The series had some interesting ideas and a great performance by McGregor, but bland execution

While watching 'Obi-Wan Kenobi', there were clear nods to things like Clint Eastwood's 'Unforgiven', Lynne Ramsay's 'You Were Never Really Here', James Mangold's 'Logan' and even HBO's 'Boardwalk Empire'. You also had a surprisingly nuanced, wounded turn by Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan, who was better here than he was in Episode III.

But then you had jarring stuff like precocious Princess Leia, the flat, noticeably TV quality special effects (I assume they were used to give the series some continuity with Episodes I-III, which also had noticeably "fake looking" SFX) and a heavy emphasis on Darth Vader, despite his confrontations with Obi-Wan lacking any stakes.

Ultimately, there wasn't anything essential about this series, although I got the impression that the people behind it were genuinely trying to tell a more mature story in the 'Star Wars' universe.