Star Wars: The Mandalorian

First two episodes are proper good, best Star Wars thing since the 80s, then they go a bit samey.

Oct supposedly

Ok the last two episodes finally felt like a decent show. Although I would prefer if it was just Amy Sedaris as a single mechanic babysitting Baby Yods and playing cards with droids. Or those two stormtroopers doing Waiting for Godot.

jordan you didn't get any humor out of it? I thought that was one of its strong suits

I feel like the funny maybe came a bit later? Esp that one episode directed by Taika Waititi, that one was tops.

Yeah, the only actually funny stuff was Taika-related (either his initial droid appearance or the last ep) imo. Or Amy Sedaris just being onscreen. Everything else felt pretty forced (no pun intended) or relied on a reaction shot from baby Yoda.

Little yoda was funny af, what’s wrong with you

i didn’t realise until the kids pointed it out that that’s not actually yoda, since this takes place after yoda dies. i totally thought it was.

Oh yeah, my wife had the same realization after we finished the last episode.

Baby Yoda was great, but there was not enough Baby Yoda to substitute for writing decent dialogue and plots.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RidSWiDnfsU

SORRY THIS FAN SERVICE IS DISGRACEFUL

That was from the episode Taika directed, does not count against my thesis

the Horizon Zero Dawn episode was pretty good i thought.

haha, was that also the Xena one? Or the mudhorn one?

yes the xena one!

the IG-88 one (or whatever this one’s name actually was) was sick af imo

I claim credit for christening it the "Xena one," lol

I didn't think anyone could describe that episode as anything else than the Seven Samurai one, since that's where the plot came from... But the Seven Samurai plot has been done so many times in American media, starting with The Magnificent Seven, so I guess Xena might've had an episode like that too?

I dunno, it's not even about the plot specifically - it just had the look & feel of a cheesy mid-'90s syndicated show, like Xena or Hercules.

(and I guess the plot did feel like something that would happen on Xena, but I don't know all the episodes by heart, I was always stoned with my roommate when watching it.)

I claim credit for christening it the "Xena one," lol

Credit due, it's totally apt (in terms of tone/acting/premise). The pretty widow having a crush on the Mandalorian just because he was...there, so bad. Also, maybe it was a Seven Samurai reference, but their big plan was to get the AT-ST to step in a river?

IIRC there's a scene in the SS where the samurai allow some of the bandits on horseback to ride into the village, only to be met by the villagers who they didn't except to be armed and fighting back... So the AT-ST trap scene was probably meant to be equivalent to that. Tho of course in SS the bandits attack in several phases, and the battle takes up the entire second half of the movie, whereas here they obviously had much less time available, so they had to compress the villagers' gambit into a single make-it-or-break-it trap.

And the romantic subplot comes from SS too, where one of the samurai the villagers hired and a girl from the village have a budding romance, but in the end they can't be together (though in SS it's because of class differences).

there was not enough Baby Yoda to substitute for writing decent dialogue and plots

could also apply to every other star wars property

The Xena/ A-Team ep was one of my favorites precisely for its Xena/A-Team-ness.

it all feeling very saturday afternoon tv is a big part of the charm

This was fun to burn through in a single weekend. How do Mandalorians get haircuts?!?

They must have really bad skin

They could teach many in this world about proper mask wearing.

Obviously:

http://i0.wp.com/gopostore.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Gopostore_Movie_The-Mandalorian_SYE1604008_2_fma_fl.jpg

They take off their helmets, just not in the presence of outsiders, right(?)

He makes it pretty clear he’s never taken it off in front of anybody.

Huh, I guess he must cut his own hair then.

xp except the emmy voting academy

he fucks with the helmet on

oh, definitely

that's the space kink for ya

Is the Taika episode worth watching by itself?

It's the final one of the season and builds on just about everything before it so I'd be hesitant.

No prob, he did 5/12 of the US remake of The Inbetweeners and I'm never going to tick those off.

sic you put yourself through countless hours of Doctor Who episodes that you find execrable, just watch the show, it’s over in no time

nah

I skipped from Caravan Of Courage in the cinema to Last Jedi in the cinema, there was just ambient chat about Waititi's ep being characteristically funny

*except for one single comic book with short comedy stories by Tony Millionaire, Beto Hernandez, Peter Bagge and Jason

Honestly I don't think there's much you need to know in the final episode that you won't pick up instantly

That's what I figured! There's a metalfaced bounty hunter / ronin dude with a yoda cub in his baby cart, and he's on a fetch quest, right?

Yeah I mean it's not rocket science fiction

irl giggle

Deborah Chow's episodes (3 and 7) are worth your time too

Taika Is also a voice actor in the first episode

also the whole series is pretty short just watch the whole thing!