"The Mandalorian" fully blew up into a national phenomenon this year, with big streaming numbers, tons of merchandise, and every episode awaited with happy anticipation by its fans. This is the show that's saved "Star Wars," apparently, and I feel like such a grinch even trying to voice my concerns about it. The second season was a lot of fun, ironing out a lot of the production kinks from the first season and delivering some truly impressive feats of spectacle. On the other hand, the story is also moving in a direction I'm not too sure about. This post will be a spoiler-free review, and I want to talk about the last episode with spoilers in the next one.
The Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) and the Child are still traveling the galaxy, looking for other Mandalorians and people who might be able to help them get the little green foundling back where he belongs. There are a lot of familiar faces and new characters to get acquainted with, though which category individuals fall in depends on how much you know about the rest of the "Star Wars" franchise. A big development this year is that several characters from the "Clone Wars" and "Rebels" animated series, shepherded for years by Dave Filoni, are starting to cross over into the "Mandalorian." While I'm not familiar with them, I thought these characters were mostly handled well, and brought some interesting new bits and pieces of "Stars Wars" lore with them.
What I was less happy about was learning that at least two of the major characters who show up this year are getting spun off into their own shows, and that "The Mandalorian" is doubling down in certain story elements that are pretty certain to put him in more contact with the older, more familiar parts of the "Star Wars" universe. I've been enjoying "The Mandalorian" so much because it's been able to strike out into uncharted territory. I like the show's steadily growing roster of original characters, like Cara Dune (Gina Carano) and Greef Karga (Carl Weathers). There's an unnamed frog lady who features in two early episodes, played by Misty Rosas, who is a delight. There are more puppets and models and large scale action sequences this year. It feels like the whole production has gotten a major boost, allowing it to tackle really big, blockbuster film level action sequences. The premiere features a fight on Tatooine against a Krayt dragon, a massive creature we'd only seen the skeleton of in the original "Star Wars." The next episode is a survival story featuring hostile ice spiders. It's fabulous stuff.
"The Mandalorian" sticks to the format of the old television western, and we have episodes devoted to escort missions, fake lawmen, uneasy alliances, and rescue parties, among other things. The regularity of having new guest stars every week takes away some of the awkwardness of several of these episodes pretty obviously being backdoor pilots. There's no dip in quality or string or obvious filler episodes this year, and the momentum of the story is pretty strong. I think the one major weakness of this season is that the main villain, Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito), who is awfully derivative and gets no actual character aside from being a standard evil imperial. He does have a pack of new badass Dark Troopers, however, that come with their own dubstep techno theme music. Composer Ludwig Göransson remains one of the show's MVPs.
Step back from the whiz-bang cool of the action and effects, and the series sometimes falls short when it comes to character and story. There were enough instances of humor falling flat or exposition being rattled off by a bored-sounding actor from under layers of prosthetics that I took notice. One of the most touching, emotional moments of the season is dreadfully undercut by the distracting use of effects that aren't quite up to par. There are plenty of good moments and great creative choices that outweigh the bad, but "The Mandalorian" is far from consistent and could still use some improvements in key areas.
And I'm worried that this won't be a priority. The show has all the potential in the galaxy to be whatever it wants to be, but with its creators' attentions about to be split, and with so many other interests in play to keep the "Star Wars" franchise going, I worry that "The Mandalorian" has already peaked. I'm sure the show will go on for many more seasons, and we'll get many more exciting adventures with the Mandalorian and friends, but their universe feels like it's about to get a whole lot smaller.
---
No comments:
Post a Comment