The Mandalorian airs new episodes weekly via the Disney+ streaming service and comes to the UK in March 2020.
Synopsis
Target in-hand, the Mandalorian must now contend with scavengers.
Review
After what felt, to me, like a rocky start The Mandalorian finally began to grab me with its second episode. Problem was that just as it was gaining my attention it feel drastically short of a satisfying runtime,
In discussing episode one (reviewed here) I criticised The Mandalorian for not giving enough context to its characters. Instead the show chose to dive head first into its story and left me feeling perplexed as to why I needed to care about any of its characters.
But following the cliffhanger ending featuring a youngling from Yoda’s race I felt the show had begun to do something special. It felt like there was a sudden, tangible connection to the Star Wars universe which gave the show some much needed purpose.
Episode two capitalises on that connection by focussing on these two unlikely leads and turning the series in to an odd-couple-cum-buddy-cop story.
It relies heavily on the cuteness factor of Baby Yoda and the intrigue which comes with seeing a character directly tied back to the main franchise. Not that Pedro Pascal isn’t a compelling characters the titular Mandalorian, I just don’t feel I know anything about him and have yet to be given a reason to care for his character.
As the two journey back to his ship and then attempt to rescue the stolen parts from the Jawas there’s a clear bond between them. There’s also some great physical comedy purely from seeing the young creature floating around in his orb.
But there is a wider purpose to all this. After a couple of tough scrapes the young creature shows that he knows the ways of the force when he saves the Mandalorian from a large-horned, cave dwelling beast.
Everything in The Mandalorian is very matter of fact. It happens simply because the story requires it to happen and whilst I, once again, cannot fault a single aspect of the production, the story fails to ignite and give the audience a reason to care.
But perhaps the biggest drawback is the episodes runtime. Billed as 32 minutes the end credits begin to rule shortly after the 28 minute mark, falling well short of expectations. It ultimately leaves this second chapter feeling like the final act of episode one and is an absolute head scratcher of a moment.
Although we are only two episodes in there’s a complete lack of narrative flow because of this haphazard runtime. Just when I was beginning to warm to the show it know feels like an unknown and unquantifiable entity and whilst I want to learn more I’m cautious about what is to come in the remaining six episodes.
Verdict
The second episode of Disney+’s flagship show hangs very much on its connection to the wider Star Wars universe. It continues to feature high production values but falls short of greatness at only 28mins of story time.
6/10
Written by Iron Man‘s Jon Favreau, The Mandalorian stars Pedro Pascal, Gina Carano, Carl Weathers, Giancarlo Esposito, Emily Swallow, Omid Abtahi, Werner Herzog and Nick Nolte. The series debuts new episodes weekly on Disney+.
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