The Mandalorian Season 1: Adventures of the Outer Rim

It strikes me as rather ludicrous to think about the fact that audiences across the world have been intensely tuned into the outer rim adventures of sci fi's most eminent heroes for damn near 50 years, but that's where we're at, and I don't think we're really sick of it yet. Only months after pearl-clutching critics decided Game of Thrones would be the last 'event TV' show before the streaming era, Disney Plus stormed onto the field with a new show for people all over the world to tweet about simultaneously. Per usual, it took me a year to actually get around to watching it. 

The Mandalorian features our titular character, a Beskar-clad super-soldier belonging to an ancient and still mysterious religious creed, as he stumbles upon a series of misadventures in Star Wars' latest major outing. Between the Sequel movies, the Clone Wars animated show, and Fallen Order, I've been consuming a lot of Star Wars media the last couple years. It's cliché, simultaneously under- and overwrought, often not entirely cohesive, and derivative to the bone. It also remains perhaps the most entertaining sci-fi property around. There's nothing quite like its weird mix of religious/political commentary, space opera, western influence, weird aliens, and glorious action, and The Mandalorian provides in bounds. 

The show takes place not long after the fall of the Empire, the galaxy in turmoil as the Rebellion struggles to consolidate what it's inherited. Early on we're introduced to Baby Yoda, an adorable little green puppet who is mysteriously sensitive to the force and highly sought after by a faction of ex-imperials and mercenaries. That's basically the frame of the entire first season, the Mandalorian betraying his client and mercenary guild in order to protect this strange alien baby, and making a number of friends along the way. 

With such a simple premise it's surprising how deep this show can get, humanizing droids and exploring the tenets of the Mandalore way. It also plays host to several excellent characters besides the helmet-clad Din Djarin. Cara, a rebel shock trooper, plays the part of the jaded ex-soldier with an impressive amount of testosterone, while Kuiil, an ugly alien mechanic type, plays host to a surprising amount of depth, not to mention courage. Mando himself plays a strong main character, especially for someone who's face is only ever shown once. There's a lot of variety here for eight episodes, and although most of them play out rather similarly there's more than enough difference in scenery to make their goals seem more disparate. Speaking of scenery, this show is beautiful, full to the brim with the kinds of desolate worlds and sanitary space-ships that bring one back to their first time viewing the original trilogy. 

The show pursues an interesting strategy, mixing more or less standalone episodes with a serial story arc, perhaps in an attempt to introduce and explore some characters before they become a bigger part of the story later on. It adds to the mystery, but I'm not sure some of these episodes add to the show all that much, except to show that the Mandalorian is a badass who really doesn't feel that bad about slagging mercenaries. A couple plot-threads feel somewhat underexplored, like the underground Mandalore cell on Navarro, while others feel sort of disjointed, like Greef Karga's quick shifts in loyalty. I get it, he's a mercenary, but surely he's still at least a little bit self aware. Kuill's motives still feel kind of mysterious for me, and while The Client is acted well his character could be plucked from the villain's role of any action-adventure movie since the 1960s. 

I do have one major, spoilery gripe with the show. The baby's force sensitivity does not need to be so damn mysterious to the main characters. I feel as though it would have served just as well to have the kid pluck up that angry bison thing and the Mandalore express something along the lines of "oh wow, the force". At the very least it shouldn't have taken until the last episode for some Mandalore shaman to do the whole "I've heard of this power, many years ago". Is the viewer to believe that Din, a Mandalore devotee who's parents were killed during the Clone Wars, has never heard of the Jedi or the force? Did Cara, a rebel shock trooper who served on Endor of all places, really never chat with her comrades about Luke and those strange powers that seem to come purely from his mind? It just strains credulity to me that the force is still so mysterious to those who survived the fall of the empire. 

It also strains credulity that that's my biggest complaint about this show. It really is a fantastic piece of Star Wars media, easily up there with Rogue One and the Clone Wars series. Each episode ends with a showcase of the concept art, the show's orchestral soundtrack playing over the background, and it really reinforces the love and care with which Disney's team approached this series. It's a beautiful, enjoyable sojourn into the Star Wars universe, and it's a fantastic advertisement for Disney's still-new streaming service. It leaves me excited to watch Season 2, and even more excited for the large slate of Star Wars content scheduled to be released on the service. I can only hope that Disney keeps doing us right.