The Acolyte is now the lowest-rated Star Wars project, according to Rotten Tomatoes' audience

Disney's latest Star Wars series, The Acolyte, arrived on Disney+ earlier this month. And while anticipation was high leading up to the project, it appears it has fallen flat with fans.

With three episodes of the series now released, Star Wars: The Acolyte may be garnering impressive viewership stats, but it seems like those who are watching aren't really enjoying it.

That's based on the 14% Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes. With just a 14% Audience Score, Star Wars: The Acolyte is now the lowest-rated Star Wars project, based on Rotten Tomatoes' Audience Score. It's now lower than the critically panned 2008 film Star Wars: The Clone Wars (19%) and the 1978 Star Wars: Holiday Special (25%).

The disconnect between the show's 85% Critic Rating and 14% Audience rating has been attributed to "review bombing" — the practice of manipulating an online rating system through massive unfavorable user reviews.

Many in the media have discounted The Acolyte's Audience Score as homophobic and racist attacks on the show. Set in the High Republic era, The Acolyte stars Black actor Amandla Stenberg (The Hate U Give) as twin Force users on opposite sides of a war, and last week's episode included a romantic moment between two female witches.

While I don't doubt that this premise has opened the show up to unwarranted racist and homophobic attacks, I do think that it's also a disservice to simply write off every single bad review as such. There can be valid criticism of The Acolyte that doesn't have to do with race or gender. The writing and acting are, in my opinion, subpar, and the setpieces and character make-up look low-budget, which is odd considering the show's $180 million budget.

Is The Acolyte as bad as the 14% Audience Rating would suggest? Probably not.
Looking at most of the audience scores, they seem to be on the extreme — either a perfect five stars or a rotten one star and nothing in between. At this point, it feels like the audience score for The Acolyte — like any other things these days — has become yet another political battleground.