"The Mandalorian," Year Three

Mild spoilers ahead.

It's amazing how fast a show can go from something special to something exasperatingly rote and overly familiar.  The irony is, "The Mandalorian" is being more ambitious this year, putting Din Djarin and Grogu squarely in the middle of Bo-Katan's quest to retake the Mandalorian homeworld.  I'm usually all for adventure shows taking big steps like this, and abandoning the status quo, but I didn't need or want the show to get more epic and interconnected with the rest of the "Star Wars" universe.

Unfortunately, now I've got to remember all these characters from multiple seasons of the show, care about the Mandalorians and their politics, and take an interest in what's going on with the remnants of the Empire.  There's a whole episode that is mostly spent setting up a new villain, ex-Imperial Elia Kane (Katy M. O'Brien), that feels like something out of "Andor."  This is all very familiar, but very un-"Mandalorian."  I liked the show in its first season because it was simple and uncomplicated.  Unlike the rest of "Star Wars," it was small stakes and episodic, heavy on the creatures and the action scenes.  A four year-old could follow it without much trouble.  

This season, the show has a ton of ongoing plot, much of it being deployed too quickly for my tastes.  It's the most "Star Wars"  "The Mandalorian" has ever been, but I don't think this does the show any favors.  First, our hero has to travel to Mandalore to undo his apostasy.  Then there's the reuniting with the other Mandalorians, gathering forces, building Bo-Katan back up as a leader, uncovering a secret villain, and finally taking back the planet.  Many of these developments happen very quickly, and frankly aren't as well set up as I'd have liked.  There's an awful lot of convenient timing and ignoring difficult questions.  Another episode or three would have been a big help in terms of pacing and character-building.  

Keep in mind that the most important episodes about Din Djarin and Grogu's relationship were used to fill out the "Book of Boba Fett" series that aired last year.  Anyone who skipped that show will be very puzzled as to why the two characters are reunited at the beginning of this season of "The Mandalorian."  This ties into my larger issues with the story choices in season three.  I simply don't care about Bo-Katan and the Mandalore storylines that were introduced in other "Star Wars" media, notably the animated shows shepherded by Dave Filoni.  I didn't watch them and have no desire to watch them.  "The Mandalorian" is essentially being used to provide a hurried conclusion for a bunch of these older plots.  If they had been set up properly in "The Mandalorian" itself, and given compelling stakes, I wouldn't have minded so much, but they aren't.  My favorite episodes of the season wound up being the one-offs, like the episode spent saving Nevarro and Carl Weathers from alien pirates, and the guns-for-hire episode featuring Jack Black and Lizzo in minor roles.

A fourth season of "The Mandalorian," is currently being planned, but the third season actually ends in such a way that it could serve as a series finale.  And if this is the end of the adventures of Lone Mando and Cub, I have incredibly mixed feelings about the show.  "The Mandalorian" has done a lot to expand the "Star Wars" universe and move away from the Skywalker drama, but there's so much more uncharted territory I would have liked to see explored.  We still have no idea what species Grogu and Yoda are.  There are still all sorts of unanswered questions about Din Djarin.  I think I would have actually preferred the bittersweet ending of season two for a finale, because it would have left things more open ended.  The big victory of season three feels oddly hollow, maybe because it feels like a forced happy ending and doesn't seem earned.

          

---