Viewpoints aren’t always the same from individual-to-individual, from community-to-community and from nation-to-nation. Expression of those viewpoints, however, is vital to the understanding of individuals — not to mention the ability to navigate disagreements in a civilized, tolerable fashion. One area where there seems to be tremendous agreement, however, is that The Acolyte — a television show on Disney+ created by Lucasfilm — was not a very great experience for viewers.

(L-R): The Stranger and Osha Aniseya (Amandla Stenberg) in Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, season one, exclusively on Disney+. ©.

The Acolyte currently has a horrendous 3.7 audience score on Metacritic and an 18% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Claims that the show was “review bombed” seem hard to square with other shows having received excellent audience reception in the past, even when their messaging has gone against those who might have disliked The Acolyte.

For example, it’s hard to figure out how Barbie could have done so well at the box office and with audiences even while being accused of some degree of misandry. Where were the vitriolic rage baiters for that film? Why were they likewise impotent with Hocus Pocus 2? How is it that Inside Out 2 managed to avoid the same ire?

(L-R): Osha Aniseya (Amandla Stenberg) and the Stranger in Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, season one, exclusively on Disney+. ©.

It might be that audiences are not so easily predicted… and it also might be that there’s simply little substance to the claims that The Acolyte is under attack from some crazed group of people who want to end shows for featuring minorities. One might reasonably conclude that the same critics of Lucasfilm are probably also fans of Family Matters, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and any number of shows featuring minority casts but which also did not delve into modern identitarianism in the same way.

It’s also very reasonable to think that the horrid viewership, near-immediate cancellation of The Acolyte by Disney, and poor audience review scores are the result of — *gasp* — a bad show with bad writing doing badly.

Despite what should probably be an indictment of Lucasfilm lead Kathleen Kennedy hiring the former personal assistant to Harvey Weinstein (Leslye Headland) to run the show, a new defense has sprung up. Instead of it being the fault of a wayward studio with rapidly declining engagement, it is instead the act of deranged trolls which derailed The Acolyte. Occam’s Razor, this is not.

Osha Aniseya (Amandla Stenberg) in Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, season one, exclusively on Disney+. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

Star of the show, Amandla Stenberg drew some praise, but also a tremendous amount of controversy, when she released a “diss track” aimed at taking on critics of The Acolyte while the ratings were still plummeting. Clearly, it didn’t improve the situation.

Now, with the show canceled, the above monologue she provided on Instagram has set up a new confrontation.

The claim is that folks didn’t watch the show because of “hatred” — not because of poor writing, acting or anything else. Instead, disliking the show is now synonymous with the worst of society. It’s then easy to see how such an environment can breed a new (seemingly) organized effort to demonetize and strike down prominent voices who failed to review The Acolyte well. It doesn’t matter if they liked X-Men 97, Godzilla Minus One, Star Wars: The Clone Wars and/or Rebels, or any other entertainment offerings. All that matters is that if they reviewed The Acolyte poorly, they must be silenced.

 

 

Were this just a bunch of low-engagement voices calling for the silencing of pop culture critics, we might not cover the topic. However, Team YouTube has often replied directly to these posts (and many more we have not included for brevity’s sake).

 

While this may be YouTube’s modus operandi to have people follow the normal channels of objection rather than creating a ruckus on X, it still needs to be addressed. That Park Place condemns in the strongest possible terms anyone who treats another person poorly based on their skin color, origins, sex, etc. However, weaponizing empathy with false flags intended to prevent negative discourse around a show that some people didn’t enjoy is a real issue in today’s world.

Now I know that there are major issues happening all across our planet that deserve our attention. Maybe this is currently not the significant threat to civilized conversation that other pressing matters might be. That said, if this campaign is successful, it would have a seriously deleterious impact on YouTube. Being critical of art is a key liberty necessary for the improvement of art. Being open to criticism is a sign of maturity. And having debate online necessitates that one side disagrees with the other.

Shutting down that debate for the sake of preventing any negativity towards a piece of entertainment is a malignant effort and one we should not support. While criticism can go too far, and yes, being critical of art based on immutable human differences is awful, we must be careful that we not conflate legitimate critique with something far worse simply because it serves the purposes of the propagandists who wish all those with differing opinions be silenced.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – MAY 23: (L-R) Alan Bergman, Co-Chairman, Disney Entertainment, Kathleen Kennedy, President, Lucasfilm, Leslye Headland and Asad Ayaz, Chief Brand Officer, The Walt Disney Company and President, Marketing, The Walt Disney Studios and Disney attend the launch event for Lucasfilm’s new Star Wars series The Acolyte at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California on May 23, 2024. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney)

Here’s to hoping that YouTube is wise enough to recognize the concerted effort to cancel critical thinking in response to the cancellation of The Acolyte. The two are not the same, and only one should appropriately be revoked from its platform.