Summary: Mando returns to meet with the Armorer who tells him that he has to be redeemed in the mines of Mandalore. Mando goes back to Nevarro and meets up with Greef again. He gets the remains of IG-11, intending to bring him back to take Mandalore. After a skirmish with some pirates, Mando sees a castle in the Mandalore system where he finds Bo Katan. She has lost the faith of her people without the dark saber and tells Mando that he has to lead the takeback of Mandalore.
The Good: True to the show, this episode has a lot of fun sequences that provide popcorn entertainment, and I enjoyed it. The opening scene is a solid reintroduction to Mando, featuring a unique action sequence that came out of nowhere. This was fun to watch. I also enjoyed the Wild West showdown (its become a signature for this show) on Nevarro, and also the starship fight scene, which was directed expertly with the action playing along perfectly with the soundtrack. I enjoyed going back to Nevarro. One of the most satisfying things in a long-running TV show like this is the chance to show recurring locations change and grow over time. Nevarro is a perfect example of this and it has become nearly unrecognizable from what it was like in season 1. It's been really satisfying to see Nevarro change across the last few seasons, and I enjoyed seeing how advanced the society has become. Greef is very fun in his new role as high magistrate. I love that he has two tiny droids holding his robe up above the ground behind him, and his interactions with Mando are fun as always. Greef also gets a nice meta line responding to Mando affirming the name Grogu with "if you say so", poking fun at the community reaction to Grogu's name. As for Grogu, he's as cute and fun as you would expect him to be. The Bad: Coming off of season 2, a lot of people would be very confused if they never watched "The Book of Boba Fett". That strange choice to further Mando's story in a separate show is felt in this season premiere. The recap starting this season bafflingly doesn't even explain how Mando got Grogu back, ensuring that anyone following on directly after season 2 will have to stop watching and instead waste their life on the god awful "Book of Boba Fett" to fully understand the story. This unfocused storytelling that forces people to watch other lower quality TV shows is appalling, and it kicks off this season premiere on a negative note. But enough about the poor business decisions surrounding the show, because this episode had a few problems of its own. It has become frustrating to see how "The Mandalorian" feels so much like a video game. Every storyline sees Mando talk to a side character, get a quest, accomplish the quest, get a reward, and then inch along towards his ultimate goal. This sounds eerily like a video game, not a TV show, and that's the problem here. This episode is all about Mando getting his main quest and going on a random side quest to "unlock" IG-11 for later missions. This style of storytelling feels phony and is frustrating because it isn't interesting to watch. It's bland, unoriginal storytelling that makes it tough to engage. On top of that, this is a very cheesy episode. While you can have fun with cheesiness, and I certainly did throughout the episode, there's a limit to how engaging and entertaining television can be when everything is so cheesy. The humour involving Greef is a perfect example and it feels so unnatural and sitcom-esque. The conflicts are also frustratingly bland, contributing to their cheesiness. Vane, the pirate character, is the embodiment of every boring children's TV show villain ever. He has nothing going for him and has zero credibility as a villain. It's obvious that this idiot isn't going to get one over on Mando so I have no reason to feel any suspense and interest in what will happen - obviously Mando has the situation under control. This makes the pirates utterly boring to follow. And of course they have to be assholes who want to threaten a school because why have any semblance of depth for this characters. Lastly, the storyline of Mando bringing IG-11 back is the most predictable and unoriginal story imaginable. We know he will succeed eventually, so I don't care for this as a long-running storyline at all. Furthermore, Mando seems stupid for being so fixated on this one specific droid. We aren't given a good enough reason to believe that Mando is only comfortable trusting IG-11 instead of any other droid, especially when IG-11's programming has reset and his memory is lost. The Unknown: Did Cara Dune and Moff Gideon just get written out of the show? Will we see them again? Who will Greef get as his new marshal? Will we see Cobb Vanth again? Will Mando be successful in bringing back IG-11? Who is Gorian Shard? Will he be important going forwards? Is Bo Katan alone in her castle? Why isn't she doing anything else? What's her plan? Best Moment: The starship fight was the most easily enjoyable part of the episode. Character of the Episode: Mando. Conclusion: This was a fine, but totally unspectacular premier. There were entertaining popcorn-flick sequences, but the episode was hampered by the show's video game-esque quest-completing nature, and the predictable, uninspired plot. Score: 58
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
March 2024
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