The bolded. That's the only thing that made it bad!
This is mostly true, or at least flashy direction, tight action, and good visuals can compensate for a bad script. But you can't really tease out "bad concepts" from "bad writing" completely because they do go hand in hand. Bad writers rely on bad concepts (in this context I'm saying things like weak male characters, actively subverting female characters to take masculine roles, pushing sexual and gender ideologies over natural relationships, insulting the core audience in search for fringe markets, stuff like that). They neglect the traditional storytelling and characterization beats that make these types of shows work in the first place. You can just look at Skeleton Crew, which hews VERY close to classic narrative, prioritizes character development, uses action to advance the story, finds innovation and interesting twists on concepts, and understands that making sympathetic characters that connect with the audience is important.
Compared to the disaster that was Fett, the dull slog of Ahsoka (aside from the bad Sith guy, injecting all the energy into the show he could), and the idiocracy of Obi-wan, SC feels like a whole project, even the bits of filler (like the overly extended escape from Lonora the mud planet) are used as character development and keep it visually interesting. Never even bothered with Acolyte, just the clips online alone were enough to condemn that show.
Most of the issues Star Wars has, IMHO, are due to poor directing (or for these tv shows, maybe 'poor showrunning' is more apt), even experienced folks like Robert Rodriguez are doing shoddy work with bad action, dodgy effects, and scenes that don't fit into a cohesive whole. Since these shows are heavily serialized the damage can't be contained in individual episodes like a traditional show (Star Trek, for example) it propagates throughout and tanks the entire thing. Filoni has weaknesses with live action. Faverau is the only one who really understands the Volume and uses it effectively. I hope with Mando and Grogru they can deliver a tight script with Mando actually in charge and front and center as an active participant in his own story.
Seeing the legions of Star Wars projects that failed to progress gives me some hope that they are actually filtering for quality and maybe the bean counters are getting Kennedy to pull back on the direction she has been pushing. Alas, seems like Skeleton Crew isn't doing gangbusters like it should, and I doubt Andor S2 will do much better than the tepid views of S1. ALL of Star Wars is floundering right now as the bad shit drags down the good shit. Mando has been the only real 'hit' of "nu-Star Wars" and even that has been spun off to oblivion.
