Star Wars meant a lot to a great many people. They grew up with it and it has been on a pedestal for some people for a long time. Pedestals, however, are an impediment to fair evaluation.
I'm no fan of the sequels, especially The Last Jedi, but I did enjoy the Mandalorian. For me, and many others, it's the resurrection of the franchise.
The Book of Boba Fett struggled. It needed to tell the story of Boba Fett's escape from the Sarlaac pit in Return of the Jedi and then justify his rehabilitation, to satisfy the fan-base. Despite having very few minutes of screen time in the Original Trilogy, he remains one of the most popular figures in the franchise. That show struggled to meet those objectives.
Turning to the new show, Kenobi, I think it is doing well and I'm enjoying it. I would be the first to complain if it were not good enough.
Any jedi survivors of Order 66 have been hunted and killed in the previous 10 years. Inquisitors are part of that hunt, and are clearly force users and able to sense jedi, no doubt through their connection to the Force. The dialogue with Leia referred to being without the Force to living in darkness, and finding the Force being in light.
Kenobi has survived by cutting himself off from the Force. He's become proficient with a blaster and works a menial job on Tattoine, so he can keep an eye on Luke.
He is not the Kenobi we last saw in Revenge of the Sith, perhaps at the height of his powers. He's clearly bothered about his duel with Anakin, whom he thought of as a brother, and with whom he fought the Clone Wars. He's haunted by the idea that he left him to die on Mustafa. I thought the scene where he learned that Vader was alive was done very well.
There's a new episode out today, that I haven't seen yet, but I anticipate the story arc in this series is Kenobi's return to the Force and rehabilitation from where he is now. That's his 'zero to hero' story arc.
In what was termed the BBQ Kenobi episode, Vader was clearly toying with him, wanting to make Kenobi suffer in the way he suffered. Kenobi was developing from where we saw him at the start to re-embracing the ways of the Force.
Elsewhere, I've seen complaints that the lightsaber duels weren't as flashy as in the prequels. Proper sword fighting isn't flashy. The lightsaber fight scenes in the Original Trilogy were done by stuntmen fencers. The efforts in the prequels were more Chinese Opera. Kenobi's final despatch of Maul in Rebels was straight out of Iaido.
The Mandolarian and Kenobi are the parts of the franchise, I'm still enjoying.
As for the writing, someone else mentioned that the writing in the Marvel franchise has been better than in recent Star Wars movies and some of the TV shows. I agree. I wish those writers would work on Star Wars.
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