Top 5 episodes of Star Wars television in 2022

With no less than three live action series and another in animation, it’s safe to say that 2022 has been the most prolific year ever for Star Wars on the small screen.

With so many to choose from, how can we possibly determine what was the best of the most recent batch of episodes? Here on Dork Side of the Force, let’s end the year by sorting out the five best episodes of Star Wars on television.

5. Obi-Wan Kenobi – “Part I”

Returning to an iconic character after such a lengthy absence is no small task. When we finally get a glimpse of Ewan McGregor, resuming his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi after 17 years, there is very little dialogue and weighty emotion behind the performance. This Jedi master is not the same as the one we saw at the end of the Clone Wars. The stunning amount of feeling that accompanies the first half of the episode alone is enough to convey just how damaged and defeated the ageing Jedi has become in the wake of the near total destruction of the Order he once called home and the grim responsibility he has assigned himself to see it restored.

4. Tales of the Jedi – “The Sith Lord”

The Clone Wars style of animation began its existence as a neat if strange departure from traditional 3-D form. As time passed, this style has now been perfected. Every frame of this series is like a serene painting. Even the most mundane vision of the Coruscant sky is made to be the most utterly picturesque thing in the long history of Star Wars animation. From this simple backdrop, the detail only intensifies. The facial expressions and caricature-like appearance of iconic faces gives the series a life of its own. Not just some spin-off of a grander series, Tales of the Jedi contains a mature, emotional depth that surpasses that of its parent series The Clone Wars and The Bad Batch.

These traits are best seen in the fourth episode of the short series The Sith Lord, focusing on the conflicted Jedi Master Dooku at the ending of The Phantom Menace after losing his former padawan. Now in the clutches of a new dark master, Dooku is at risk of losing himself to despair. The greater details of his harrowing journey are better left to be seen rather than read, especially given the supreme quality of the show’s animation.

I will also add that it would be a grave disservice to not mention the work of composer Kevin Kiner, who makes the series truly complete with his haunting and beautiful score that is reminiscent of the late great Vangelis and his iconic score for the original Blade Runner, perfectly fitting for the skyline of Coruscant.

Hopefully this is not the last we have seen of these quiet and compelling short stories told in the medium of animation.

3. Andor – “One Way Out”

The quiet glory of a slow-burn series is when it comes time to light the fire. Episode ten of the impossibly good series, Andor, fulfills this promise several times over. If it is possible to hold one’s breath for an entire hour, this is the time to do it. Even though we know deep down that the titular character must make it out in the end, this fact does not detract from the tension in the slightest. New characters that we have known for only a few minutes of screen time become like family and watching their claustrophobic and desperate struggle endears them to us only all the more.

Andor time and time again puts the grittiest and most down to earth dramas to shame. The combination of high fantasy sci-fi and serious espionage thriller is not a typical recipe for success, but this only makes the show even more of a gem.

2. The Book of Boba Fett – “Chapter 2: The Tribes of Tatooine”

Much like the first episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi, strife tempered by solitude can produce something truly special. In a show that is more action packed than a first-person-shooter game, having a lengthy sequence of almost meditative quiet is of startling effect here. It may be the case that we simply don’t expect something so serene and delicate from a show about a clone bounty hunter on a hostile desert world. But the chaos surrounding Boba Fett only makes this brief respite all the more valuable. Not only to the flow of the series but to Fett himself as a character. Here we see him shed the skin of the ruthless killer for hire and the beginnings of a more nuanced man. One who could lead and provide for his people.

The episode, in a way, serves as an act of humility, appropriate seeing as the “most feared bounty hunter in the galaxy” was felled by a blind and disoriented Han Solo, that brings the character to life in a way that has never been done before.

In his forty-year existence, never has Fett truly been anything more than a cool-armor-wearing-shooty-guy. Now he is a man with depth and pathos. And his journey is far from over.

1. Andor – “Reckoning”

Is it the greatest episode of television ever? Sure, why not.

I mentioned the effect of the slow burn before, if later episodes serve as a quickening of the fire, this episode is the explosion. While it is not the emotional or even the narrative climax of the series, Reckoning serves as the standard by which we judge the entire story of Cassian Andor, and from now on will be the golden standard of dramatic visual storytelling in the galaxy far, far away. The down to earth and rugged feel of this show is so deeply alien to anything else Star Wars and yet it feels so natural.

All of the best qualities of Andor are in this episode. The impossible struggle against oppressors, the will of the few against the many, and the damage it causes to those left behind.

And so, the year is over. But fear not, 2023 is right around the corner and the wait for more Star Wars is not so unbearably long this time. Season two of The Bad Batch is a mere two weeks away, starting on January 4, The Mandalorian returns with season three on March 1 and the new live action series Ahsoka set to air sometime later in the year.

Did we leave out your favorite episode of this year’s Star Wars? Let us know in the comment section below! For all things Stars, head on over to Dork Side of the Force!