The Mandalorian

[swan_tower]

Last night we watched the first episode of the new Star Wars series, The Mandalorian. So far, color me . . . profoundly unimpressed.

The thought that kept running through my head as I watched it was, “This feels like it’s trying to soothe all the guys who are upset that somebody’s gotten girl cooties all over their Star Wars.” The episode is thirty-nine minutes long; two of those involve a female character. I guess it never occurred to Jon Favreau that this might be a problem? I know Gina Carano’s been cast in a major role, but a) we haven’t seen her yet and b) uh, this is 2019. Having a Smurfette does not really solve anything. Why wasn’t the guild official our title character is working with written as a woman instead? Or the mysterious person who hires him? Or the alien who guides him to where his target is? (That alien points out that the creatures they’re riding are all female. Maybe I was supposed to count that as representation.)

Meanwhile, the nameless protagonist is a full-on Clint Eastwood expy, now with bonus helmet so you can’t even see his facial expressions. (I pity Pedro Pascal; even the best actor in the world is going to have a hard time making a character interesting through a sheet of steel.) He is laconic and badass, and with those five words I’ve basically summed up his entire personality thus far. He shoots people a lot. A quote from an Entertainment Weekly article describes him as having “questionable moral character” — because yeah, that’s what I need more of in my life right now. Maybe he’ll grow and change over the course of the series, becoming a better person . . . but see above re: feeling like the mission here is to reassure Star Wars dudes that they need not fear being contaminated with any girl cooties.

I will give it this much credit: of the eight episodes in the first season, three are directed by women, and five by people of color. But since none of the scripts are written by women, and six of the eight are Favreau’s work — well, if this is a sample of what I should expect, then I’m not at all sure I care to continue.

Comments

[shadaras]

I love Star Wars, and I am so excited for Star Wars live action shows, and I have zero interest in The Mandalorian because... basically this, which I managed to gather without ever watching the episode.

I'm just, really impressed that they haven't even named the protag? Like, really?

Personally, I'm just going to read spoilers and not watch the show itself unless there's something that really grabs my attention.:/

[swan_tower]

I had hoped there might be more going on than the previews implied, because things have had bad previews before. But it's just . . . yeah.

Personally, I'm just going to read spoilers and not watch the show itself unless there's something that really grabs my attention.

I may go the route of asking my husband to tell me if it's worth coming back to, because he's enjoying it more than I am.

[shadaras]

I'm glad your husband is enjoying it, because some folk ought to. :)

[sovay]

“questionable moral character”

That strikes me as different from morally ambiguous and possibly less interesting to me.

[swan_tower]

Yes. "Morally ambiguous" would to me imply a character whose actions can be interpreted in different lights, depending on how charitable vs. cynical you want to be, and I could hope (with decent justification, because protagonist) that the charitable interpretation will turn out to be reasonably correct. But "questionable moral character" to me reads as code for "he's an asshole, but he'll do one or two good things that you're supposed to read as synecdoche for actual decency."

[havocthecat]

Sorry about the confusing comment. I mixed up my tabs. I was going to thank you for your review of The Mandalorian.

[swan_tower]

Haha, thanks for clearing that up! I saw the first email notification and was all, "uh, they're not leggings, they're more like full pants, and they're from Uniqlo, but how did you know to ask . . . ?"

Glad you liked the review!

[havocthecat]

I had another tab open from a friend who'd talked about the show and her fleece-lined leggings, I mean, it was super confusing, especially if you were sneaking onto your tabs from work in an open office floor plan like some of us might? Which I did. I'M SO SORRY! I lurk avidly, this was not the intro I wanted. (As you can see from my icon of shame.)

Also, now I'm thinking, hey, there's a Uniqlo in the mall near me, I should go there and look for fleece-lined pants this weekend, so. I guess my confusion got me a double rec.

But thank you for understanding! Hi, I'm Havoc, I've been reading your journal for years. I think first on LJ.

[swan_tower]

Belated reply, but welcome! And no worries about the confusion. :-)