The Mandalorian: Seasons 1 & 2
Feb. 6th, 2021 01:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerA few weeks ago we finished watching The Mandalorian. Yeah, we'd only started watching it a week or two before that. It goes fast because each episode is only about 30 minutes of programming (there's an absurdly long end roll) and each season is just 8 episodes. The writers make brevity work, though. Each episode is tight and focused.
I've already written my thoughts from eps. 1-4 of The Mandalorian [no spoilers]. Now that I've finished the first two seasons here are Five Things. Spoilers marked.
1) "Baby Yoda" is something I can say without spoilers because you basically can't have not heard or read about it in pop culture unless you live in a cave. The character is introduced at the end of the first episode. It looks like Yoda (same species) but it's child too young to speak. My first thought was, "Oh, no, this is going to be a story about a stupidly cute Muppet baby." Thankfully the writers treat 'Baby Yoda'— whose name we later learn is Grogu— as something of a MacGuffin. The story isn't about Grogu as much as it's about the journey the Mandalorian undertakes to find others of Grogu's kind and deliver him to safety.
2) The 1970s vision of Sci Fi strained my suspension of disbelief. It's very loyal to the original concept and feel of Star Wars— by which I mean the 1977 original film— but parts of it seem foolish to modern sensibilities. One big one is that space ships can be repaired by shade-tree mechanics. Panels fall off? Just weld 'em back with a torch in the middle of a desert and you're not only space-worthy again but ready for hyperspace jumps!
3) Another 1970s era Sci Fi thing is the lack of communication and data. Mechanical technology is cheap and plentiful. Even subsistence farmers on backwater worlds have hovercraft. But next to nobody has anything like a phone. It's more likely that someone who wants to talk to you will fly across the universe and kick down your door (or send a trusted lieutenant to do so) than call. In fact, calls are used primarily in cases where someone sends a message, "Hi, I'm too busy to fly across the universe and kick down your door because while I hate you very much you're just not that important to me. But I want you to know I'm thinking violent thoughts about you and might change my mind about spending the time to fly across the universe and kick down your door sometime in the future."
4) In Season 2 we learn not all Mandalorians share the title character's "This is the way" creed. We meet a trio who make fun of him for his refusal to remove his helmet. They disparage him and his fellows who share his "This is the way" orthodoxy as fanatics. But then after we learn one of them is a claimant to the throne of Mandalore, we learn she cleaves to pretty goofy orthodoxy about how to reclaim the throne— that one must not only possess a particular weapon but also must have beaten whoever held it previously in combat. As was said in probably the most quoted movie ever, "You can't expect to wield supreme executive power just 'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!"
5) The big reveal in the Season 2 finale is Luke Skywalker. Played by Mark Hamill but looking like his younger self thanks to CGI so thorough it makes you wonder why they even bothered casting him (legal issues, probably) he arrives just in time to rescue The Mandalorian and his mostly-allies from a swat team of killer space robots. Yes, literally a swat team of killer space robots. The writing takes a lazy turn at this point, IMO, as Luke cuts through the swat team of killer space robots like they're just standing there, waiting to die. Because, in fact, the swat team of killer space robots do just stand there like a bunch of busted drones waiting to die. You'd think they'd, like, shoot him or something before he gets close enough to chop them in half with his light saber.
I've already written my thoughts from eps. 1-4 of The Mandalorian [no spoilers]. Now that I've finished the first two seasons here are Five Things. Spoilers marked.
1) "Baby Yoda" is something I can say without spoilers because you basically can't have not heard or read about it in pop culture unless you live in a cave. The character is introduced at the end of the first episode. It looks like Yoda (same species) but it's child too young to speak. My first thought was, "Oh, no, this is going to be a story about a stupidly cute Muppet baby." Thankfully the writers treat 'Baby Yoda'— whose name we later learn is Grogu— as something of a MacGuffin. The story isn't about Grogu as much as it's about the journey the Mandalorian undertakes to find others of Grogu's kind and deliver him to safety.
2) The 1970s vision of Sci Fi strained my suspension of disbelief. It's very loyal to the original concept and feel of Star Wars— by which I mean the 1977 original film— but parts of it seem foolish to modern sensibilities. One big one is that space ships can be repaired by shade-tree mechanics. Panels fall off? Just weld 'em back with a torch in the middle of a desert and you're not only space-worthy again but ready for hyperspace jumps!
3) Another 1970s era Sci Fi thing is the lack of communication and data. Mechanical technology is cheap and plentiful. Even subsistence farmers on backwater worlds have hovercraft. But next to nobody has anything like a phone. It's more likely that someone who wants to talk to you will fly across the universe and kick down your door (or send a trusted lieutenant to do so) than call. In fact, calls are used primarily in cases where someone sends a message, "Hi, I'm too busy to fly across the universe and kick down your door because while I hate you very much you're just not that important to me. But I want you to know I'm thinking violent thoughts about you and might change my mind about spending the time to fly across the universe and kick down your door sometime in the future."
4) In Season 2 we learn not all Mandalorians share the title character's "This is the way" creed. We meet a trio who make fun of him for his refusal to remove his helmet. They disparage him and his fellows who share his "This is the way" orthodoxy as fanatics. But then after we learn one of them is a claimant to the throne of Mandalore, we learn she cleaves to pretty goofy orthodoxy about how to reclaim the throne— that one must not only possess a particular weapon but also must have beaten whoever held it previously in combat. As was said in probably the most quoted movie ever, "You can't expect to wield supreme executive power just 'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!"
5) The big reveal in the Season 2 finale is Luke Skywalker. Played by Mark Hamill but looking like his younger self thanks to CGI so thorough it makes you wonder why they even bothered casting him (legal issues, probably) he arrives just in time to rescue The Mandalorian and his mostly-allies from a swat team of killer space robots. Yes, literally a swat team of killer space robots. The writing takes a lazy turn at this point, IMO, as Luke cuts through the swat team of killer space robots like they're just standing there, waiting to die. Because, in fact, the swat team of killer space robots do just stand there like a bunch of busted drones waiting to die. You'd think they'd, like, shoot him or something before he gets close enough to chop them in half with his light saber.
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Date: 2021-04-03 06:18 am (UTC)Have you seen Rogue One?
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Date: 2021-04-03 03:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-04-06 06:05 am (UTC)This should be behind a spoiler cut.
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Date: 2021-04-06 10:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-04-07 12:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-04-07 02:21 am (UTC)