I just binged The Mandalorian episodes 1 to 4. It has 95% on Rotten tomatoes, and I do not understand why. The writing is poor and unfocused, characters onedimensional, worldbuilding very unoriginal, acting mediocre, dialog is just painful, choreography bland, and the camerawork only barely roses above a soap opera. I refuse to just chalk it up to “it’s for kids” or blame fanboyism, there has to be something I just don’t get about it. 95%? Really?
Please, someone who loves this show, explain what I have missed about it …?
Welcome to the world of art!!!
Now you can understand why everyone says it’s subjective, you being on the other side of the fence now.
Just remember what ticks that certain emotional box in others may not have the same effect on you.
Britney Spears sold hundreds of millions of albums, but I’m not a fan of her music, obviously others are.
Country is one of the top genres in the world, but I’m not a fan what so ever.
Is any of it bad? Some would say the former is… but how can it be if so many people love it?
Star Wars fans are just happy that it’s not completely awful like everything else and they have at least something they can watch.
It started fine, but at the fourth episode I think they are really going into direction where the title “The Mandalorian” has no meaning anymore. They did a lot of damage to his character with that episode.
He’s supposed to be an anti-hero, not a hero.
From my point of view a lot of Hollywood/Disney nepotism is preventing a lot of great art being made. The execs and their friends and families want every piece of good art to be their own. So they make remakes, destroy existing characters, reuse old storylines. The death of meritocracy is the death of American cultural products. The name of the game these days is to buy an IP, not actually create it. Hopefully making a lot of money and fame in the process. Art being a distant consideration.
Mandalorian might just be one of those casualties. You see a lot of promise and a lot of beautiful work done by very talented people in that show, but you also see glimpses of complete awfulness.
Just look at how beautiful the sets look and how great the concept art is. Yet, the writing at its worst is something a six year old could beat. Maybe I’m naive and it’s just by the numbers for sales. Maybe it’s just Disney who likes to print money, thus making the writing as bland and awful as possible in order to create a net to catch the most people possible.
I, so far, am happy that the series doesn’t try to go down a list of checkboxes to appeal to a certain demographic that so far has been ruining the Star Wars movies. Of course, I have seen TV series merely start off amazing, only to turn to doodoo later on. It’s almost like, they do it intentionally to draw as many viewers in, and then once they’ve got as many people hooked, they unleash the full fury of wacky sub plots, political undertones, and start making all the characters fall in love with each other. Mandalorian just isn’t at that point yet, which is probably why so many people love it. It’s designed to be entertaining to almost everyone, aside from the most picky of viewers. TV series are even more susceptible to cancellation, so, for the people who seem to be aware of this, and want to avoid cancellation at all costs, they try everything in their power to get as many people watching right off the bat, and offend the least amount of people early on.
For instance, I watched the first 4 episodes with my mom during thanksgiving week, and she is the last person I’d expect to watch anything Star Wars related. She has absolutely no clue what Star Wars is about, but to her, it was just a lot of action, explosions, and curiosity.
TL;DR it seems like we have smart people running the operation of Mandalorian, which might explain why it feels bland… they’re purposely avoiding appealing to a minor demographic. As the series evolves, that may change.
Episode 4 reminded me a lot of The Clone Wars type episodes, which is fine, since I love that series, but as Ambi said, it’s not really what he’s been built up to be up to now.
No one watches Disney stuff for the writing; it’s always been awful. Their thing has always been poorly re-telling old stories and top-notch animation. Ever seen the original Snow White? Look at any scene, it’s attention to detail on every last frame. That’s the kind of thing they were able to do consistently for decades and what set them apart from the rest. It’s never so much a question of plot and creativity with them as it is a question of raw visual appeal.
And guess what? Raw visual appeal is one of the things Star Wars has going for it. Everyone wants to dress up as a stormtrooper, every kid thought Bobba Fett was a badassss worthy of owning an action figure despite him barely having any lines in the original movies.
I’m getting offtrack, the lesson here is children love space nazis. I think.
I won’t be watching the show, as I’m not about to sign up for another streaming service. Though I am curious about one thing I keep hearing about: Baby Yoda?
Isn’t Yoda nearly a thousand years old? I was under the impression that the show’s timeline took place somewhere in the middle of the movies.
It’s set 6 years after Return of the Jedi so it’s not actually Yoda. I think folks say “Baby Yoda”, because we don’t know what race it is…
I like the show (it’s not amazing), but then I grew up on Star Wars and will enjoy just about everything Star Wars and be admittedly very lenient in my criticisms.
I guess I should say modern country.
I do love me some blues and older folk style country.
Blues/Blues Country is kind of the root of all modern music.
I don’t know when you have watched first trilogy but for me it was long time ago in a galaxy… ekhm. During my childhood. And when I was a child I didn’t have enough character depth perception or wasn’t able to solve hidden political plots in those movies. They were about pew pews, robots, star ships, occasional KABOOMS and Jedi knights. And light sabers, especially light sabers.
So, now when I see that creators of The Mandalarion are paying attention to so heart warming, memory restoring, visually pleasing details - I’m sold right away. Add to it simple concepts about friendship, loyalty, love, anger and consequences of those emotions. Spice it with amazing music which sound like Ennio Morricone had a baby with John Williams and you have full package.
Don’t take me as a dumb idiot who do not appreciate good story, in the contrary, I’m big fan of classical literature, overly written fantasy books or independent cinema. Just not in this case.
I do not like to find too much depth and meanings in my Star Wars experience. I want to go back in time and just enjoy this series from my POV. And you know what? Not only me. We like those nostalgic tones when everything was simpler and creators are abusing it lately (praise them!). Member?
Next time when you will want to watch The Mandalorian, just take your blanket and be like baby Yoda:
