[Craigbob]

Well we went from a weak version of The Seven Samurai to fan service in the extreme. While I think this was a better episode than Ep 4, it still left me wanting some story advancement.

This week found our intrepid hero having to make an emergency landing on none other than Tattoine, home to the Skywalkers, Tuskin Raiders, Mos Eisley, et...al after a space battle that reminded me to some extent of the pod Race in The Phantom Menace complete with switching to emergency power in a way that reminded me of Anakin's doing something similar in TPM.

There were so many call backs to Star Wars history in this one it became distracting to an extent. Mos Eisley Cantina now with droid bartenders (quite the 180 from Star Wars). Mos Espa call out, Speeder bikes right out of Attack of the Clones and more.

He takes on a job with a green (inexperienced) bounty hunter who's looking to bring in a elite assassin to raise money for repairs and docking fees. The acting is ok, the direction a bit loose, and the plot is another one off except for a bit at the end that hints at a new adversary for poor Mando, or perhaps an old one.

The visuals on this were great. it was well shot and I loved the speeder bikes flying across the Dune Sea.

Only 3 more episodes left this season, let's hope they do something to advance the main story.

 

[Rob Helmerichs]

"Main story"? There really has never been much of a main story...

 

[Amnesia]

(...) He takes on a job with a green bounty hunter who's looking to bring in a elite assassin (...)

Since this is Star Wars, you should make it clear that by "green", you mean "inexperienced"; he's not literally green...

 

[TAsunder]

It would have been better if he had been green, though. The character was a strange choice that really didn't work for me. It's like the actor was the understudy for a role in "Made" and Favreau took pity on him years later by casting him here.

On the other hand, I liked Ming-Na Wen's character. Agents of SHIELD fans knew this already, but it's till true here: Ming-Na Wen still continues to have significant action star gravitas at age 56. Pretty impressive.

Having recently binged the latest season of Bojack Horseman, it kind of threw me off that Amy Sedaris was in this episode, but I quicky got over it.

Definitely the okay-est episode so far!

 

[MikeMar]

"Main story"? There really has never been much of a main story...

Yeah, this isn't a show dripping in story, it's more the adventures of a bounty hunter than meant to big a big cannon advancing story.

Knowing that, I like it. I just treat it as a solid show that's just set in the Star Wars universe. Much like the Solo movie really.

 

[Craigbob]

I can go with the no overall story, I don't like it, but I can go with the flow.

 

[dcheesi]

I wouldn't expect too much in the way of quick story advancement. The show is pretty obviously following the old "Fugitive" formula: stranger shows up in a new town planet each week, and helps out the locals with some sort of problem, while evading capture by the law the guild. Ultimately, his secret is revealed and/or his pursuers show up, forcing him to move on... They can milk that for a good long while (couple of seasons?) before they feel the need to move things toward any sort of end-game.

It's funny how spoiled we've gotten in the age of "peak TV". Used to be, this sort of formula was the best you could hope for in terms of long-running story arcs on TV. Now, if it's not all serialized into a 13-hour long movie, we feel like there's no plot and it's going nowhere

 

[NJChris]

I didn't really feel like it was over the top fan service. There were people complaining there wasn't any of this. Now there is and people complain. (The internets is full of contradictions).

I enjoy watching. I don't need a big-bad build-up. I do, however, hope he gets a 'team' of sorts. Like the older-looking-ripley character and a robot.

 

[Amnesia]

I would rather that "Mando" had gone to a different planet---maybe one from Rogue One, like Jedha...

 

[GoPackGo]

I would rather that "Mando" had gone to a different planet---maybe one from Rogue One, like Jedha...

Jedha was pretty much destroyed in Rogue One.

 

[DevdogAZ]

It would have been better if he had been green, though. The character was a strange choice that really didn't work for me. It's like the actor was the understudy for a role in "Made" and Favreau took pity on him years later by casting him here.

Well, the rookie bounty hunter was played by Bobby Cannavale's son, so not surprising he had the air of a mobster.