The Mandalorian - Pilot

I don't want to overstate this, as I think its too soon to fully judge a series based on a single episode in which not very much happened, but Disney's The Mandalorian is actually not bad. For what we've seen so far it was actually pretty good.

Before I go on. There will be SPOILERS!




The Mandalorian, himself is actually an enjoyable character, keeping in mind he's a mysterious figure we don't know all that much about at this point. This is helpful. Having a likable central character goes a long way in letting viewers get into a series.


Like I said. Not that much happened.


We learn it takes place post-Empire. There are seemingly Imperial remnants, out there as Werner Herzog's "The Client" appears to be a former Imperial of some ranking. He was after all, wearing the emblem of the Empire and being guarded by Stormtroopers.

So there's a lot of laser fire and a few gruesome moments. All of which lead to our Mandalorian buddy becoming employed by "The Client" to seek out a package. The Client pays the bounty hunter with a pressed piece of steel emblazoned with the Imperial Emblem, which seems to be of high cultural value to the Mandalor.

Our protagonist takes the job, and leaves. Returns to his tribe, where his leader, a female Mandalor forges for him from the steel an shoulder pauldron, and then the Mandalorian is off to seek out his prey.


Sidebar: Star Wars typically makes it very clear what planet we are on at any given time. This show however, does not do so, and its a hindrance to the story. Please, if you are not going to incorporate it into dialogue, at least use a chyron to inform us what the planet is named. At one point it looked like one of the planets might have been intended to be Batuu (Galaxies Edge) but its hard to be sure.


Back to the mission. Along the way, our Mandalorian meets some people, fires some more lasers and almost becomes friends with a Droid. Almost... He hates Droids.


After killing a bunch of people he discovers what, who he has been looking for. The Asset...

Adorable! A baby member of Master Yoda's species. I hope this plays into a larger aspect of Star Wars lore and we learn about Yoda's species. I get the impression they are rare, otherwise there would not be a fuss to acquire a specimen. 

What did I think of all this?

I enjoyed it. But I remain skeptical. There's still time for this to go off the rails. Thus far The Mandalorian, is enjoyable and feels more like Star Wars than most of what we have gotten out of Disney. In some ways this actually reminds me of Rogue One - A Disney Star Wars movie, that I do in fact like.

I'd say be cautiously optimistic.

One episode in, its too early to come to a real solid conclusion. I will say this is probably the Star Wars Disney should have been giving us from the beginning.

Jon Favreau, should probably be put in charge of any new Star Wars Trilogy whenever that might come about. I don't want to jump too far ahead, but it does look like he has a handle on the universe.

The Mandalorian, could end up being the Saga's only remaining hope.