I will quote from the other thread as well as this one.
A couple of weeks ago, I spent a few days dog and cat sitting for my brother. This gave me the chance to see the first season (and only the first season) of
The Mandalorian. Here are a few of my thoughts:
I do not understand why the title character does not insist on asking questions about his jobs. I thought that someone in his position always asks for "secrets and reasons" before taking a job.
Just in case someone does not get the reference in the above paragraph, I was talking about the
Lone Wolf and Cub manga and film series from the 1970s. (I have seen the films. I have not read the manga.) The main characters are a rogue warrior and a young child under the warrior's protection. They wander around doing jobs for pay while fighting off people trying to kill them. I actually do not know why
The Mandalorian made me think of
Lone Wolf and Cub as they clearly have nothing in common [/sarcasm].
One major difference is that the protagonist in
Lone Wolf and Cub always asked potential clients for the "secrets and reasons" behind the job that they wanted him to do. He was not stupid enough to agree to do something without knowing things like who might try to stop him or who would be upset if he were to complete the job.
I wondered whether it was intimidating for the episode directors to direct Werner Herzog. This is in part because Herzog is a very distinguished director with an impressive filmography. This is also in part because of his reputation:
Okay, after episode 3, I have to say that the show is growing on me. Sooo much better than episode 2! I mean, the pilot was decent enough, but then they spend an entire episode, including two thrown-in action sequences, on retrieving stolen ship parts?! Talk about filler material.
I am inclined to agree about the second episode. When I first saw it, I assumed that it only appeared to be a stand-alone episode and that later in the season the title character's relationship with the Jawas would suddenly become important. In other words, I was looking for a Chekov's gun that did not exist.
It also bugged me that The Mandalorian knew about Jawas but did nothing to protect his ship against them. It felt like leaving a car unlocked at night in a very sketchy neighborhood and being surprised that the radio was stolen.
Another random thought that I had was when the Jawas were eating the egg. In addition to
The Mandalorian, I also watched some 1970s Disney animation films (part of the dead era for Disney animation). The Jawas seemed to eat the egg the same way that a certain honey-addicted bear would eat honey.
Here is a picture of one of the cats watching the honey-addicted bear.
For those who are not logged in and cannot open the attachment, here is a
link to the photo.
This could have been a better character-developing episode. For example, it might have explored the reasons why the title character is attached to a ship that we have been told was obsolete.
In the end, it was a stand-alone episode, which seems pointless on a streaming service. Before on-demand viewing was common, it was important to have stand-alone episodes early in a show's run. This made it easier for new viewers to start watching a show without fear of getting lost. However, with a streaming show, any new viewer can simply start with the first episode at any time. I started the show three years after it premiered and had no problem starting at the beginning.
If you ever wondered what an episodic version of Star Wars would look like, this is it. (Caveat: I haven't seen any of the animated shows. I probably will now that I have access to them via D+, but it's not high on my To-Do list.
) It is without a doubt Star Wars, but has an entirely different feel to it. It's not the hyper-paced Lucas trademarked edit, but at times feels more Sergio Leone. (Well, a television constrained Sergio Leone.)
This is interesting. As seen above (and below), I saw more of a Japanese influence. Japanese films were an influence on Leone. For example,
A Fistful of Dollars is a remake of Akira Kurosawa's
Yojimbo even if it took a lawsuit to get Leone to admit it.
The question is how much of this series is directly influenced by Japanese cinema and how much do spaghetti westerns mediate the influence. There is a whole lot of influence in each direction between westerns and samurai films.
Spoilers follow. I mean big juicy ones...
The titular character is literally A Man With No Name. It was finally revealed his name is "Din Djarin", but honestly, he might as well be "Blondie" or "Vin". (Or Dad. HAhahahaha...) The actor portraying him is Pedro Pascal.
The Mandalorians have a "Creed", a set of traditions/rules/cultural laws which makes them a Mandalorian. (This leads to their mantra of "This is the Way" you will hear between Mandalorians.) One of these says he cannot reveal his face to any living being other than their immediate family. If they take the helmet off in front of others, they can never put it back on. (This doesn't seem to be true in the animated series, however.)
I do feel for Pascal. Because of this little gotcha, he gets something like 30 seconds of face time in season one. Apparently, he isn't always the one under the mask when filming, either. I mean, I could have played several of the scenes...
I would like to see more (or really anything) of Pedro Pascal. I mean, I know the show only just started and there's still a lot of time for an eventual dramatic helmet removal, which I'm counting on. Just saying, though, at this point I'm kinda hoping that they put random actor Bob into that suit and had Pedro record his few lines over the phone - similar to what WB did with Brandon Fraser and Matt Bomer on Doom Patrol - or else Disney is really over-paying on the actor front.
I had a similar thought about having one actor provide the voice while another actor wears the suit. It was actually a different character that inspired that thought, one that had David Prowse inside a suit with James Earl Jones doing the voice. My guess is that the plan is for the Mandalorian to remove his helmet a lot more in the future. Otherwise, I would probably cast a voice actor do the voice and have someone like Doug Jones in the suit.
I might have had him keep the helmet on for the entire season. This would allow viewer to speculate about whether The Mandalorian was human or another species, if the flashbacks did not give that answer away.
Otherwise, the time to remove The Mandalorian's helmet would have been in episode four. This episode was a mini remake of one of my favorite films of all time. It was mini in the sense that it was only 38 minutes long rather than 207 minutes long, and there were only two "samurai" in the film rather than seven. On the other hand, the bandits in
Seven Samurai did not have an AT-ST.
This episode missed a potential character-developing event. There are many major action-film tropes that either originated in
Seven Samurai or were popularized in that film. One of those tropes is for the hero to be seen first in an early action scene that has little to do with the plot although it can help develop the character.
Early in
Seven Samurai, a thief kidnapped a boy and threatened to kill him. There was no way to approach the thief without the risk of the thief killing the child. A ronin (masterless samurai), who would end up leading the seven, voluntarily shaved his head—
including his topknot—to disguise himself as a monk simply delivering food. This allowed him to get close enough to rescue the child.
I do not know if western audiences would understand the significance of that action. Let me put it this way: If I were forced to choose between being either a Mandalorian who removes my helmet or a samurai in a Japanese film who loses my topknot, that helmet would come off immediately. Losing the topknot is a far more serious taboo. As long as this episode is
Seven Samurai-lite, this might have been the time for The Mandalorian to violate his taboo for a good reason (as in not just because the cute widow asked him to).
The other main character, which I initially thought of as a macguffin but may turn out to be a co-star, is The Baby. Immediately labeled by everyone Baby Yoda, it is obviously of Yoda's race, supposedly 50 years old, but still a child. It can't communicate (that we've seen), but seems to completely understand its surroundings, circumstances and even conversation. We are witness to the child's ability to use the Force very early in the series.
It is a complete mystery. It could be one of Yoda's race, a clone, even Yoda himself reincarnated by the Force. But one thing is clear. It pegged the adorable and cute meters on the Internet to 11, something that hasn't happened since... Baby Groot. Hmmmm....
They considered doing a CGI Baby, but decided a physical puppet would be better, and they were right. It was kept amazingly quiet right up until the reveal. There was absolutely no clue in the pre-release material. Because they wanted to keep it a secret, no merchandising was started until after the reveal, and it was something like an agonizing two months before Disney got the merchandising arm fully activated.
One problem with watching this well after it is released is that I was completely spoiled about "Baby Yoda." Unless there is evidence to the contrary, I am assuming that The Child is simply a member of Yoda's race. If The Child is 50 years old, it cannot be a reincarnation unless souls can travel back in time to reincarnate. I suppose that a clone is possible, but I do not know why someone would have done so.
I do not remember if the show told us how old The Mandalorian is. If he is Pedro Pascal's age, then he is younger than The Child.
I am also glad that they went with a puppet rather than CGI. As a general rule, I prefer practical effects to CGI.
Today, it is a little silly for me to make predictions for the second season when nearly everyone who is not me has already seen it.
I assume that Moff Gideon wants The Child because he believes that "discovery requires experimentation." I hope that I do not have to explain that reference, at least on this site. However, in addition to
The Mandalorian and 1970s Disney animation, I also watched eight season-two episodes of
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., so the phrase is fresh in my memory.
I also believe that we will learn about at least one other faction pursuing The Child. Gideon seems to want him alive. However, at least one other faction wants The Child dead. I do not know if that faction simply wants to keep The Child out of Gideon's hands or if there is another reason why he/she/it/they want The Child dead. We may also learn why The Mandalorian has not been curious about threats to The Child beyond The Client.
So, will I watch season two the next time I am cat and dog sitting? I might. I am quickly running out of films that I am interested in seeing—hence my watching dead-era Disney animation. However, I might watch a series based in Middle Earth or Westeros instead.