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

First ever Star Wars roles for Christopher Lloyd, Jack Black, and... Lizzo? Do I have that right? For Lloyd, being in this franchise is long overdue.

I love that the Duchess presents a tiny fish and Grogu flies into her arms. SO cute.

Matthew Wood back as the voice of the former Battle Droids.

I loved Mando speaking Ugnuaght. I have spoken.

Squid passion and romance does not move me at all. I'm funny that way. I also don't believe in the premise of talking cars. I'll accept a lot. But not squid people mushing tentacled faces together.

When Din and Bo entered the Droid bar, that moment was played EXACTLY the same as the white Deltas entering a black club in "Animal House". I loved the bartender's perspective, simply because the franchise does not give ENOUGH Droid perspective. It was long overdue, and appreciated by me.

The legal technicality at the end of the Dark Saber reminded me unpleasantly of the Elder Wand from Harry Potter. I have a similar moment in my comic, but it's done to play up the ridiculousness of it and the Elder Wand. It makes me groan that this show is asking me to take it seriously instead. I feel like Hank Hill saying "Don't play lawyerball with me, son." WAY too pat for my liking, especially since it was played totally straight and without a single wink to the viewer.

It was imperfect, but I like that the show never tries to be. It would be a lot less interesting if it covered more traditional "Star Wars" ground. Would I prefer it hit the highs of "Andor" ever? Yes. But I enjoy the show just fine for what it is and will never rake it over the coals for what it isn't. ***.

Dire happenings. Those red guys at the end freaked me the hell out.

I loved Din's affirmation to Bo about why he followed her. That was the heart of the episode to me.

Din isn't so hot on Grogu's new Droid suit, and frankly I'm not crazy about it either.

Huge epic battle at the end, and as I said, the cliffhanger and threat to the good guys is dire. It's interesting that in this franchise, Gideon excepted, the bad guys wear White.

Big episode. ****1 removed link

Um ... ok. While it looked great, it felt a bit anti-climactic. When all is said and done, Din Darin and Din Grogu are right back where this all started in Season 1.

A jetpack Dogfight.  Ok, again, looked very cool, but if someone wearing a jetpack starts flailing a sword or pair of hammers around their flight is going to be erratic and uncontrollable

Grogu uses basic Jedi stuff to save everyone, especially from a command starship crashing mere feet away from them? Uh ... ok, I guess.

Making force contact with the Mythosaur ... ok, but why wasn't this thing drawn to the surface for the final battle, isn't that the Chekov's gun moment we have been waiting for?

Like I said, it all looked amazing, but wasn't quite the ending I was hoping for

Do I declare that disappointing or not? It checked off all the Star Wars and action series boxes. The ending was far more satisfying than either of the first two seasons. And yet, I feel it was lacking in stakes and focus compared to the season finales of Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and even The Book Of Boba Fett. Yes, on some level it's rewarding for Din to officially adopt Grogu as a son. But for me? He always was. The paperwork there is a mere formality, and the "twist" isn't telling the audience anything we don't already know or believe.

Worse, I feel a bit cheated out of a truly dire climax because the Gideon clones were all terminated before they drew breath and could do any damage. I could excuse that specific cop-out in even the penultimate episode. For the actual finale? We deserved a little punishing violence there. And Din doing that basically neutered Gideon's grand plans and won the season even before they took Gideon himself down. Like Grogu's adoption the final battle became a mere formality at that point.

The boxy Droids with the blinking lights reminded me of the Scutters from Red Dwarf.

It was all right. It was also workmanlike and took zero narrative chances. And nothing in it surprised me. A step down from not only this show, but the rest of Star Wars' recent live-action TV output too. I hope Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni haven't finally taken on too much, but that sort of thing is actually inevitable, isn't it? It happened to Kevin Feige, why wouldn't it happen to them at some point too?

Sigh. A passing grade. But an amazing grade? No. ***1/2.