The Mandalorian
When ads for the Mandalorian first started appearing, I took notice because I'm into Star Wars, but also it was even more than usual plastered with the Disney name which seemed a bit suspicious. As soon as it began to air, however, the groundswell of people saying it was really good was very notable. And apparently there was a baby yoda, I'm not calling that a spoiler because it quickly became a pervasive meme. So I quickly felt that this was a thing I should watch. And then I saw Disneyplus was advertising a week of free access! Score!
The Mandalorian is... great. Fantastic. Everything Star Wars ever should have been. I saw a meme somewhere baout how its funny directors aren't having to blame things on "toxic fans" when they actually for once get things right. I think the real secret is that they remembered that Star Wars was originally, at it's heart, a kind of space western. The original story wasn't about complicated space trade embargoes and space bureaucracy, nor was it about changing scenes every 7 seconds, maximum explosions, and unnecessary stupid characters inserted just for marketing purposes. The Mandalorian I'm glad to say doesn't have the frenetic pace of the most recent Star Wars movie nor the coterie of hateable characters, nor does it have any resemblence to the prequels. It's like finally being home again in the original trilogy.
I didn't hate the most recent Star Wars movie, I felt like it was "pretty good," but it left me wondering, is it me? Can no future Star Wars movie measure up not because the original trilogy was amazing but rather because I've made the original trilogy holy in my mind and am too crochety for anything new to "measure up?" But I feel Mandalorian has answered that question ... no, when it actually seems true to the originals, it can still be epic.
Commentary with Spoilers
BUT! Bounty hunters hunt people just by getting a giant key fob that will take them to their quarry? That's dumb. What skill is there in being a bounty hunter then? And how did the jedi such as yoda hide if Vader could just order the Yoda key fob? And how do you make a key fob for someone who isn't present? I thought this was really dumb. It would have been much more interesting to show him actually using detective skills to track people down, and maybe for the specific plot point of that bounty hunters are tracking him down they could have had that the imperials had managed to implant a tracking device into baby Yoda specifically.
AND episode 4 was a real low point ... the one with the totally cliche protagonists-find-a-pacifist-village-and-train-them-to-use-spears-and-booby-traps-to-defeat-an-enemy. That is a very tired overdone cliche that should just be retired, and besides, the single best executed version of it ever was in Return of the Jedi so just, don't even try.
But back to things I liked, it was fun seeing lots of "old friends" from the original trilogy era. Maybe I am a bit just that crochety old man who is just too bonded to the original because it really made me happy to see storm troopers in "original" armor, and other familiar aliens, vehicles, and things. Jawas! IG-98 or 88 or whatever his number was! TIE fighters that don't have lasers on the back or anything funny like that! Actually when that TIE folded its wings and landed that was a never-before-seen trait but considering the established folding wings on other craft it seemed perfectly acceptable to me. I even happily accepted those black-clad storm troopers from Rogue One (that was, after all, another acceptable movie).
In conclusion, I loved it, for once I think something Star Wars has _fully_ lived up to the quality of the original series, and will totally re-subscribe to Disneyplus for the duration of next Mandalorian season ;)