So since my last blog my wife and I acquired Disney Plus and I've been watching and enjoying "The Mandalorian", and while I'm only in the middle of Season One I'm realizing that "The Mandalorian" despite having amazing production values is a series that is merely getting by on name recognition, I'll explain in a bit.
So "The Mandalorian," tells the story of a Mandalorian who is hired to retrieve a baby version of Yoda's species named Grogu and bring him to the remnants of The Empire; only Mando (as he's called in the series) steals the child from The Empire causing him to go on the run from the various bounty hunters who tried to retrieve Grogu themselves and thus begins our story. "The Mandalorian" is basically "Road To Perdition" and "Lone Wolf and Cub". A story that features a hardened grizzled badass having to care for someone innocent. The derivative nature of the series aside, this show is almost void of tension.
Oddly enough I've been thinking about the 2nd Season of "Breaking Bad" and why that was so ill-received, maybe the fare-fetched nature of Walter White being loosely connected to a plane crash, but the reason this came up in my mind in connection to "The Mandalorian" is the concept of tension, the opening of the 2nd season featured flash-forwards and in those flash-forwards, we had no clue of knowing where the story was going or who was going to die (if anyone). Sadly, with "The Mandalorian" the main conflict is protecting Grogu but Grogu hasn't been in any real danger. For example, the titular Mandalorian has proven himself more skilled than the majority of bounty hunters within his guild, Carl Weathers' character basically says as much, thus telling the audience that Mando is basically the best.
 |
| We all wanted to know what this was about... |
In the episode "The Prisoner" Mando is betrayed by a team of mercenaries and locked in a cell, the mercs have his ship and Grogu and the team's droid Zero was about to discover the bounty placed on Mando by the guild, the situation was looking grim for him until he managed to escape in the same episode and effortlessly turn the tables on mercenaries. The episode was essentially void of tension as the characters collectively have proven no match for Mando. On the flip-side, the tension from "Breaking Bad" stems from the consequences of Walter's actions, albeit the old adage of "We never know how our actions will affect other people." and that rang true in "Breaking Bad", we had no clue how Walter was going to escape a situation or the consequences thereof, for example, Walter was kidnapped by Tuco was missing for 2 days, yes he escaped and lied his way out of it BUT his wife is now extremely suspicious of his actions.
Mando betrays The Empire and takes Grogu for himself, Bounty Hunters come after him, he defeats them and moves on. What I'm saying is he doesn't suffer any consequences, it's not as if The Mandalorians turn their backs on him for betraying their code of ethics, they came to his rescue, even after a brief conflict between Mando and another Mandalorian, he's not forced to remove his helmet, he suffered no personal backlash for his actions. It's not like he put a target on the backs of other Mandalorians who offer him shelter. The Mandalorians are already a scattered race of people and having undo scrutiny placed on them is not what they need. Furthermore, Mando is a foundling, which means he's not a Mandalorian by blood, which has yet to come into play into the narrative.
 |
| This guy had no chance, seriously. |
Basically what I'm saying is I have yet to see a point where The Mandalorian is any danger that I can take a realistic. I have yet to experience an Oh sh*t! Moment while watching this series and the actions of The Mandalorian don't affect the other characters or himself and I get it, this is a Western so the ability for long-form storytelling isn't exactly the point but given that there will be multiple seasons it'd be nice to establish an over-arching looming threat, similar to "Breaking Bad" and showing how much damage one man can do. Mando has done a lot of damage, to the Guild, to his fellow Mandalorians, indirectly to Grogu and the people who were protecting him, I'd like to see the results of those actions, but sadly, given the way the series his going, I doubt it. Granted, the show is enjoyable but I guess I'll wait for a little something more intense. Catch you guys later.
No comments:
Post a Comment