Summary:
- Critics like it, but audience score suffers from review-bombing.
- Leslye Headland is aware of review-bombing but focuses on positive word-of-mouth.
- The show has fans, but negative reviews may influence some viewers.
The new Star Wars series The Acolyte has received mixed reactions since its premiere last month.
The show has been targeted by review-bombing, a tactic where a large group posts negative reviews to lower a show or movie‘s audience score. This is reflected on Rotten Tomatoes, where The Acolyte holds a critic score of 83% but an audience score of 14%.
“Oh, yes. 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?'” Headland told Collider.
Leslye Headland, the showrunner, acknowledges the review-bombing while downplaying its potential impact. She highlights her past work’s success relying on word-of-mouth recommendations rather than online review scores.
“I understand the point of it, which is that the average viewer would look at the site and say, ‘Oh, the user review is really low,'” Headland continued. 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. But I also think that my work in the past has been very word-of-mouth anyway, so I don’t know if it… I think that because behind the scenes, we all know what it is – it’s not that it’s not concerning – but I think it’s pretty expected, I would say.”
It’s important to note that critics have received the show more favorably, with a score of 83% on Rotten Tomatoes.
While The Acolyte has garnered positive reviews from critics, it faces an audience divided between those who enjoyed the show and those who participated in the review-bombing.
