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Author Topic: The Mandalorian  (Read 130555 times)
Tale
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Reply #280 on: January 20, 2020, 10:03:41 PM

Started watching this, watched ep 4 last night.

I wish I was a fly on the wall in the storyboard meeting when someone said "Let's have our Boba Fett and a baby Yoda go defend a native american village".  So bizarre.

Star wars is supposed to have moral grey areas and character development, not just comic book level plotting, jokes and action scenes.  That's what's missing, there's no tension, no conflict, no point to any of it.  Just a pretty shiny man and a cute doll doing random shit.  Sometimes really really random.  They fail at storytelling 101.

It's damn pretty though, love the art in the end credits every episode.  I'm definitely watching the last 4.  Wish it was better.

I thought it was more like a village from a Vietnam War movie. Episode 4 seemed pretty lazy to me as a fan of the original Magnificent Seven (I've seen Seven Samurai and the Magnificent Seven remake and think early Hollywood did the best job).

But yeah I meant to say I too appreciated the art in the end credits.
Johny Cee
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Reply #281 on: January 20, 2020, 10:40:54 PM

That is one of the more common complaints about the show -- that the middle episodes (4 - 6) did very little if anything to advance the main story line. If you can make it through them, though, you will be rewarded.


The middle episodes helped the pacing and established why Mando has to go back, dropped relevant world detail, fleshed out his backstory, and introduced future recurring characters.

1. He can't just disappear to a random planet, because he will be tracked down.
2. He can't just hook up with his old merc buddies, because he will be betrayed (and maybe the New Republic will be looking for him.)
3. He can't expect to work as a bounty hunter because his rep is out there and the jobs will dry up/he will be betrayed.

So when he goes back to the original planet it feels like he's exhausted his other options, and that the situation has naturally evolved.  It doesn't feel like he's going back because the script or episode count is saying that "its time for the big end of season action set piece!"  Too many shows now try to do serial story telling but wind up locked in an awkward holding pattern where you don't get to breathe but are just passing time until episode 8 or 9 when the final arc actually kicks in. 
Hoax
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Reply #282 on: January 22, 2020, 11:36:12 AM

I had a discussion the other day wishing there had been /more/ content and the #1 thing I could think of was how the Magnificent Seven arc could have been at least an additional ep without feeling bloated. Could have devoted at least half an ep to the hunter sniper that was tracking him, fleshed out the raiders and the planet/village a bit more, had the raiders show up demanding their tax, get rebuffed, then come back for the big bad fight etc.

Another thing that I wanted more of was the young punk and the assassin storyarc. That felt rushed. There was plenty of time for more of that.

Obviously they could have sent Mando on random time waster missions with Burr and the gang for days for all I care as well.  DRILLING AND WOMANLINESS

A nation consists of its laws. A nation does not consist of its situation at a given time. If an individual's morals are situational, then that individual is without morals. If a nation's laws are situational, that nation has no laws, and soon isn't a nation.
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Sky
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Reply #283 on: January 22, 2020, 12:44:51 PM

+1 to those last two posts.

Hell, Bill Burr was brilliant and def. could've been in a few more episodes without losing interest. I felt the pacing of the entire season was perfect, because it left me wanting more.

Vs the slog of Punisher season 2, which I'm trying to get through all the filler nonsense. Mandalorian > all the Netflix Marvel stuff imo, and a lot of that is due to pacing.
Khaldun
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Reply #284 on: January 22, 2020, 01:12:51 PM

That's a great comparison. It's why I gave up on the Netflix shows despite having all the good will in the world towards them: they're all a chore to get through because of terrible pacing.
Rishathra
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Reply #285 on: January 22, 2020, 01:24:02 PM

Being reminded of Bill Burr's performance, I've realized that I would absolutely love a spinoff show with him, Clancy Brown, and Natalia Tena just wandering around stirring shit up and stealing stuff.  Or maybe, since they were stuck on that prisoner transport, make the show Space Oz.

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Reply #286 on: January 23, 2020, 05:41:25 AM

That's a great comparison. It's why I gave up on the Netflix shows despite having all the good will in the world towards them: they're all a chore to get through because of terrible pacing.

I stopped watching the Marvel shows with Cage. That shit was bad.
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Reply #287 on: January 24, 2020, 06:32:44 AM

I've watched a lot of TV in my years, and I believe this is Great Classic TV. We have all seen or made the comparisons. Possibly in 2020 there is too much terrible/wackadoo/mind-blowing TV inside some minds to get back to well-executed basics and enjoy. Like Randy Marsh and his porn, some people can't go back to regular old fucking.

While I'm absolutely guilty of this, having watched most major shows since The Honeymooners, the combination of tropes from shows I loved in the past with a modern visual and professional execution just hits all the checkboxes.

For bias considerations: I loved the monster-of-the-week episodes of X-Files more than the main plot(s). I wanted there to be another 8 episodes of weekly adventures. It's not like I have to get out a notepad to follow the main arc, which is great.

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Reply #288 on: January 24, 2020, 07:33:42 AM

This is great TV, but I'm not sure if this is classic yet. I have to see how they handle the popularity and see how they expand the story and if it has legs.

If they keep the scope small, keep the view point simple and intimate then they have a good chance for this being a show for the decade.

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Reply #289 on: January 24, 2020, 07:58:41 AM



For bias considerations: I loved the monster-of-the-week episodes of X-Files more than the main plot(s). I wanted there to be another 8 episodes of weekly adventures. It's not like I have to get out a notepad to follow the main arc, which is great.

That's a good comparison. This show is exactly what I wanted out of 'new' Star Wars.

When the third trilogy was announced I didn't think it was going to work out well. What I wanted was more like a comic book and less epic adventure. Something like following adventures of a bounty hunter or a Jedi Master and apprentice. Hint at interactions with epic parts of the movie, but don't directly interact with it.

And for all the memes and chatter, the child is really, really fucking cute. They are doing a great job with it.
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Reply #290 on: January 24, 2020, 07:59:27 AM

I also want more than 8 eps per year  awesome, for real

XFiles had 20+
Cyrrex
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Reply #291 on: January 24, 2020, 08:06:55 AM

And longer episodes.  And shorter breaks between seasons, I'm not getting any younger motherfuckers.

In related news, the Obi Wan series appears to be heading in to trouble.

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Sky
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Reply #292 on: January 24, 2020, 08:31:19 AM

This is great TV, but I'm not sure if this is classic yet. I have to see how they handle the popularity and see how they expand the story and if it has legs.

If they keep the scope small, keep the view point simple and intimate then they have a good chance for this being a show for the decade.


If it got cancelled after one season, it would be the new Firefly. I think that's compelling enough to push it into classic territory.

I wish the New Canon crew could get some actors, direction, and writing that can rival the scenes with Han and Leia. For me (and my non-nerdy fiancee), those two are a lot of what keeps ANH and ESB (and especially RotJ) heads and shoulders above all other SW. There have been some good moments and promise, but those simple scenes still resonate with a human element that hasn't been hit since.
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Reply #293 on: January 24, 2020, 08:54:28 AM

Everyone loved monster-of-the-week X-Files more than the "main plot" aka "mythology" episodes, with a couple of exceptions.

But I do think people have reasonable expectations now for narrative movement and character development over the course of a series to a greater degree than they once did, and I think that's because the contrivances of a long-running series where the only time people ever change is through evil twins, mirror universes, time travel (that gets reversed), dream sequences and so on get to be just too frustrating. They accumulate like arterial blockages.
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Reply #294 on: January 24, 2020, 09:05:37 AM

Everyone loved monster-of-the-week X-Files more than the "main plot" aka "mythology" episodes, with a couple of exceptions.

I'm the exception. Don't get me wrong, there were some memorable, amazing monter of the week episodes, but I turned in for as long as I did for the meta plot. And I was furious at how shit that turned out to be.

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Reply #295 on: January 24, 2020, 10:20:43 AM

I was about to wager cold American money that if anyone didn't like monster-of-the-week X-Files, they would be on this board.

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Reply #296 on: January 24, 2020, 11:54:05 AM

Oddly enough, Grimm did that same thing... started off with the monster-of-the-week routine and I watched pretty faithfully. I assume this is because they weren't sure the public would watch the show, but once it caught a following, they decided to start a main story arch built off a few threads in the first season. But since I remembered the same thing happening in X-files, I stopped watching. For me, I didn't know any better and let the main story kill my love for the show with the way it progressed and devolved. I wasn't going down that road again...

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Tale
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Reply #297 on: January 24, 2020, 01:09:47 PM

I was about to wager cold American money that if anyone didn't like monster-of-the-week X-Files, they would be on this board.

It me.

I'm with Haemish. Mulder's sister, aliens and the smoking man. What is with this monster of the week delaying the story!
« Last Edit: January 24, 2020, 01:12:40 PM by Tale »
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Reply #298 on: January 24, 2020, 01:52:06 PM

Many of the stand-alone episodes were great the but the ones I would talk about with other friends watching were the mythology ones. Those were the ones that kept our interest going in the show.
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Reply #299 on: January 24, 2020, 01:53:15 PM

Man X-Files was so good. I loved the main story eps more than most monster of the week eps but really I loved both. I'd say I'm more of a overall story guy though.

A nation consists of its laws. A nation does not consist of its situation at a given time. If an individual's morals are situational, then that individual is without morals. If a nation's laws are situational, that nation has no laws, and soon isn't a nation.
-William Gibson
jgsugden
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Reply #300 on: January 24, 2020, 03:46:42 PM

And no reference to Lost?

2020 will be the year I gave up all hope.
Khaldun
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Reply #301 on: January 25, 2020, 05:43:42 AM

Well, if on one hand audiences have learned to expect some kind of narrative movement and character arcs in a long-running series, Lost (and other shows like Twin Peaks) also trained a lot of folks to expect series writers to have an actual fucking plan in mind. There is nothing worse than the disappointment you feel watching a "mystery box" series when it turns out they never had any idea in the first place what the answers were. You can kind of forgive it when the showrunner does actually know where it's going but has to adapt because some of the cast leaves or the network messes with it--the pacing of late season 4 Babylon 5 and the telepath plot and new horrible captain of the first half of Season 5 is a good example. I hate it but I understand why it happened. But when a showrunner or writer starts a pot to boiling but doesn't know what they're going to do with the hot water, that's fucking bad.

Like, in this case, I really hope they have a few ideas about who/what Baby Yoda is. Is he a clone? Are ALL of the Yoda-people Force-sensitives? Why doesn't anyone know who Yoda's people were? I don't care if they don't know all the answers yet but I hope they aren't going to just wing it, either.

I could see a lot of ways for this all to go--mostly episode Lone Wolf and Cub; evolving slowly into a Star Wars version of the A-Team--a rival mini-guild against the Bounty Hunters' Guild; delving deeper into the underworld elements of Star Wars; etc.  But I would like it to feel like there's a plot thread bigger than just caper-of-the-week and so far that's exactly how it feels.
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Reply #302 on: January 25, 2020, 06:03:21 AM

They apparently have a plan based upon a few statements by Favreau and Filloni.  

However, There is a chance they're going down very difficult paths...  Hopefully, things like this are entire BS.
« Last Edit: January 25, 2020, 07:10:34 AM by jgsugden »

2020 will be the year I gave up all hope.
eldaec
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Reply #303 on: January 25, 2020, 07:10:28 AM

Hmm, Filoni isn't really all that great at the higher concept thing. The forcey worcey episodes of rebels were not amazing.

Personally I wish they'd just say the galaxy is big enough for something like this to be its own thing.

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Reply #304 on: January 25, 2020, 10:22:31 AM

They apparently have a plan based upon a few statements by Favreau and Filloni.  

However, There is a chance they're going down very difficult paths...  Hopefully, things like this are entire BS.

VaderNOOOOO.gif

Khaldun
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Reply #305 on: January 25, 2020, 03:38:16 PM

If that happens (and it's probably bunk) it will be because there is a cover-your-ass thing going on among the suits--kind of equivalent to the reaction at WB after Batman V. Superman where they tried to act like everything was going COMPLETELY TO PLAN and then leaned on other creative people they had on the hook to Snyder-up everything in the hopper to make the corporate line look true. If that happens here, then Star Wars really deserves to just fucking crash and burn once and for all. Forcing the dumb bullshit of the sequels into Mandalorian in any significant way would be like corporate WB telling Patty Jenkins on seeing a first cut of Wonder Woman to put a grimdark filter over it all, drop the trench warfare scene, have a weird bad cameo of Steppenwolf, etc.
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Reply #306 on: January 25, 2020, 06:21:27 PM

Incorporating those elements into the Mandalorian would be very hard to do without it being real bad.  However, even if they confirmed it was true, I'd still be looking forward to the season to see if they could pull it off.

2020 will be the year I gave up all hope.
BobtheSomething
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Reply #307 on: January 30, 2020, 12:20:01 PM

Everyone loved monster-of-the-week X-Files more than the "main plot" aka "mythology" episodes, with a couple of exceptions.

I'm the exception. Don't get me wrong, there were some memorable, amazing monter of the week episodes, but I turned in for as long as I did for the meta plot. And I was furious at how shit that turned out to be.

I felt the same way.  I wanted to know the backstory.  The cancer man episodes were what hooked me, not repetitive “we somehow lost all the evidence” monster episodes.  It was around the time Kryczek showed up with a fake hand and no one took the opportunity to ask hi what the hell was actually going on that I realized the show was never going to go anywhere, and I stopped watching.  I tuned in for the series finale, and it really pissed me off.
Sky
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Reply #308 on: March 09, 2020, 11:34:10 AM

TIL this show was shot using the Unreal Engine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUnxzVOs3rk
jgsugden
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Reply #309 on: March 09, 2020, 02:54:03 PM

TIL this show was shot using the Unreal Engine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUnxzVOs3rk
Yeah - and when you look at how well it worked, you can expect that a massive number of shows are going to follow

2020 will be the year I gave up all hope.
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Reply #310 on: March 09, 2020, 03:05:30 PM

Soooooo

I was involved in some discussions with Lucas Arts about 5 years ago. Saw some "stuff". They were using EA's Frostbite engine for several demos that we saw. They said they intended to move towards "game engines" for a lot of "drama creation". Not surprised they are using that engine.
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Reply #311 on: March 09, 2020, 03:24:14 PM

Star wars is supposed to have moral grey areas

 awesome, for real


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Sky
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Reply #312 on: September 02, 2020, 08:41:27 AM

October 30
jgsugden
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Reply #313 on: September 02, 2020, 11:08:22 AM

October 30
Then Nov 6, then the 13th... Weekly release schedule will be hard to endure...

2020 will be the year I gave up all hope.
Sky
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Reply #314 on: September 02, 2020, 11:15:53 AM

I was happy they went that direction, I enjoy having a weekly fix. Not even close to being a binger.
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