I always thought The Mandalorian would be good. While I wasn’t necessarily as excited for it as a lot of other people were, I always had an optimistic expectation about it.
When you put people like Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni into the mix for the production of a Star Wars adventure, it’s difficult to not to be optimistic.
Add to that George Lucas’s rumoured involvement; and the idea of a story being told in a time-period of the Star Wars chronology that we haven’t really seen explored on-screen before and it’s all positive.
Like most people, I was totally in love with the first three episodes.
How could I not be?
It’s Star Wars. Really, really Star Wars.
And also… I mean, Baby Yoda. Who could resist? Who could not fall hook, line and sinker for the bait?
I mean, whoever it was who came up with the idea of a baby Yoda as the premise for a series – take a bow. Curiously, George Lucas had always stated that one of the cardinal no-no’s in Star Wars expanded universe storytelling was anything revealing more about Yoda, Yoda’s origin or his species.
So it’s curious that the very first Star Wars live-action TV show is in fact centered on a member of Yoda’s species – with the implication that we’re going to learn a lot more about the species.
At any rate, yes, I loved the opening few episodes. The Spaghetti Western style and tropes are great. The pairing of the stoic Mandalorian with the innocent baby makes for the best SW double-act since Artoo and Threepio.
And the little bits of SW lore and tidbits we get here and there whet the appetite and draw you into this new take on an old world.
And these earlier stages of the season feel like simple, uncomplicated actin/adventure fare in the best sense. It feels in fact like an old Saturday morning cartoon serial. And that’s a nice thing.
By the fourth episode, however, the first real hints of ambivalence started to appear.
I was a little bored by Chapter Four (‘Sanctuary’). I don’t want to make too fine a point of that: if three out of the four episodes had me totally hooked, it’s hardly a criticism or a reason to worry if one episode didn’t quite feel as good.
And Chapter Five (‘Gunslinger’) was also enjoyable – and full of sweeteners (or ‘fan service’, if we want to put it that way). But the jailbreak chapter with Bill Burr didn’t do anything for me: I’m a Bill Burr fan, but it felt a little like a filler show.
And actually, until the final few shows, I actually was getting a little bored.
This series sometimes feels a little light on plot and substance and heavy on imagery, as well as a touch slow.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m liking The Mandalorian. I’m just not finding it quite as spectacularly awesome as so many people seem to be saying it is. The main problem is that it doesn’t give the impression necessarily of a show that knows where it’s going.
I guess some more complexity and some more consequential storytelling is what I’m looking for. We get that in the last few chapters, which is great: but some of the season just felt a bit lacklustre.
But look, in general, it’s hard to argue that much with The Mandalorian so far.
It’s a great little slice of Star Wars and it has come at a very good time. It feels, in fact, a lot like some old Star Wars comic-book come to life in screen format.
In fact, I recently read (and reviewed) the Boba Fett comic from the Age of Rebellion line: and watching The Mandalorian at times reminds me of reading that kind of comic.
I like the main character himself. I like the feel and the tone and the settings: there’s a great deal of Lucas style visual storytelling and cinematic sweep.
I like the additional characters too: Cara Dune, Nick Nolte’s Ugnaught character, the Karl Weathers character: they’re all likeable presences. Most of all, the Mandalorian Armourer character: she’s fantastic. And actually, the measured, limited amount of Mandalorian mythology we get this season is really engaging and effective.
And lots of nice little elements. Who didn’t go slightly weak at the knees for seeing an IG-88-type unit strutting its stuff? Who didn’t become a six-year-old again for a moment when they saw that Jawa sandcrawler come into view?
And who doesn’t lower their defenses for that little green infant with the big eyes and oversized ears? Yes, as obviously marketing based a decision as it was, the ‘Baby Yoda’ thing just works.
On the other hand, all the ‘fan service’ elements sometimes leave me feeling like I want to be more challenged in the way that the (flawed) Sequel Trilogy is more challenging and daring: yet, at other times, I feel so comfortable and cosy with the way The Mandalorian unfolds that I’m hardly able to complain.
The Mandalorian is more like a steady stream of non-controversial and low-stress Star Wars storytelling to enjoy in easy doses: and it fulfils that function perfectly.
It seems like a good mix of things, in fact – to have this big-scale and big-issues cinematic event happening in the form of Episode IX, while having a smaller-scale and less complicated thing going on at the same time with The Mandalorian.
And if the general reaction to The Mandalorian is anything to go by, this future of televisual (or streaming, I guess) Star Wars content looks promising: with implications too for the recently-announced Kenobi series.
This somewhat takes some of the pressure away from the dynamic of everything riding entirely on the reaction to the big-screen productions. From now on, the question of whether the Disney era Star Wars franchise is a success or a failure won’t depend entirely on how well the movies are received.
It seems to be that most people who hate the Sequel Trilogy actually love The Mandalorian, for example. So things are going to get more balanced out.
As I said, I’ve enjoyed The Mandalorian so far.
It’s doing it’s thing and doing it at it’s own pace and that’s fine.
In a way, most of what we’ve seen feels like Lucas-style tone poems and very visual storytelling, perhaps laying down the foundation for better plot development in the future.
One thing I would really like to see The Mandalorian do is to fill in more background about this time-period after the events of Return of the Jedi and the fall of the empire.
There’s a lot of possibilities there, even if it’s only background stuff or key references here and there. It would be great, for example, if we at some point get to see the Mando heading into the center of the New Republic or Coruscant: so that we can get some sense of the Galactic Center post-ROTJ.
All in all, this has been quietly enjoyable stuff so far: again, nothing mind-blowing or all too compelling – but thoroughly enjoyable.
A part of me wonders if the substance is subtle. Sometimes, I have trouble seeing the substance of a piece on first viewing when it is presented in a subtle manner. Only repeat viewings will tell.
I’m curious to see if the Mandalorian’s quest to return the Child to his “people” will mean encounters with Jedi. Does that mean Luke? Ahsoka? Ezra? There are a few major Jedi still in play during this era.
I hope so. I think the plot needs to expand a little.