With a new Star Wars show comes another chance for the entire fandom to either collectively lose it or join together in frantic defence of whatever is in the series. The Acolyte seems to have a loud portion of fans on the former side, as shown by the audience score review bombing.
The Acolyte’s showrunner, Leslye Headland, spoke about review bombing in a recent interview with Collider, where it seems she’s brushing it off. “Everybody knows what review bombing is like. Truly when the show first came out, my publicist was like, “OK, with the review…” I was like, ‘Does anybody take that seriously anymore?'”
“I understand the point of it,” she said, “which is that the average viewer would look at the site and say, ‘Oh, the user review is really low.’ But I think that, if you’re in the Star Wars fandom, I think you already know what review bombing is. So I guess if you’re totally new to the fandom and you’re considering watching the show, it could affect you.”
There are a good deal of people that just do not enjoy the show, and have plenty of valid criticisms, but the problem in Star Wars today lies with the vitriol that some fans have towards it in bad faith. Whether it’s a woman doing anything or the changing of a Jedi’s age, there are boundaries the fandom do not expect you to cross. Ever.
What do you think of The Acolyte?