Spoilers go wherever I go.
This show is making me renew my interest in the Star Wars franchise one episode at a time. It’s interesting that a lot of spaghetti western films are based/inspired in Samurai films. If the Jedi are the Samurai of the Star Wars galaxy, the bounty hunters are their gunslingers. The show definitely has a western genre aesthetic and flow to it. At this point, I am going to assume you’ve seen the first season and have heard about the show, so after the jump, spoilers will abound.
If there were allusions to a bigger universe in the first season, The Mandalorian brings actual characters we haven’t seen in several parsecs into its fold. First of all, we get “Mando” aka Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) front and center in his usual stoic self along with his “Baby Yoda” ward, which we now know as Grogu. Recurring characters Greef Karga (Carl Weathers) and Cara Dune (Gina Carano) have returned.
The nice surprise is we see the addition of known characters from other Star Wars media, such as Mandalorian Bo-Katan Kryze (Katie Sackhoff), Jedi Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) and, finally alive in canon, legendary bounty hunter Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison). It’s interesting to watch the dynamics between Mando and Boba. I’m hoping that we get to know a little more about what Boba has been up to, his past and hopefully, his future.
The Galactic Empire is just not going away quietly. We get the return of main bad guy Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito). We also get to hear the name and implication of an old enemy from the EU, already retcon in canon, teasing its possible re-appearance. Not that we need more bad guys at this point. Back in the first season we already learned Moff Gideon was already revealed to have the Darksaber (you gotta watch REBELS to catch up on the lore of that object) and seems to be reading even more dark resources at his disposal here. Defeating him is not going to be an easy task.
The look and feel are important, but I also love the fact that each show does not seem to be in a hurry to reveal all that it offers right off the bat. Yes, some exposition is deemed necessary but just as things rarely go as expected in real life, it’s hard to guess where each episode is going to take us once it decides to veer off the main path. I am glad to welcome a complete surprise each week.
Strongly recommended as literally the one Star Wars show you should stick with. Yes, unavoidably you’ll be drawn to others as Disney-led Lucasfilm is planning a wookie’s fill of content to hit Disney Plus in the coming months. With episodes written and directed by Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, Bryce Dallas Howard, Taika Waititi and Robert Rodriguez, the quality seems to go up every week. This show’s universe is constantly stretching, growing and evolving at a slow and steady pace. It’s worth paying the monthly subscription to Disney Plus, even if you have to go into the bounty hunting business.
That will do for now.
Never Think Impossible 