This is what it took. For years, decades at this point, Lucasfilm has been trying to make a Star Wars live-action TV show. Earlier plans all fell through, usually for budgetary reasons. Any live-action Star Wars show has to look like the movies. Which are famously expensive to make. Even networks are wary of spending that kind of money on a new show. It makes sense that what it takes to get one of these is a new streaming service taking another $6 a month out of all our pockets. So was it worth it?
All it takes is one look at the screen to see where all that money went. This is basically a new Star Wars movie, only 6-7 hours long instead of 2. (Curiously, the 8-episode series is going with a broadcast hour format with 42-minute episodes despite there being no commercials or time limits on streaming shows.) This show looks fantastic. The special effects are exactly what you want from Star Wars, with strange aliens throughout and blaster shots flying across the screen. No lightsabers yet though, which I’m glad about. We’ve had enough stories about Jedi, I’m happy to spend at least a little bit of time with the galaxy’s other inhabitants.
(Via Lucasfilm/Disney)
The cinematography is gorgeous, too. The wide shots of alien worlds look so good, I was sad when the episode was over. It meant I had to leave them for week. The battles might even be some of the best on TV. If all you’re looking for is action figure setpieces, this show is perfect. The pilot is filled with blaster shootouts that had me grinning ear to ear the whole time. The action beats flow naturally from the story (what story there is, anyway), instead of interrupting it, which can be tough in a 42-minute TV episode. Star Wars has always had at least a toe in the Western genre. It’s a space fantasy movie based on a samurai film which in turn was inspired by old American Westerns. The Mandalorian takes it all the way. This is an old western set in the Star Wars universe, and the cinematography isn’t shy about showing it. The way the scenery and shots leading to the episode’s end look, John Wayne wouldn’t be out of place.
You’ll notice all my praise has been about how good the show looks, and I’ve only barely mentioned the story. Well, there isn’t much of one yet. That’s where The Mandalorian falls short. It feels like this series was made with binging in mind. Like it was written and filmed with the idea that all the episodes will be released at once before Disney decided on a weekly release. It doesn’t feel like an episode of TV, it feels like the beginning of a very long movie. The story doesn’t have a beginning, middle and end. It barely has a beginning. Just as we get maybe the faintest hint of a plot, the episode cuts to credits. With nothing really pushing me forward through the story yet, all I can do is marvel at the pretty pictures on my TV screen.
Carl Weathers (via Lucasfilm/Disney)
The Mandalorian himself doesn’t have much of a character yet, though the show is already on the way to fixing that. He has no name, no face and, for much of the episode, no personality in his voice. He’s a blank slate doing cool guy stuff. That’s great for a video game, but it doesn’t make for compelling drama. There’s a reason the original trilogy just had Boba Fett stand around looking cool before Han Solo slapstick’d him into the Sarlacc Pit.
In this episode, we see The Mandalorian turn in a bounty (in carbonite, which was a fun touch), and struggle to find work. Apparently, nobody wants to pay much for bounty hunters’ services now that the Empire’s gone. He takes the one high-paying job his guild leader has, which feels seedy from the beginning. His secretive client, a former Empire official played by a gloriously hammy Werner Herzog, wants him to kill a 50-year-old target. His cartoonish evilness immediately lets us know we’re in for some kind of twist.
Nick Nolte (Via Lucasfilm/Disney)
The Mandalorian gets to a desert planet where a gruff moisture farmer who just wants the encampment the Mandalorian is seeking gone. This is where the show starts to find some of its Star Wars heart. The first half of the episode is dark and overly gritty. It’s trying too hard to be a serious tough guy story with a Star Wars coat of paint. I was worried that the show would forget that strange goofiness is part of what makes Star Wars so enduring. Kuiil has no patience for The Mandalorian, and it’s the first time anyone in the show treats him like a person. Kuiil teaches him how to ride a Bluug to get to the encampment. It might not be the most necessary story detour, but this is the show remembering that Star Wars is supposed to be fun. The Mandalorian’s voice even starts to gain a little character and emotion from here on out. We can’t see what he’s feeling, so if we can at least hear it in his voice, that’s going to go a long way towards making him a character we want to follow.
At the encampment, he meets a bounty droid who’s already after the target. Along with a bunch of guys with blasters neither of them can get past on their own. The Mandalorian and IG-11 agree to work together and split the bounty. The Mandalorian hates droids for some unexplained reason, and you can already see the beginnings of a buddy comedy subplot developing between them. They bicker through the shootout, and IG-11 starts his self-destruct sequence more than once. It’s a decent gag, and I was still just glad the show found its sense of humor. They kill everyone trying to shoot them and make their way inside the building. There, they find their target. The 50-year-old is actually still a baby, and is the same species as Yoda. It’s also adorable. IG-11 wants to kill it. He apparently didn’t get the same “bring it in alive” instruction The Mandalorian got. As IG-11 raises his blaster, The Mandalorian shoots him and takes the baby himself.
Taika Waititi, Pedro Pascal (Via Lucasfilm/Disney)
So finally, after a full broadcast hour of television, we get a plot with some conflict. And that’s where the credits roll. What we’re left with is a really good looking show that can’t quite get itself going. It was still a lot of fun. It had great side characters and the most exciting battles on TV, but none of that is yet in service of anything. It’s a set-up episode, but it doesn’t even try to mold that setup into something shaped like a full story. It has the plot of a fan-made short stretched out to 42 minutes. The bright side is, those shorts were always one-offs. The Mandalorian will continue, so we can expect whatever it’s setting up to pay off somewhere down the road. We just have to look at it as an extended movie spread out over 8 weeks. It may be taking the long road to get where its going, but at least it’s a pretty ride.
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