The Mandalorian

I wasn't too sure what to expect from The Mandalorian. I'd heard pretty good things and, on the face of it, a Star Wars story set largely in the outer rim, amongst alien cultures, and focused on someone outside of the whole Jedi/Sith dichotomy is right up my street. But I also knew about "Baby Yoda" going in and was well aware that the shadow of Boba Fett could make the whole show little more than tedious fan service. Luckily, it far exceeded my expectations and gave me something very different to either option.

Instead, The Mandalorian is a Western. In fact, the show I'd most liken it to is Firefly; it shares a lot of the same DNA. An antihero, working on the fringe of the law, evading both government prying and the tendrils of various criminal or near-criminal (what else do you call a Bounty Hunters Guild?) syndicates by teaming up with an unlikely bunch of outlaws, outcasts, and weirdos. Throw in the fact that you're in the outer rim, so the landscapes and cultures are clearly technologically advanced but also patched together from scraps and outdated parts, and place it in the uneasy period between two major galactic wars for tension and yeah, sounds like Firefly, only more broody.

Not to knock the broodiness. Far from it, the titular Mandalorian is extremely interesting in no small part because of the brooding silences. Here, it almost parallels The Witcher in giving us a reluctant hero who would rather just be left in peace but can't quite help do the right thing. Much like Geralt, that gives the nameless hero a much more nuanced outlook and keeps the tension high as you're never too sure what he might do next. Pedro Pascal plays the role perfectly and manages to create a character that allows for a surprisingly strong emotional connection, considering you can never see his face. Quite how he emotes that well with subtle body language is a real testament to his acting chops.

And then, of course, there is Baby Yoda (or Baba Yaga as it was known for a few weeks to try and avoid spoilers 😂). I was a little annoyed at first, feeling it would be better to keep the Jedi clear of the story completely (not least of all because it just serves to consistently hit this weird note where everyone in the Star Wars universe seems to have forgotten who the Jedi were, even though their centuries-long rule only ended half a generation ago), but the little guy won me over. Part of that was the decision to make him a puppet (even when CGI, he's animated to feel like a puppet, which is a nice touch), which weirdly makes the character more charming and emotional. The other part was to make him just a touch evil. The first time the baby actively kills is a little shocking and – even more weirdly – instantly made me like the character a whole lot more.

Not the show isn't filled with likeable-unlikeable rogues. That's kind of the thing here. But to its credit, I really came to enjoy all of the side characters. Taika Waititi is expectedly brilliant as a slightly too deadpan assassin droid, whilst the simple wisdom of Kuiil made his death surprisingly poignant, and both Cara Dune and Greef Karga (the head bounty hunter) ended up being really fun characters. I'm pumped for the appearance of Giancarlo Esposito as Moff Gideon too (I really enjoyed him in Revolution back in the day), particularly with that Black Sabre reveal. I haven't watched enough of the Clone Wars/Rebels side of the galaxy far, far away to really know the significance of that weapon, but even I have heard tales about it online.

So the actors were great, the plot was surprisingly nuanced and fun, the set design was brilliant, and the pacing was both leisurely and yet progressive – ideal for that Western vibe. But I'd be remiss not to also mention the art direction. Individual scenes were beautifully choreographed and filmed, but the end credit sequences were just stunning. It really elevated the show from a solid and highly entertaining adventure to something quite special and I'm really looking forward to see where they go next.

Season one was obviously a pretty major hit for Disney+, so unsurprisingly season two has slightly amped up the stakes, the action, and the cameos. Far from being a fairly detached story set in the outer reaches of the galaxy, only occasionally dipping its toes into more familiar locales like Tatooine, but only briefly, season two very clearly brings The Mandalorian into the central Star Wars canon.

Across the eight episodes, we get to meet Ahsoka Tano and Bo-Katan from The Clone Wars (and, I believe, Rebels), Boba Fett, and even Luke Skywalker himself – oh, with R2-D2 alongside, of course. Plus, other characters like Thrawn get name-dropped, and if you count the after-credits sequence (yes, TV shows have these now too 😂) then we also get to count the slightly more niche Bib Fortuna, Jabba the Hutt's old right-hand... man?

Although, to be fair it's not just characters from other Star Wars properties that get roped into proceedings. Almost every character from season one makes a return (those that are alive, still, at least). That droid Mando blew up and still has in his ship? Gets rewired briefly. The lady on Tatooine who helped look after the Kid? She's back. The dude who ropes Mando back into a heist? They break him out of jail. The weird fish-man, the first bounty we see Mando capture? Sure, have him arbitrarily pop up. That assassin he teamed up with on Tatooine that was seemingly dead? Now works for Boba Fett. And of course, we revisit the main planet from season one several times to check in on Cara Dune and Greef.

All of the interconnectedness is fine from a fan service perspective, but it does make the galaxy feel small again. Part of what made season one so brilliant was that it finally felt as if Star Wars was going to just let us have something that wasn't all Skywalkers, Palpatines, and galactic-level threats. Yes, there was a force-sensitive mini Yoda child, but even here the Kid (now officially called Grogu 🤷‍♀️) just had some latent force capabilities. He was wanted by the Empire, but why was never clear. Well, now we know: Grogu is an especially powerful force user (y'know, midichlorians and all that jazz) who was already a Padawan before the Clone Wars in the old Jedi Temple on Coruscant. And I'm not sure how I feel about these decisions. He could have just been a kid with force powers; Broom Boy 2.0. But now he's an actual Jedi, he's at least getting on for a 100 years old, and he directly knows characters like Yoda and Mace Windu. It's just all a bit... much! Plus, I know Yoda's species is particularly long-lived, but if he's genuinely old enough to have been trained by multiple Jedi Masters before Order 66, then how can't he even speak? That's a ridiculously long infant phase, it makes no biological sense.

Which all feels like I was disappointed in the second season, but I actually really enjoyed it. The overall plot was a bit more focused, the additional pieces of lore it introduced were good fun, and we still had a couple of episodes which felt small. The adventure where Mando has to fly a sentient frog lady and her eggs to another planet was great. Sure, the X-Wing pilots coming back to blast away the spider creatures, only to then leave without arresting him, didn't make a jot of sense, but the rest of it just felt right. It's the kind of small, background adventure TV shows can get stuck into.

Even the cameos were largely done well. None of them felt forced (well, almost none of them, but park that for one second), but rather organic to the plot, and for the most part they dealt with the respective characters well. I really enjoyed seeing Ahsoka grown up and the entire episode with her was just a lot of fun. Bo-Katan was great and I really like where they've left those characters with relation to the Dark Saber, but again the small things are what make this show shine. Her offhand comment about Mando being raised by an extremist group of exiles was brilliant, and I wish the show had given us at least a hint that it was weighing on him. It would certainly make the slow erosion of his code make a little more sense.

Although, on that note, I'm still not sure why we needed the whole scene where he revealed his face in the Empire officer's mess. That was a really enjoyable episode that helped flesh out a couple of the original characters nicely, whilst also giving us some time to dwell on the mentality of the Empire from the grunt's perspective a bit more (something the show does well in a number of scenes, to be fair). But, ultimately, the whole setup where his friend was worried about being recognised was weak sauce, particularly because moments later he does that exact thing anyway. All they needed to do was go back to the transporter and get his helmet or, y'know, just risk it anyway. I can understand that they want to show how much the Kid means to Mando, but it makes that final scene where he removes the helmet with Grogu have so much less impact than if he'd stuck to his principles up to that point. It's a detail that became a niggle, and I think speaks of season two having been a bit more rushed than season one. It just isn't as tightly orchestrated and is far more focused on the big reveals and action scenes than the little character details that really made the show such a breath of fresh air.

And then there's Luke Skywalker. By building Grogu up during the season to be a legacy of the Jedi lost, a powerful force user, a key element in the Empire's plan (and possibly something to do with Snoke?), they backed themselves into a corner. He needs to be reunited with the Jedi; he literally chooses that path at the ancient Seeing Stone. Ahsoka has already turned him down. What other Jedi are still alive at this point? Ones that are strong enough to train such a powerful Youngling? It has to be Luke. But whilst the fight between Luke and the Dark Troopers (who were otherwise a bit boring) was pretty epic, it just opens up too many questions. First of all, Luke explicitly says in the sequel trilogy that Ben was his first Padawan, but Ben's too young at this point. Then there's the question of why Grogu isn't in the sequels at all. Sure, at his rate of ageing he'd still be a child, but does this mean Ben kills him when he becomes Kylo Ren? Does that not just make the Mandalorian plot a bit futile and pointless? And if he wasn't there then, well, why not? We may find out in season three (if we get one) but I almost hope we don't.

Why? Because the plots around Mandalore, the Dark Sabre, and Bo-Katan are more interesting to me than just more Skywalker. I'm hopeful that Mando links up with them and heads that way, particularly because we now know that he doesn't stick around with Boba Fett (who I haven't really mentioned, so quickly: I really liked the evolution of his character and though I'm not particularly invested in a solo show, I really enjoyed the part he played here). On top of which, the de-aged Luke was just bad. Like, awful. Terrible. I know it's a TV show, but it's also a Disney+ show with an enormous budget. More importantly, Disney keep trying this technology, and it never works. Luke just looks stilted, emotionless, and CGI. Hire a Mark Hamill impersonator, get Hamill himself to speak the lines, then run a deep fake pass over the top and I guarantee the result would be much more impressive than whatever the hell we got. It's just frustrating that they never learn (or even try; this is something an intern could do in a week or so if they prepped right).

So season two is certainly not flawless. It still manages to entertain and drive an interesting story, even if it was much less unique or original than season one. It still manages to develop interesting, nuanced characters, and (for the most part) I liked the wider universe integrations. I just wish they'd allowed it to be less grandiose for another season or two before getting to this point.

A fitting send off for everyone involved.