Anyone watch The Mandalorian?

Anyone watch this and can comment on it? Looking to get some opinions from average duders.

For context, my opinion of recent Star Wars stuff: I despise The Last Jedi and don't like Resistance. However, I loved Rogue One; depending on my mood, I might even call it my second favorite Star Wars movie. I also quite liked the Rebels show. Force Awakens was...ok. Solo would have been more enjoyable if it wasn't about Solo and didn't come off as a cynically pandering fan-service.

So I'm not a rabid anti-Disney Star Wars guy. I'm willing to be open to Star Wars made by different people, but I do have my own particular views on what makes good Star Wars.

Not a big star wars fan (the new trilogy has been total shit IMO), but Mandalorians are BY FAR my favorite thing in the SW universe. That being said after watching it I felt like I missed an episode, like this is episode 2 or 3 and I just missed a bunch of general explanations or intro for the series (like thank god I know what Mandalorians are for instance). The visuals were great, it looked like out of a star wars movie, and I plan to watch future episodes, but if this wasn't about a Mandalorian my interest would of waned.

I just finished it a few minutes ago. I'm a lifelong Star Wars fan, and I've long preferred stories that are either about the Old Republic OR stories that don't focus on the Jedi, especially the Skywalker family and their friends. Rogue One is my favorite Star Wars movie.

The Mandalorian takes all the good aspects of Star Wars and puts them together in a fun new package. World-hopping, a weird tendency for a galaxy-spanning civilization to use native animals as transportion, varied and interesting creature design, fun action, and some understated moments of humor. The reveal at the end of the episode has potential to have far-ranging effects on the Star Wars universe as a whole, and I'm cautiously optimistic it won't become a part of the self-referential tiny universe problem that Star Wars suffers from.

I think you'll enjoy it if you loved Rogue One (plus Clone Wars or the EU for Mandalorian backstory). It has much more of a Western vibe than Rogue One. The final scene makes me think Jon Favreau is aiming for Lone Wolf & Cub in the long run. Oh and I enjoyed the Easter Eggs that put the Star Wars Holiday Special in canon.

Agreed. Star Wars and its fandom have been overly concerned with ancestry because of how The Force has been established as a hereditary thing.

It left a fine first impression. Bits of it still suffered from the over-action / Marvelization of the humor that’s obfuscated all the stuff I like about the new trilogy, but I’m cautiously optimistic from the majority of the pilot that some of that can be chalked up to the usual first episode jitters and they’ll find the right tone a couple episodes from now.

Aside from that, certainly an intriguing setup and the idea that the Mandalorian might just be looking to upgrade his loot in the most efficient way possible speaks to the gamer in me.

I want to watch it but will wait until the entire series is out. Unfortunately I'm in the UK so might have to find an alternative method of watching it over the Christmas break.

Hmm, Last Jedi is my favorite star wars movie of them all and I hated rogue one. Thought the mandalorian was quite good.

I enjoy Star Wars but I’m no die-hard fan. I thought Last Jedi was pretty bad because of the bad plot and writing (had no problem with “diversity” since I think SW films were always pretty diverse), and think Rogue One is the best new-age Star Wars movie - if were all comparing notes on Last Jedi/Rogue One.

That out of the way I really loved this first episode. It was pretty much everything I wanted - great Star Wars atmosphere with an interesting character and familiar call backs. Loved how some of the smaller aliens were these goofy rubber puppets like the original movies. The Wild West vibe fits real well with the whole bounty hunter premise. My only real complaint is that I wish the episodes were longer.

I'm holding out to just borrow the DVDs/BluRays when they are at my library. Disney+ is just not a good deal for me.

Yeah, Mandalorian looks nice, but I'll see ist later. If ist good it will still be good issued on DVD.

Here's my dumb-ass theory, which I wish was true but almost certainly isn't (spoilers for the first episode):

Overall, I liked it quite a bit, but wasn't blown away or anything. The fact that they hide Pedro Pascal under that helmet is a crime, and by far the best part was (obviously) Werner Herzog.

So I don't like the new Disney films except for Rogue one, which has serious script problems but I feel like had an interesting core and strong visuals.

The Mandalorian is off to a good start, but the episode isn't without issues. The timing between the CGI lasers and the stuntmen is occasionally off, the image was inexplicably flipped for one shot, and the pacing felt really strange. I'm hoping the pacing issues are because it's early set up, it'll probably find a groove once it gets going.

However, overall it's pretty good. I like the setup, I like the characters well enough, and it definitely captures a nice balance between pulp sci-fi and straight up western. The music is fantastic, it fits the pulpy sci-fi western vibe and sounds nothing like other Star Wars music. Design-wise it's got that gritty, stitched together look the old films had for it's criminal underworld scenes. For example, all of the guns are just WW2 weapons (or older) with extra bits, just like the original movies. I suspect the lower budget spread across more hours compared to the films may in fact be helping them by forcing them in that direction. Spoilers below.

@silversaint: I appreciate your fandom of Mandalorians, but what aspect of Mandalorians is even considered canonical by current writers with access to the Star Wars license, other than “yo, Boba Fett has Mandalorian armour”? My understanding is that they’re more than willing to disregard most Star Wars EU stuff if they feel like it, and all Disney really cares about is that they don’t contradict the films. To my knowledge, the word “Mandalorian” has never even been spoken in a film, let alone the backstory detailed, so doesn’t this series kinda have free reign to say that Mandalorians are whatever the fuck they want them to be? Or does it seem like the writers of The Mandalorian are largely going along with existing stuff from various EU novels/comics/games, which is maybe kinda ambiguous because from what I’m hearing, this show doesn’t give a big lore dump?

I had ZERO interest in this as I’m not a huge Star Wars guy (Rogue One was pretty cool, and I appreciate most of the original trilogy enough...I think the current trilogy is pure ass), but I’m just now hearing that it’s a sci-fi western directed by Werner Herzog???

Color me interested...

EDIT: I do live under a rock for a lot of pop culture shit, but “The Mandelorian” does NOTHING for me. If all these fucking articles said “Unnamed Herzog Sci-fi Western” I’d be like SIGN ME THE FUCK UP!

@nutter: Werner Herzog didn't direct it at all, it's written by Jon Favreaeu and directed by a variety of folks, most notably Taika Waititi.

Werner Herzog is acting in it though, and boy is he good.

Since we're all giving context, I generally like the new Star Wars films and particularly enjoyed The Last Jedi.

The first episode was fine. It looks and sounds great, but it's nothing we haven't seen before. The pacing was weak and felt like it was missing a couple of scenes. The twist at the end was interesting, but I could easily see it paying off poorly. I think the helmet is going to be a problem if they insist on keeping it on him at all times; they're going to need to surround him with some really strong characters if they want to keep that gimmick going.

@brackstone: Ahh, thanks for clarifying...bummer, but yeah, he can be great in front of the camera as well. I still may give it a watch if the wife subscribes for herself or the kids. It’s on my radar now, at least!

@bisonhero: Didn't Disney basically completely disown the entirety of the Extended Universe catalog up until 2014? Like I was under the impression that they straight up said none of those stories are related to the new Star Wars and they won't be pulling anything from it, which seemed like a really awful and dumb thing to do despite the EU having a lot of admittedly dumb stuff in it.

I actually remember reading an EU book that detailed the adventures of the bounty hunters we saw in the movies - so the lizard looking guy, the robot etc. I don't actually remember any of the stories in detail but I think it was there where they told the story of how Bobba Fett climbed out of the Sarlacc pit having been munched on extensively and went about his merry way. If they followed that up it would be real neat to see this new Mondo meet up with the legendary Fett.

@humanity: Yeah, that’s what I’m alluding to. I got bored and looked it up, and it seems that under Disney basically none of that EU shit happened, and the only pre-Disney Star Wars things that will be acknowledged are the films and the 2008 Clone Wars CG film and cartoon series. However, I guess at some point they introduced Mandalorians into that Clone Wars cartoon, so technically there is some Mandalorian stuff on record. I didn’t dig into it enough to figure out what the Clone Wars has established about them, but yeah, otherwise any lore from EU is largely obliterated unless it has been acknowledged in the Clone Wars, or reacknowledged in any stuff written in post-Disney multimedia.

@bisonhero: Like you, I didn't enjoy The Last Jedi and Rogue One is my second favorite movie behind Empire Strikes Back. I enjoyed the first episode of The Mandalorian. Tonally it feels similar to Rogue One. So far there is nothing to do with Jedi or other Force sensitive people. The dialog was quite good and the set designs and cinematography looked great. I was also surprised by how good the CGI was for a television show. Anyways, it was a fun first episode. There is obviously a lot more to tell, but I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes now.

@bisonhero: The Clone Wars, once it found its groove, is some of the best Star Wars ever produced, and the Mandalorians actually figured heavily into that show. Also given Dave Filoni, the guy that will hopefully be running Lucasfilm one day with Jon Favreau, has his hand in all of these new series to some extent they will likely draw from his animated offerings including Rebels, which also touched on Mandalore and what caused its downfall in the prequel era.

All of the shows live action and animated will also likely have threads tying them together from here on out as Mandalorian's big reveal obviously is connected to the Clone Wars era and will likely carry on into Obi-wan as something that happens in Rebels prevents his show from covering elements which sprang up in the closing moments of Solo...which had a lead up in both Clone Wars and Rebels and given their time frame will probably serve as basis for the Cassian Andor series or the now rumored Lando show. It kinda feels like we're entering a phase where they're gonna make this property even more interconnected than Marvel.

If you, or anyone reading has Disney+, it'd be a good idea to give all the animated content a watch. It probably isn't necessary, but you'd likely appreciate the universe they're building more and might even change your mind about the Prequel era and its characters. You can skip Resistance and the Lego stuff though, as they're more targeted to younger fans,

I haven't seen the show yet but just heard the Chapter 1 soundtrack and thumbs up on that.

@shiftygism: As someone who hasn’t kept up with Star Wars multimedia, yeah, that ending of Solo sure seemed like some random bullshit at the time I saw it, if you’re talking about a character that briefly appears at the end of that movie.

Interesting that they’re cross-referencing across those different media, but I don’t think I have the patience to go back and watch the Clone Wars. I just don’t like the factions, the characters, basically anything from the prequel era.

I was a Star Wars megafan a lonnng time ago, so it's nice to see something feel more Expanded Universey out of Disney.

I liked the general vibe of the show, but the whole quiet, helmeted protagonist schtick feels like a hard way to get me interested in his character. If it weren't for the *very* fun last ten minutes, I'd probably be mildly apprehensive for the series' future.

Now that we've gotten the obligatory shootout or two, I'd like to see greater emphasis on some more relaxed scenes. Maybe an upbeat song, some downtime, etc.

So Mandalorian is such a success, Alan Horn is already hinting at a movie spinoff. All of the Star Wars shows are gonna be a success, that doesn't mean they need movie versions. It's all about them getting every last cent out of people regardless of it having negative effects on the property.

@shiftygism: Yeah, I say slow y'alls roll on the movie and keep making the show good first.

I thought it was middling to bad. There was just nothing interesting at all happening and the lack of facial expressions on the main character really hurts the show I think. Even the action scene at the end felt really uninspired and boring, as if they were just going through the motions. The whole bit with Horatio Sanz felt weird and out of place as well, not a good way to start things off. The episode somehow felt both slow and rushed, it felt like something was missing. The score seems really good and unique, however, but at times was overpowered by the sound effects.

The second episode is up, and it's so god damned good. The cg is now on point, it's laugh out loud funny in points, and the action is much better choreographed. There's even a nod to another Lucasfilm movie during one gigantic battle scene. The only downside is this episode is even shorter than the first clocking in at only thirty-two minutes. Between that and having to wait a week between episodes from here on out is gonna suck. Great show.

First episode was alright. Decent background for playing FF14. Not really big into Star Wars though, I care a lot more about the upcoming Marvel shows which is the main reason I subbed. That and the back catalog of shows and movies.

Anyone that thinks the extremely fun second episode is nothing more than "filler" should just cancel their account, not every episode needs to be plot heavy affairs, this isn't Game of Thrones, yet all of these wannabe critics on Youtube keep bringing that up as a comparison. This is a live action version of Clone Wars, hell this particular ep was a live action version of the original Clone Wars from Genndy Tartakovsky, it's very Samurai Jack in nature. No wonder half the fanbase hated Last Jedi, too fucking impatient.

I watched the 2nd episode and while I think it’s better than the 1st it’s still not great. It was mostly just a bunch of mindless action and not particularly good action at that. There’s nothing really pulling me into the story here, keeping me wanting to watch more. We’re basically at the same point we were at the end of the last episode plot-wise. As far as Star Wars things go, from the little I’ve played of Jedi: Fallen Order so far I’m liking the story in that way better. I’ll give it another episode or 2 and if I still don’t like it I think I’m done. This is all really disappointing to me, everything I had heard about this show had me so hyped. Now that I’ve watched 2 episodes that hype has been severely deflated and I’m honestly baffled that it isn’t better than it is.

The show is good, but it also makes me even more bummed Star Wars 1313 got cancelled. I'd like a video game where you could play as a bad ass bounty hunter where there's no janky-ass lightsaber combat or convoluted plot reasons why yet another Jedi somehow still exists after Order 66 (safe to say, Fallen Order just ain't doing it for me).

I think this succeeds at being the right kind of gritty, which is something Rogue One had aspirations of being, but ended up failing at miserably IMHO. My opinion of the Disney Star Wars movies has ranged from indifferent to outright loathing (I think Rogue One might be one of the worst movies I've ever seen), so it's nice to see them finally get it right.

@shiftygism:Glad I'm not the only one thinking of Samurai Jack, I'm definitely getting those vibes too. I think it's mostly how it manages to tell a contained part of a story in half an hour primarily through action. It's a tricky balance to strike and one only Genndy's shows has ever really managed to excel at.

But yeah, not everything needs to be long winded dialogue scenes with A plots, B plots and C plots. I actually like how lean it feels at 30 minutes. A solid ,action heavy A plot told well and efficiently is still good, and takes just as much artistry as deeper drama with a numerous characters and conflicting motivations.

This isn't Star Wars trying to be Game of Thrones, and it's not going for prestige tv either, and I'm happy because what it's going for is so much better for the franchise. Star Wars is pulp, and it can be well made, intelligent pulp when it's at it's best.

It could fall off later, but these first two episodes are really promising. It feels properly episodic but with a strong sense of it's core story. A tricky balance, but so far they're really nailing it.

This second episode was so good I'm really loving the show. Much like Rogue One the appeal is that you have this amazing universe that isn't being overshadowed by the bigger than life jedi and their world saving conflicts. You have grounded characters that are still great at what they do but ultimately are just human. It's what made Rogue One such a great film - along with one of the best space battle sequences in all of Star Wars - and it's what continues to make me like and care about this guy in a suit.

It also makes me think that with the right publisher/developer this could be an amazing game - like using these specific characters.

The over saturation of Star Wars as a whole just has me so disinterested in anything star wars related.

@brackstone:To me, the jank in the episode felt like it was done on purpose. All of those fuckups were straight out of classic westerns, so it felt referential. Same with the pacing, really. And the dumb "learning to ride a horse" scene. Heck, the meeting with secret nazis was so pulp-y. It felt like an episode that was a love letter to old cinema.

The 2nd episode on the other hand felt like a tribute to old Lucasarts films. I loved the way they had no lines for such a long time in the episode.

The show is just hitting me in the exact right spots. Love that they're not showing Pedro Pascal's pretty face and just have him be a classic spaghetti western anti-hero. Doing the Stallone in Dredd thing would've been such a gigantic blunder.

@shiftygism: To me the 30 minute run time is a big selling point. It makes it easier to find time to watch it and forces the show to make itself snappier.

I'm not blown away so far. I'm not invested in any of the characters and the action is serviceable. The whole thing has felt thin and unless something changes I'll probably cancel after finishing the good seasons of The Simpsons.

You may want to wait to watch the good seasons of The Simpsons. Disney is releasing the 4:3 versions early next year.

I liked all the star wars movies, tho I am not a "Fan" (Fanatic) if that makes sense...I mean I found Jar Jar to be OK, disliked Muppet's and their voice's much more...Probably because I was 17 in "77 when they came out. One Muppet is CGI in this and another just looks like a Muppet..

The Mandalorian to be me had vibes of Clint Eastwood in "The Outlaw Josey Wales" and Firefly. Those two I really liked. I had to watch the Manda twice to appreciate it, but I liked it and I'll watch it. The music is really good but again it took two watchs to appreciate it.

I like Disney+ as a whole both the interface and the visual quality at 4K and HDR, plenty of stuff to watch and I trust their future content. The Nat Geo stuff was good. Got the $3.92 a month deal. It is better than I anticipated.

@stabfreely: I have some real problems with the Disney+ UI. There’s no recently watched section and the service doesn’t keep track of which episodes in a tv series you’ve watched and which episode you’ve left off with. This is some very basic functionality which all the other streaming services have been doing since the beginning. How a company with such deep pockets like Disney can flub this is beyond me.

I'm not much of a Star Wars guy, but what I do know is Kung Pow: Enter the Fist and the baby character in episode 2 of Mandalorian makes the same exact noises the baby makes in Kung Pow.

The show seems alright so far. I mean, I'm never going to finish it because I'm not going to sign up for Disney+ after the free trial, but if it was on somewhere else, I'd keep watching it.

I didn't grow up with Star Wars so I'm sure my opinion won't mean much to anyone. I've seen all the movies tho and I just saw the first 2 episodes of The Mandalorian.

The 1st ep felt like a serviceable show in a climate where we have a sea of serviceable shows and tons and tons of good to great shows.

2nd ep I thought had more rhythm, a better dramatic tone, some good visuals and camera work, and bits of nice emotional moments.

The second episode is great but it doesn't completely alleviate my concerns about the show. Despite being almost impeccably executed, it already feels way too familiar (look, it’s not-Boba Fett and not-IG-88 and not-Yoda!), even for a franchise that is unusually dependent on archetypes. I hope this sense of familiarity is just table setting and they’re going to take the show in new directions over the course of the season, otherwise it’s going to get old, fast.

@conmulligan: Why do people bring up IG-88 as an example of rehashed elements? He had a blink and you'd miss it appearance in ESB where he was basically window dressing, this is the first time we've really seen one of those droids in action outside of maybe an animated appearance I'm forgetting. He wasn't even a character, just something that looked neat to sell a figure.

Also, we're well past "it's not Boba" given how much Dave Filoni fleshed out Mandalorian society in Clone Wars and Rebels, it's too bad they can't figure out a way to lure folks to those episodes and arcs where they'd learn there's more to them than just cool looking armor. That, and the Fetts were posers.

That being said though, this show was supposedly a partial repurposing of the long rumored Boba film they shitcanned, that's why elements, particularly in this episode, seems like it should be on Tatooine....and yeah, IG-88 probably had the IG-11 role....but still, this was our first real exposure to that type of droid in motion. Hope we see more units pop up.

Lol at Werner Herzog's reaction to the baby.

@shiftygism: I have no issue with IG-11 in isolation, but in the context of a show about ersatz Boba Fett featuring baby Yoda and Jawas and whatever the hell Bossk is, it all just comes across as derivative. Even setting aside the characters, the first two episodes might as well have taken place on Hoth and Tatooine, and I'm guessing we'll end up on not-quite-Endor before the season's done. I don't want to come across as too negative because I've mostly enjoyed it so far, but at some point I hope it stops being a really good cover album and becomes something new. That's part of the reason why I like The Last Jedi so much; that movie's not flawless, but it at least tread new ground.

Another great ep outside of one line of dialogue. There's ties to the prequels, Clone Wars, and maybe even a tease of a new Episode IX character! Also, they're clearly setting up a big reveal with these flashback sequences. Now the long wait until next week.

Kinda ticked off the mobile app has been getting the eps added over an hour before it hits Roku and console. Disney needs to get their act together.

So I watched episode 3 and enjoyed it much more than the previous 2 episodes. This one made me actually care about the characters and it really raises the stakes. I thought the action was more interesting this time too.

This show became exactly what I'd hoped after the pilot.

Man, I rewatched Episode 2 with headphones on, then did it again, then one more time, and Episode 3 mostly continued to deliver on that while re-focusing on plot and character just enough to make it feel like the thing was moving. Ben Lindbergh has done an excellent job at The Ringer of pointing out how much this show has mirroried a video game so far; I can't tell you how many times I took the selfish option mid-quest in an RPG to get a huge upgrade only to double back on that when it came time to do the right thing. Watching this show really does feel like playing a super well made video game circa 2019, right down to the mostly-silent protagonist and vaguely voyeuristic perspective. It was especially funny to me - but in a subtle way already so alien compared to the premiere's humor - how the infiltration went down, like a scene from the original Playstation Metal Gear Solid. I hope Mando never takes the helmet off, I don't know if it's the direction or the soundtrack or what but that helmet is doing yeoman's work in expressing what this guy is thinking without actually showing his emotions.

Thanks to Star Wars Theory on YouTube doing his homework, Baby Yoda was either born nine years before TPM or if he was a clone with double growth rate (like the Clone Troopers) it would be four years after RotS. Dude pointed out Yoda went to Kamino to retrieve the Clone Army in AotC, so from there they could've lifted a DNA sample.

The Obi-Wan show is set eight years after RotS, I still think that (if not something involving Rey's lineage) will be the basis as we know from Rebels he doesn't cross paths with Darth Maul again post Clone Wars until two years before a New Hope. There's gotta be something important to get him off Tatooine. A cloned Yoda would be pretty important...though from what I can tell, Yaddle is still presumably alive in this new Disney continuity, so who knows...

Oh, and about the flashbacks, everyone was thinking it's setting up a Kenobi cameo, but wouldn't it make more sense Mando's connection to the child stems from a subconscious memory of Yoda saving him from the battle droid we see in chapter three?