Author Topic: The Mandalorian ***Spoilers**  (Read 14625 times)

Offline Transmute Jun

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Re: The Mandalorian ***Spoilers**
« Reply #60 on: May 05, 2020, 12:35:15 PM »
Yep, Baby Yoda now has his own cereal...

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Offline AzT

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Re: The Mandalorian ***Spoilers**
« Reply #61 on: September 08, 2020, 09:23:44 PM »
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starwars New adventures await... Check out the new images from the second season of @TheMandalorian as seen in @EntertainmentWeekly. New episodes start streaming Oct. 30 on #DisneyPlus.

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Re: The Mandalorian ***Spoilers**
« Reply #62 on: Today at 04:49:44 AM »

Offline chocolateshake

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Re: The Mandalorian ***Spoilers**
« Reply #62 on: November 08, 2020, 09:22:30 AM »
We're two episodes into Season 2, what do people think of this season?

As much as I wasn't so fond of S2E1, I loved S2E2.  The first episode was just a western in Star Wars guise.  The second episode was pure classic Star Wars.  Loved it.  They do seemed to have nerfed Baby Yoda.  In season 1, the child was more than capable of fending for himself using the force.  So far this season, I kept waiting for it to happen and it never did.

An aspect to how I view the show has changed.  I learned how they make it.  They don't use green screens.  So when I watch it now, I either marvel at how good it looks or I see an actor standing in front of a big monitor.  Also, I see why in some scenes they only walk so far before a cut.  It's like a VR play space.  There's only so far they can walk physically before they have to reset to walk further.
« Last Edit: November 08, 2020, 09:24:42 AM by chocolateshake »

Offline perc2100

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Re: The Mandalorian ***Spoilers**
« Reply #63 on: November 09, 2020, 12:50:31 PM »
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We're two episodes into Season 2, what do people think of this season?

As much as I wasn't so fond of S2E1, I loved S2E2.  The first episode was just a western in Star Wars guise.  The second episode was pure classic Star Wars.  Loved it.  They do seemed to have nerfed Baby Yoda.  In season 1, the child was more than capable of fending for himself using the force.  So far this season, I kept waiting for it to happen and it never did.

An aspect to how I view the show has changed.  I learned how they make it.  They don't use green screens.  So when I watch it now, I either marvel at how good it looks or I see an actor standing in front of a big monitor.  Also, I see why in some scenes they only walk so far before a cut.  It's like a VR play space.  There's only so far they can walk physically before they have to reset to walk further.
The Good: the first two eps were incredibly solid.  We kicked off the season with consummate badass western actor Timothy Olyphant (in what _might_ be a recurring character?!) with a fun "mission of the week" ep.  This was followed up immediately (timeline-wise) with an escape off Tatooine, meet up w/some X-wings (Dave Filone returns; w/the call-sign of 'Wolf' as a nice easter egg for Clone Wasr/Rebels fans!), crashes while hiding out and then we have the spider-haunt thing - with some Child comedy of egg-eating.  Also good: Amy Sedaris's return as Peli Motto; we also have a possible season set-up of Temuera Morrison returning to the SW universe in an as-yet-undivulged role: is he Boba Fett; maybe Rex the Clone officer; someone else?!  I generally dug these eps, myself.
The Bad: little/no development of what feels like a season-long story of returning The Child to its people, finding Jedi, etc.  These two eps felt like maybe 'filler' eps that would be 100% copacetic in the middle of a 16-20 episode season.  As an X-Files fan, I think of these first to eps as "Mission of the Week' type eps, similar to X-Files' "Monster of the Week."  I'm not complaining, per say, and w/out context of a full season it's impossible to know if kicking of the short season with non-main story episodes was a good idea or not.  Heck, in context of 16 episodes over two seasons, we are in the middle of the story and maybe that's totally fine.  Right now we're literally 1/4 of the way through the short season, with zero progress on what feels like a story arc that began at the end of Season 1 and I know some people who were huge fans of S1 that are disappointed with those story choices to begin S2.  Last season had plenty of 'mission of the week' episodes, but the way they were interwoven with the overall story of Mando acquiring/delivering/protecting The Child seemed more fluid than what we have so far.  Again, it's impossible to be critical of a long-form story so early in a season, and I'm nitpicking a bit, but I am voicing criticism I've heard from some huge fans of S1.  It doesn't bother me much, as I'm 100% OK with a series NOT feeling the need to thread a storyline through every single episode, and both eps have been fun IMO.  Knowing what we know about casting of new actors & characters + returning actors/characters maybe some folks are more anticipating what's to come.

I've been enjoying these eps, and S2E2 made my skin crawl at times with those Krykna spiders (it's rare a show/movie makes me even a little unnerved so kudos to director Peyton Reed & the technical crew!), and I'm always looking forward to the next episode & can't wait to see how things play out, what other planets or creatures we'll encounter, etc!

Offline perc2100

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Re: The Mandalorian ***Spoilers**
« Reply #64 on: November 10, 2020, 09:56:41 AM »
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Yep, Baby Yoda now has his own cereal...

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s-find-out-when-to-start-your-bounty-hunt/
Makes sense: I remember "C3-PO's" and maybe 'Old Yoda' (? OG Yoda?) cereal too BITD.

It's amusing to me to see the huge marketing difference between Mandalorian S1, when there was little/nothing on shelves for fans to buy, and now we're getting _EVERYTHING_ branded.

Offline chocolateshake

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Re: The Mandalorian ***Spoilers**
« Reply #65 on: November 14, 2020, 09:56:37 AM »
This week's episode was the best yet.  There is a disconcerting trend.  The episodes have been getting shorter and shorter every week.  S2E1 was an one hour show.  This week was a half an hour show.  Is it a quality versus quantity thing?

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Re: The Mandalorian ***Spoilers**
« Reply #66 on: November 15, 2020, 09:06:30 PM »
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This week's episode was the best yet.  There is a disconcerting trend.  The episodes have been getting shorter and shorter every week.  S2E1 was an one hour show.  This week was a half an hour show.  Is it a quality versus quantity thing?

Many eps of S1 were between 30-40 mins, and I think that's a good pace; the 'more important eps' of S1 were more than 40 mins (the last 3; the pilot; the ep where Mando first meets Cara Dune).  To be honest, watching S2E3 again (actually, for the 3rd time this weekend), I can't imagine where more time would be without it feeling like 'filler,' per say.  And to be even more honest, w/S2E1, they could've deleted the whole sequence of
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(i.e. shaved 5-10 mins off) and the episode would've felt tighter, IMO.  S2E1 is the longest ep so far in the run, and it feels like they've settled into a more 'lean' story pace S2E2-3 which is fine by me.  Maybe some more character development between Mando, Bo-Katan would've been cool, but I kinda think keeping that light works narratively for a few reasons: 1) keep the tension between the two early is good for drama 2) keeping her a bit mysterious works well, especially for viewers who aren't aware of Bo-Katan from 'Clone Wars' & 'Rebels.'

I agree this is easily the best ep. of S2 so far: it feels like the first ep that the longer narrative of the series so far is back in motion, while the first two eps felt more like "treading water."  It feels like if the two seasons combined are one longer arc (thinking 18 Chapters = one conventional drama season), then S2E1-2 were mid-season "filler" episodes (even though they neatly branch together).  I do find if amusing that the longest episode so far just happened to be directed by the Show runner: hard to know if that is a 'coincidence' or not, that the boss was allowed to indulge himself with a 55 min. ep while the other two so far have averaged 39 mins.  Like I said, I feel both of the other eps were much better paced, though I wouldn't begrudge or talk down to ANYONE for thinking "the episode featuring Timothy Olyphant as a wester Marshal-type needs to be longer"  :P

Offline perc2100

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Re: The Mandalorian ***Spoilers**
« Reply #67 on: November 28, 2020, 01:08:38 PM »
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Many eps of S1 were between 30-40 mins, and I think that's a good pace; the 'more important eps' of S1 were more than 40 mins (the last 3; the pilot; the ep where Mando first meets Cara Dune).  To be honest, watching S2E3 again (actually, for the 3rd time this weekend), I can't imagine where more time would be without it feeling like 'filler,' per say.  And to be even more honest, w/S2E1, they could've deleted the whole sequence of
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(i.e. shaved 5-10 mins off) and the episode would've felt tighter, IMO.  S2E1 is the longest ep so far in the run, and it feels like they've settled into a more 'lean' story pace S2E2-3 which is fine by me.  Maybe some more character development between Mando, Bo-Katan would've been cool, but I kinda think keeping that light works narratively for a few reasons: 1) keep the tension between the two early is good for drama 2) keeping her a bit mysterious works well, especially for viewers who aren't aware of Bo-Katan from 'Clone Wars' & 'Rebels.'

I agree this is easily the best ep. of S2 so far: it feels like the first ep that the longer narrative of the series so far is back in motion, while the first two eps felt more like "treading water."  It feels like if the two seasons combined are one longer arc (thinking 18 Chapters = one conventional drama season), then S2E1-2 were mid-season "filler" episodes (even though they neatly branch together).  I do find if amusing that the longest episode so far just happened to be directed by the Show runner: hard to know if that is a 'coincidence' or not, that the boss was allowed to indulge himself with a 55 min. ep while the other two so far have averaged 39 mins.  Like I said, I feel both of the other eps were much better paced, though I wouldn't begrudge or talk down to ANYONE for thinking "the episode featuring Timothy Olyphant as a wester Marshal-type needs to be longer"  :P
Well, now that we're a little beyond the halfway point of the season, we now know The Child's name, have seen Bo-Katan & Ahsoka in the flesh, have both Timothy Olyphant AND Michael Biehn in the SW universe, and maybe a bit of Dark Troopers as well!  This season DEFINITELY feels like Dave Filoni has had a much larger creative voice (and a 2nd cameo, returning as his X-wing pilot!), and while I'm not super invested in "Clone Wars" or "Rebels," I'm really excited to see characters that I loved in that series return as part of "The Mandalorian" universe.  Ahsoka bought some nice insight and understanding into The Child, while also touching upon the obvious bond between Mando & The Child (that 'training' scene was a real nice bit of character building that this season has done a bit this season, in a sweeter way here).

I'm much more invested in the series now than I was w/Season 1: I didn't have Disney+ until this past spring and only saw the first season over winter break via a friend.  It seems I was _more_ into Season 1 for reasons I'm not quite sure of yet.  Maybe story-wise, it felt like S1 had a more linear story-arc, while S2 feels a lot like they're setting up S3 or something.  I'm not complaining, per say: heck, I even dig the unholy mess that is IRON MAN 2 (otherwise known as: 'we're setting up the rest of Phase 1'), though in IM2's defense it was shot during the writer's strike IIRC (at least I hope so, since it's obvious they shot that w/out a legit script).  This doesn't feel at all 'hacky' or convoluted or whatnot, but it does feel like this season is doing a lot of heavy-lifting for future storylines instead of focusing on _THIS_ season's storyline (which is a continuation of last season's).  IMO, though, it does big set pieces MARVELOUSLY, so even its more uneven episodes story or character-wise have great action set pieces to "make up" for it.

That seems negative, but I guess I'm putting my critique up-front.  Dave Filoni has my HUGE respect and love for all he's done already for the SW universe w/The Clone Wars & Rebels (I don't watch 'Resistance' so I don't know anything about that one, but even if Filoni is 'only' 3/4 for SW TV-output what he's gotten right has been unimpeachable IMO), and at this point, in hindsight, it feels like a MAJOR misstep that Lucasfilm didn't have Filoni as the Producer of the SW sequel trilogy to ensure a more cohesive storyline & character arcs.  I honestly think Filoni should be the Kevin Feigi of Star Wars, overseeing every aspect of the SW universe on TV & film.  Heck, given that S2 of "The Mandalorian" feels a lot more like Filoni's output, maybe that's already happening behind-the-scenes.

All of that is laying the groundwork for me essentially saying "I like 'Mandalorian S2 a lot."  Even if there is a lot of setup (and unknown how much payoff we'll see in the last 3 episodes, though I know the bulk of S1 payoffs occurred the last 2 eps), it's all good stuff.  I really dig the philosophical challenge to Mando by Bo-Katan, opening up the ideas of different Mandalorian ethos; Ahsoka delving a bit more into The Force, The Child, and the Jedi way was a nice touch (and the set piece/intro of Ahsoka in the Mandalorian world was GLORIOUS, with Filoni's writing and direction making her feel like a legit Ninja w/in samurai style the way she quickly moved hidden by shadow and fog).  The Krykna giant spider sequence from "The Passenger" legit creeped me out, and the Imperial transport/speederbike chase sequence was a banger of a sequence!  There's so much to like about this series, and the only bummer of this season is that every episode brings us closer to the end.

Offline chocolateshake

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Re: The Mandalorian ***Spoilers**
« Reply #68 on: December 02, 2020, 12:27:16 AM »
This season keeps getting better with each episode.  Every week I declare the new episode to be the best one yet.

Offline perc2100

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Re: The Mandalorian ***Spoilers**
« Reply #69 on: December 02, 2020, 08:57:13 AM »
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This season keeps getting better with each episode.  Every week I declare the new episode to be the best one yet.
Yeah, re-reading my pseudo-gushing I didn't get too much into specifics, but I feel at least a little bit of discussion needs to be had about Ahsoka's introduction into the physical universe last episode (as well as why it's fair to say the last episode was in the top tier of Mando eps as far as quality + entertainment).

Let's talk about her introductory scene in the cold open.  Obviously the character resonates for all of the fans who watched "Clone Wars" + "Rebels:" the fans who are already way invested in the character, no her intimately, etc.  While it seems like an ESPZ proposition of "we have to establish immediately that this character is a cool badass for those who didn't watch the animated series she was in" for Dave Filoni (I "single" him out since he wrote & directed the episode), it's somewhat of a daunting task: especially given this is the first 'introduction' of a Jedi into "The Mandalorian" series.

And holy COW did he deliver with that introduction!!  He visual iconography/style he went with was "lets introduce her as a ninja mixed with samurai:" having her move inhumanly quick throughout both the shadows and fog while taking out an army with ease.  Unfortunately for the episode, we already saw the amazing "Jedi/Sith lays waste to many faceless/nameless army members in a forest while taking out tress" sequence in RISE OF SKYWALKER a little under a year ago, or else I think that would've also gotten extra love from critics/fans.  That was such a cool idea that hadn't been done before ROS, and I remember how blown away I was on opening night seeing that imagery play out on the big screen.  Filoni executes that concept just as well here, if not making it cooler by adding the aforementioned 'ninja/samurai' visual homage aspect into the mix.  My entire family (myself, wife, almost-19 year old college kid, 6 year old first grader) has seen the two animated series featuring Ashoka so we already love the character.  But a good friend of mine I work with has not, and he's been my 'normie' gauge of "how does this kinda thing play for those not already plugged-in to the characters from the animated shows" (Ashoka, Bo-Katan, the dark saber, etc).  He's WAY into the editions to "The Mandalorian," confirming that the writers are handling this 'cross-over' REALLY well.  My buddy confirmed that Ashoka had him by the opening theme playing, after the cold open battle sequence.

And I think we need to talk about the non-action side of Ashoka as well.  Her interactions with Mando about The Child (it will take me awhile to remember the name Grogu) were great: well-written + executed from a direction/acting standpoint.  Mando's world has been ROCKED the last several eps, between learning of the different factions of Mandalorian custom to seeing a Jedi in person to learning about a little bit of history of the Child (as well as having been rejected by the Jedi he likely assumed would be the end-point of his journey to deliver The Child to a like-species to raise/take 'em off Mando's hands).  The show is handicapped a bit not letting Mando have his mask off to see his facial expressions, but I _LOVED_ the scene of Ashoka explaining the Force: not QUITE quoting Yoda from EMPIRE word-for-word, but paraphrasing well in a way that feels both homage and organic - the way a former student would paraphrase their teacher's lesson.  This season the directors/writers (Favreau, the co-show runner, has so far written every ep. other than last week's "The Jedi") have done well building the father-kid relationship between Mando/Grogu but they seem to struggle ever so slightly conveying some of it given the limitations of Mando w/his helmet on constantly.  Previously, Mando giving instructions to Grogu while fixing his ship was some great bonding (if not feeling like Rocket & Baby Groot a bit), but the relationship side of the two was kicked up a notched in that scene of Ashoka chatting about The Child w/Mando in the forrest.  On top of that (establishing the bond between Mando/Grogu akin to a father/child), she also laid a bit of groundwork for "but by hiding the force abilities to survive AND attaching a strong bond to Mando he has an 'easy' path to The Dark Side" possibility.  I dunno if that is yet another building-block for future storylines being laid or just a matter-of-fact type of theory to add to the complexities of The Force/training Grogu.

And also how about that amazing climax?  Of course the ep. was building to the 'boss battle' and we get a double-dose: Mando vs Michael Biehn; Ashoka vs Magistrate.  Filoni did well mixing the two genres this series has aped from the beginning.  Mando's battle was a CLASSIC western duel while Ashoka's was a samurai face-off.  Oh, and we get our FIRST female vs female live-action lightsaber duel in the process!!  The 'taking off of the outer robe' actions between Ashoka & Magistrate was both a nice wink to classic samurai films, but also to Lucas himself who employed that to great effect in PHANTOM MENACE right before the 'Duel of the Fates' (so to speak  :P ).  Both the individual 'fights' (Mando's wasn't much of a drawn-out fight, but the tension build-up - 'the draw' - the shot was still great) were well executed with great cross-cutting editing to make impeccable flow.

For anyone scrolling past the multi-paragraphs of gushing, the TLDR version of "yes, if one wanted to make the argument that the last episode of "The Mandalorian" was the best episode so far, there are many aspects that do indeed support that assertion"

Offline chocolateshake

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Re: The Mandalorian ***Spoilers**
« Reply #70 on: December 04, 2020, 12:41:52 PM »
I jinxed it.  I didn't think this week's episode was the best one yet.  They did bring back Boba Fett.  Otherwise it was a slaughter as many Stormtroopers as possible episode.  At least they showed damage to the Stormtroopers when hit by a stick.  I always found it weird that Stormtroopers went down when they get hit in the head by something.  Isn't that what the helmet is for?  In this episode the helmets were busted up.  It has never made sense to me what the point of Stormtooper armor is.  It doesn't seem to stop anything.

Boba Fett is different.  It's more than physically he's a Heavy Mandalorian now.  It's the character.  Boba Fett in the movies was pure merc.  He's not a real Mandalorian.  He's was only in it for the money.  In this episode he has honor.

Offline mark

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Re: The Mandalorian ***Spoilers**
« Reply #71 on: December 05, 2020, 03:25:53 PM »
Funny coincidence, though would not surprise me in the least if it was planned. Today's LEGO Star Wars advent calendar piece is the Razor Crest. Of course now you have the option of just leaving it in pieces :)

Waiting to comment on the show until the season is done, kind of feel that I need to evaluate the whole thing together rather than by episode.

Offline perc2100

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Re: The Mandalorian ***Spoilers**
« Reply #72 on: December 05, 2020, 04:46:32 PM »
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Funny coincidence, though would not surprise me in the least if it was planned. Today's LEGO Star Wars advent calendar piece is the Razor Crest. Of course now you have the option of just leaving it in pieces :)
Oh, how exciting!!  My 6 year old has that, but he doesn't open them until after dinner/teeth-brushing/jammies on.  He's looking forward to that one (based on the pic on the box), so he will be ELATED to see that tonight!! 
Thanks for letting me know to make sure to pay close attention tonight when he opens it!
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Waiting to comment on the show until the season is done, kind of feel that I need to evaluate the whole thing together rather than by episode.
This is a great point.  This season more so than the first seems far more sequential rather than stand-alone.  The stand-alone aspect of the majority of S1 eps was a big bonus to me, and I legit enjoyed the "mission of the week" theme the S1 eps seemed to follow for the most part.  This season feels far more "eps are interconnected" than last season, especially given even the stand-alone esque episodes (1st, 2nd, 4th eps in particular) are feel like they're connected dots, so-to-speak.
I don't mind that, although it's really clear that S2 spent quite a bit of time setting up plot-points for future seasons: that's not a negative, per say, just as observation.  It's been kinda fascinating how many episodes seem to 'sideline' our favorite Mando, with ep. 4 feeling like a back-door pilot a bit for a spin-off series, and the most recent ep. 6 giving Fett & Fennec Shand a lot to do in the action set-piece/fight.  Again, I'm not complaining about that (maybe a little bit w/the ep. 4, because I personally think Gina Carano is not a good actress and works FAR better as a side-character type and not a main character/actress) just observing.  I've always enjoyed how "The Mandalorian" feels like a much bigger universe than. many of the SW films that focus on the Skywalker bloodline, and bringing back characters from past episodes & seasons is fun (seriously: I was hyped to see Fennec return!).

Then there's Boba Fett...

Feels like creator/writer of this episode Jon Favreau is doing what Lucas did with ATTACK OF THE CLONES, bringing Fett back into the mix and elevating him.  IMO Lucas didn't do a great job of it in the prequels, though I appreciated Lucas fleshing the character & his backstory out a bit.  Favreau, however, seemed intent on making Fett the BAMF a lot of us _wished_/thought/hoped he would be.  My almost 19 year old son & I have 'debated' for many years about the usefulness (or not) of Boba Fett.  They conceded Fett was a good enough bounty hunter to track/capture Han & the gang on the Falcon, but he never really did anything in the films (and most egregiously he died HORRIBLY, with a burp joke no less - about 20 minutes after the first burp 'joke' in RETURN OF THE JEDI, making Fett's death/burp joke even dumber IMO).  Now we've known for quite awhile Jango Fett actor Temuera Morrison would be in this season, and Morrison even appeared in the open episode of this season.  But I agree with others' sentiments that said "The Tragedy" was a whole lotta fan service!
A friend of mine who reviewed this episode used the headline "The Bounty Hunter Strikes Back," and when we were talking about the ep yesterday he too stressed the pseudo-retconning of Fett as somehow now worthy of the reputation tons of fans have hoped for all these years (myself included).
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Boba Fett is different.  It's more than physically he's a Heavy Mandalorian now.  It's the character.  Boba Fett in the movies was pure merc.  He's not a real Mandalorian.  He's was only in it for the money.  In this episode he has honor.
I agree a bit here w/chocolateshake, though if we go by just the films & TV series (as I personally do - I don't read most of the books or comics) we honestly do not know a lot about Boba Fett.  This did feel like a significant shift in the character, but it's also the most the character has been utilized in the movie/tv mediums.  I've watched this episode twice now (I always watch the new episode early Fri. afternoon, then again Sat. morning with my wife & youngest son), and the 2nd time it didn't bother me.  It was exciting to see Fett rock the gaffi stick, and I really dug the wink to THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN when Fett uses his rocket to take out both ships (in THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, Horst Buchholz's character sees James Coburn's character shoot a guy from a far distance and says "That was the greatest shot I've ever seen." Cobrun barks back, "The worst! I was aiming at the horse!!").  Fett as an honorable Mandalorian (foundling?) badass fighter was...different...from what we've seen, but I was mostly into it.

I'm hoping that all of this is essentially set-up for Season 3 where Fett, Bo-Katan & her crew, Mando (and maybe his crew) go to restore Mandalore.  Maybe Boba Fett has a bigger role to play in the SW universe after all: one where he's a legit badass instead of just "dude in a really cool armor suit who mostly just stands around" (he had a LOT more to do in the original 'Holiday Special' cartoon short, so using that we know he's sneaky and also awesome).

Offline chocolateshake

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Re: The Mandalorian ***Spoilers**
« Reply #73 on: December 11, 2020, 01:26:46 PM »
Very good episode this week.  Maybe not the best of the season but solid.  I really didn't like the special guest character this week when he was in season 1, but I found myself won over by the end of this episode.

Offline perc2100

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Re: The Mandalorian ***Spoilers**
« Reply #74 on: December 14, 2020, 10:46:54 AM »
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Very good episode this week.  Maybe not the best of the season but solid.  I really didn't like the special guest character this week when he was in season 1, but I found myself won over by the end of this episode.
YES!!  "The Mandalorian" had one of its best episodes of the series so far WITHOUT Baby Yoda Grogu!  In what felt like yet another "set-up a character that we'll utilize further down the road, possibly in a spin-off series" episode, comedian Bill Burr absolutely SHINED in his return role; he (and the writer/director Rick Famuyiwa) did a great job balancing keeping things lighter but not to clowny/jokey.  The mood Burr struck was absolutely perfect, and giving him the scene w/the Imperial officer (brilliantly played by Richard Brake) that fleshed out his character a bit.  I'd LOVE to see Burr as a co-lead in the "Marshalls of the New Republic" series, and at the very least I'm happy he was released 'into the wild' and the character is available to return somewhere down the road.
The stuff with Mando w/out his helmet was great, especially seeing _HIM_ almost blow their cover!  It's always nice to give Pedro Pascal an opportunity to emote w/out the helmet, and he was of course awesome here (one caveat: he clearly has a well-groomed mustache - as a dude with facial hair I know how much time is required to get well-groomed facial hair, and that means there must be time out of Mando's day where he's manscaping that stuff  :P ).
Boba Fett returned with amazing looking armor: I mean, we've never seen it that nice looking!  I love that there was a good day before "The Believer" episode where Fett knew he couldn't look all dirty and scruffy next to Mando's bright and shiny Beskar armor, so he spent good time cleaning and repainting his own armor.  And the scene where he dropped the depth charge on the TIE fighters was aces: and bravo especially for the great sound design of that explosion!!\

There was a lot to like about this episode, and it was great all-around, from the tight script, to the awesome acting from all involved, to the direction (the tense scene when Mando & Migs are driving, and they hear commotion on the com link and there's an explosion in the nearish distance was great): and especially the cinematography, which was night-and-day exquisite compared to the previous episode that felt flat and unimaginative, which to be fair the aesthetic director Robert Rodriguez often goes for on-the-cheap).

And the real fun thing for this movie nerd, is the episode-as-homage to the 1977 film SORCERER: a film about some gruff characters who have to transport unstable explosives (dynamite that was 'sweating' nitroglycerine) through a jungle and over a bridge.  The film was made by director William Friedkin, following his HUGE success directing THE EXORCIST (he "spent" his cache on THE EXORCIST, when he could've done anything and gotten whatever he wanted, on SORCERER).  When the film, which cost about $20 million (almost double its initial budget), was released it bombed.  When was it released?  About 4 weeks after STAR WARS; Friedkin (and others) blamed STAR WARS for the film's financial failures, and the movie is generally considered an 'underappreciated masterpiece' nowadays.
For one of the only episodes of the series that was inspired by something other than a samurai or western, it's kinda hilariously ironic to me that the clear inspiration came from a movie that financially tanked BECAUSE of the original Star Wars  :D

But that's kinda 'inside baseball' stuff, and in no way impacts the episode's entertainment or quality: more of a "funny factoid that amuses me." 
Now that the season is winding down, I think my slight criticism from earlier seems to ring true:
* there were A LOT of episodes that seemingly were setting up either future episodes, or spin-offs.  We're going into the last episode with what will assuredly be a confrontation with Moff Gideon & Mando & his crew, and that will be great, no doubt.  But the other Mandalorians, Ashoka,  Cobb Vanth, maybe even Greef Karga may be absent.  Some of those are may expected (like Vanth), but some feel much more like, say IRON MAN 2 in that many things were set in motion to set up future storylines, possibly at the expense of developing a solid storyline THIS season.
* similar to above, the 'flow' of this season felt a bit "off" compared to last season.  I kind of dig the "adventure/job of the week" style of the seasons, and while there were clear dots connected from episode-to-episode this season it didn't feel as fluid or as natural as it felt last season.  There were several "treading water" type episodes Season 2, even if there were great eps.  Even the most recent episode, the penultimate episode of the season, felt like it could've been inserted at any point over the season and worked just as well: I expected this episode to be much more tied to the finale (similar to Chapter 7 last season).

BUT, those are relatively minor quibbles.  The shows does what it does incredibly well, and even episodes with 'meh' storylines (like the weakest of the series so far IMO, "The Siege" which was obviously a back-door pilot for "Marshalls of the New Republic") at the very least have off-the-hook action set pieces.  When you factor in the brevity of most of the episodes, there is very little 'fat' and the episodes move at a great pace.  Heck, "The Mandalorian" is the only show I can remember in recent years where I'm literally upset after each episode because it's ending and I want more (except for that first ep of the season, where it felt like Favs was being a little too indulgent - that ep. felt like it could've lost an easy 5-10 mins and still have been solid story-wise, and maybe better pacing-wise).
As always I can't wait to see how the season wraps up this week, though I'm not looking forward to a 12 month wait for Season 3.  I'll be curious to watch Chapters 1-16 in totality to see who well the series gels through both seasons.  I suspect they'll feel like one long season, which is why Chapters 9+10 feeling like 'treading water' eps won't feel as off to me as they did to start a new season; this show feels like all the Chapters so far are meant to be concurrent and smooth, rather than separate seasons.

IIRC Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy said that there are plans for a big cross-over event between the three series, which makes me excited, and maybe a little weary (I have faith, so the weariness is mostly uncalled for).  My oldest kid is a bit bummed at the thought of "Rebels" possibly being continued live-action, though I'd be OK with that.  There's a huge plot thread left dangling regarding which Jedi possibly sensed Grogu at the Jedi rock, and the speculation is endless.  With Dave Filoni having a seemingly very active creative hand in the series, it wouldn't surprise me to see Ezra into the series mix.

Anyway, my long thoughts on a Monday morning.  Who do you think will be the Jedi that enters the picture seeking Grogu: a brand new one or someone from SW past?  Will we see another Jedi in Chapter 16, or will that wait for next season (or "Ashoka")?