Star Wars: The Mandalorian [** Spoilers **] [Disney+] (US Pace)

thegreengoblin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120303999#Comment_120303999

Yep, I agree. Regardless of Andor raising the bar, you have to take each show on its own merits.

But this never got off the ground. It felt off right from the start and got worse throughout. The pirates were laughably bad. Carl Weathers' character is just...there. And I think viewers have had their fill of Grogu sneaking food from a bowl, etc.

For a season premiere it was awful actually. It was easily the cheapest looking episode of the show so far, which doesn't bode well for the rest of the season.

Relikk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120304812#Comment_120304812

He gives slightly conflicting information, but always mentions "2 years" in whatever he says. One interview will say 2 years, another says 0-2 years. The video below he says: "

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5Z59CuwmJo&t=475s

"(Grogu) spent many years with the Mandalorian, went back with Luke, now we’ve been two years apart from him there, training."

Loafing Oaf

the Book of Bobo

Now there's a show I'd watch

NIMAN

Thought that was a very weak opening episode.

But it had its Grogu humour, a bit of action and a few characters that'll look familiar to old skool SW fans, so many might be happy.

Glebee

First episode of new season mediocre at best, but now we have Andor to compare it too its on a loser. The Madalorian was also only ok. IGN gave it an 8/10, dont know what show they were watching.

TheIrishGrover

It did look very creaky and stagey after the fantastic Andor (as expected))

pixelburp

Hard to watch that first episode without Andor constantly hovering in the back of my mind, but I genuinely tried. And even then, that first episode barely got out of first gear.

Everything was just so flat and half àrsed: the direction, plotting, dialogue, the lot. Just a sequence of slightly tedious introductions, all playing out like cut scenes from a video game. I'm sorry Mando but you must go to the next level to get the piece of the robot you suddenly, inexplicably decided had to come back.

And those pirates, hoooooo boy. They were laughable, it felt like the Book Of Boba Fett all over again. I wondered would a certain band of "cool" kids on colourful scooters suddenly appear.

This felt like an episode of something that has run out of ideas a little and is treading water, not sure where to go next. Popular Thing is Popular so we gotta keep going. The big hook is ... uhh, Mando wants to take a bath so he can rejoin religious fundamentalists??

TheIrishGrover

Yeah. This office. That hall (With characters close) the other street. The ship. All very claustrophobic. And, yet again, Mando on a fetch-quest and just walking along.

Those Pirates (And the Pirate King....)? Jesus. Yeah, I was waiting for those Power Ranger Scooter kids to fight The Pirate King.

All of the Mandalorians initiating the kid in the monster-croc-filled water. No wonder there aren't many. Initiating that single kid lost 4 people (Plus the kids looked silly with the helmets). Kids wearing helmets like that at Comic-con? Adorable :) On the show? Silly.

Compare to the first episode where Mando cuts a guy in half with a door.

Have they had Mando in the rain? Would be interesting to see the holodeck handle that.

I sound harsher than I feel. It wasn't all bad, but, as I said before, personally I was never as invested in it as some. I mean it was lightyears ahead of Boba Fett (Wouldn't be hard). But I was always on the "Yeah, it's quite entertaining" fence rather than "Best. Thing. EVER" fence. And I put it on a par with "Obi-Wan".

It's basically Mando walking about..... LITERALLY plodding!

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120313424#Comment_120313424

Compare to the first episode where Mando cuts a guy in half with a door.

Also, the main bad guy was Werner Herzog of all people, playing it like a PG version of the nemesis from Jack Reacher. I think the show has regressed in its maturely the more canon kept sneaking in. At the opening of this show it was about a grimier, shadier aspect of SW. Now it's dangerously close to memberberries.

None of it's bad, we're not at Boba Fett or ObiWan just yet, but the teeth has gone. So far. Still can't get over how it's season premiere was about Mando wanting to have a bath, lol.

Mr.Nice Guy

I agree that the motivation for this season appears to be weak. We've gone from Mando needing to save Grogu or somebody to Mando needing to redeem himself for something that doesn't feel like a big deal really. I could sympathise with the idea of him feeling hurt about being cast out for a moment he now regrets...but trying to get back in their good books just doesn't sit well. Besides, it's not like he's looking to settle down?

I didn't like the space battle either. They kept adding that musical note every time he shot one of the ships which made me feel like I was watching someone play a computer game. On a more positive note, I do find Grogu's antics in the background worth a chuckle.

Hopefully it picks up.

ixoy

And I'm another one feeling the effects of it being post 'Andor'. It all felt so shallow and fully agree it felt like a fetch quest. Mando seemed to be just jumping between planets: "Now talk to X, go to this planet and talk to Y. They will tell you where you need to go next".

The more grounded aspect of 'Andor''s direction made all of this seem a little too shiny. Not to Boba Fett levels but there's a whole feeling of it all being more staged. I miss the "lived in" aspect of 'Andor'.

It also didn't help that I watched this after 'The Last of Us' where Pedro Pascal gets to also reluctantly mind a young one.

It's of course a little bit unfair in some ways - this is what 'The Mandalorian' always really was. Just I know there could be better.

Much like Mr. Nice Guy, I did at least enjoy Grogu's antics, especially spinning around in the chair which was both in keeping with his character as well as not overly focused on in terms of direction.

Loafing Oaf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120315960#Comment_120315960

Yeah would the Mando we know and love really be that bothered about 'getting redeemed'. Strikes me as more of a 'I don't need no stinking badge to be a cop' kind of guy...

johnny_ultimate

Couldn't help but notice that if this were Andor, a High Magistrate would almost certainly have been the villain 😂

I've never loved The Mandalorian - at best, it was an enjoyable enough, old-fashioned 'adventure of the week' style deal with Star Wars set dressing and an ingeniously designed supporting puppet. After Andor set the bar so high, it's hard to get particularly excited about what this show is doing anymore - let alone when it's doing a rather bland and repetitive version of itself. Hopefully there are a few decent episodes this season without the spin-off setup that destroyed season two. But while Andor is a fundamentally different show in so many different ways, its success has proven that we should expect more than 'fine' (let alone 'bad') from Star Wars fare.

I do have to say - having skipped Boba Fett but heard that a couple of episodes are basically Mando 2.5, it was truly bizarre they didn't really reflect the events of those episodes in the recap at least. Very weird for a show to have episodes in a spin-off series that all but invalidate the events of the season two finale.

McDermotX

Terrible opener, but par for the course for a show which has always been far too hot and cold to properly elevate it. It's always been a show that benefitted from being a counterpoint to the fresh in the mind, sub-par trilogy (granted Rise came out post S1, but the knives were out for that long beforehand). Damned with faint praise, with the odd few episodes stirring something in the Star Wars fan, but ultimately, it's always been an extremely shallow and inconsistent mess that the writers and producer team have almost been getting away with. That may sound too harsh as I'm sure I enjoyed the odd scene in even the poorer episodes, and obviously Baby Yoda was a draw initially, plus it obviously found an audience with younger viewers, or rather, modern streaming viewers, but overall, though its far from being the worst of the television efforts, that level is so mediocre that it just barely keeps its head above water.

Specifically with the opener, it's obviously a huge drop in production from the recent Andor as others have said, and it's surprising how shoddy and flat everything appeared, and unfortunately then we're left with it hanging its hat on its narrative and plot, and that has always been the weak point of the show, so it's hardly surprising that the 'fetch quest' nature has become more apparent. Whether the season can develop into something more remains to be seen, but given the track record, I'd expect another extremely uneven season.

No point even going into the 'Boba Fett-Mando-Redundant Season 2' fiasco that the creator's lost their sh*t with, as it was always going to have implications for this season, so it's almost fascinating to see how they try to recover from that masterstroke. Episode 1 was not a good start. The 'pirates' less so 😂

Theboinkmaster

100% agree - it’s like the mandalorian is written by 6 year olds for 6 year olds

Andor was by far the best Star Wars we’ve seen since Rogue One

everything else has just been MEH

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120316055#Comment_120316055

I do have to say - having skipped Boba Fett but heard that a couple of episodes are basically Mando 2.5, it was truly bizarre they didn't really reflect the events of those episodes in the recap at least. Very weird for a show to have episodes in a spin-off series that all but invalidate the events of the season two finale.

I think it speaks to a resting, arrogant presumption, bordering on contempt, for its audience that it just presumed people watched Boba Fett and already knew why Grogu was back travelling with Mando. It's not like that's an especially wild guess mind you, but Boba Feet was such garbage many probably bailed before they got to Season 2.5 of Mando. I'm quite surprised the Previously On... didn't throw in moments from Boba.

pixelburp

I mean, let's be honest: Season 3 was always on the backfoot when Andor has these moments among its Season's dramatic moments. Wonder if quietly in private, Favreau et al watched it and went Oh fúck.

Now. There's lots of room for all sorts of flavours and tones among the Star Wars universe... but Mandalorian errs by playing it safe to the point of being inert bordering on lazy. Dave Filoni seems more interested in toyboxes than stories. It can't pick a tonal lane, stuck between cutsey and scuzzy.

Oh no, Mando wants back into his little band of fundamentalists? What has he sacrificed - is his mind a sunless place? God that Luthen speech still gives me, as the kids say, chills. Genuinely; that show pumped the brakes on my waning interest and arrested me in a way few shows of the last 5-10 years has managed.

But more than that: just from a structural point of view, see how fantastic these scenes look. The compositions, musical swells, the pacing of the speeches... all the ways everything's put together. Mando can be so dull to look at: character enters. Shot, reverse-shot. Shot reverse-shot. Character exits. That Volume technology is fabulous but it's a little overused.

Even counting the movies, Maarva's speech nailed a reason to fight.

https://youtu.be/-3RCme2zZRY

https://youtu.be/TaKrm5txGCQ

https://youtu.be/TKB67KzjO4A

Tony EH

'Andor' has really shown up 'The Mandalorian' as Mickey Mouse Star Wars. It's, as Johnny points out, "enjoyable enough". But beyond that, it's really outlived its usefulness in many ways.

I think this show will sort of always be just ok, as opposed to truly compelling fare, like we had with 'Andor'.

I wish Disney would take note.

Henry Ford III

Saw the latest episode this morning. It was ok.

CastorTroy

Ah the old "go behind that rock to get a whole new set we can't see from here" trick

Spoiler Warning

Thought they had done what they did with Maul and somehow brought Grievous back from the dead.

And how does Grogu's pod manage to keep disappearing and reappearing? he left it behind on Mandalore yet had it back on Bo's ship. Unless she just had a spare.

Mr.Nice Guy

Better than last week but feels a bit same old, same old.

Spoiler Warning

At least the journey to the waters isn't going to take the entire season.

Tony EH

Thinking that 'The Mandalorian' probably should have ended at S02.

Slydice

2.2: Gah damn right we're going on quests!! Hell yeah!

More of this!

Spoiler Warning

Bo-Katan sure held that sabre well! Plus she's now bathed in the water. I dunno. Maybe she'll take the helmet off again.

Mr.Nice Guy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120332347#Comment_120332347

Spoiler Warning

I'm wondering can you redeem yourself in the waters just the once, or can you keep going back multiple times? If it's the latter then it's a handy loophole. You can keep taking off the helmet and going back to the waters to make everything better, sort of like a Catholic going back to confession every weekend after a week of sinning. 😂

Glebee

The Mines of Mandalore, I was half expecting Gandalf to jump out. Better than Ep 1.

Loafing Oaf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120332347#Comment_120332347

Spoiler Warning

I wonder can she keep the darksaber now? She sort of picked it up; Mando didn't literally give it to her...

CastorTroy

He put it back on his belt anyway.

flazio

Probably better off asking in the Star Wars forum but did Bo Katan get training with the Jedi group in the cartoons? Anakin, Asoka and Obi-Wan particularly. Certainly knew how to handle a sabre.

gmisk

Enjoyed this week, stronger than last week, which I thought was fine (the andor comparison isn't fair really).

Always nice to see Peli Motto.

Spoiler Warning

I liked the design on the robot crab monster thing...the other things felt a bit rubbery for want of a better word.

Glad Mandos quest for a bath has completed in ep2 we can now hopefully get onto more compelling storylines.

Varik

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120333098#Comment_120333098

pre vizsla had it for years up to the clone wars when she was with deathwatch so may have had some understanding of it as his second in command and he was adapt with it fighting off Maul for a bit, and then she herself had it for a few years during the rebellion before the purge and gideon took it .