist A Few Too Many Times

The Acolyte episode 5 also included the major reveal that Mae’s quirky sidekick, Qimir, was actually the deadly masked villain, the Stranger. In addition to that, though, was the reveal that the Stranger was shockingly attractive, something that the minds behind the show were clearly aware of and wanted to highlight based on how many shots of Qimir’s muscles were shown. This then persisted in The Acolyte episode 6 when Qimir fully stripped down in front of Osha and then stood in front of her shirtless.

While an attractive villain is almost always going to win over audiences, and although Manny Jacinto’s Qimir is one of the best parts of The Acolyte, Star Wars as a whole may have employed the hot Sith character one too many times. This began in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith when Hayden Christensen became Darth Vader, revealing that, prior to his Mustafar burns, Vader was a heartthrob. The sequel trilogy then took a page from Revenge of the Sith’s book, with Kylo Ren (although not technically a Sith) serving as a shirtless love interest as well.

Some Parallels Are Too On The Nose

The Ahch-To Connection Is Just One Example

Showrunner Leslye Headland has acknowledged in interviews that some aspects of The Acolyte are a bit on the nose, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. George Lucas famously described Star Wars as being like poetry because the different stories ‘rhyme’ with one another, implying that there will be clear parallels throughout the franchise. However, at times, The Acolyte takes this too far.

While the rhymes of Star Wars can be lovely, some can feel too obvious. Unfortunately, The Acolyte has toed that line a few times, most recently in episode 6. Osha wakes up trapped on a remote island with Qimir, and it is immediately obvious that the planet shares a number of features with Ahch-To, the planet on which Luke Skywalker hid in the sequel trilogy and which was the location of the first Jedi Temple. This heavily implies that this location is key to the Sith, but the same message could have been conveyed (arguably better) with more subtlety.

Eight Episodes Aren’t Enough

The Final Two Episodes Are Sure To Feel Rushed

Similar to the episodes being too short, The Acolyte’s 8-episode arc simply isn’t enough. Not only Star Wars shows but also streaming shows in general have begun to adopt the 8-episode season structure, and it is a far cry from the 22-episode seasons of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels. Particularly in a show like The Acolyte, which has so much world-building and character development to accomplish, a season of only eight episodes is just too rushed.

Some Scenes Needed Better Effects

In Certain Scenes, The Effects Were Noticeable

In truth, some of the effects of The Acolyte have also been a bit disappointing, although that is not necessarily new to Star Wars. The franchise has long faced accusations that the effects are poorly done, but this criticism interestingly seems to have picked up since Disney acquired the rights to Star Wars. While some of this may just be more hate directed at Disney, in The Acolyte, there have been a few scenes where the effects didn’t seem believable.

In fact, this was most obvious in The Acolyte episode 3, set on Brendok. At one point, Mother Aniseya uses the Force (or, the Thread, as the witches of Brendok call it) to throw a piece of fruit to the twins. While the Thread seems to intentionally be more visible on screen than the Force is, this moment nevertheless looked less visually believable than is typical of the franchise.

The Dialogue Is A Bit Superficial At Times

Some Lines Have Fallen Flat

Although poor dialogue tends to be thrown out as a vague criticism of a show or movie, and while Star Wars has often been accused of bad dialogue, in The Acolyte, there have been some moments of weaker dialogue that were incongruent with the rest of the show. Unfortunately, this often came at the expense of Yord Fandar, who was otherwise a well-liked character. Because Yord was frequently meant as comedic relief in the show (particularly when he was the subject of a joke), his lines were the most fraught in terms of landing with the audience.

Sadly, that dialogue at times fell short, and this was especially true when the humor didn’t quite work. In The Acolyte episode 4, for example, Yord at one point quips, “I swear, we need a tracker just to track our tracker.” Although it was clearly meant as a laugh line, this dialogue didn’t quite work; instead, it felt a bit out of place. Yord wasn’t the only character with tough lines, though. In episode 5, Qimir’s line “Not very Jedi of you” also didn’t quite land.

Some Mysteries Are Dragging Out For Too Long

The Mystery Of Brendok Is Particularly Slow-Moving

Despite the episodes and the season both being too short, there are some plot lines in The Acolyte that are nevertheless moving too slowly. One key plot that has been going on for a bit too long is that of the mystery on Brendok. Yes, it is intriguing what really happened to the witches, but after six episodes, the mystery is beginning to lose its appeal. Hopefully, in The Acolyte episode 7, the secret will finally be revealed; however, this would mean that nearly the entire show explored this one mystery.

Despite these issues, however, The Acolyte has been an impressive show so far. In fact, the lightsaber duels in The Acolyte have been some of the best in all of Star Wars, and viewers are generally united in the opinion that Qimir is an excellent addition to Star Wars’ villains. Even so, there are going to be flaws with any show, and these 10 reflect the problems in The Acolyte that have nothing to do with the show being ‘woke.’