“The Mandalorian” Chapter 1 Review by Josh Davis (SPOILERS) : Pop Culture Leftovers

“The Mandalorian” Chapter 1 Review by Josh Davis (SPOILERS)

Published by Leftover Brian

November 14, 2019 7:46 am |

“The Mandalorian” is the first-ever live action Star Wars television show, and it certainly looks the part. From the opening scene, it’s clear this is a big-budget space western that seamlessly combines the lived-in practical effects of the 1970s and the latest and greatest in CGI.

The title character, played by Pedro Pascal (Oberyn “The Red Viper” Martell from “Game of Thrones”), is an unnamed, faceless gunslinger in a lawless time set shortly after The Empire has fallen during “Return of the Jedi.” He doesn’t take his mask off in the first episode and barely speaks, but calmly tells his prey things like, “I can bring you in warm, or I can bring you in cold.”

In the opening scene, the Mandalorian walks into a bar not unlike the Mos Eisley cantina from “A New Hope,” and gets in a brief, but bloody barfight … not unlike the one in the Mos Eisley cantina from “A New Hope.”

The difference? Here, we watch a closing hatch slice a Quarren (squid person) clean in half. It’s almost like writer/creator Jon Favreau (“Iron Man”) and episode director Dave Filoni (“The Clone Wars”) are saying, “This one’s not for kids!”

After the Mandalorian delivers his bounties, he meets with Greef Carga (Carl Weathers, Apollo Creed from “Rocky IV”) in cantina even more evocative of the one in “A New Hope,” where he gets a lead on a mysterious new assignment.

After stopping off to grab a new piece of armor from a Mando hideout, where we learn our hero is an orphan or, here, a “foundling,” the Mandalorian meets “The Client” (German director Werner Herzog), his creepy scientist pal Dr. Pershing, and a small gang of dusty stormtroopers. Herzog, chewing so much scenery he won’t need to eat for days, is perfectly cast as a post-Imperial creep, and he hints toward the mysterious bounty that likely will be the series’ MacGuffin.

The Mandalorian, traveling next to an alien world, is assaulted by several Blurrgs (bipedal lizards with giant fish heads, or another excuse for a cool practical effect) and saved by none other than Nick Nolte, playing an Ugnaught named Kuiil.

Kuiil leads the way to secret base where a vicious gang of Weequay thugs (more weird aliens) guards the bounty, and here we meet future “The Mandalorian” episode director Taika Waititi as the droid bounty hunter IG-11.

Following some quippy banter, IG-11 and the Mandalorian decide to work together and split the profits, and they lay waste to about two-dozen Weequay in a fantastic action sequence before discovering their prize is … a baby Yoda?

To be fair, Star Wars cannon has never officially named the species but it’s a shock and, not to mention, about the cutest goddamn thing you’ll ever see.

What does it all mean? Is this the last of its species? Will the Mandalorian bond with a fellow orphan? And what do Werner Herzog and the creepy scientist want with it?

As IG-11 prepares to blast baby Yoda, the Mandalorian swiftly puts a bullet in his head, thus ending Waititi’s brief, but glorious career as a Star Wars character. The episode ends with our hero and his bounty tenderly reaching out to one another.

The pilot episode of “The Mandalorian” moves swiftly for a space western and packs a lot into its less than 40-minute runtime. For die-hard Star Wars fans, there’s an awful lot to like here and a lot of familiar faces:

An astromech droid! A gonk droid! A weird walrus monster!

A cantina full of weird aliens! Rodians! Trandoshans! Devaronians! (Those things with the devil horns — I had to look that last one up).
More Mandalorians! (Was that Boba Fett — or someone wearing his armor — just inside the door of the Mando hideout?)
Salacious Crumb roasting on a spit! “Life Day” is now cannon!

Stormtroopers! That eyeball tentacle monster from the door to Jabba’s Palace in “Return of the Jedi!” People speaking Huttese! And did I mention Kubaz?! (Those masked guys with elephant trunk noses).

Favreau and Filoni have done their homework and brought plenty of passion, talent and Disney money to the production. There’s comic relief, action, menace, intrigue, and a final scene that could have major implications on the larger Star Wars universe.

The show and its original-trilogy authenticity ought to go a long way toward reuniting at least a portion of the Star Wars fandom that fractured off after “Solo” and “The Last Jedi.”

The real question is, will the non-Star Wars fan care? “The Mandalorian” is gorgeous, well-acted and well-paced, but time will tell if anyone who can’t quote the original movies verbatim will care.

As for this Star Wars fan? This is the show I’m looking for.

PCL Rating: Tupperware

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: FRESH 🍅

*NOTE FROM THE EDITOR*

To be clear this is not actually Yoda. The baby is of the same race. This story takes place about 5 years after Return of the Jedi so that’s about 5 years after Yoda’s death.