The Mandalorian (Season 3) (Disney+) (2023)

Grogu is too adorable to be allowed. First him spinning in the chair then grabbing that little guy. He's not a pet! Bad baby!

I would have said Dune died off-screen if I wrote the show, but the producers of this show are far kinder than I am.

Katee Sackoff has a starring role this season. Interesting.

I've missed this show. As far as Star Wars goes, This Is The Way. ****1/2.

So Bo Katan bathed in the waters of the Caves of Mandalore WITH her helmet on. Am I the only one thinking Din is gonna try and get her to retake the oath? It would be narrative malpractice if he didn't.

The fact that Grogu is sentient enough to follow Mando's instructions to go to Bo for rescue makes his eating of those eggs last season unforgivable. The more capable the show makes the Child, the more culpable he is for that. I think it's probably a mistake.

It was a pretty cool episode. I really liked learning all the Mandalore, uh, lore. ****.

I was actually rooting for the episode most of the way through it. I loved "Andor" for doing a disturbing thing and showing some real selling points of the Empire and some of the people who worked there. This show showing the downside to the New Republic should equally fascinate me, no?

"The Book Of Boba Fett" also did a couple of episodes near the end of its run that had almost nothing to do with Boba Fett (coincidentally starring the Mandalorian and the Child) so having a detour with different characters is not outside the franchise either. In fact, those non-Boba episodes were weirdly the finest episodes of that series, so I expected similar good things here.

And while I think it's okay to make an audience member feel a bit uncomfortable for rooting for certain Imperialists the way "Andor" did, when it comes to pointing out flaws of the new government Luke and Leia have set up, there need to be some limits to how bad things are. The Mind Flayer being used at the end is the franchise suggesting there is no light between the New Republic and the Empire. And while I have always believed there was much less difference between the Jedi and the Sith than Lucas thought there was, I feel like showing the endpoint government of Return Of The Jedi's happy ending to be entirely as fascist and corrupt for different reason a storytelling mistake. Forget the fact that the former Empire people are stripped of their names and referred to in letters and numbers. One of the daily questions the Droid asks being if the Doc felt any anger or resentment to the New Republic made me wonder if Leia ever understood is was NOT just her son Ben Solo with a little Vader in them.

I don't get why Kane entrapped Pershing, or why she turned the mindflayer on full blast. Maybe this is stuff to be revealed in a future episode. Seeing these characters in this context for the first time, and even rooting for their seeming tentative friendship throughout the episode, makes this development a totally unacceptable place to leave things off. If these were established characters maybe I'd be okay with it. But they were given a starring role for the first time ever, and used in a new way, and it feels empty instead. I don't like feeling that way.

I knew Bo Katan would be asked to rejoin the Mandalorians once they learned she bathed in the water too, and hadn't taken off her helmet. As pretty as Katee Sackoff is, it's too juicy of a plotpoint to not run with.

I wish this show had Blu-Ray releases. I would love to hear an audio commentary from Jon Favreau describing his intentions for creating the episode. As it stands, it feels a bit bewildering and unfinished. **1 removed link

Also awesome to see Ahmed Best in a great Star Wars role. This is better redemption for Jar-Jar Binks than the writers of The Clone Wars could EVER have conceived. He survived too! I wonder where he ended up and what happened to him.

I like that Bo is frustrated by the Mandalorian chick believing she is speaking of visions and metaphors. "This is the way" often MEANS something. Here it means nothing.

I was outraged at the giant dinosaur trying to feed the little kid to its hatchlings. Pretty horrific scene whose only saving grace is that both the kid and his father are rescued.

It's funny Jin expects Grogu to spar. Even funnier than he's right that Grogu will win. Jedi stuff comes in handy there.

There really isn't too much to the episode itself, which is why I like that it's only a half hour long, and that the show never pads things in any episode light on story and mythology. The stories being the actual correct length it takes to tell them is the selling point to streaming on Disney+.

Good week. ****.

This week:  I know I've seen that "bird" design somewhere else (or something very close to it).  I want to say that it's from one of Ewok movies but, then again, I could just be seeing Taarna's mount from Heavy Metal, too...  Since Kelleran Beq was the host of the Jedi Temple Challenge series I have to wonder if he continued training Grogu after their escape...

I have to say the animatronic make-up is positively old-school. And looks pretty lousy and sloppy by modern standards.

I love the random and unexplained cameo from Zeb from Star Wars: Rebels. Still alive and kickin'.

Curious what happened to Gideon and how they'll resolve it.

I love that the big guy who had been giving Jin and Bo grief in earlier episodes surprised them both by supporting their plan and convincing the others to as well because they saved his son. I like that Jin builds trust and alliances that way. It's a cool facet to the character and rewarding pay-off as such.

Cool. Wish Grogu had a bigger role though. ***1 removed link