TV: The Mandalorian (Season 1)
(C'est Le Bon - Supertramp)
For those of you figuratively and literally late to the show, I've already covered the first three episodes of this show here. If you haven't caught that review yet, you might want to, since it covers a lot of ground that I won't be re-hashing for this article.
'The Mandalorian' is a show about a bounty hunter who takes a bounty on something that he cannot in good conscience turn over for money. The rest of the first season deals with the various consequences of that action.
The show itself is 'futuristic' in that it takes place in the technologically advanced world of Star Wars, but that's where a lot of the similarities end. The story of 'The Mandalorian' could easily be told in the 1800s. It could be told just about anywhere. That it exists within the Star Wars universe gives it added appeal for long-time fans of that content, but it's absolutely not required. This is evidenced by the fact that I've sat a number of people who weren't hard core sci-fi fans down and had them watch it from end to end.
I won't faff about here. I really enjoyed the first season of this show. It's well-shot, well-enough cast, and the production values have been off the charts. The story, while semi-predictable, is full of enough pleasant little twists that you'll find yourself nodding your head in satisfaction. It's just good, solid television. Season One is eight episodes long and can be seen on the Disney+ streaming service. The last episode dropped on December 27th, so I imagine it won't be too long before you can view it through other venues as well. I won't go into many other details right here aside from this because once you start watching this show, you'll probably stab someone if they spoil it for you.
If you've already watched the first several episodes of the show and you liked it, the rest of the season won't disappoint. If you have poor taste in television and don't care for quality entertainment, the rest of the season is every bit as good as the first part. Leave now while you can.
HERE THERE BE SPOILERS!
So yeah, I want to take a minute to talk about the show, specifically the season finale. The final episode of the show didn't disappoint at all. There were a few missteps, but all in all, I was quite pleased with it.
- First, let's talk about the last shot in the episode of Gideon climbing out of that TIE Fighter, or whatever the hell he was flying. Let's specifically talk about the Dark Saber he was wielding, because HOLY SHIT, that portents a lot of heavy stuff in this show. If you're not familiar with why the Dark Saber is so important, Screen Crush did a really good overview of it over on YouTube that you can check out here:
- The business with the Dark Saber is cool, but I wish they would have found someone a little more charismatic to play Moff Gideon. I'm sorry, but Giancarlo Esposito doesn't do it for me at all. Not one bit. He has no gravitas at all. He's an extra. He's utterly forgettable. They should have swapped him with Werner Herzog so that there could have been more scenery-chewing. Space Germans.
- The overall tone of the show is excellent for me. I feel like they need to be wary of a few things going forward in terms of plot devices. First, The Child cannot simply finger-wiggle his way out of bad situations all the time. That's a Get Out Of Jail card that the Mandalorian does not need. Second, and I'm glad to see that the show addressed this, I was worried that the other Mandalorians were going to pop up and save the day on a regular basis. This is clearly not a huge issue anymore, and it leaves the door open for the occasional cameo in future seasons.
- There's not a tattoo shop in the land that isn't going to get requests for the Mandalorian's signet.
- You know who I was worried about? The Armorer. I referred to her as the Forge Mistress in my earlier review before I knew what the show's official name for her was. I'm not sure why I developed so much attachment to her as a character, but during the last few minutes of the show when the imperials came for her, I was more invested in her survival than I was Kuiil's. Also, she is a bad, BAD woman. Like SUPER bad.
- IG11's sacrifice was potent, but that's the kind of event that should have been saved for later in the series, IMO. There was a ton of potential camaraderie there that was spoiled far too early.
- Lastly, THE HELMET. SUCH A POOR DECISION TO REMOVE THE HELMET. You should have done that one off-camera. You could have shown IG11 lifting it, with the camera on the droid, not the Mandalorian. You could have done many other things that weren't showing the Mandalorian's face. This is the only thing about this show that I'm really, REALLY frustrated with. This was full stop a BAD MOVE. One of the things that makes this show great is the mysterious nature of the Mandalorian. We know his face. We know his name. We didn't need those things. This almost undermines every single good step they made with this show.
I -loved- season one, but the helmet thing almost ruined it for me.
For those of you figuratively and literally late to the show, I've already covered the first three episodes of this show here. If you haven't caught that review yet, you might want to, since it covers a lot of ground that I won't be re-hashing for this article.
'The Mandalorian' is a show about a bounty hunter who takes a bounty on something that he cannot in good conscience turn over for money. The rest of the first season deals with the various consequences of that action.
The show itself is 'futuristic' in that it takes place in the technologically advanced world of Star Wars, but that's where a lot of the similarities end. The story of 'The Mandalorian' could easily be told in the 1800s. It could be told just about anywhere. That it exists within the Star Wars universe gives it added appeal for long-time fans of that content, but it's absolutely not required. This is evidenced by the fact that I've sat a number of people who weren't hard core sci-fi fans down and had them watch it from end to end.
I won't faff about here. I really enjoyed the first season of this show. It's well-shot, well-enough cast, and the production values have been off the charts. The story, while semi-predictable, is full of enough pleasant little twists that you'll find yourself nodding your head in satisfaction. It's just good, solid television. Season One is eight episodes long and can be seen on the Disney+ streaming service. The last episode dropped on December 27th, so I imagine it won't be too long before you can view it through other venues as well. I won't go into many other details right here aside from this because once you start watching this show, you'll probably stab someone if they spoil it for you.
If you've already watched the first several episodes of the show and you liked it, the rest of the season won't disappoint. If you have poor taste in television and don't care for quality entertainment, the rest of the season is every bit as good as the first part. Leave now while you can.
HERE THERE BE SPOILERS!
So yeah, I want to take a minute to talk about the show, specifically the season finale. The final episode of the show didn't disappoint at all. There were a few missteps, but all in all, I was quite pleased with it.
- First, let's talk about the last shot in the episode of Gideon climbing out of that TIE Fighter, or whatever the hell he was flying. Let's specifically talk about the Dark Saber he was wielding, because HOLY SHIT, that portents a lot of heavy stuff in this show. If you're not familiar with why the Dark Saber is so important, Screen Crush did a really good overview of it over on YouTube that you can check out here:
- The business with the Dark Saber is cool, but I wish they would have found someone a little more charismatic to play Moff Gideon. I'm sorry, but Giancarlo Esposito doesn't do it for me at all. Not one bit. He has no gravitas at all. He's an extra. He's utterly forgettable. They should have swapped him with Werner Herzog so that there could have been more scenery-chewing. Space Germans.
- The overall tone of the show is excellent for me. I feel like they need to be wary of a few things going forward in terms of plot devices. First, The Child cannot simply finger-wiggle his way out of bad situations all the time. That's a Get Out Of Jail card that the Mandalorian does not need. Second, and I'm glad to see that the show addressed this, I was worried that the other Mandalorians were going to pop up and save the day on a regular basis. This is clearly not a huge issue anymore, and it leaves the door open for the occasional cameo in future seasons.
- There's not a tattoo shop in the land that isn't going to get requests for the Mandalorian's signet.
- You know who I was worried about? The Armorer. I referred to her as the Forge Mistress in my earlier review before I knew what the show's official name for her was. I'm not sure why I developed so much attachment to her as a character, but during the last few minutes of the show when the imperials came for her, I was more invested in her survival than I was Kuiil's. Also, she is a bad, BAD woman. Like SUPER bad.
- IG11's sacrifice was potent, but that's the kind of event that should have been saved for later in the series, IMO. There was a ton of potential camaraderie there that was spoiled far too early.
- Lastly, THE HELMET. SUCH A POOR DECISION TO REMOVE THE HELMET. You should have done that one off-camera. You could have shown IG11 lifting it, with the camera on the droid, not the Mandalorian. You could have done many other things that weren't showing the Mandalorian's face. This is the only thing about this show that I'm really, REALLY frustrated with. This was full stop a BAD MOVE. One of the things that makes this show great is the mysterious nature of the Mandalorian. We know his face. We know his name. We didn't need those things. This almost undermines every single good step they made with this show.
I -loved- season one, but the helmet thing almost ruined it for me.
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