Star Wars: The Mandalorian

ugh. that's a disappointment, i really liked her turn in Haywire.

Man this is almost sneaking up on me! Second season debut episode goes live tomorrow.

Feels like a weird week to launch a new season of a major show, but I guess you can't stop... The Mandalorian!

Man, anything that can pull me out of election anxiety for even 30 minutes this weekend will be much appreciated, so I'm glad for the return.

Are they doing this weekly again?

Yep.

Tidy, thanks

I've really grown to appreciate this show being weekly, since we watch with our 9 year-old and it's become a Friday night Mandalorian and pizza tradition already.

yah i dont really care about the show much but its been fun getting into it with the kids.

I mean, our son even got so into the making of series that he insisted we had to continue our pizza tradition when those episodes were released too.

omg stunt casting

that was... Good? a hokey nothing-much of a plot (ie a regular mandalorian plot) with really fantastic direction - felt there was a real sense of cosmic dread around the lair at the end and I found myself unusually engaged with the final shitfight

production quality felt a little higher

my kids commented that baby yoda didn't have anything to do but understood that he had to be onscreen providing regular cuteness regardless

With a little distance, I'm happy to announce my conclusion that this show is bad* and it's weird that so many people think it's not bad

*Taika-related jokes aside

Amy Sedaris-as-Linda Lavin and other tone deaf “Special Guest Star” cameos drag this thing down but overall, no, it’s actually pretty fun and *good* when its on.

I enjoyed the stunt casting as any fan of REDACTED would do, and it continues the western theme of the show, which is part of the draw.

I especially liked the discussion about how something that’s not a sarlacc ends up living in a sarlacc pit.

Agreed that the child’s repeated closeups felt a little silly when he had nothing to do with the plot.

we have spoiler tags now btw

i couldn't stop laughing at our friend the big guest star's belt

Who was Leguizamo, the one eyed dude in the beginning.

for what it's worth, I don't like this show nearly as much as most people here, though good action scenes go a long way and I thought this episode was pretty good. And of course I'm down for stunt casting if the actor is good and appropriate for the role and is Seth Bullock

I thought Herzog was underutilized in the first season. He should be the big baddie, not Esposito.

beginning?

Re opening segment — yes, that was him.

And this was very good fun. I appreciate the detail of the second Death Star blowing up and then immediately everything becomes awful.

SPACE MARSHALL :D

This wasn't in any way a break from the Mando formula, but very polished and enjoyable nonetheless. Hopefully the rest of the season will find some more varied narratives though. Are they all going to be an hour long?

I kinda have a feeling that was their big start to the season but we'll see.

I am convinced, BTW, that the setup of the cave and its immediate surroundings was a further movie/TV western nod writ large to the famous Bronson Canyon/cave area where god knows how many productions filmed over time. Even including the shots where people up on the ridgeline look down on the cave and the ground in front of it.

This didn't feel an hour long to me!

Another great A-Team in Space ep

But yes I think I was a little bit bummed that it was so "by the numbers," in many ways a rehash of the "train the pond-villagers to fight the AT-AT" episode. There are only so many of those I need.

I thiiiink you'll find it was an AT-ST, aaaactually.

lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKppwACQ-qk

It was ok, felt like a comic book for most of it, then got pretty good at the end. The final little tease was well done (I had read it was coming, but appreciated it nonetheless).

I didn’t think any of the guest stars were particularly good, but I don’t know what is involved at being “good” in this series. Some actors seem to get it right.

A few other thoughts:

* I actually liked that the Child didn’t have much to do... IMO, it would seem too formulaic if he did some magic at the climax of every episode.
* I guess they’re gonna just keep on going with the multiple “I know that reference!” gags and lines, to remind you that you’re watching a Star War? The jet pack thing was kinda funny, but I don’t need more than one mention of Womp Rats per episode.
* How do you bet on dueling Gamorreans when they look exactly the same and don’t even wear different colored shorts? lol

i could live without any more extended Tusken Raider dialogue scenes, it’s like listening to someone cough up a lung :/

I guess the good thing with the callbacks is that they are subtle - there's R5 with the bad motivator, oh the ESB ice-cream maker, and so on. Fun if you know the reference, entirely out of the way for those who don't.

At the other end of that extreme, I totally failed to recognise the dude in the final tease and had to have it explained to me afterwards.

I think I need that explained to me as well.

It's Boba Fett

Ah, makes sense!

I guess the good thing with the callbacks is that they are subtle - there's R5 with the bad motivator, oh the ESB ice-cream maker, and so on. Fun if you know the reference, entirely out of the way for those who don't.

We had decided not to bother with this show initially, because most modern Star Wars stuff is just bad, and I hate that Disney owns everything in the world. But I came into the TV room on Saturday afternoon and found husband guiltily watching it ("it's not what you think!") so I stuck around and we ended up mainlining the whole thing. I particularly like the fact that, as MatthewK says, you could easily watch it without ever having seen any other Star Wars property and you would still get it, but the little nods are fun and don't derail the main action at all. It might seem like damning with faint praise to say that the closing credits are my favourite part, but the combination of the music and the art gives me a great nostalgic rush of watching westerns on the telly and reading Star Wars comics.

If they start getting bogged down in the lore of the greater Star Wars universe and a load of Jedi dickery, though, I'm out.

absolutely otm

i love the closing credit painting/storyboards too!

Yeah, great touch, and helps the series maintain its own specific tone.

Yeah, those concept paintings are gorgeous and I appreciate how it ties back to the pre-internet years when storyboard books and clips in magazines were one of the best ways to imagine the wider universe.

I thought it was a great episode. I mean, if we are going to nitpick the recycled plots, it's not like there was ever any shortage of Westerns (on TV and film) that were consistently leaning on the "stranger rides into town and ends up defending it" trope.

Yeah, and the final big idea was so obvious that it took me a second to realize they hadn't planned it that way all along. But hey, so what. Yum yum, tasty Olyphant. Give me more, please.

I enjoy these breezy standalone self-contained episodes (though I'm sure we'll see a few characters come back later in the season). I know everyone's clamoring for more storyline action but this just isn't that kind of show half the time

if we are going to nitpick the recycled plots, it's not like there was ever any shortage of Westerns (on TV and film) that were consistently leaning on the "stranger rides into town and ends up defending it" trope.

my 11 yo son started picking up on the formulaic nature of plots in Mandalorian and I had to explain that that was pretty much what you expected for TV drama in the old days..

Kung Fu
the Hulk
A Team
Knight rider
Littlest Hobo
all westerns ever....

My criticism of the series is that they will never move forward towards a resolution, and it'll be 7 series of Mando talking to a man, who tells him to get a key which unlocks a box which contains a map which shows where a man lives..who tells him to get a key, which unlocks another box.......

till people stop watching, which thanks to baby Yoda reaction shots every 5 mins will be never.

Yum yum, tasty Olyphant

but it was Mando who got eaten ;)

...is Littlest Hobo a real show?

yep!

it’s about a dog not an irl hobo

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078644/