The Mandalorian

[jgsugden]

Hey, her line is on the verge of extinction for a reason.  Still, eating the young of a sentient race is darker than I expected.  I thought we'd get a reveal at the end of the episode, after all of the eggs in the container were gone, that he had not digeste them, ut instead was just keeping the last few safe inside of him.  Corny, and a bad choice, but I thought it more likely than eating a sentient offspring.

And Momma not noticing that eggs were missing?  Huh.

This was directed by Peyton Reed, and written by Favreau with credit to Lucas.  I feel like Reed had a stronger hand in the story than Favreau for those parts.

[Draegan]

I'm with Threash on this one. Just felt like bad writing to me. Can't really try to make us empathize with the frog lady afraid of her line dying out and than repeatedly playing it for laughs with scenes of the child eating the eggs. It would probably bother me even more but the whole episode was kinda crap really. Not much progressed with the overall story arc. Not much progressed with the characters. A more self-contained episode is fine, especially at this point in the season, but even then the plot can be summed us as Mando crashing on an ice planet and fighting some spider creatures. Probably the worst episode of the series to me so far.

I had the same exact thoughts when talking with a friend about it.

Terrible episode.
Nothing happened except his ship getting fucked up.
We have only 8 episodes and this was completely wasted.

If this was a 20+ episode per season show like XFiles this would have been an amazing monster of the week show. But it's not.

edit:
I get that this is an episodic show, but if you're not going to move the story arc forward then you need some kind of character development or introduce a new character or reconnect with an old one.

[Velorath]

Uh, this is clearly an episodic more than serial show so I never get that criticism.  The overall plot is really simple (take thing A to unknown point B) and just a tool to hang a bunch of weekly adventures on.

And if you have the future of your "line" then don't leave it just sitting around alone or take it for a walk in an unknown environment. Some species deserve extinction for being evolutionarily stupid.

Like I said, self-contained episodes are fine, although I think the first season had maybe 2 episodes that didn't advance the overall season arc or at least introduce some character who would be important later (maybe the Frog woman will be a recurring character but I doubt it). As a stand-alone there was just not much to this episode. Mando crashes, needs to repair his ship, fights off local spider creatures, gets rescued by New Republic or whatever fighter pilots, takes off in heavily damaged ship. Frog creature isn't particularly memorable. The spider-monster isn't very interesting. There's no twists, no interesting character moments. It's the equivalent of a random encounter in an rpg.

What did you like about the episode aside from it being another episode of The Mandalorian?

[Abagadro]

What did you like about the episode aside from it being another episode of The Mandalorian?

I thought BY was hilarious and cute. The first ambush fight was cool with a funny resolution with the Jawa thief and the jetpack.  I thought it was awesome when the space cops switched to a 2nd channel and then just silently extended the X-foils into attack position.  The space/atmo chase was cool.  The practical creature work was great.  The Alien homage of the spider eggs was nice. The "spiders" were cool and that third act was a great action scene where Mando actually has to be saved which is unusual as he is usually unstoppable. They tied back to the prison break ep to re-orient Mando with respect to how the New Republic views him (i.e. honorable outlaw).

It was fun adventure in the SW universe with some easter eggs for hardcore fans, which is basically all I want from the show.   

[MahrinSkel]

It was a  monster of the week episode that didn't do anything for the meta but establish that Mando will never let anything bad happen to the Child, and the New Republic will turn a blind eye when needed. It was fun, had some great visuals, and kept me amused for an hour.

What the actual fuck? Not every episode has to be Art.

--Dave

[Velorath]

What the actual fuck? Not every episode has to be Art.

--Dave

Way to argue against something nobody said.

Edit: And again, don't have an issue with standalones or MOTW episodes. The previous episode could pretty much qualify as a MOTW episode, as a good chunk of revolved around dealing with a big fucking monster.

Ab at least articulated what he liked about the episode and fair enough. I didn't get out of it what he did but I can appreciate that he had a good time with it.

[eldaec]

I liked that episode more than almost any prior episode. Baby Yoda being a dick was mildly amusing and the first time he ever acted like a child. Admittedly fish lady not noticing was a bit weird. The scene with the robot voice was really well done. The visual effects were better than any prior episode, and the sequence with the xwings at the start was great.

I don't care about the lack of plot progress because this show has no overarching plot worth a damn and I am fine with that. Espeicially  given people were suggesting some god awful first order related plot might emerge this season.

[Threash]

Pretty sure she did notice, which is why she went in the hot spring to lay some more eggs.

[MediumHigh]

The problem with the mandalorian from season 1 is that you only needed to watch 3-4 episodes to get 100% of the plot. Half of season 2, if their simply copying and pasting from previous success, is bound to be filler.

[eldaec]

The problem with the mandalorian from season 1 is that you only needed to watch 3-4 episodes to get 100% of the plot. Half of season 2, if their simply copying and pasting from previous success, is bound to be filler.

I'm not certain that is a problem though.

[Samwise]

The problem with the mandalorian from season 1 is that you only needed to watch 3-4 episodes to get 100% of the plot. Half of season 2, if their simply copying and pasting from previous success, is bound to be filler.

I, too, hate it when a series isn't just a plot synopsis.

 

[MediumHigh]

The problem with the mandalorian from season 1 is that you only needed to watch 3-4 episodes to get 100% of the plot. Half of season 2, if their simply copying and pasting from previous success, is bound to be filler.

I'm not certain that is a problem though.

It is a problem if the filler episodes are mostly meh. I did like season 2 episode 2 and is pretty ok with it literally doing nothing for the plot but I'm not invested in mandalorian being the star wars that will save us all.

[eldaec]

On the whole I like this show less than the internet does.

But been surprised how many comments like this I've seen when season 1 was the same, only with slightly lower production values.

If you thought of S1 as meh, then I get it. I'm enjoying it, but like S1 my socks remain unblown-off. Just surprised to see S1 boosters also down on it.

[jgsugden]

Let's see if they are still meh at the end of the season.  I have a feeling we're treading a bit of water right now while building the anticipation towards the main thrust.

[Hammond]

Overall I liked the start of season 2. Baby Yoda eating the eggs of a sentient being was a bit dark for me considering how light the rest of the series has been.

[Phildo]

It's very possible that the ship getting beat to shit matters for the rest of the season.

[NowhereMan]

I enjoyed the episode, it might have set some things up but character wise I liked continued connection with the spaceport lady and the action scenes were well done. I really enjoyed the scene with frog lady using the droid's vocabulator, it was kind of the opposite of Jar Jar Binks with a character who seemed to be either dumb or agentless suddenly asserting herself because she has her own fucking 'quest' thank you very much.

Baby Yoda eating the eggs was weird but definitely was it clearly behaving like a child and could set up some questions about Mando's ability to parent. It was pretty clear baby Yoda only sees him as an authority insofar as he's a direct physical obstacle since he doesn't really reprimand the kid. The bit I found a bit creepy was the final one, after the lizard lady had very directly saved the kid's life. I thought there would be some sense of empathy/identification but nooooope (which is pretty true to children).

I can see some potential callbacks to come out of this (reappearance of the space cops, lizard lady and her droid/mechanical skills, damage to the ship driving the next few episodes) so I wouldn't dismiss it as purely monster of the week but also I think you can have a good series have a fair number of stand alone episodes if you are writing a show like that. 'Filler' episodes are a problem when you've got Battlestar Galactica or Lose where they are setting up grand narratives and the go ignore them for 3/4 of a series and rush to resolve them. When the 'grand narrative' is you are bringing a toddler back to his people then the journey itself needs to be interesting.

[Threash]

It's very possible that the ship getting beat to shit matters for the rest of the season.

Not just that but the story did not end, they never got to her husband.

[HaemishM]

Based on the way the kid was looking at the eggs and the way they framed his initial reaction to them (including the musical cues), I wouldn't be completely comfortable in saying he was EATING the eggs. I wouldn't put it past them to say that it could be using the Force to gestate them in some way.

Or it could just be a throwaway gag.

[lamaros]

I don't think there's anything you guys like talking about more than Star Wars.

[eldaec]

Based on the way the kid was looking at the eggs and the way they framed his initial reaction to them (including the musical cues), I wouldn't be completely comfortable in saying he was EATING the eggs. I wouldn't put it past them to say that it could be using the Force to gestate them in some way.

Or it could just be a throwaway gag.

Han shot first.

Baby Yoda was eating the eggs.

These are facts.

[Khaldun]

Maybe Baby Yoda can Force Poop fully gestated frogaliens and that will be the firing of the gun on the mantlepiece in the next act. Won't you all be surprised!

[jgsugden]

It's very possible that the ship getting beat to shit matters for the rest of the season.

Considering that it was almost entirely disassembled in season 1 and then rebuilt during the equivalent of an 80s workout montage while out in the wilderness, I do not think this should be a huge deal once they are back in port.

[Threash]

There's a difference between disassembled and wrecked though.

[Trippy]

Kuiil was a master mechanic as well.

[jgsugden]

... and a master mechanic in a desert is to be compared to his choice of mechanics from an entire planet.  It might be too expensive to fix, or something along those lines, but he sems to have had no trouble fixing his ship up to this point.

[Draegan]

I was also thinking the ship might be done for, but it would be weird because I think part of it is making the ship "iconic" for merch and promotional reasons.

[Threash]

Hasbro just sold almost 30000 of them at 350 a pop literally last night, be quite a kick in the nuts if they destroyed it lol.

[Khaldun]

There's a lot of copies of Death Stars and Superstar Destroyers and Enterprise-Cs out there. It's kind of the fate of a lot of iconic spaceships to get blown up. But I don't think this one has really had the chance to be iconic quite yet.

[MediumHigh]

It's basically a clone war gunship they probably got billions of those they would love to sell for 1000% profit at this point.

[Threash]

I meant this thing they sold on their kickstarter wanna be site.

[Polysorbate80]

.

[jgsugden]

I will happily pay too much for the inevitable Lego model that I can leave partially assembled in front of my Sandcrawler, with minifigure Mando threatening the Jawas 

https://smile.amazon.com/LEGO-Star-Wars-Mandalorian-Exclusive/dp/B0849GZMZH/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=star+wars+lego+mandalorian&qid=1605065942&sr=8-2

[Polysorbate80]

.

[Threash]

Thank you!  Telling the family what to get me for Christmas 

Tell them to hurry, Legos massively increase in price after selling out.