Kolya on 4/1/2021 at 22:32
Season 2 of Mandalorian seems quite hesitant to engage with the overarching story. It's all monsters of the week and setbacks to zero until the last 3 episodes.
I found that a bit uninteresting to be honest.
Thirith on 4/1/2021 at 23:48
I have to admit that I fond The Mandalorian's commitment to a more episodic style refreshing, since so much is heavily serialised these days and it's not always pulled off particularly well. I liked the series' more old-fashioned storytelling, even if some of the individual stories ended up pretty flimsy. Though I've not yet watched the second season, other than the first episode, so I can't say whether I like it there.
Kolya on 5/1/2021 at 00:31
Okay, I just watched the finale of Mando 2 and now I understand why they were hesitant to get there. What a bland franchise driven slog of unnecessary cameos, expository dialogue and unsatisfactory carnage. The dark saber, built up to be a massively powerful weapon is easily deflected, the dark troopers provide some unintentional humour when one of them hammers Mando's head into a wall, but then they are easily disposed off. And then Luke's de-aged face hovers and contorts across a stand-in and that is supposed to be the emotional payoff for separating the relationship that carried the whole series. What a let down.
SubJeff on 5/1/2021 at 02:00
Nothing makes you happy though. You aren't capable.
And that was Mark Hamill so boo to you.
Kolya on 5/1/2021 at 10:25
Well the first season made me happy. But this 2nd season spent too much time and plot points on re-introducing (and even resurrecting) characters only for the sake of creating multiple spin off series because apparently we need a Marvel universe of Star Wars characters now. I don't. I liked this series specifically because it played in the Star Wars universe but had a fresh story to tell, unrelated to the Skywalker saga. But for franchise reasons they had to catch its free flight and tie it in.
SubJeff on 5/1/2021 at 15:41
Cobra Kai season 3.
Now it's just frustratingly stupid that Johnny and Daniel can't get on, even when they jointly kick the asses of a bunch of dodgy guys. Should have been a real "we got each other's backs, hell yeah" moment.
How long can they draw this out?
Harvester on 7/1/2021 at 18:56
Ted Lasso, on Apple TV+, is pretty good y'all, and just the kind of optimistic, upbeat show the doctor ordered for me during these dark days. A nice antidote for all the doom and gloom going around.
Gray on 8/1/2021 at 03:29
Well... these days, I'm quite thick. I can't really follow a story the way I could back when my brain was working. However, I do much appreciate long story arcs rather than monster-of-the-week The Fugitive/Hulk type storylines where they just travel from A to B and help whatever locals with their issues, I want more than that. I want the story to progress. I'm too slow to keep up with action sequences anyway, I just want to enjoy the atmosphere and writing now. Unless the writing is shit.
Yes, I'm dumber now after 20 years of mind-destroying CFS, but I'm also more impatient if I can clearly see that the writers of a show are even dumber than I am. Duh!
Having said that, the average level of writing has largely improved over the last 30 years of TV. Some stuff is actually pretty good now. Too bad I'm still a sarcastic arse.
[Edit]
I believe my point is this. I'm very keen to analyse Mandalorian, compare it to Akira Kurosawa and Sergio Leone, but in the end, it's just a kids show and I'm a grown-up with too much time on my hands. It's just entertainment, with lasers, and it's pretty good. It may not be high art, but I'm reasonably entertained, so that's fine.
I like it.
SubJeff on 8/1/2021 at 07:34
It's not a kids show. Why do people keep saying that?
henke on 13/1/2021 at 14:28
It's a kids show in the same way that the Star Wars movies are kids movies. Which is to say: kinda.
Speaking of which, I've been rewatching the Star Wars movies, starting with Ep 1, I'm now up to Ep 7. When I was a kid I thought Return of the Jedi was the best of the original trilogy. In my 20's I wanted to appear adult so I said Empire Strikes Back was best because it's the most boring one and therefore clearly the most adult one. In my 30's I said Ep 4 was the best, because it was the most self-contained. But rewatching them now, y'know what? Kid me was right, Return of the Jedi is THE BEST ONE! The opening with Jabba and the Rancor and the Sarlacc pit is great, then it mostly speeds through the middle act (Yoda dies, RIP) and into an amazing, dramatic finale which cuts between Luke vs Palpatine, Ewoks vs Stormtroopers, and Death Star Fight Pt. 2. I was kinda bored by Ep 4 and 5 on this rewatching, but Ep 6 is just great stuff all the way through. It's also relatively un-molested by the Special Edition, only the ending has been mauled, by the removal of the "Yubb Yubb" Ewok victory song and the addition of jarring Coruscant shots and jarring Hayden Christiansen. I guess we should be thankful Lucas didn't also include jarring Jar Jar!
