The Mandalorian
Created by Jon Favreau
Based on Star Wars
by George Lucas
Written by Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, Rick Famuyiwa, Christopher Yost
Directed by Dave Filoni, Rick Famuyiwa, Deborah Chow, Bryce Dallas Howard, Taika Waititi
Starring Pedro Pascal
Costarring Carl Weathers as Greef Karga, Werner Herzog as “The Client,” Omid Abtahi[10] as Dr. Pershing, Nick Nolte as the voice of Kuiil, Taika Waititi as the voice of IG-11,[8] Gina Carano as Carasynthia “Cara” Dune, Amy Sedaris as Peli Motto, Jake Cannavale as Toro Calican,Ming-Na Wen as Fennec Shand, Mark Boone Junior as Ranzar “Ran” Malk, Bill Burr as Mayfeld, Natalia Tena as Xi’an, Clancy Brown as Burg, Richard Ayoade as the voice of Q9-0, Ismael Cruz Córdova as Qin, Giancarlo Esposito as Moff Gideon, Emily Swallow as The Armorer,
Yes, it’s Star Wars. Takes place sometime between the end of the original trilogy and the start of the second (or so I’m told; I lost track parsecs ago). It does differ from Star Wars in that it has a more clever humor (no Jar-Jar Amos ‘N Andy routines) and the dialogue is clever and often witty.
It’s about a bounty hunter, a so-called Mandalorian, who are a guild of samurai-like warriors who like their historical counterparts, aren’t above a little bounty hunting and assassinations in order to make ends meet.
They have a full helmet that completely conceals their faces with slits for eyes that pretty much guarantee that they haven’t seen their feet in twenty years. They aren’t allowed to take their helmets off, you see, which means that shampooing, shaving and dental care are all unknown habits to them. At least, so it would seem.
They wear suits that have a respectable arsenal on board, and have fighting techniques that would make a Jedi master groan in envy.
This particular Mandalorian ends up with a 50 year old toddler who is the same species as Yoda, only he’s cute and cuddly and not evil like THE Yoda. (And how come my spell checker recognizes Yoda, but not Obama?) Fans of the show immediately nicknamed the thing “Baby Yoda” even though Yoda at that point was actually about 800 years old.
It actually makes fun of itself in some surprisingly sly ways. In the final episode, two Imperial stormtroopers, stuck on baby-sitting detail and bored off their tits, start shooting their side arms at a bottle a dozen feet from them. After about 15 round each, the bottle remains intact. Neither of them find this remarkable or worth commenting on, but it gives a humorous twist to the notion that when around Imperial Stormtroopers, the safest thing you can be is the target.
It’s a clever show, with a cast of generally delightful and engrossing side characters. The humor is often sly, especially with the anonymous and monotonal Mandalorian.
Now on Disney.