I am surprised and yet not surprised by how much I actually enjoyed season 1 of the Mandalorian. I’m not surprised because the trailers for the show were mesmerizing. I am surprised because I can’t put my finger on what it is about the show that works so well for me. I usually like complex, dark exercises in world-building. I like a movie that’s a little bit up its own ass with philosophy whether that is well done or not. I like a terrifying, sinister villain with motives that stick with you long after you’ve finished watching. I guess the word I’m looking for is “epic”.
And the Mandalorian is none of those things. It’s a simple western with a sci-fi twist that sweeps you up in the fun, gunslinging action so effectively that it was probably weeks after the finale before I asked myself, “Why do the bad guys want Baby Yoda anyway?” And this was what was at the core of Star Wars in the beginning. Nerds like me seem to want Star Wars to be a sweeping fantasy epic and I would blame Knights of the Old Republic for that but I digress.
Okay, this is kind of epic.
It’s always hard to gauge a fan reaction to something because it’s the haters and trolls who are the loudest. And I count myself among those haters and trolls. A good 10% of what I have written on Quora is griping about the sequel trilogy. But it’s odd how none of that exists for the Mandalorian. We don’t mind when Baby Yoda heals Din Djarin but some number of us become enraged when Rey does it. Why does Din Djarin have to wear his mask all of the time but Django Fett didn’t? All this to say, I’m certain there are a ton of holes we could poke into this show if we wanted to but we’re too busy having fun to chastise the fandom for calling the Child “Baby Yoda”.
What the show does, it does well. The Mandalorian is the perfect mixture of a gunslinging badass and a heart of gold white knight as he risks his life to defend the adorable green creature in his charge. We’re never confused about his motivations or his actions and we’re always rooting for him. I’m also the kind of person who finds certain kinds of humor can really derail a movie and ruin the experience for me. I can’t stand the second Guardians of the Galaxy movie for that reason. But the humor in the Mandalorian is just right for me. (Yes, the two Stormtroopers at the beginning of the last episode was a bit much. I laughed anyway).
One of the most memorable episodes from season 1 is the Child where he has to get back the parts from his ship from a bunch of annoying Jawas. Jawas are infuriating! Watching him vaporize them was beyond satisfying.
I laughed out loud through a lot of this episode and my family and I will often break out into chants of “Suka! Suka! Suka!” Also, is it just me or does Din’s flamethrower ALWAYS fail. I think it worked once to take care of some Stormtroopers, otherwise it comes off as this toothless accessory that he just uses when he loses his temper. I don’t know if that’s deliberate, but it makes me laugh every time. It seems to me that the humor in the show is situational and comes organically from the characters. IG-11 is a lot of fun to watch. Not because he’s a joke machine, but because the idea of a robot bounty hunter is absurd. In the middle of a gunfight he’s trying to negotiate the terms of his partnership with Din. He moves in a funny way and it’s great. I love him so much!
I also love Kuiill and pretty much all of the supporting cast. Werner Herzog? Bill Burr? Karl Weathers? Nick Nolte as some weird alien thing? Taika Watiti? It’s such a weird assortment of names but damn, I think it all works really well. They’re all so watchable in their scenes either because they’re funny or they’re giving us important information about the world or they’re just purely likeable like Kuiill.
Also, what makes a show “memable”? How many of you have used this gif in a coversation?
Or this.
Or anything with Baby Yoda?
I think this was a big strength of the original series too.
“I love you/I know.” “Do or do not, there is no try.” “Help me Obi Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope.” “I am your father.” “A certain point of view.”
Look, maybe it’s just because I could probably recite the entire original trilogy by heart, because of the age I was when I first watched them, but the original trilogy is simply memorable. I think the Mandalorian has the potential to be something that’s enduring. What’s your favourite line from the sequel trilogy? “They can fly now?” I rest my case.
A last point in this gushing review is I think Ludwig Goransson is a genius. I love the theme for the show and all of the scoring (speaking of “memable” just check out how many people do covers of the Mandalorian on Youtube). While writing this the music from the scene where Jin chases down the Jawas is playing in my head. Is there a single person who doesn’t stick around for the entire closing credits to watch the paintings and listen to the song? Not a single one of you reading this doesn’t watch the closing credits to the Mandalorian. Fact.
A few concerns. By episode 5–6 it was starting to feel like most of the show was “fetch quests”. Did anyone else feel like the Marvel shows on Netflix (Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones) ran out of steam by episode 8 or 9? Like they just had to satisfy their 13 episode deal? Well, at only 8 episodes the Mandalorian feels like a lot of what we’re watching is filler. Entertaining filler, but there was a point where I wish we would have been dealing more with the main narrative and getting some questions answered. I’m pretty sure this show is a script for an old Boba Fett movie or something that Disney took off the shelf and repurposed to be the flagship of their very difficult to justify, streaming service (30$ for Mulan? Are these people out of their minds?)
But as they say, careful what you wish for. It looks like season 2 is going to dive right into some of the bigger plots that began in the Clone Wars animated series and rebels. They’ve already set up the Darksaber. We’ve heard that they’ve cast Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka Tano and Katee Sackhoff as Bo Katan. I’m looking forward to this but I also see potential for the training wheels to fall off of this show and the rider faceplanting from trying to do too much. But, I’m hopeful. Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni did such a good job with season 1 that it would be very surprising if it all fell apart in season 2.
So, what is the secret sauce that makes the Mandalorian so enjoyable? I think it’s just a very competent production. The characters, the writing, the cinematography are all on point. It also feels very “Star Wars” to me, whatever that may mean. Yes, we see an IG-11 droid, but it’s not pointless fan service, it’s just part of the story because of course we’d see a Bounty Hunter droid in this part of the galaxy. A lesser production would have had some garbage reveal like, Kuill is Obi Wan’s father or some utter garbage like that. Let me stop there before this turns into a sequel bash. . . Let’s keep it positive.
For now, I’m all in. But above all it’s nice to have something that a fandom, any fandom (with the possible exception of Marvel movies) can agree on and enjoy. Not perfect. What is? But, for now, very enjoyable.
I give the Mandalorian season 1 9 disintegrating Jawas out of 10.
This may also qualify as epic.
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