The Mandalorian (Season 3)

⭐ 5.5/10

(Originally written by Tim)

Truly devastated at the plummet this show took in my mind. I could go on and on about the negatives. Introducing all these new characters that all suck and aren't interesting. Making the story about a group of people reclaiming a home world that we have no interest or connection in. Calling the Marvel wing of Disney and being told "oh ya, you gotta end the season with a CGI barf-fest of a battle that takes place in the air".

Does this show even care about its titular character anymore? Because previous season were about, you know The Mandalorian. They made him look cool, maybe incompetent at times, but a cowboy/samurai in space protecting an adorable baby. I guess it was too successful so they decided to turn it into Kenobi or Boba Fett, two shows that are absolutely atrocious. This season strays so far from what I thought made it good. Its a fantasy series, I get that you need to use the whole galaxy and introduce more people with their own stories, but my goodness they went with the most boring option for all of these.

Bo Katan is a main character now, which is cool because I have seen her in the cartoons that I like. But she is so flat and uninspiring, I just have no reason to root for her. All her dialogue is exposition, explaining to the baby what is obviously happening, all for the sake of the audience. I have seen the cartoons and even I was bored by the plight of the Mandalorian people, since I barely understood what it was in either medium. Just a completely uninteresting direction for this to take.

The season started with 2 mundane episodes that felt like covid productions, vacuous empty sets with very few people, not feeling like an imaginative galaxy in any way. But after the second I felt inspired, they got a big story beat out of the way and the season could now be whatever it wants to be going forward, endless opportunity. Well, they squandered it.

What about bringing back characters we have seen, like Timothy Olyphant or Bill Burr, heck even Luke? Nah. What about digging into Grogu's past, why we found him in episode 1 being experimented on? Sure, but that just means the millionth Order 66 flashback with a meaningless cameo, and a villain monologue that is given when he explains his whole secret plan. Oh the villain we conquered last season? He's back. It's not Palpatine, but it had this feeling.

Just when Andor restored my faith, they went and botched this season right after what I thought was an exciting and climactic Season 2 finale. Heck, I loved the episodes about Mando that were in the Boba Fett show! I am baffled about how far this show has fallen, and for those of you that would say it has always been bad you are wrong. Maybe the problem is me. I like a story about a protector guarding a cute child as they go on week to week adventures and he levels up his armour or spaceship like a video game. They tried to subvert that formula completely and here we are with a 5.5. Baby Yoda is cute, put him on screen for me, rant over.