So I’m doing my usual thing, coding and watching YouTube, when I queued up a review for “The Acolyte”. I guess it’s currently a hot topic because after that review another played, then another, and another. All of them were so negative that it got me intrigued. Is it really as bad as they claim? To find out for myself I fired up a pirate stream and watched the first couple episodes.
The verdict? It’s not good by any stretch, but it’s not as terrible as the YouTube reviewers made it out to be. The writing, direction, and lead actor are objectively awful. The music, sets, and CGI are decent. It’s not worth subscribing to Disney+ to see it and its shortcomings aren’t worth ranting about. It’s just “meh”.
What I think is maybe more interesting than the show is the discourse happening around it. On one side you have Disney marketing/PR deploying an army of shills to pump up the show. On the other side you have social media rage influencers mobilizing their followers to tear it down. Both sides spewing vitriol to vilify the other and fabricating dividing lines to polarize their audience. It’s one of the most transparent attention economy spectacles I’ve ever seen.
It got me questioning, “Why the theatre? Why the posturing? What’s the point?” Then it hit me. I’ve watched thirty minutes of mediocre YouTube reviews, eighty minutes of a mediocre show, then spent an hour writing a blog post about it… Fuck.