Chapter 17: The Apostate

A solid and enjoyable intro to Season 3 of The Mandalorian. The runtime left much to be desired, but alas. I didn't realize how much I missed watching The Mandalorian.

The story beats were good, no complaints there. The thing I am most excited for this season is definitely Mandalore; I am excited to see if Din Djarin leads some kind of revolt, or if there's even anything to take back. It seems that the lore of Mandalore will be further explored in the next few episodes.

I think it was a missed opportunity to have Baby Yoda come back so soon though. I wanted to see more of Mando without him. That's one of the only complaints I have.

Overall, I'm excited that The Mandalorian is back, and next week can't come fast enough.

8.5/10.

This episode had its redeeming moments, but the fact that I have to start with that already means I'm grasping at straws. Everything has taken a significant dive off the deep end. The acting and dialogue is laughable, especially in comparison to the recent series Andor, which featured some of Star Wars' best performances. Everything is told, not shown, and we should be far beyond that by this point. The action feels very clunky with some very awkward shots and choreography that just completely take you out of the moment. However, I will admit the starship scenes were quite good. The main thing that was redeemable was Grogu and Din, who are as fun to watch as ever. However, what made the dynamic so special is that their interactions were used as relief following intense sequences. If there's nothing going on, you don't get that relief. It's cute to see Din explain like things to Grogu, but when he's explaining every minute detail to him, it becomes a burden to the audience. As a writer/producer, you need to trust the viewer's intelligence to follow along and keep up with what you're doing. "This is a Mandalorian castle" might be up there with "I don't like sand" for worst dialogue in the franchise. I have no way to put it other than lazy. I'm hopeful for the coming episodes but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't concerned. Especially when the premier falls short in so many regards.

I'm not sure, but maybe it was the Andor effect, as Andor was so adult and incredible and this felt more childish and rushed. Also, we are tracking multiple storylines now? I also kind of wish they did the robot workers as CG and not puppets as those things moved horribly. I guess Mandalorian is going with these basement looking alien pirates as the bad guys now, which could use so much more sinister variety. I thought Grogu would be a tad more grown up by now after living with Luke for a few years. But he's still cooing and not behaving. Still, it's Star Wars and I always smile when I get new Star Wars content. And history has shown that this show can bounce back because each episode gets a new Director.

The episode is short and sort of "MEH". I don't really have strong feelings either way about it, though it is nice to see the characters that I enjoy again, and the plot will pick up phase in later episodes. I'd like to discuss one thing though.

What angered me, is the structure that Disney+ pushes onto us. Why should anyone be expected to watch every other SW series in order to understand the continuity of this one? Now, I did see the Book of Boba Fett but I expected at the very least a short plot update for the people who haven't. If you finish Mandalorian Season 2 and go on to season 3, you will be lost. At the end of Season 2 Grogu goes off to be trained a Jedy and suddenly at season 3 they are together again and somehow, Din Jarin has a new fighter? Not even an attempt to sum up what has happened before. As stated, I personally have seen the Boba Fett series, but I am appalled by this precedence. What is the point of keeping track of seasons if they do not tie onto one another?

I didn't expect much better, considering the quality of some of the recent Disney Star Wars shows, but I'm still ultimately disappointed.

I feel like there was no heart behind this episode, like no one involved, aside from the cgi artists, actually cared about what they were working on here. The cinematography, costume work, pacing, writing, and editing, were all let downs.

Each shot was very unimpressive (especially compared to the concept art shown at the end). The quality of most of the alien costumes immediately distracted me from the story (I swear it's somehow significantly worse costume work than the original Star Wars, like Lucasfilm is pretending poor costume work is a stylistic choice, in order to cut costs). The grass pirate guy looked especially laughable. The pacing was erratic at best, making for an awkward experience. The writing, in terms of story, was questionable, as too many different side quests were thrust upon Mando too quickly (and that monster attack scene at the beginning felt poorly implemented, like Mando just needed a cool looking entrance, and this random scenario is what the writers came up with). The editing was really distracting throughout the episode, but especially in the monster attack scene.

The two Mando episodes embedded in The Book of Boba Fett were very good (the rest of The Book of Boba Fett was awful), so I was hoping that some of what made those so good would have carried over to the third season of The Mandalorian. Unfortunately, only the questionable alien costume work (the low point of those episodes) appears to be the only thing that made it to season 3 of Mando.

I am not convinced, yet, that this season will be a loser, but this was not a good start.