Max Nocerino 
“Once again, Jon Favreau delivers a story with a firm substance that can be a standalone as its own “new” show. However, it just isn’t The Mandalorian we fell in love with 4 years prior!”
It’s time for this week’s new adventure with The Mandalorian. I truly believe Jon Favreau is one of the most gifted writers that has graced the Star Wars universe since the acquisition of the franchise by Disney over a decade ago. He created a show that truly pushed the boundaries of our imaginations into hyperdrive. And in doing so created a character that has become as iconic as Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader. However, we are in season 3 of this show, and well. It’s starting to show its age.
GUNS FOR HIRE
The opening of this episode is very strange. We see a ship crewed by Quarren and then hailed by a group of Mandalorians who have taken a job retrieving a Calamari prince that has fallen in love with the Quarren leader and has run away from home. This inter-spacial affair needed to end and while I wrapped my head around two fish humanoids finding each other attractive. In ways, my human brain can’t comprehend. I feel it was just a bit of something to help introduce this new faction of Mandalorians. And I give it points for its bizarreness.
Speaking of bizarre, it continues to get even weirder. From droids hanging out at a bar just for them, re-programmed B1 and B2 battle droids from The Clone Wars, and 2 goofy Dutchess and Duke ruling as elected officials in a pampered world! There were quite a lot of awesome things to feast upon visually.
DROID MYSTERY
Bo-Katan Kryze wants to recruit these Mandalorians to retake Mandalore and they have traveled to this paradise world to do so. The paradise world (whose name I keep forgetting) has hyperloop transportation, and direct democracy, and the entire society is basically post-scarcity. The droids handle all the hard work leaving the organics to pursue recreation and leisure instead of working. This is an excellent nod to many sci-fi predictions of a far future where humanity has eradicated the need for working and making money.
I particularly dislike this motif because I feel an idle mind is never a good thing. But I was digging the automation vibes as I firmly believe that Star Wars IS a sci-fi universe. Just one that just so happens to have magic space wizards that wield glowing energy swords. Building lore and expanding the universe is always exciting to me, however, the mission wrapped up too quickly for my taste.
DIN DYNAMIC
Mando and Bo were conscripted to find out why some droids in the society are malfunctioning and attacking organics. While I did not see the (obvious in hindsight) culprit in this affair, I feel that their investigation was just too easy. And I was looking for a bit of a mystery that took time to unravel. Also, the fight between Axe Woves and Bo-Katan was too short as well (yet I will admit that there are always constraints with live-action as opposed to animation). What I did notice that I liked about the character development is that Mando is becoming much better at negotiating and speaking to others. He still has a heavy amount of technophobia as his parents were killed in The Clone Wars (and he is dealing with the very model of the droid that killed them!). And I enjoyed using him as a lens for my disapproval of a society of slovenly hedonism in favor of automation.
Bo-Katan is a static character and needs to be fleshed out a bit more. But then again I was never a huge fan of hers. I can’t tell if I find Katee Sackoff attractive. And that seems the way it should be when casting a strong warrior female. Like Gina Carano, you can’t tell if you want to date her or run from her. The Duke (Jack Black) and Dutchess of the planet were dopey as heck and the Duke gave off a lot of Big Gay Al vibes from South Park. But I feel there is some potential in their characters. I doubt, however, that we will see them in a future episode.
DISAPPOINTING
So I already made it clear that I was disappointed by how quickly the investigation and other plot points wrapped up. And I felt there was potential for a compelling quest when that B2 went berserk and the two Mandalorians had to stop him. I also was not happy that Grogu had almost no role in the episode. Except for being the Dutchesses’ little companion. But I think the way they make the puppet jump to move quickly was quite cheesy and un-real looking. I also was watching the fight between Bo-Katan and Axe Woves. And while I admit it had to be short due to filming constraints, I really wish Bo had put on her helmet. At least before fighting as she sustained some blows that really should have cracked her head open. The flamethrowers and arm-energy shields were awesome though. Not going to lie!
VERDICT
So this episode has fallen into the middle zone in terms of what I felt about it. It had SO much lore eye candy for me to feast on. And I loved the whole civilization on this planet (and the B2 chase), yet I feel it lacked plot mapping and progressed far too quickly before I got fully into it. These episodes are not cheap and we only get 8. So I feel there is pressure to make each one as exciting as possible. I know this is perhaps a bit too much to ask from Jon. It’s just that the last 2 seasons were incredible and Season 3 has just delivered too many lackluster episodes so far.
I hope that the final episodes step it up a bit and give us the finale we’ve come to love over the last four years. All the pieces are there. It just needs to be arranged better. Sadly, the buffer for this episode was the thought-provoking content and I have no choice but to award it with a C+ Sorry again, Jon.
The Mandalorian Season 3 is now streaming on Disney Plus.
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Max Nocerino is a regular Staff Writer for The Future of the Force. He is a passionate Star Wars fan and loves the literature of the galaxy far, far away. Follow him on Twitter where he shares his love of the Force frequently!
