Disney’s newest Star Wars series, “The Acolyte,” has received some of the worst fan ratings in the franchise’s history — 14% on Rotten Tomatoes!. But is it because of racism, as the show’s star, Amandla Stenberg, suggests? Or maybe, as media critic Gary Buechler of@nerdrotic believes, it’s because “The Acolyte” destroys Star Wars lore left and right. Gary joins Glenn to break it all down, from the “lesbian space witch” plot that somehow made Glenn defend midi-chlorians to how the show seems to prioritize DEI requirements above good storytelling: “Disney doesn't understand Star Wars fans … They hate the fans. And they actively hate Star Wars.”
TranscriptBelow is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: The one and only, Gary Buechler is on. Nerdrotic is what he is known as. And he has been hysterical, on the new Star Wars series from Disney+ called The Acolyte.
I haven't seen it. But I have heard about it, and I have heard my friends talking about Gary, and his conversations on it.
Disney is actually blaming him for the loss of credibility on that new space thriller of the space lesbian witches. And YouTube has actually dinged him. And is giving him strikes.
Because he is a hatemonger. Because he doesn't like the lesbian witches in space.
Gary, you're here to answer for yourself, brother. What's happening?
GARY: I'm here to answer for my sins against Disney. Thank you for having me on, Glenn. And that is happening to -- it's not -- it's random. But it's happening to a lot of YouTubers. And commentators. And I'm not sure if you're aware.
The star, Amandla Stenberg yesterday released a diss track against Star Wars fans, and she is copyright claiming, and dinging everybody on YouTube as well for her blatant attack on the Star Wars fandom, which is always, you know, just a great strategy, which, oh, by the way, never worked.
GLENN: Yeah, I know. It's really great.
Look, I'm a star of this new show, you know, from just this legacy that have been loved for 50 years.
And I'm a big Star Wars fan. But all the Star Wars fans, they really suck a lot. They really -- they're crazy. They don't know, you know, talent when they see it. They don't know a good story line. Yeah, that's the way to attract those -- those loyal viewers, every single time.
I saw the Rotten Tomatoes.
The -- the -- the experts tell us that it's absolutely fantastic. 84 percent.
The average audience score is 14.
GARY: That's a bit high in my opinion.
GLENN: Yeah.
GARY: So --
GLENN: Tell us the story first. What is the story?
GARY: Oh, the story of The Acolyte is as you said, there is a coven of lesbian space witches, who magically conceived identical twins without a father, through a power of not the Force, the Thread. By the way, somebody needs to call Darth Povich because the twins don't look anything like mom. They don't have horns.
And they were split up at -- at the age of like -- I would say it's eight or nine. And they haven't seen each other for 19 years. Yet they have identical haircuts.
GLENN: Really? What are the odds of the hair cut thing? Really? That's crazy!
GARY: Well, you know, a good hairstylist keeps her secrets, so obviously she isn't telling either one that they're going to the same one. But...
GLENN: So before we get into more of the lesbian space witch thing, which I think America and the world has been crying out for, for a very long time.
GARY: Yes.
GLENN: Tell me who is in charge of this disaster in space. Who did they get to -- to run this?
GARY: Oh. Former personal assistant to Harvey Weinstein, Leslye Headland is the head writer on this show.
GLENN: Oh.
GARY: Yeah, I know. It's shocking. That somehow, somebody connected to Harvey Weinstein can get work.
GLENN: Yeah. I would think they would be in the federal witness protection program myself.
But they might even turn them down. The -- so she -- she found work, after being the personal assistant. So the one that was lining up all the hotel room meetings and everything else.
She's now the head writer of the lesbian space witch show.
GARY: She is. I think the term is Judas goat.
I think that's -- she got a job by begging for it on the red carpet. When she was famously asked what's your favorite Star Wars. And she said, all the Star Wars. Obviously, not knowing a single thing about it.
Later, she's come out and claimed, that she does.
And she's written this entire story, that not only passes the Bechtel test. It passes any DEI requirement with flying colors for lack of a better description.
GLENN: So go ahead.
GARY: No. Ultimately, it's -- it's the story, Glenn.
What -- what Disney loves to do is conflate whatever happens on Twitter, and any kind of complaints. With like real criticisms of this show.
And ultimately, despite all the obvious, quote, unquote, diversity. Which is just meant to exclude, well, white man. Let's be real.
And it's just a bad story, that destroys the lore. And that's what Star Wars fans are mad about. It goes back to the past and it undercuts Anakin, his entire redemptive arc, the specialness of Anakin and the prophecy. And every time they release another minute of Disney Star Wars, I can't even call it Star Wars. It's Disney Star Wars.
On D+, it destroys more lore, and that's what the fans are upset about.
The thing is, this has been going on for years now, Glenn. You can go back all the way now to the force awakens. And it seems to come to a head on this show, for some reason.
When I think it probably could come to a head five other times. Six other times.
(laughter)
GLENN: But why this one?
I mean, they -- have they just been like, you know what, we've tried suddenly to kill this thing?
Let's just finally kill it.
CHARLIE: Right. They found a way to kill something again! It's pretty amazing.
I would argue that Obi-Wan Kenobi is much worse, as far as destroying lore.
Obi-Wan, his sole purpose was to watch Luke. They had a show where he takes off on Luke twice, follows around a little baby Princess Leia, who never mentions meeting him as a kid.
And fights Darth Vader twice. So it really shouldn't surprise anybody.
But I guess this show is -- I would equate it. Oh, go ahead.
GLENN: No. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
We have a delay and I'm -- I forget, I'm so excited to talk to you about this.
The -- the -- I never thought I would be in a position of Defending midi-chlorians. But this one kind of throws all of that out. Right?
GARY: It kind of does. I personally am not a fan of midi-chlorians. And never will be.
GLENN: Oh, I hate it.
GARY: Absolutely hate it. But I guess Disney Star Wars has proven, things can always get worse. And the biggest victory comes with the prequels. Like the prequels are now looked at which more fondly than they were before, thanks to every bit of Disney Star Wars, Lucasfilm has created.
But with this show in particular, it's just hit the zeitgeist.
Because I would equate it to the marvels from last year. It was just so predictably bad. And that it still beat our very lowered expectations of how bad it would be.
And it's a show, if you see it, it's contradictory.
You have characters, contradicting each other. None of it actually makes any sense in -- for storytelling-wise. You spend your first two episodes establishing a character. Then you go into a flashback for an entire episode. That really doesn't tell you anything new.
Then the last episode was 27 minutes long. Without previously being on credits.
And nothing happens. Absolutely nothing happens. And, oh, by the way, it cost $180 million to produce.
GLENN: Oh, my gosh.
What is -- what has happened to Disney? I mean, besides all of the DEI crap.
They just -- the greatest storytelling company ever, cannot seem to tell a story anymore!
CHARLIE: No, they are creative bankruptcy personified now.
And they were on the top when Bob Iger decided to buy a bunch of franchises.
And everybody was calling him this massive genius when he just went on a shopping spree. And never bothered looking into what it takes to cultivate these franchises and keep them around.
What it took to keep them around for decades. You know, it's not being talked about as much. But they have a Dr. Who Show, that they're now in charge of, running around with Acolyte.
It's a race to the bottom with both of these.
GLENN: I love Doctor Who. And their -- and their --
CHARLIE: So do I.
GLENN: When did Disney buy into Doctor Who? I hate the BBC, but how did the BBC even let that happen?
GARY: Well, they were about to cancel it because the first female doctor played by Jodie Whittaker, by the way, wasn't a hit like they suspected.
GLENN: Oh, no. What a surprise.
GARY: Yeah. What a shock. So they decided to bring back Russell T. Davies, who had brought the show back in 2005. And it was extremely good and popular. And it's just proved that you can't go home again, and how much has changed in entertainment, Glenn.
I -- post-2016, you have the guy who originally brought it back. Made it a worldwide sensation.
Making the worst Doctor Who now.
And, of course, it's filled with things like pronouns.
And we had -- it's not even the first like male kiss. You know, gay kiss. In Dr. Woman WHO. But they gave this one to the doctor. And made it more prominent with the first black gay doctor. And they're in this trap now.
Instead of giving the fans what they want and just making good entertainment, they have to abide. You know, and the BBC started this much earlier on back in 2012.
The Diversity and Inclusion Initiative, which is all the DEI stuff. And it prevents them from telling a good story. They have so many rules on themselves.
So with the corporatism, it goes back to Disney. With the corporatism, they really can't take chances anymore.
And this even goes beyond woke entertainment. They just need to have this built-in audience, to spend money on anything. And in my opinion, overspend.
And what makes things insane is they paid so much money for this built-in audience, that they immediately decide to piss off. Not only with their story telling. They come out and gaslight the fandom, with a term that's a real term called fan baiting. Which is to start controversies online, so people are talking about their show.
And, again, I haven't seen an example of this ever working. But they've been doing it now for seven or eight years.
GLENN: We're talking to the Gary Buechler.
So we're talking to Gary Buechler about Nerdrotic. Or he's -- he is Nerdrotic online. We're talking about the new Disney show. You know, they omitted they had a secret gay agenda. And I really don't care. And I really don't care.
But God, stop preaching to us, and stop trying to make it look like the whole universe is, you know, lesbian space witches.
Because it just ain't. It's just not.
And, you know, I used to think, that George Lucas was the biggest problem to Star Wars. Because he would introduce things like Jar Jar Binks. Like, oh, jeez. But at least he cared about the story. At least the story of the force was consistent. And it built on each other.
Not anymore!
GARY: No. Not anymore. This was a basic story of good versus evil, and it doesn't work in the modern nihilist times that we're in. Where, oh, it's gray. And the Jedi are bad. George was a genius. George is at the top of his craft -- he -- there will never be anything like him again.
Was he the best storyteller? No, he actually had a lot of help with the original trilogy. Not much help with the prequels. But he still -- when he's putting in half the effort, he's better than everybody in Hollywood.
And he's looking much better nowadays too. Unfortunately, with Bob Iger, with Nelson Peltz and because he's an old man. Right? He's in his 80s. He doesn't want to rock the boat. He made a lot of money on this Disney deal.
A lot of money. But Disney doesn't understand Star Wars. They never will.
And more importantly, they don't understand Star Wars fans. And they actively hate them. Which has been kind of the undercurrent.
Sorry.
GLENN: No. I don't think they understand anybody.
I really don't. I don't think they understand their own Disney fans.
You know, the children in their families. They don't understand any of it.
They act as though they do hate them.
GARY: Because they do. And forgive me. This isn't Glenn's fault. This is my first radio interview. And I apologize. And thanks for having me on, Glenn.
They hate the fans. And they actively hate Star Wars. And they're now calling the fans racists and bigots for pointing out inconsistencies of lore, like normal fan stuff. Stuff that fans have done forever and will do Trevor.
And Hollywood is having a very hard time in -- in the social media era. We've seen the death of the movie star. And, quite frankly, it's because we got to know them.
And now it's based on property. Right?
And they don't want to take the time to understand these properties. And you can't use the old model of, oh, well, we can just change stuff, and nobody is going to care. No. A lot of people always cared. Now you're going to hear about it, a lot. And you have to figure this out, or you're going down.
GLENN: Gary, thank you so much for talking to us on. He's one of the largest pop culture voices on YouTube and social media. And the establishment, Disney, and everybody seems to be afraid of his voice. Because he's -- he's just speaking the truth that we all know.