The Mandalorian is officially in the back half of Season 3, which is absolutely wild. Pretty soon, we'll be waiting for more episodes to binge with our Disney+ subscription and potentially talking about the continued excellence or decline of the series. Personally, this season has been a mixed bag thus far.
Perhaps it's because the honeymoon period for Star Wars TV shows is over or because I've waited for a long time for this season, but I'm far more critical of The Mandalorian this year than I've been in the past. I have a rundown of what I like and dislike, and more concerns than the nitpicky complaints about deep fake Luke last season. Let's start off on a positive note.
I Like Grogu Doing More
Grogu is, without question, the most interesting part of The Mandalorian for me. In my mind, he is the future of Star Wars, so I'm always gripping onto any and all updates about him. Unfortunately, Season 1 and 2 weren't too eventful for The Child, but I think Season 3 has shown a clear step forward in his development.
Thanks to Luke Skywalker's training over the course of years, Grogu can now do a pretty handy front-flip we've seen a couple of times already. He also was able to blast that fellow Foundling with three training darts with no problem at all. Honestly, his main issue seems to be a confidence problem, but I think with Din and The Armorer's guidance, he'll find that and start to showcase more of his powers soon enough.
I Dislike How Much The Series Has Slowed Down
The first two seasons of The Mandalorian were a straight march onto the next adventure. That has changed in Season 3, where it seems like there's an intentional effort to slow down the story. I think part of it is because the central characters are all established, so there isn't a ton of new ground to cover, but also because Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau want to further flesh out this era of Star Wars.
I don't think fleshing out this part of the timeline is a bad thing, but there's no denying it's jarring to experience. I keep waiting for things to kick into gear and speed up, but I have a feeling that's not what this season is about. Granted, there's still the back half of Season 3, and with Moff Gideon still allegedly out in the galaxy, there's a chance we'll see things start to pick up in pace.
I Like The Expansion And World Building
While it does seem that The Mandalorian has pumped the brakes on moving the story forward so far, there have been some bright points. This slowdown has allowed for Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau to expand the lore and tell some stories within this point in Star Wars history. The whole side-story told in "The Convert" with Dr. Pershing entering the amnesty program was fantastic. It's the kind of story in the franchise we don't often see play out in live-action.
If there's one thing we've learned about Dave Filoni through his past works in Star Wars, it's that he's good at world-building. Hell, his career has been filling the gaps between major Star Wars movies with meaningful stories and characters. The Mandalorian may be slowing its main story down a bit, but I don't expect to see the storytelling suffer a bit based on what we've seen so far.
I Dislike The Clan's Helmet Rules
It hadn't irked me up to this point in The Mandalorian, but now that Din and Bo-Katan are back in the clan, the constant helmet-wearing is getting to me. It's restricting to the actors and makes it hard to appropriately convey the gravity of some moments I've felt. When Paz Vizsla got his son back, I should've felt the emotion in that moment. I didn't, and it's becoming a problem with every scene.
If everyone in the scene is wearing helmets, it begins to feel like I'm watching those dubbed scenes in Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. The difference in those shows was that the Power Rangers were a little more emotive with their bodies when talking, so it was easier to convey what's going on and how they feel. The Mandalorian takes itself more seriously, but as a result, we don't see a ton of body language in those scenes. I'm hoping Bo can sway them to start taking the helmets off, or we at least get a few non-Mandalorians in scenes going forward.
I Like That Moff Gideon Is Still Around
It was awesome to see Moff Gideon brought to justice at the end of The Mandalorian Season 2, but I was admittedly bummed at the time to see Giancarlo Esposito's character potentially written off the show. Of course, the actor hinted that his story wasn't over ahead of the season, and we received a clue that he's not only still around, but he's out in the universe and possibly making moves.
While I don't need to see Gideon make his return immediately, I do think he needs to remain active in The Mandalorian. He's the big bad of this series, and while other villains may rise to compliment him or sidetrack the heroes, this story only ends with him. Give me an epic saga of showdowns between Din, Bo and Moff Gideon throughout this series, and I'll be a happy man.
I Dislike That This Season Is Already Halfway Over
I know we're in a new age of streaming, and times are changing, but enough is enough. The Mandalorian had me waiting three years on eight episodes like it's some hot British program with a star who recently had a breakout role in Hollywood. I understand that episode lengths are varying and all that, but we couldn't have at least gotten an even 10 episodes for all the time we waited?
The Mandalorian is one of the biggest shows on streaming for one of the biggest franchises in pop culture. If eight episodes in three years was the best that could be done to ensure the best quality, so be it. That said, Jon Favreau recently revealed Season 4 is already written, and I am hoping he wrote more than eight episodes for that run. We'll just have to cross our fingers and hope so, and then enjoy what weeks we have left with the Star Wars series.
The Mandalorian streams new episodes on Disney+ on Wednesdays. Here's hoping the things I like continue to impress and the things I dislike improve, but I'm going to be sticking along for the ride no matter what.
