Disney+ is not releasing stuff the same way that, say, Netflix or Amazon Prime is releasing their material. You can't binge watch the Mandalorian (at least not yet) because they're releasing one episode a week from now to the end of the year. (Why I was OK with waiting until the Christmas holiday to sign up, where I could binge watch the show while off of work.) But, we got our account on Sunday afternoon, so my youngest son and I watched the first two episodes, which are the only available so far. So, what's the good, the bad and the ugly on this show so far?
The Good
Luckily, for the most part, the show really embraces the good. It eschews most of the nonsense that has suffused Star Wars for quite some time, and just attempts to be a fringer story; basically, a spaghetti western set in space. The title character, who's name and face is not revealed (although he's played by Pedro Pascal and we know what he looks like, and Pedro slipped he name of Din Jaron (sic?) out in an interview at one point. This is kind of on purpose, I'm sure—to make him like the Clint Eastwood character of the spaghetti westerns, except even one further, because he's wearing a helmet that looks like a cross between a Spartan style Corinthian helmet and a crusader's great helm with a mirrored shade covering the entire t-visor. The plot is quite straitforward (so far), much like a spaghetti western dragged out into a 10 or so episode miniseries would be. The character says very little, as expected given the archetype that he's emulating, but there's more subtle characterization going on than you'd expect. The plot is also quite straightforward so far, and heavily features action that's well conceived and choreographed. While the main character is an iconic tough guy, he hardly seems to be invincible; he's no Mary Sue, and he is quite frankly, in over his head at some points, much as Clint Eastwood seems to be in A Fistful of Dollars.
Some of this characterization is going on with the supporting cast, though—IG-11, the bounty droid who constantly wants to initiate his self-destruct sequence, or the Nick Nolte voiced ugnaught character Kuiil (I have spoken!)
The show does not (as yet) focus on the big and the bad in Star Wars. There are a few stormtroopers featured very early on in the first chapter, but they are obviously a remnant of the Imperial defeat; their armor is battered and dirty, and they hang around as a small squad with some kind of officer or nobleman or some such. There aren't any space-battles at all, yet. What there is is desolate wilderness frontier planets, much like Tatooine, that are sparsely inhabited by a rather rough lot of mostly aliens and tough guys. I'd like to see this expand a bit more, but I honestly have little idea where the storyline is going so far, which is kind of interesting.
There is some CGI, of course, but the show features relatively low budget practical effects. This was deliberate, both to keep the budget manageable, and to get that original Star Wars movie feel to it, and it looks and works absolutely great. High praise indeed for the look of the show so far. The music is also unusual; it doesn't sound anything like Star Wars. It has a similar kind of vibe as the Morricone spaghetti western soundtracks without actually sounding like them, if that makes any sense (if not, go check out the soundtracks on Youtube and listen to them.)
Despite the very early phase that we are in, and the fact that I don't really know much about what the setting is trying to show me, or where the plot is going, I'm so far very impressed with the show. It's much more personal than I'd have thought, but if it remains that way, I won't complain, and if it (as is much more likely) starts to broaden the scope a bit, introduce more characters and tell us more about the setting and how this ties (assuming that it does, and hints from some of the creators suggest that it will at least give us some Easter eggs to this effect) the fall of the Empire to the rise of the First Order. While I don't really care much about the First Order or anything else going on in the sequel trilogy, nor am I likely to, some hints at the larger setting would not at all be unwelcome here. Considering that Mandalorians featured not insignificantly in the Clone Wars and Rebels shows that took place between the prequels and the original trilogy, telling us more about what's going on with the Mandalorians themselves wouldn't be unwelcome at all either.
Is it so good that it makes up for the spit in the eye that is the sequel trilogy? No, of course not, which is also why I think tying it too closely to that dumpster fire is a bad idea. It would be theoretically possible, although probably quite beyond the abilities of the morons in charge at LucasFilm and Disney, to have separate Star Wars brands within the greater Star Wars umbrella, and keeping the Mandalorian somewhat separate would be a good idea, though.
The Bad
As I said, so far, the series is a bit sparse. We don't know a lot about the characters. We don't know much about the setting. We don't know much about even the plot. There's a series of action sequences loosely tied together so far, and that's about as far as it goes. To be fair, it suggests and maybe implies what's to come, but so far, it hasn't come, and it may not. This isn't so much a complaint as an observation that the series needs to grow, I think, from the adventures of one guy wandering around in a mostly depopulated frontier fighting jawas, a handful of random outlaws, and dangerous wildlife. That can only be interesting for so long before it gets tired. Although, it is a great way to start a saga. And the more this keeps itself somewhat separated from the comings and goings of the "great saga" of the entire galaxy, the better it will be.
The Ugly
I remain very guarded about the appearance of social justice nonsense in this show. Even writer and creator Jon Favreau has hinted at coming political/social nonsense in the show. Luckily, what we do have so far is fairly muted, and something so ingrained in us by Hollywood that we hardly notice it anymore, even though it is both nonsensical and in fact quite hateful. The first is the presence of the lady Mandalorian blacksmith. We have been taught for so long that women can be just as tough as men that many of us, especially if you've never actually played any co-ed sports, might actually think that the notion of a woman blacksmith, or a woman in a traditionally male role in general, is not weird and anti-science and anti-biological, so it goes unnoticed.
It might also not be something that most people notice that there aren't any truly American characters of any note yet in the show. Pedro Pascal is a Chilean, who's family were Allende communists who fled Chile just in case they got a helicopter tour from Pinochet's regime, which suggests that they were thick in the corruption of the Chilean government of the mid-70s. The Imperials who give him his assignment are played by an Iranian (who's character is named Pershing!) and a German with a very distinctive accent, Werner Herzog.
The exception is Carl Weathers making what is almost (so far) a cameo as the connection between the bounty hunters guild and the Imperial remnants. Although "American" is a label that is worn somewhat uncomfortably at best, and rejected outright at worst by the African population within America. They are very clear that they are a nation unto themselves with their own culture, society, values and everything else that makes a nation what it is that are completely separate from that of the Americans who founded, for example, the Constitution, or who conquered the West, which is more relevant to this show. I'm inclined to take them at their word and not count them as Americans proper, but as African-Americans; a completely different nation that is only called American by virtue of geography, not by any relationship of note with the American nation. So I don't count Carl Weathers as an American in this context. This is particularly ironic; not only is the Western—which this show clearly is—such an American genre, but also the ironic fact that the Mandalorians are Nordic blond people according to the Clone Wars, who even have Finnish names of one of their planets (Kalevala). (Of course, they do also refer to the title character here as a Foundling, which suggests that he was an adopted member of a clan rather than an ethnic Mandalorian.) The Rebels show seemed to try really hard to undo this with Sabine's obviously Asian character, but honestly, I haven't watched that in its entirety, and don't know much about what it says about the culture, other than that the "bad guy" Mandalorians seem to be all white men. In my opinion, it's clearly LucasFilm trying to go a different way than George Lucas outlined anyway, probably to restore as much as possible of EU traditions.
The cultural appropriation of what is so iconically and irrevocably American as the Western and refusing to cast it with Americans is an insult that, sadly, we have become very used to, but that doesn't make it any less insulting or ridiculous. Keep in mind that Hollywood is almost completely controlled by Fake Americans who in fact hate America, its culture, its society, etc.. They desire only its money, and they want to get it by trying to teach Americans to hate their own identity and see themselves as globalist slaves. But that is a very behind the scenes kind of hatred that can only be somewhat shown given the fact that the show is what it is. However, knowing that this is lurking behind the scenes has me waiting for the other shoe to drop on this show. I hope that it doesn't, but I have a very hard time believing that it won't. Disney is too fundamentally evil of an entity to long tolerate something that Americans actually enjoy.
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