T.V. Review: "The Mandalorian"

As intriguing as the Rebel vs. Imperial or Jedi vs. Sith struggles are in Star Wars, I've always been keenly interested in all of those weird-ass characters half-glimpsed in the periphery. I'm talking about the oddball droids in the Jawa sandcrawler, the denizens of the cantina or the bounty hunters in The Empire Strikes Back. Not so much the retinue in Jabba's Palace though, since, in the immortal words of Dante Hicks, those clowns were "just a bunch of fucking Muppets."

Yep, I've always been curious about the fringe-ier or scummier aspects of the Star Wars universe. And, apparently, so are The Mandalorian's main creative duo of Jon Favreau and Dave Feloni. As such, this is, IMHO, the first vaguely interesting and original Star Wars content that Disney has produced since they acquired the licence. Indeed, I'd go so far as to say that the show has single-handedly reminded me why I loved this property in the first place.

CHAPTER 1

The first episode of The Mandalorian sees the titular bad-ass nabbing a bounty on some desolate frozen tundra planet which might very well be somewhere in Newfoundland. Right away I was impressed by the tangible reality of this scene. The sets aren't digital, there aren't CGI abominations all over the place and it doesn't look like it was edited with an immersion blender.

Which reminds me, since ANH, TESB and ROTJ are almost universally regarded as the best episodes in this entire series so far, then why don't modern film-makers do a better job honoring the visual style of those films? I'm not saying that you have to rehash the same content (I'm looking at you, Abrams), I'm just saying that, by employing similar camerawork, framing and editing techniques you can, at the very least, create some visual ties to the original saga.

But more on that later.

Anyhoo, when the Mandalorian strides into that bar at the start of Chapter One, it's not hard to tell that Feloni and Favreau are really embracing the original inspiration for Boba Fett as a sort of space- opera version of "The Man With No Name." Just like Clint Eastwood in the spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone, our titular character is laconic, mysterious and can clearly back up his intimidating swagga with some legit deadly combat skills.

After the Mandalorian lugs his quarry back to his ship, the Razor Crest, director Dave Feloni treats uber-nerds like yours truly to a fun little homage. When a massive beast emerges from underneath the ice and threatens to void his warranty, the Mandalorian drives the creature away with a very distinct- looking weapon. It actually matches a rifle that Boba Fett sported during his first appearance in the decent animated segment of the otherwise dreadful Star Wars Holiday Special. It's a nice little nod to fans and a tip of the hat towards Fett's original designers Ralph McQuarrie and Joe Johnston.

During the subsequent space flight, the Mandalorian proves to be more than slack-jawed and intimidating; he's also downright scary. When his captive, Mythrol, played by a nervously-talkative and decidedly-shifty Horatio Sanz, goes snooping around the ship, his spooky host suddenly pops up from outta nowhere like Freddy phreakin' Kruger. The bounty hunter hucks his prisoner into a personal-sized carbonite chamber, freeze-drying the nosy l'il bastid for the rest of the journey.

Clearly this dude is not to be trifled with.  

After the Mandalorian turns in a plethora of bounties, he boldly takes on a very lucrative, but strictly  hush-hush contract, proffered by an intense client with clear ties to the recently-overthrown Empire. This sees the mercenary travelling to a remote world, learning an important lesson in humility, partnering with a darkly comedic war droid named IG-11 and getting a lot more than he bargained for.

To divulge anymore particulars would be a disservice, so I'll just say that the end twist will ensure that I'll be tuning in for every new episode like a dutiful little Mousekateer. Although the script is nothing revolutionary, I certainly appreciate the scene where the Mandalorian returns to the hidden hideout of his people. I'll be the first to admit that my knowledge of his race is pretty sketchy, so I appreciate that the show runners are making an effort to shed some light on his origins. 

Dave Filoni, who's Clone Wars series did wonders to improve my dire view of Lucas's dreadful prequels, helms this material confidently. The story clips along at a nice, clear, planet-hopping pace, culminating in a Wild West-style shootout that perfectly embodies the point I was trying to make earlier. There aren't a million cuts in this sequence and, since the camera keeps its distance from the action, we can easily follow the battle's narrative. Thanks, Dave, for not falling prey to the same pall that afflicts so many modern-day action directors, with their penchant for hyperactive cuts and  incessant close- up's of kinetic blurs.

The cast is all uniformly great. Pedro Pascal moves with cool confidence and I'm pleased that he doesn't do the same ol' cliche, gravelly, bad-ass voice for the few lines he's tasked to deliver. It's also great to see the legendary Carl Weathers as Greef Carga, the leader of a bounty hunter guild. His demeanor is downright fuzzy and warm compared to that of Werner Herzog, who plays the mysterious Client with reptilian detachment. Anyone who's seen one of the storied director's documentaries and his narration therein knows exactly what I'm talking about. Dude is creepy as fux here.

Another fun addition is Nick Nolte (!) as Kuiil (!!), an Ugnaught (!!!) moisture farmer who encourages the Mandalorian to sneak into his destination instead of just plunking his ship down in their midst. Like the aforementioned Sanz, Nolte is practically unrecognizable under all that  convincing porcine makeup. Honestly, I had no clue that either of those two actors were in there but, once I discovered their identity, their particular tics and mannerisms inform both characters quite well.

This also extends to the voice work by Taika Waititi as IG-11. The promotional stills and trailers had me convinced that the character was actually the infamous bounty hunter IG-88 from The Empire Strikes Back, but I'm kind of relieved that it's not. Honestly, new characters will give the showrunners the freedom be more creative. Armed with Favreau's witty dialogue, Waititi wrings a lot of mileage out of a genuinely-funny recurring bit centered around the droid's masochistic proclivity towards premature self-destruction.

I also can't say enough about the show's flawless production values. The costumes, props, ships and sets all look spectacular. Setting the series after the fall of the Empire not only gives Favreau and company the ability to pepper in some really cool little visual Easter eggs, but they also have the freedom to come up with their own evolving visual palate. Related to this, I think the producers should just go ahead and park a sandcrawler filled with cash in front of Joe Johnston's house and politely ask him to come up with a few more iconic designs.

The ending of this episode was like the first episode of The Shield, but set in a "galaxy far, far away." Not only does it show that the Mandalorian is relatable as a character, it also conjures up enough questions to ensure that I'll be sitting there again this next Friday, wearing my mouse ears and waiting anxiously for Chapter Two to upload.

Chapter 2: “The Child”

I think I liked this episode more than the first. How is that even possible?!?

So, we pick up the action right at the end of Chapter 1 with Los Mandos escorting his newly-acquired, and painfully adorable, bounty back to his ship. He’s then alerted to an imminent ambush, which results in a brutal fight between our (anti) hero and a Trandoshan hit squad.

Now, given my inexplicable fetish for the bounty hunter Bossk from The Empire Strikes Back, I’m always excited whenever these gnarly lizard-folk show up in any Star Wars property. So, full disclosure: I’m already predisposed to giving the episode a pass but, mercifully, the whole thing turned out to be even better than its choice of minor antagonists.

The Mandalorian makes short work of the bounty hunters, but he’s wounded in the process. After the fray, we see that the Trandos were carrying a tracker as well, so we can safely assume that every gank squad in the galaxy is coming for The Child.

Which leads me to a few observations about the saucer-eyed, hang-glider-eared tyke. In most shitty movies and TV shows babies are depicted as noisy, hyperactive, obnoxious little fuckers that you want to see punted off screen within a few seconds. But this isn’t the case with what the internet has already dubbed as “Baby Yoda.” Just like the famous Jedi Master that shares his species, this adorable l’il larvae is so calm, zen and observant, you just wanna chew his cute l’il green face right off. 

Um, sorry. Just me?

This is made no more apparent than in the very next scene. While the Mandalorian tries to patch himself up, he keeps having to pause and put Babyoda back in his crib, ‘cuz he keeps crawling out and trying to touch his wounded arm. After the second escape attempt, our boi just seals the kid up in his floating egg-basinet, completely oblivious to the fact that the l’il guy was just trying to heal him.

When the Mandalorian gets back to the Razor Crest, he discovers to his horror that his ship has been dismantled by Jawas. Now, for most casual viewers this would be just another scene but, for me, a died–in-the-Tauntaun-wool Star Wars nerd, it was a genuine head-scratcher.

“Waitaminit!” I thinks to meself. “What planet is this? Is this Tatooine?”

Previously-established Star Wars lore dictates that Jawas are exclusively native to the oft-profiled hunk of rock. In fact, the only reason why Jawas drive around in sandcrawlers is because they “inherited” these massive vehicles after a mining operation on Tatooine went bottom-up.  

Alas, I didn’t have much time to dwell on this ‘cuz the Mandalorian preceded to STRAIGHT-UP VAPORIZE three or four of the cloaked scavengers in cold blood. I gotta say, I really dig this guy’s penchant for random murder. Scenes like this must give the Disney content homogenization assurance team (C.H.A.T. for short) night terrors.

The Jawas fled into their sandcrawler and hightailed it, but the bounty hunter gave chase on foot. Episode director Rick Famuyiwa then proceeds to serve up one of the most fun action set-pieces I’ve seen in recent memory. The Mandalorian runs after the oversized quad-runner and, in a sequence that had me thinking about the old Super Star Wars Nintendo game, he starts scaling the side of the machine.

One of my biggest fears going into The Mandalorian was that the writers would be so obsessed about depicting the titular character as an indelible bad-ass that he’d never be shown failing at anything. Well, this episode certainly put those concerns to rest because my dude just gets shit on constantly here. After doggedly reaching the top of the ‘crawler, his determination is rewarded with a hail of ion blaster fire that send him hurtling back down to earth. It’s a wonderfully goofy scene that had me chuckling.

Now marooned, Los Mandos is forced to go back to his buddy Kuill, played to grumpy perfection by Nick Nolte. While the Ugnaught tries to convince his masked pal to parley with the Jawas for the stolen parts, we see Mini-Yoda quietly chasing after a nearby frog. Now, in a more mediocre show, the whole focus would be on the baby’s stupid antics, but here it’s almost a throwaway. The only time we focus on the kid is when he finally catches the critter, leading to an unexpected visual gag that, once again, had me in hysterics.

In the next scene we see the trio schlepping through a major rainstorm to get to the Jawas.

“Frogs? Mud? Rain?!? Okay, this has to be some other planet,” I muttered out loud.

After making a mental note to do some Veronica Mars-style innerweb research later on, I watched with great interest as the Mandalorian finally met face-to-face with his diminutive rivals. Except for one brief moment where our hot-headed protagonist nearly torched the Jawa leader with his flamethrower, things went reasonably well. The thieves agreed to give the parts back if the bounty hunter was willing to retrieve a mysterious egg for them.

They drop him off close to a cave which, as it turns out, is inhabited by what looks like the reek from Attack of the Clowns...er...Clones. The resulting fight between the beast and El Mando is a nasty, (literally) dirty, desperate affair that had me on the edge of my seat. The battle is conceptualized and realized so well, that I felt just as exhausted, mud-covered and resigned to my fate as the Mandalorian did during a low point in the confrontation. 

Side note: here’s a fun experiment you can do with anyone who still thinks the prequels are decent films. After you make them watch THE BATTLE OF THE EGG, go back and revisit the coliseum scene in Episode II where Obi-Wan, Anakin and Padme fight the reek, the acklay and the nexu. Viewed back to back, these two scenes are the perfect dichotomy between a tense, immersive action sequence versus a boring, un-engaging CGI cartoon that feels devoid of any real-world stakes.

This scene also makes me feel guilty for not mentioning composer Ludwig Göransson a lot earlier. The music he designed for this series is absolutely stellar; it’s memorable and complementary without being obnoxious or overwhelming. The use of wind instruments at the beginning of the episode really evokes those welcome Ennio Morricone vibes and the odd, dissonant tones heard during the reek battle serve to put the viewer audibly off-kilter.  

So, above and the beyond Wee Yoda’s not-entirely-unexpected intervention and the Jawa’s, shall we say, unconventional (yet practical) use for the retrieved egg, there’s just one other thing I wanted to point out. Just before the Mandalorian blasts off in his newly-repaired ship, Kuill utters the following ice-cold line:

“Good luck with the child. May it survive and bring you a handsome reward.”

Between this quote, as well as the Mandalorian’s penchant for sniping Jawas and murdering animals for their eggs, I couldn’t help but think that it’s a minor miracle that this show even exists. I’m pleasantly surprised and relieved that Disney green-lit a Star Wars show which doesn’t have boring non-entities like Poe, Rey and Finn at its core. In fact, we’re just two episodes in and it’s pretty clear that the central character, and his allies, inhabit a morally-grey realm where folks will do just about anything for their own personal gain.

It’s gotten to the point where I’m pretty sure the Mandalorian is gonna turn his adorable l’il bounty in, even though he’ll probably regret his actions immediately and seek to rectify his mistake. This alone makes The Mandalorian the edgiest, and most interesting, Star Wars property in, well, forever. 

P.S. Apparently the planet they're on is called Arvala-7. Zero stars, don't bother with this POS show. Kidding!