I want to talk about The Mandalorian, I don't seem to get it
Some very mild spoilers for The Mandalorian
I have not been really following Star Wars since Disney took over, I think I saw one or two of the new sequels (they were forgetable) and I saw Rouge One (It's great, would even call it the most Star Wars Star Wars movie)
I had some time last weeks and I saw Andor and I was just stunned. Good to great actors, great worldbuilding, a bit on the nose but still engaging social critic and themes, an interesting and intense story based in gritty realism while still being very Star Wars. I think everybody who likes science fiction and/or spythrillers should watch it.
So I was like: oooooh so they finally found a way to do new and interesting stuff with the Galaxy far far away. Everybody says nice things about the Mandalorian, let's check that one out. It got 92% on RT so I'm shure it's nice....
I seem to hate it and it makes me angry that it turned out the way it did, because i still like a lot about it. It makes me sad that they botched it so badly.
Maybe having a main character whitout a face is not helping? so i need a robot to tell me what Mando is feeling? Pedro Pascal is actually doing an incredible job working with body language and voice, but I don't think it's enough to actually be able to salvage this dumpsterfire of an realisation. Or maybe they should have kept with Mando being an unrelatable asshole, and not make him a disney daddy?
And then they still show his face.... in the most anticlimactic way ever... why? just why do that? It makes me angry just thinking about it, how can you fuck that up so badly, that could be a series defining payoff, but no! They just waste it in the most boring and unconcequencial way ever.
Then there is the Rule of Cool or Why is Everybody a Badass?. Mando is cool, i get it. He has an amazing Look (obviously the helmet is crazy good). He has very interesting and powerful weapons. But then I he still gets mostly his as kicked by nearly everything and everybody all the time?? I mean why do you tell me with every character and all his design that he is a force of nature and than he gets his ass kicked by a fucking dinohead on two legs that looks like a joke and is a joke (I dont actually mind that, i like the design and the joke) I just makes no sense to me.
Nearly everybody else looks cool and is presented as a badass as well, there is just to much of it. there are no weak people, there are no hurt people, there are just badasses and cannonfodder.
Then there is the storytelling... It ranges from quite ok to fucking horrible. I mean, who thought it is a good Idea to NOT cut the motherfucking prisonship episode? It's some of the worst TV i saw in a long while. It does nothing for the overall story. it does nothing for the characters. It does nothing for the viewer. It does nothing for nobody. Its just full of bad acting, bad direction, bad and lazy set design, bad editing, bad jokes, and the worst storytelling. why did they leave that piece of shit in there? the whole series is worse for it. It makes me angry.
So I finally checked the wikipedia page and I understood. Jon Favreau.... Jon Favreau!!! I mean not all of his work is that bad. I liked Iron man and Chef, and I love Cowboys and Aliens (really! it's so bad it's good, but you can not expect differently with that name) I hated his Lion King.
I don't now where I'm going with this. I think I just needed to share my feelings about it. It's just so full of potential, there is so much they could have done with it. they could have explored so many themes and share so much lore... but they just fucked it up and everybody seems to like it, i dont get it.
/rant
so are the other Star Wars shows worth a watch?
As somebody who really enjoyed The Mandalorian, particularly season 1, but less so season 2, I think part of the enjoyment for me was the scale of things. They weren't telling an epic story, with big sweeping ramifications for the whole Star Wars universe, and nor were the stakes for the characters particularly high. Instead they were leaning really heavily into the "cowboys/samurai in space" kind of vibe that the early Star Wars movies had in spades, as well as committing to telling short stories in each episode. While there is an overall plot thread, it was a joy just to see what planet they'd land on this time, and what hi-jinks they would get up to this week.
Part of my enjoyment definitely comes from only having one episode per week to watch, as well as the fact that I got together with friends to watch it every week. But only having one episode to watch at a time was how the show was intended to be watched, and I suspect that binging Mandalorian (I'm assuming that's what you did) detracts from its merits. Having a week to digest the cool set pieces, fun character interactions, and glimpse of the Empire's plots makes for much more engaged and excited watching than churning through 10 episodes in a short space of time.
With all that said, I can completely understand that coming from Andor into Mando you would struggle to feel that it could be on a par. The two are very different beasts, with very different writers and approaches.
The Mandalorian was the closest thing to a spiritual successor to Firefly as you can get, misfit finds magical child-figure that becomes his duty to protect from oppressive government and other baddies that is after them, has a rag tag group of friends all with their own little catch phrases, hops from planet to planet solving local issues while slowly uncovering magical child's back story.
Season 2 was definitely a downgrade for the most part but Bill Burr killed it in his episode.
Dang, this is a good observation and nails why I enjoyed it so much!
hey thank you for your answer!
I can now understand what I like about it and its the reasons you give why you enjoy it. I just cannot unsee the "ugly" stuff. I think if this project was in more capable hands it could have been as good as andor and all that wasted potential is what makes me to opinion that strongly.
Binge watching it was definitly an error.
Thank you for showing me the way. I can now understand why people like it and don't have to judge anymore. ;-)
Start with the coolest action figure (boba fett-I know he got his own, lesser show, but Mando is close enough), pull together some interesting characters (high plains drifter reimagined), mildly rich bushido/western plotlines, Werner Herzog, decent action, a little pseudo-greek mythos, add a couple really cool catchphrases (for geeks), and it's darn entertaining for the first few episodes.
Honestly, outside of Andor, the world of Star Wars on screen is much more a mixed bag. I enjoyed Mando strictly as an entertaining space-western. Didn't have to be more for me to at least make it through.
For things that are actually critically interested in world-building and storytelling your options are more limited (at least, as far as my limited knowledge goes). Clone Wars is probably your next stop. I heard a really good description of it today on the most recent A More Civilized Age where the guest said something to the effect of "Clone Wars does for Clones what Andor does for droids, it's interested in them as people". It has some absolutely incredible arcs, some galaxy-brained "what is the Force and what sort of fine supplements does it smoke?" and lots of world-building. But be warned there are some arcs in there that are... well, you'll have the same reaction as Mando. Side note: I highly recommend AMCA as a companion piece for both Andor and Clone Wars. I probably would have not stuck to the latter without the podcast, because they find humor and interesting aspects even in the duds.
I've heard that Rebels is at least OK, while Obi Wan suffered from being... well... not Andor. Past that, I'm not super familiar with what's out there, hopefully someone can come drop some deeper cuts on us :)
I personally enjoyed both Mando and Andor but for completely different reasons. (Additional slight spoiler warning)
Mando was ground breaking, in that it was the first truly excellent show since the original three. In fact, Mando shared the same ethos with the original movies.
Buddies against the evil empire who just happen to live in a run down and worn futuristic world. In this case one of the hero's is a bounty hunter instead of a smuggler, the other hero is a baby yoda, not a young man, but both are just discovering the force. As someone put it, Mado is a adopted father just trying to make it in a world where everyone is against him, he can't find a job and his car keeps breaking down.
Just as Han Solo slowly loses his mercenary viewpoint as he bonds with Luke, Mando also slowly develops true affection for Yoda. I felt Mando showing his face to be really interesting. Sure, the face itself was a little anti-climatic. I was hoping we never would see his face. But up until then, we knew Mando would be an outcast from his people if he ever took off his helmet in front of another person. The Armorer always asked him, if he took off his helmet, before she would make him new armor. In fact, the fallout is partially covered in the Book of Boba Fett. But Mando was faced with a simple choice. Take off the helmet and fail in his primary duty to his clan, or keep the helmet on and fail in his recently acquired duty to baby yoda. He chose baby Yoda. I am not sure how you can make it more climatic than that. We could have had a little more warning I guess. But then it would have given Mando a chance to think of a third option.
The action scenes in Mando are also no more absurd than the original three. One of the side heroes doesn't even survive in Mando. Rather than just rely on bad shooting from storm troopers as Han did, Mando has his high tech suit made out of beskar and a life of training dedicated to martial arts. Any recent Samurai/ Westerns/ Kun Fu movie in the last fifty years is going to follow the rule of cool. You either enjoy them, or you don't.
But Andor is something else entirely. It is slower and far more character driven than anything that went before it, yet it still held my attention fully. I do wonder, if you had watched Mando first, after decades of mostly terrible Star Wars movies and shows, perhaps you might have had a completely different experience. And I do wonder if my viewpoint wasn't colored by the "holy shit, Rogue One was good, but this is the first fucking amazing Star Wars since the original three."
The thing about Mandalorian, as opposed to Andor, is that they’re not trying to tell a dramatic story. Mandalorian has more in common with old-school serials. It’s a real gun-ho episodic adventure show. It doesn’t have, nor is it trying to have, the depth of Andor.
So, I only watched the Book of Bobba Fett and didn't watch any of the Mandolorian. It started out OK but over time I just lost heart and it became more comedic. I held similar concerns to what you note above. I don't think you are ranting. When you see something that distinguishes itself, like Andor, it has to show up the other works. In this commercialised space it's quantity over quality, which is actually a downside for Disney because I'm sure other people who actually keep up with star wars get fatigued. But they're trying to hook a new generation in, via parents' nostalgia, so they need to keep pushing things out to stay relevant.
I can't recommend Book of Bobba Fett and haven't seen any of the other shows.
Same. Just skip it, even if you enjoyed Mando and Andor. Fett is a great character, and that show had some potential, but it just fell all over itself trying to throw it's entire storytelling weight into making Fett into not just a relatable character (good idea) but a nice guy (bad idea), not to mention being a Mandalorian side-kick.
Has somebody seen Obi wan? should I avoid it?
Avoid it.
I wanted to like it, I really did. It has a number of faults, but the one that finally broke it for me was the Vader->Obiwan dynamic.
spoiler-ish details
It builds up over several episodes how Obiwan is kind of washed-up, out of practice, and mentally not in a great place. Meanwhile Vader is a near god-like figure, with power and influence on top of his force abilities, and a deep seated rage. Then you put them together for the inevitable confrontation and Obiwan just ... escapes while Vader looks on impotently despite moments before having demonstrated absolute mastery of the situation.