More stories from my imagination being made real.
What They Say:
The Mandalorian joins a crew of mercenaries on a dangerous mission.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With multiple generations of fans for Star Wars now, it’s easy to see there are becoming clearer lines about the types of fans there are. I had grown up with the films coming out one by one every few years and spent my time making up stories with all of my action figure, often combining them with GI Joe figures, Adventure People, and more. I had a couple of novels and some comics, but otherwise it was my imagination. So, when I see The Mandalorian play out, I see the kinds of stories that would drift through my mind while laying in bed as a pre-tween kid and wonder what they would be like in the hands of those with the skill to put it together. I’m convinced that Favreau and Filoni are very much of a similar kind of fan as these tales are told, coming from the same generation.
I’m not sure what to make of the number of fans that are going on about how throwaway all of this is. How meaningless the show is. The desire for bingeable overarching stories are all they crave and seemingly can handle, as a slower pacing, deliberate brief but intense reveals, the teasing of information out sends them off the edge. Which, honestly, is good. The more that everyone realizes that Star Wars can’t be everything to everyone the better. But having read comics, novels, and various shows for the past 40 years of the franchise now, the truth is that it can be all these things. But you have to allow for them to exist, to not believe every part has to be this magical recreation of your childhood. Some things will work, some things won’t. The anger over the parts that don’t for some people is, however, mystifying to me even after all these years of anger.
With most of the episodes so far, we’ve seen life on the outer rim in the post-Empire galaxy, which honestly isn’t all that different from what it was like under the Empire or the Old Republic. The show isn’t playing in the mid-or-core worlds so we’re not seeing all the modern, bright, and flashy. When we do see it, it stands out. Such is the case here as Mando is drawn into a “rescue” mission through an old friend he used to work with that actually turns out to be a prisoner breakout. That means slipping into a New Republic prisoner transport ship in space and breaking them out. The nature of shipbuidling means that it’s pretty much the same kind of ship the Empire would use but it’s just so visually striking since it’s clean and new, filled with all the white halls, doors, and so forth. When the crew that gets put together is dropped in, it takes on a new life as the ship itself becomes a character.
Prior to that, Mando is brought in by Ran (Mark Boone Jr) because they need his ship the Razor Crest to pull off the moves to arrive in the prison ships blindspot. That has him wanting Zero, a droid played by Richard Ayoade, to handle the flying. And that doesn’t sit well with Mando. But with him knowing Ran and the crew also including a former friend in the Twi-lek Xi’an, he’s willing to work with it and the other two that are brought on. Bill Burr has the kind of rough and tumble pirate-ish type in Mayfeld – the only other human in the group – while Clancy Brown gets to channel his Kurgan past a bit by playing the Devaronian Burg with the horns. A few other characters show up as well, including some interesting prison guard droids, but it’s the end cameos that I really liked. When the New Republic shows up to the ship at this point, the three pilots are played by three of the directors so far with quick cameos for Chow, Filoni, and Famuyiwa. I love little moments like this.
There’s a lot to like as the group spreads out into the ship and we get to see the dynamic take shape. Mando is basically put into the position of doing things because he’s the outsider here and they have no real need for him to be involved other than his ship. With Zero as their eyes coordinating from the Razor Crest, they let Mando handle most of the action for a while, which includes taking down the prison guard robots that are acting lethally. I mean, it is a break-in after all and these are not just jaywalkers here. We do get a morally complex situation when there’s a living crewmember on board discovered later a well, and then the shift as Mando is on the outside of things until he figures out how to turn the situation to his advantage. Watching him fight is great but I really enjoyed watching him stalk the halls of the place, especially as he began take down the group one by one in an almost haunted house style of things.
In Summary:
I don’t expect everyone to enjoy what I enjoy and I don’t expect everyone to enjoy when a property like Star Wars clows down to do smaller character stories where the character-building is through what they do as opposed to what (little) they say. I’ve read many a bottle stories in the comics over the years for them to the short storybooks and more. It’s all about the expansion of what we know and the inclusion of the new. This episode delivered a great prison break story with an interesting couple of twists, some fun cameras and guest stars. But tit also felt very much like Star Wars that I grew up with an imagined, making it easy to enjoy. I can’t wait to see what’s next.
Grade: A-
