The Mandalorian Season 3 Eps. 1-2

[canyonwalker]

A few weeks ago we started watching season 3 of The Mandalorian. It's TV we've been looking forward to ever since the second half of that other Star Wars series, The Book of Boba Fett, turned into Boba Fett Writes a Book About a Someone More Interesting. Here are my thoughts after watching the first 2 episodes.

The Mandalorian definitely has strengths going for it. Din Djarin, the title character, is a genuinely interesting character... even if the face mask thing does have actor Pedro Pascal seeming to phone in 99% of his performance. A number of the recurring characters are interesting, too. Then there's CGI costar Grogu, aka "Baby Yoda". I have hopes we might see him develop this season into something more than a MacGuffin dressed in a potato sack.

Production values remain strong. It's obvious even when the writing gets cheap (see below) that the show still have a lot of budget. The crew, artists, and animators continue doing a fantastic job.

The setting continues to be a great canvas for storytelling. The "Space Western" genre provides an outer rim of the galaxy where every planet is different and danger lurks around every corner. BTW, space-western isn't just my term for it. It's a known category within writing, and showrunner Jon Favreau has said in interviews that his idea was to create a Star Wars story that was like the Old West.

So, with all these positives, what's not to like? You knew there was a "but" coming.

Mandalorian Science Theater 3000

The "but" is the writing. The first two episodes of Mandalorian are just cheesy. I sat there on the sofa offering a sarcastic running commentary like I was Joel and the 'bots.



What's so cheesy about eps. 1 and 2? Here's a partial list of things I spontaneously ragged on the show for, spoiler protected as it reveals plot points:

• Episode 1 opens with a scene on a desert planet of a teenage Mandalorian taking his oaths.
  
  
  • This looks like a flashback scene to Din Djarin's youth. It can't be present day as the Mandalorian covert was whittled down to just 2 people, and they were on a space station.
  
  
  • A monster attacks. It's a sandworm. Blasters don't piece its hide?
  
  
  • Once again, huge blasters do no more damage than tiny pocket-pistols.
  
  
  • Really, you're going to use grappling hooks on a huge monster? You deserve getting crushed like that.
  
  
  • Mando appears in his Mazda Miata starship and blasts the monster with torpedoes, which actually do kill it.
  
  
  • So, this isn't a flashback. Where did all those Mandalorians come from? ...Including a teenage one in, like, 2 months?
  
  

• Din Djarin tells the armorer his plan for atonement.
  
  
  • She's like, "Nuh-uh, unpossible"
  
  
  • He's like, "What if it is?"
  
  
  • She pauses. I'm like, "Say it, bitch! Say it! This. Is. The. Way."
  
  
  • Her: "This is the way."
  
  

• Din Djarin and Grogu fly through hyperspace
  
  
  • Space Whales are flying alongside them in the hyperspace tunnel.
  
  
  • WTF is this, another dangling thread they're going to have to resolve.
  
  
  • I'll bet they're immune to blasters, too.
  
  

• Din Djarin goes to Nevarro looking to resurrect the bounty-hunter droid he worked with in S1E1.
  
  
  • Idiot space cowboy-thugs threaten the local magistrate. Really? They know the dude's a deadly gunslinger!
  
  
  • And Mando, a deadly gunslinger who's got to be known throughout the galaxy, is standing right behind him in full battle gear.
  
  
  • Idiot space-pirates draw first and get mowed down.
  
  
  • The bounty hunter droid? Melted in a river of lava and blown up by a self-destruction bomb.
  
  
  • Mando: "But I just want the memory board." Dude! That is going to be the least salvageable part!
  
  
  • A team of space gremlins gets to work on repairs. Don't feed them after midnight!
  
  
  • The space gremlins speak pidgin-English that Mando can't understand. The magistrates translates... much how like in Galaxy Quest Sigourney Weaver's character was the only one who could talk to the ship's computer.
  
  
  • They get the robot halfway back together and reboot it.
  
  
  • Me: "It's gonna be like, 'MUST. KILL. BEBE.'"
  
  
  • Robot: "MUST. KILL. BEBE."
  
  
  • All the characters: *surprised Pikachu face*
  
  

• Din Djarin and Grogu visit Bo-Katan Kryze on one of Mandalore's moons
  
  
  • The only defense at her castle is apparently one lame droid standing outside.
  
  
  • What's the Mandalorian secret passcode anyway? Kill the droid and walk in?
  
  
  • Hey, I recognize her throne room, it's Dragonstone Keep from Game of Thrones!
  
  
  • She's awfully mopey sitting on her throne. Maybe because all she does is sit here all day?
  
  
  • Who even cleans the place or cooks food? There's nobody other than that one lame droid, standing guard outside.
  
  
  • She tells Djarin that Mandalore is both haunted and cursed, and not haunted and cursed.
  
  
  • He's not fooled; he's like, "A moment ago you said...."
  
  
  • She's like, "Okay, it's not haunted and cursed. Go have fun there."
  
  

Episode 2: coming later, as this is getting too long.

Comments

[some_other_dave]

The "space western" trope has been a thing, and explicitly acknowledged, since Star Trek:TOS was first pitched as "Wagon Train in Space".

(And damn, I miss Firefly, who may have done it the best!!)

[canyonwalker]

The point wasn't that Space Western is a new trope (it's clearly not) but that show creator Jon Favreau explicitly conceived the series as a Space Western take on the Star Wars universe.

That's also as opposed to shows that start off intending to be something else, say Hard SF, and devolve into Space Western— or worse, Space Opera (*cough* ST:TNG *cough*).