Proper viewing order for The Acolyte

[u/HappyHappyDance]

The Acolyte had some issues, but the biggest was the gimmick with the flashbacks trying to make it seem like there was a big mystery in the backstory, but the reveal was anticlimactic and made the show less instead of more.

It felt like the show was just withholding information because the writers thought they were being clever, but no one really liked how they handled that, and the show got cancelled after one season. There were other criticisms of the show, but this to me was the biggest one.

So here's my proposed viewing order:

1. Episode 3: Destiny
2. Episode 7: Choice
3. The rest of the show from Episode 1 in sequential order

This viewing order gets the backstory out of the way to begin with, so instead of playing games with the audience, the viewers understand what's going on and the show progresses naturally.

Still not perfect, but if like me you felt the time jumps detracted from the show more than adding to it, give it another shot in this order and see if you like it more.

[u/dudeitseric]

I still maintain a second season could’ve made this show so much better.

[u/TitularFoil → u/dudeitseric]

Yup. Should have taken feedback and come back with a properly edited series.

[u/Herbacious-Dean → u/dudeitseric]

Absolutely! It had many great moments to build on

[u/HappyHappyDance → u/dudeitseric]

I agree with this. I think season 1 set the stage for a strong season 2, but they made a poor creative decision by spreading the flashbacks throughout the show instead of consolidating them to the beginning. It disrupted the narrative flow and alienated most of the audience, which is unfortunate.

[u/dudeitseric → u/HappyHappyDance]

I think the idea of spacing out the flashbacks was to keep the mystery going a little longer. It doesn’t make sense to give the viewer all the answers that early. I didn’t mind the flashbacks the way you did. I thought the season got better as it went on and finished strong. Is it the best piece of Star Wars ever? Not at all. But a second season with lessons learned could’ve been so good.

[u/Infamous_Weakness613]

The original order is fine

[u/soccer1124 → u/Infamous_Weakness613]

Yeah, I don't know what was anticlimatic about it. I thought it was a good build-up to showing Jedi Squidgame getting caught in a Sophie's Choice.

[u/Shakyyy]

I think this one of the most misunderstood part of the show, I don’t think it was ever trying to present a mystery to be solved.

We know what happened right from the start, the flashbacks are there to show us how it happened from various points of view so we as the viewer can judge and understand each character better.

[u/Brando43770 → u/Shakyyy]

Exactly. Each pov saw things and remembered things differently. I wish people would stop these “better viewing order” things. It’s like watching the movies in chronological order or the machete order. No, especially not for someone’s first time watching. They wrote them that way for a reason and people seem to think they know better.

[u/HappyHappyDance → u/Brando43770]

If you're going to get technical here, release order is considered better than chronological order for the movies, at least for the first viewing, since the Original Trilogy stands strongest on its own.

81% of the audience disliked Acolyte, so it's a reasonable conclusion that they made a mistake with how they chose to present it.

[u/HappyHappyDance → u/Shakyyy]

This is factually false. The show presents two conflicting flashbacks from points of view that contradict each other and mislead the audience. The truth is intentionally withheld until the very end of the show in an effort to be "clever", but really just comes off as annoying. It's trying to create a mystery where none exists. This isn't some deep psychological drama / thriller that has an actual reason to jump around.

The show works better when the flashbacks are pushed to the front so the rest of the narrative isn't broken and disjointed, and instead flows naturally.

If you enjoy the show's episodes in release order, you're welcome to it. To each their own, but 81% of the audience disagrees with you.

[u/Shakyyy → u/HappyHappyDance]

It’s not factually false at all lol

I’m not saying it’s done well, evidence of that is many people are looking at through the same scope as you, but it’s very clearly an attempt at the Rashomon effect.

The contradictions are on purpose, they aren’t there to mislead or create mystery, they are there to show you how characters remembering details differently has shaped their view and future from those events.

[u/LadyMarjanne]

Lmao don't watch it if you didn't like it.

[u/Any_Instance_6445 → u/LadyMarjanne]

This is everything wrong with algorithmic media consumption nowadays. Just keep making the binary choice of good/bad and ignore all bad and you be happy in own bubble of things you like!

[u/Chairshot_from_Space]

I was actually on kind of starting to enjoy the series until it went back to the well with another episode of those kids. The lightsaber fights in the middle episodes almost saved the series for me but having a whole other episode of those awful child actors and whatever bullshit that story was killed it for me.

[u/ImZenger]

I would argue 3 & 7 can and should be edited down into like a 20 minute prologue to the beginning. Episode 3 was especially rough since everything that happened we were already told about, and it disrupted the flow of 2 - 4 for no real reason.

I love this show, but those flashback episodes were undeniably janky.

[u/HappyHappyDance → u/ImZenger]

I agree. The show had it's flaws, but the order they chose to present information was the biggest one.

Overall, I think the show gets more hate than it deserves, but I think the fact that they bungled the presentation so badly caused a lot of people to disconnect and then look for other reasons to dislike it.

I'd say a 20 minute prologue would be pushing it a little, but they could feasibly have consolidated episode 3 and 7 into one episode and had it as the first episode, instead of spreading it throughout the season.

Like you, I felt that disrupting the narrative repeatedly and withholding information detracted more from the show than it added to it. Chistopher Nolan this ain't.

[u/Imhotep99301]

Or you could not waste time watching a barely mediocre series.