The Mandolorian
Jun. 15th, 2020 06:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
andrasteI've been a bit slow to catch up on The Mandalorian (because when am I not slow to catch up on TV with all these things I need to stream at some point?) but when I finally did get to it, I watched the whole thing in a week, then made my friends sit and watch the whole thing with me, then watched the behind-the-scenes stuff. And, uh, ordered some action figures. What I'm saying is that I liked it a lot.
This surprised me a bit, as I've always been a person who liked Star Wars rather than loving it. I've seen each of the movies a couple of times and enjoyed them, but when asked which giant nerd franchise to choose I've never hesitated about picking Trek instead.* While I do love the BioWare video games I put that down more to a devotion to BioWare than love of Star Wars itself. However, I do enjoy a good space Western, and ... various other elements of this that I will now put behind a cut, I guess.
So as everyone and their dog is aware at this point, The Mandalorian is Lone Wolf and Cub in space, only instead of trying to avenge himself on his enemies the middle-aged warrior spends all of his time trying to work out a) what even is this baby b) if he is really responsible for it now and if so how the fuck did that happen and c) how to stop it pressing all the buttons in his space ship. (By the end of the season he has some success at the first two and, uh, very little at the third. But on the other hand he is very good at shooting things so maybe it all balances out somehow?)
Baby Yoda, as the internet inaccurately but evocatively dubbed him, acquired instant fame. And it's true that a big part of why the show works is that the child is just unbearably adorable - I'm not a person who normally squeals at babies but it turns out that if they are green and eat whole live frogs I am willing to make an exception. I am not surprised that people on the set started talking to the puppet as if it could actually understand them, because it's amazing. The contrast of a cute baby with a laconic bounty hunter who has no idea what to do with it is certainly a winning formula.
But really, the central duo is only the start of the great ideas Jon Favreau had while creating this. Watching all the behind the scenes stuff really brought home to me is what a genius he is at hiring people. I guess it should be no surprise that the guy who knew RDJ would be the perfect Tony Stark also found a great bunch of directors and actors and production crew who all wanted to make something special. I must give a particular shout-out to Ludwig Göransson for the score. John Williams is a hell of an act to follow, and I think they took the right approach giving the show its own sound and not using any of the themes from the films.
As much as the baby steals the show every time it waves one of its TINY LITTLE HANDS, the Mandolorian deserves credit too, as do the stunt guys and the actor that bring him to life. It's not easy to be the hero when your face is covered, you don't talk much and are being constantly upstaged by a baby, but he actually managed to get me interested in Star Wars bounty hunters in a way that Boba Fett and Cad Bane and the one I actually played in SWTOR never have.
All in all, I am very much looking forward to more, and relieved that they got the filming done before *waves hands at 2020 and all of its various nonsense.*
* Of course the real answer to 'which space thing is the best one?' is Babylon 5 but it doesn't have 'star' in the title so nobody includes it in the question.
This surprised me a bit, as I've always been a person who liked Star Wars rather than loving it. I've seen each of the movies a couple of times and enjoyed them, but when asked which giant nerd franchise to choose I've never hesitated about picking Trek instead.* While I do love the BioWare video games I put that down more to a devotion to BioWare than love of Star Wars itself. However, I do enjoy a good space Western, and ... various other elements of this that I will now put behind a cut, I guess.
So as everyone and their dog is aware at this point, The Mandalorian is Lone Wolf and Cub in space, only instead of trying to avenge himself on his enemies the middle-aged warrior spends all of his time trying to work out a) what even is this baby b) if he is really responsible for it now and if so how the fuck did that happen and c) how to stop it pressing all the buttons in his space ship. (By the end of the season he has some success at the first two and, uh, very little at the third. But on the other hand he is very good at shooting things so maybe it all balances out somehow?)
Baby Yoda, as the internet inaccurately but evocatively dubbed him, acquired instant fame. And it's true that a big part of why the show works is that the child is just unbearably adorable - I'm not a person who normally squeals at babies but it turns out that if they are green and eat whole live frogs I am willing to make an exception. I am not surprised that people on the set started talking to the puppet as if it could actually understand them, because it's amazing. The contrast of a cute baby with a laconic bounty hunter who has no idea what to do with it is certainly a winning formula.
But really, the central duo is only the start of the great ideas Jon Favreau had while creating this. Watching all the behind the scenes stuff really brought home to me is what a genius he is at hiring people. I guess it should be no surprise that the guy who knew RDJ would be the perfect Tony Stark also found a great bunch of directors and actors and production crew who all wanted to make something special. I must give a particular shout-out to Ludwig Göransson for the score. John Williams is a hell of an act to follow, and I think they took the right approach giving the show its own sound and not using any of the themes from the films.
As much as the baby steals the show every time it waves one of its TINY LITTLE HANDS, the Mandolorian deserves credit too, as do the stunt guys and the actor that bring him to life. It's not easy to be the hero when your face is covered, you don't talk much and are being constantly upstaged by a baby, but he actually managed to get me interested in Star Wars bounty hunters in a way that Boba Fett and Cad Bane and the one I actually played in SWTOR never have.
All in all, I am very much looking forward to more, and relieved that they got the filming done before *waves hands at 2020 and all of its various nonsense.*
* Of course the real answer to 'which space thing is the best one?' is Babylon 5 but it doesn't have 'star' in the title so nobody includes it in the question.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-06-15 11:17 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-06-17 08:54 am (UTC)Indeed! So many excellent underrated space shows.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-06-19 05:59 pm (UTC)I love STAR WARS and Star Trek in different, complete ways, and I do agree that B5 is the best SF tv series.
(no subject)
Date: 2020-06-21 11:03 am (UTC)Yes!
(Having watched the whole thing twice now, I feel like the montage where he repeatedly falls off that blurrg is actually key in hindsight. It means that even before he finds the kid the audience have been clued into the fact that he's not 100% cool and competent at everything.)
I love STAR WARS and Star Trek in different, complete ways, and I do agree that B5 is the best SF tv series.
I am absolutely that obnoxious fan who always responds to Trek vs. Wars questions with 'Trek, BUT ACTUALLY I think you will find it is really B5, what do you mean you've never seen it???"