There are a variety of words I use to describe The Mandalorian. Awesome is not one of them. When I sum it up into a logline, it goes like this: “Dangerous bounty hunter betrays everything about his lifestyle except weird obsession with wearing a helmet to nurture a cute, telekinetic, 90-year-old baby.†From the jump, it has felt as if it were badly written but overproduced fanfic. Like someone (John Favreau) just watched the core nine episodes of the Skywalker Saga for the first time last year, called dibs on the most marketable moments/characters/settings – Yoda, Boba Fett, Tattoine – and mashed them all up with little concern for cannon, fandom, or integrity. It often feels like a child playing with action figures, but the child has 5 million dollars to spend on each trip out back to the sandbox.
Season two came to a close last week with another #predictable cameo, which this show prefers to substance or depth. But how did we get there? Well, Darth Vader Lite – ahem, I mean Moff Gideon… yes, Gideon kidnapped Grogu aka “Baby Yoda,†and Mando was dedicated to getting the child back. He had the help of recent New Republic recruit-ready-to-abandon-her-post-for-Mando Cara Dune of course. Let’s not forget overweight Boba Fett, who showed up last week with Tennac Shand [Mae from Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.]. This whole crew of Mandalorians was ready to fight to restore Mando to his rightful position in life: a lactating doula taking care of Baby Yoda.
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