Star Wars The Mandalorian Season 2 - Review

When the first season of The Mandalorian wrapped, I was not that enamoured with the show, it had a lot of potential, but I often found myself wishing there were more to it. They could spend entire episodes drawing out a single narrative thread, that didn’t have any impact on the overall story, with that being said, Season 2 had to do a lot to impress and it did, from the outset to the very end.

I will lay it out here, there will be spoilers ahead, so fair warning.

The task that Din Djarin, or as he is known to most, Mando, had ahead of him in Season 2 was ambitious, he had to return the Child to his own kind, without any leads to go on. Heck we didn’t even know if it was going to be the Jedi or the actual race of beings that he and Yoda, Vandar Tokare and Yaddle belong to and the show did not waste time. One of the most exciting things from the trailer was that there was some kind of fight and that was revealed to be within the first few minutes of the first episode, showing that this was not going to be a season of build up, they were hitting the ground running. Once Mando had his information it was back to Tattooine, because yes, people can’t be hiding out on other planets in the Star Wars universe, but it lead us to the amazing fight against a Krayt dragon, which had only been seen as a skeleton in the original movie. But it was the end of that episode, with Mando speeding back to town and figure clad in black, overlooking him that built things up further, a scared man, who looked a lot like the clones was watching him and many believed and rightly so, that it was Boba Fett, a fact that would not be confirmed until many episodes later.

With that mission over, Mando had his next objective in sight, but he had to first play airline pilot to a critter who wanted to reunite with her husband and raise their young together, this lead to perhaps the weakest episode in the series, the one with the massive spiders. The Krykna, for that is their name, were all asleep in their pods until The Child, did what all youngsters do and put things in his mouth and that woke them up. The reason that I didn’t like that episode was that it simply didn’t need to be there, it didn’t push the overall story ahead, it did introduce a new character, played by the talented Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, but even that could have been tacked onto the end of the previous episode or the start of the next. If you were to cut that episode from the show, you wouldn’t lose anything and that is best exemplified by the fact that each of the other episodes pushes the story forward, whilst expanding the characters ever further. By the time that we finally get to encounter one of the few force wielding folks of the galaxy, everything feels like it is wrapping up, which of course is a lie, as things never seem to go Mando’s way, unless that is the way everything is meant to go for him.

The other episode that offered very little was the one that had Mando, Cara Dune, Greef Karga and that blue alien from the first moments of the first episode. It did help add a lot of narrative plot elements, which was nice, but the entire raid of an ‘old imperial’ facility was unneeded, but as it was not the entire point of the episode, I can somewhat live with it. My reason for bringing these two episodes up is not to pick faults at the show, there are countless of those, but it is to highlight that this is not meant to be a show about an ensemble cast, which can be confusing for some, when you consider the fact that the promotional work was done by a few actors prior to the show starting. I have no issues with recurring characters, Carl Weathers was a solid addition to his episode, both acting in it, and directing it, but if they had of added him to more, just for the sake of it, it would have diminished his overall impact. That was the way I felt for most of the season, when characters that made recurring appearances again, which was not helped by Bill Burr appearing in a main role for the penultimate episode. I have nothing against him personally, as a comedian he can be very funny, but his character was one of the more annoying in the first season and I wasn’t thrilled to have him back, he did however have a redeeming moment, when he told Mando that he would not tell anyone that he took his helmet off, which seemed odd, with how the final episode played out.

Leaving story and characters aside for a moment, lets talk action, there was a lot more of it this time, than there was in the first season and I honestly put that down to the show knowing what it wanted to do, something the first season struggled with. The other reason that it likely saw an increases was the more significant use of the Stagecraft tech, that giant room made of screens, which allowed for more dog fights in space and such. While some of the action was restrictive in how it was done, there was still a lot of fresh things to see, like the convoy raid in the second last episode or speeder bike chase in the fourth episode of the season. That in particular helped make Stormtroopers cool again, well, as cool as they could be, but there is without a doubt, the best action was when Boba Fett made his return. Of course it was teased in the first episode and finally seeing to get come to reality was a real treat, even if there are countless questions as to how he escaped, why he gave up his armour and just why he saved Fennec Shand.

The action in the sixth episode, aptly called ‘The Tragedy’ was made even more impressive by the fact that it gave Boba Fett a chance to kick ass and not merely look impressive near a wall, but it was also directed by Robert Rodriguez, known for his action. But it was also the first time that we got a sense that the Empire, or whatever they are calling themselves now, might be just as dangerous as they once were, given that they not only kidnapped the child, but also blew up the Razorcrest. If the opening on the season was more like the tasting plate at a fancy restaurant, then the last three episodes could be considered the suckling pig of the meal, grand, decadent and utterly delicious. Each episode where action was a focus, felt grounded, there was more visceral connection to it and with that connection, came understanding, the penultimate episode alone gives amazing context to that. While Episode VIII The Last Jedi attempted to delve into the larger world of Star Wars, it felt a little out of place to the story that we were being shown, however in The Believer, we got a more in touch sense of that. Not only were the people that lived on the planet impacted by the presence of the Empire leftovers, but those very same soldiers were also humanised in their sense of joy at seeing one of their transports make it through. The action felt connected to the world, not just to the main characters or even the side ones, but that each action taken, impacted the greater universe and it was something I was happy to see.

The downside though, apart from those moments I listed above, comes from the very technology that makes the show possible, Stagecraft, or if you prefer The Volume. The technology that powers it, is incredibly impressive, getting photo realistic locations to appear on a video wall, that can be filmed is amazing and when it works, it works wonderfully. The problem is, you can almost always tell when they are filming in there, because each location has a sense of shape to it, in order to fit into the rounded location. The episode that brought Ashoka Tano back to fans and in live action for the first time, had some amazing sets and was perhaps the first time that the inspiration for a lot of the Star Wars ideologies, being Samurai movies, was shown on screen with that incredible town, the problem is that each of the locations only goes so far, before the screens take over. While Mando was sitting with Ashoka and they were discussing Grogu, or the Child if you prefer, you could see where they had attempted to hide the screens from the real life set and this was just one of many times that happened. I love the idea of the screens, but they need to stop having locations that fit into it, just for the sake of using it.

The other concern with the series was that there were a lot of new characters introduced, which is not a bad thing per say, but the amount of characters was more from other Star Wars shows and movies, like Boba Fett and Ashoka Tano. While I am not opposed to those characters coming into the show, it feels like they are opening the door to way more lore being dumped into he show than many might be expecting and I am left hoping that they don’t do too much. The fact that Ashoka is getting her own show, hopefully means that the tease of Grand Admiral Thrawn will play out there, rather than in The Mandalorian. Even just the addition of one of the three, yes three, again spoilers ahead, would have been enough, ending the season with Luke Skywalker appearing on screen, having his Vader in Rogue One moment, could have been epic and let’s be honest it was, but there was no reason it couldn’t have been the only one. The problem is, Luke and Boba got their moments in the spotlight, but Ashoka didn’t her fight was honestly more like Obi-Wan and Vader in the Death Star than their Mustafar fight and it really sucked because of it, here is a character that is meant to be incredible with dual Lightsabers and that was the fight we got.

From a presentation point of view, the show managed to increase its quality ever slow slightly, but again, the reliance on those screens also meant a lot of the visuals started to look videogame like and as someone who plays games, it is easy to spot. A lot of new and returning creature effects, including the Child were as wonderful here as they were in season one, though the hands of the frog lady will always stand out to me as gloves and nothing more. We got a lot more variety in locations this time, which meant more new looks from the Star Wars universe, and apparently Quarren’s like to buy their sweaters on earth. I do have an issues with Fett’s armour, it was all beat up one episode and then fixed the next, which is fine, but Mando could not locate any other Mandalorians, which likely includes the armorer from the first season, so how was it repaired and if someone pitches the idea that Boba was spray painting and repairing his own armour, I will ignore them completely. We got some new Empire looks, including the return of the sand-coloured Stormtroopers from Rogue One, but it would have been nice to see some damage and wear and tear on their gear and ships, given that their military might has been crippled in this New Republic.

There are some odd visuals, though we won’t count the guy in jeans hanging out in the background, the bad visuals are just around things that we know should look one way, but end up looking another. The best example of this is the final scenes, when Luke takes down the many Dark Trooper droids that are between him and the bridge. While the Dark Troopers look fine, there is something off on them that makes them feel disconnected from the world and while seeing them get sliced in half is great, there is no avoiding that the face revealed is a very bad CGI one of Mark Hamill. This is not the first time that Star Wars has done CGI faces for actors, but strangely it is the worst and given the Princess Leia at the end of Rogue One, that is saying something. The face looks like Mark Hamill at the end of Return of the Jedi, which given this show is set only a few years later, makes sense, but there is a massive and obvious disconnect between it and the rest of the shots, seeing it makes it easier to understand. I know as a TV show, there are limits to what they can do, but this was one of those shots that should have been done better and it just hurts the tender moment that the scene is attempting to portray.

Season 2 of The Mandalorian was able to build upon what came before it and trim most of the fat and while it did manage to achieve some epic fights, character moments and touching themes, it still had episodes that felt out of place. The addition of three major characters was a nice surprise, even if one was teased a fair amount ahead of time, but given how the season ended, there is no doubt we shall see more of one of them. Visually, there are issues, the reliance on videowalls has made many of their locations predictable, given there is little space to work within them and then once you spot the break between real and screen, you can’t unsee it. There are some excellent outdoor shots and a few cool shoot outs, which help balance it, but I would really love to see less of it going forward.

When the final scene faded to blank at the end of the last episode of the season, I was blown away by what it meant for the future, but I was content with how the season played out, something that the first didn’t make me feel. The future of Star Wars is looking bright on the small screen and given the number of other shows coming, this is a good thing.