Ah, the Mandalorian, making me wonder since the mid-1980s why we gender time machines.
It now seems clear why Disney provided critics advance copies of all the original Disney Plus content except the new Star Wars live-action TV show. For The Mandalorian, there was only a pair of trailers that, in retrospect, displayed the show’s best parts in runtimes =< two minutes. Perhaps Disney wanted us to believe they were merely building anticipation, as great showmen do. Ultimately, time will reveal that the reason had less to do with “building anticipation,” and more to do with avoiding negative reviews of a tent pole that won’t support the tent.
If I had seen Episode 1 of The Mandalorian for free as a marketing pitch, I would not have subscribed to Disney Plus today. I would rather wait until the new final season of The Clone Wars comes out. Instead, they’ve got me for a month. That gives them a few more episodes to hook me. Maybe they will. For comparison, I love Star Trek: The Next Generation, but if I had to give that series a pass/fail based on the pilot alone … well …
Overall, I give The Mandalorian, season 1, episode 1, a resounding “meh.” Let’s look at the Good, Bad, and Ugly of this space western.
Good – Aesthetics! Wow! The look, sound, feel, all exactly what I hoped for in a Star Wars “prestige” TV show. It has all lived-in 1977-1983 grit that makes the best kind of Star Wars, mixed with a modern 2000s take on “grittiness” that involves honest portrayals of a morally ambiguous universe. The action sequences were mostly entertaining as well. In addition to the aesthetics, the creative concept behind one of the show’s peculiarities is interesting and unique. I like the idea that we arrive at the conclusion of the pilot episode and have not yet seen the protagonist’s Hollywood good looks. Note, I like the idea of it.
Bad – I don’t care. I don’t care about The Mandalorian yet. Will he succeed? Will he be double-crossed? Who even IS he? I kinda don’t care yet. Is this because I haven’t seen his Hollywood good looks? Probably yes, but not for the reason you think. Protagonists in war films almost never use in-world protective head gear because, the notion goes, an audience that can’t see the protagonist’s face can’t care about him. There IS a place for faceless protagonists, however. Media exists that proves this. I just don’t think Pedro Pascal can deliver that.
Pascal is an actor who knows how to use his good looks to drive character and plot points. He is not, I would say, an actor who knows how to use his body and voice alone, without facial expressions, to drive anything other than the question “aren’t you a little short for a Mandalorian?” He didn’t exit a 7-11 at any point in the narrative, so I can’t objectively verify his height. That’s not the point though. There’s something about the way he moves, the way he fills space, that makes him seem small. Maybe that’s the point? Maybe they were going for that, making him seem relatable or something? Sorta Peter Parker the Mandalorian?
Instead, I found it hard to believe any character’s reaction to his character in the story. All characters in the first episode instantly treat The Mandalorian as a formidable individual, and whether that drives the character to goad him, fear him, assist him, or merely respect him, the reason is the same. The script says everyone reacts to the Mandalorian like he’s a badass. The problem is that nothing about the way Pedro Pascal acts with his body or voice delivers that. It’s like they just grabbed an extra to be Pedro Pascal’s body double in the suit, and they’re keeping Pascal on-hand in the IMDB to do the close-ups slated for subsequent episodes.
The most iconic Star Wars character whose face you never see is Darth Vader, who was portrayed by a dedicated body actor, and a separate dedicated voice actor, together creating a character who fills up the space in every scene. Vader is an imposing visual figure, a fact for which the suit gets too much credit and for which David Prowse gets too little. James Earl Jones delivers possibly the most imposing voice over in the history of cinema. Why couldn’t Disney follow that model with The Mandalorian? Sure, there’s a meaningful distinction to be made between antagonist and protagonist on this dimension, but after seeing the first few digital reels of Pedro Pascal in the suit, didn’t they realize there was a problem? The Mandalorian is certainly no Boba Fett. Even though Boba Fett isn’t the tallest figure on the deck of the Imperial Star Destroyer with Vader, there’s a subtle confidence in the way he merely *stands there* that spawned a cult following. I simply didn’t see that in The Mandalorian.
Ugly – Every space cowboy needs a scene where he tames a wild space stallion through sheer force of manly willpower. But the Mandalorian’s version was lame.
It’s lame for two different reasons. The first involves again harping on Pascal’s uncertain body acting. He’s supposed to be uncertain and irritated at first, because that’s in the cowboy-stallion-taming bylaws. Then, after appropriate encouragement from the gruff old-timer, the cowboy is supposed to shift demeanor to be calm, confident, dominant, a leader of man and beast. Could Pascal have pulled that off in a series of close-up shots featuring his emotive face? Undoubtedly. Did he deliver on that with his body and voice alone? Not even close. If anything, he seemed even less certain when his character was supposedly exerting some force of will over the creature. His verbal assurances of “steady, steady” sounded directed more at himself than at the beast.
Again, maybe this was intentional? Maybe he’s doing the director’s work here, perfectly executing poor direction. To be fair, Dave Filoni, director of episode one and my personal hero for injecting the most real life into the Star Wars universe (via The Clone Wars and Rebels), is an animation director, not a live-action director. Maybe that’s the problem? I don’t know. All I know is I literally couldn’t stop rolling my eyes during this scene. I had to do gymnastics with my head to keep my eyes on the screen due to the involuntary ocular rolling.
The second problem with this scene is that there is absolutely no narrative reason for it. They say, out loud, that there’s no way to get to a place except to ride this bipedal girl stallion. The Mandalorian even asks “what about a speeder?” Old man’s like “nah bro, gotta ride this doofus-looking Warhammer goblin mount, simply ain’t no other way.” And then they NEVER explain why. As soon as we get the obligatory cowboy-tames-stallion scene over with, they just ride to the destination, with nary an observable or exposited justification whatsoever for why they didn’t just take a speeder. At the risk of beating the dead horse of this pun: lame.
Last in the Ugly category: literal “flash” backs of traumatic childhood. Let me guess: he went his whole life thinking himself the orphan of parents unremarkable for any reason other than their senseless slaughter, but later we’re gonna learn his parents are not dead and are, in fact, remarkable.
The Mandalorian, Season 1, Episode 1, visually satisfying delivery of lame trope after lame trope, leading to a protagonist I don’t actually care about. The assassin droid was the only character in the episode I cared about.
Final thoughts – The visual appeal of the series will endure, no matter how lame the storytelling ends up being. I mean, people still love to watch the prequels. I hold out hope that this series will just be a slow burn, that Episode 1 isn’t representative.
I really love the idea of a knight-in-shining armor, and it looks like we’re gonna see the Mandalorian slowly replace his piecemeal armor suit with legit silver armor as a signifier of his progress throughout the season. The fantasy lover in me loves this. The MMO Gamer in me loves this. I would love the final episode of Season 1 to be a battle between the Mandalorian and his main antagonist, where the start of the battle involves the Mandalorian posing in frame for a solid few seconds, resplendent in his finally-completed suit of shining silver beskar armor. I just hope Pascal gets some lessons from a mime or something on body acting before they film that.
