the mandalorian [eps 1-4]

[sideways]

I watched the first half of The Mandalorian at a friend's place today and for forty-five terrifying minutes thought I might actually be interested in it.

Fortunately, the next three episodes went on to solve the dilemma of how to watch the rest without signing up for Disney+ by assuring me, repeatedly, that there was absolutely nothing here that hadn't been done before.

Which isn't to say that I didn't enjoy what I saw. I was cursed by a faerie witch in the cradle to unironically love many basic tropes, as evidenced by my sincere affection for the Lost in Space reboot series. (Only a few more days until season two drops!) There was a stoic faceless badass who softened up around an adorable muppet and cool fight scenes set to great music. The actors were good; the production values were stunningly cinematic; they nudged my childhood nostalgia button in ways that weren't too gratuitous or off-beat. I had a pleasant time.

But in the era of Disney reaching a strangling peak with its creative monopoly and earning widespread critical disdain for its creative stagnancy, it would have been nicer to be offered something more than a colour-by-number guide to having a pleasant time. I can't say I'm disappointed, because I didn't have expectations, but there was the briefest moment where I thought this might be the sort of Star Wars story I'd wanted from the movies - something that truly explored the post-Empire era - and I'm a little deflated to find that, no, it's mostly just shallow window-dressing yet again. It could potentially still pull itself together over the next few episodes, but in four episodes I saw little evidence that the show had anything to say besides "please subscribe to Disney+", which is the most wet fart of an option one could take when setting a story in a world trying to rebuild after decades of galactic tyranny. The most generous thing I could say in return is that it's something of a homage to wild west TV, but its unwillingness to put a personal spin on it makes it a limp copy-paste at best.

Conclusion: worth a watch if you know what you like! Not worth a subscription on account of a distinct absence of soul.

Comments

[nyctanthes]

But in the era of Disney reaching a strangling peak with its creative monopoly and earning widespread critical disdain for its creative stagnancy, it would have been nicer to be offered something more than a colour-by-number guide to having a pleasant time

Ha!

I no longer am a star wars person, and haven't been one in a fannish sense in ages. (Maybe with the exception of Rogue One? Though I am fine with that ending and don't need a fix-it.) I only mention this because I am not the audience for The Mandalorian. But it's good to know that I can enjoy my baby yoda gifs on Tumblr and leave it at that.

I get TV fomo, every once in a while...

Great review. Are you going to see tros?

[sideways]

I'll see TRoS if friend or family drags me along, but I didn't watch TLJ and I don't have much interest in watching the finale. I continue to be fond of Star Wars as a general entity, but TFA unfortunately nuked a great deal of my interest by having a beautiful clean slate at their disposal and... opting to just rewrite A New Hope again. I will look you dead in the eye and tell you I preferred what the second trilogy did.

(I'm deeply fond of the second trilogy. I live peacefully with my sin.)

Rogue One was good fun though, agreed! I don't need ending rewrites because all I want is the pre-story adventures of Chirrut and Baze, Space Husbands, and AO3 is pretty flush with it.

[alaterdate]

This captured some of what I've been thinking about it too. It is definitely an homage to wild west TV, it has its caper of the week formula and that makes it feel nostalgic and pleasant. But like you said, there's no substance.

The beginning looked promising with the Mandolorian reclaiming Beskar and some flashback snippets of his life that clue us in to his personality and purpose for what he does in the world he's in and why he would care so much for the child. But as it goes on these things are pretty much dropped for the adventures he gets into.

As someone who never really liked Star Wars all that much though I find this show enjoyable because they took that wild west TV style. It's definitely not enough of a reason to pay for D+ (I leech my mom's account lol). I also really like the baby yoda muppet it's so cute!

[sideways]

Oh man, the beginning was SO promising D': The mystery! The aesthetic! I was really into the entire vibe of the empire breaking down into these not-quite-underground sects, and I would have been incredibly into continued exploration of what the massive changeover has actually meant at ground level. Not everyone would be happy! It'd be political, cultural, economic turbulence across MULTIPLE PLANETS, that's fascinating to me. Why do they want a force-sensitive child, how did he end up in that position? How are the Mandalorians intending to respond in the long-term to the collapse of the institution that killed them? What are Mando's personal feelings on everything?

We get glimmers of it... and then, like you say, it gets shrugged to the floor in favour of the most appallingly unoriginal "train the villagers" episode I've seen in years. Eight episodes in a season and a budget the size of a military freighter and they give me "train the krill farmers". My disbelieving squawk was audible from orbit.

If it decides it has something to actually say, it could entice me back. Until then I'll just read the Wiki summaries and move on.

The puppets and costumes were a real highlight though, for sure. The effort they've gone into there was darling. And I loved the glimpses we got of Mandalorian culture, the short conflict over working with the empire. More of that, please.