"The Mandalorian," Year One

Spoilers for the first episode.

When I heard that the first season of "The Mandalorian" was going to be eight episodes long, I expected it to be something big and epic and expensive to reflect the reportedly high budget. I'm very glad that I was wrong. Yes, "The Mandalorian" is full of expensive special effects and the characters are bouncing around the galaxy, and rarely on the same planet from episode to episode, but the scale and stakes of the drama are pretty small and personal - at least compared to all the other "Star Wars" media.

The Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) is a bounty hunter, who never shows his face and whose proper name is barely used. He simply goes by The Mandalorian, or Mando, a member of an order of fearsome armored warriors who have been mostly driven underground. In the first episode he's sent on a mission by a sinister Imperial, the Client (Werner Herzog) to retrieve an asset who turns out to be the Child - now known in the wider culture as Baby Yoda. This sets up a "Lone Wolf and Cub" situation, as the Mandalorian goes on new adventures and jobs every week, with a teeny green magic toddler in tow.

Obviously, all the alien landscapes, CGI creatures, big guest stars, and whizbang action sequences require a lot of money and creative effort to be brought to the small screen. However, when it comes to the nuts and bolts of the storytelling and the characters, "The Mandalorian" is refreshingly simple. It's built on the basic tropes of old westerns, morality is simple and crude, and dialogue is fairly sparse - several characters have oft repeated catchphrases like the Mandalorian's "This is the way." Baby Yoda, performed with a wonderfully expressive puppet, doesn't speak at all. With its larger-than-life characters and and focus on exciting action sequences, it's a perfect show for kids, but charming enough to keep the attention of adults. Hardcore "Star Wars" fans will be happy to spot Ugnaughts and AT-STs, but the show is aimed at a much broader audience, and not interested in dwelling on the minutiae of the existing "Star Wars" mythology.

The show isn't consistently good week to week. There are three self-contained adventures in the middle of the season that are easily the weakest episodes, with very paper-thin characters and scenarios. You could swap them out with any generic '90s action adventure show filler installments without much trouble. However, I find the overall quality of the worldbuilding and the high level of the execution of so many complicated fantasy elements is enough to keep me watching. You can tell the creators, lead by Jon Favreau, approached this like a feature project. Each episode's credits are accompanied by gorgeous production artwork, highlighting the skill and craft put into every visual. The score by Ludwig Göransson doesn't sound like anything else in "Star Wars" canon, but it's somehow exactly what music in a "Star Wars" Western should sound like. And I'm happy to find the universe is grungy and tactile and a little seedy at times, the way I remember the first act of the first "Star Wars" movie being. And Baby Yoda is just irresistible.

As a "Star Wars" spinoff, I'm very satisfied with "The Mandalorian." This is the first piece of media since the Disney acquisition that doesn't feel like it's leaning too heavily on the movies. There are a few Force users, but not a lightsaber in sight. Our Mandalorian has no apparent ties to Boba Fett or Jango Fett, and instead there's a significant amount of time fleshing out the Mandalorian culture and traditions. We know the series takes place in the gap between Episodes VI and VII, but prior events are only barely alluded to. Instead, there's an emphasis on the consequences - scattered Imperials trying to hold on to power, Mando's ally Cara Dune (Gina Carano) moving on after a career as a Rebel shock trooper, and everyone mostly just trying to stay out of everyone else's way as the new status quo sorts itself out.

In short, this is the only "Star Wars" media that has really delivered on the promise of showing us new and different corners of a familiar universe. And I do hope that it continues on the same trajectory moving forward, sticking to the backwaters and keeping it simple.

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