The Mandalorian: Getting Into Star Wars

The Mandalorian by Jon Favreau

Well, we are halfway through the first season of The Mandalorian written by Jon Favreau. The guy who played Happy Hogan from the Iron Man and Spiderman movies. When rumors came out of him writing a Star Wars series for Disney's streaming service I was a bit hesitant. I had some trust issues with Star Wars ever since The Last Jedi came out. Taking something we all loved and taking it to a completely different direction left a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths. Now I am biased because I really love Star Wars. Solo was good on its own but I didn't know how a television series would play out since Star Wars has only been on the big screen, with the exception of the animated series. With that being said, Star Wars has been written by so many different people that it has become so convoluted which can be a good or bad thing. JJ Abram wrote Force Awaken to almost mirror New Hope don't at me. Rian Johnson wrote The Last Jedi where you could take a 30-minute movie and stretch it to 2 hours and 32 mins, (Take out every scene with Finn, Rose, and Poe and nothing would change with the story). Ron Howard wrote Solo, which had a pretty good story and a great soundtrack. The 4 writers of Rogue One somehow brought a pretty good movie overall with plenty of fan service to keep the movie afloat. Rogue One had of the most iconic Vader scenes and little easter eggs sprinkled throughout the movie. So now we have Jon Favreau, (who voiced Rio Durant in Solo, fun fact) writing about a Mandalorian bounty hunter. Mandalorians have always been shrouded in mystery of who they really are and if you don't watch the animated series, books, or video games, you don't really know much about them. The only two Mandalorians you see in the cinematic universe are Jango Fett in episode 2 and his clone son, Boba Fett in episode 5 and 6. Both legendary bounty hunters that do eventually meet their demise*. So when I started seeing the screenshots and the cast list for the Mandalorian, I was interested but then seeing the first trailer, I was hooked. The soundtrack and cinematography looked great in the trailer and I was excited to see more. Disney is releasing one episode every Friday for the next eight weeks and we have hit the halfway point with episode 4 coming out. I am glad to say that this is a really good show. I love the storyline, lore, and everything about it. It provides an interesting story with some iconic characters. I don't want to do a review of the show since we are only halfway through season one. I wanted to make this post to discuss the best part of the show which is a jumping point for anyone to get into Star Wars.

Star Wars can be a little intimidating for anyone who is not into Star Wars. With 9 movies, 2 spinoff movies, 3 animated series, video games, and books, it is really hard to find where to begin. I had this issue with Dr. Who at one point where I started from the very beginning and found myself bored to tears with the black and white version to the point I gave up on it, I'm sorry for any Who fans out there reading this. When someone asks where to start, I struggle to tell them if they should start with episode 1 and deal with cry baby Anakin in episodes 2 and 3, I would say episode 4 which is a great movie but has a slow beginning. Episode 7 is all surrounding the events of the original trilogy, and no matter where you start, you will have to devote hours and hours to watch each movie to know what is going on. This is where The Mandalorian comes into play. You don't need to know much about Star Wars to get into the show. The Mandalorian has a pretty straight forward storyline that gets the audience set up to understand what is going on. Unlike the movies, the audience doesn't have to rotate around a big-picture such as bringing peace to the galaxy or the battle of light-side and dark-side. The Mandalorian receives a bounty and the rest of the series so far is what happens when he finds baby Yoda. At first, the show is dark with The Mandalorian (Mando) getting into a bar fight and capturing his bounty. The tone of the show changes when he meets baby Yoda. Mando is a quiet character and with him never taking off his helmet with others around, you don't know exactly he is thinking or displaying on his face. What makes the show great is his interactions with others. Mando is ruthless at times but compassionate with others. Any seen between him and baby Yoda are great with not much talking and him just interacting with baby Yoda with that being Yoda trying to eat a frog, playing with buttons on his ship, or just walking with Mando. The show is great with the "show not tell" type of writing with just scenes having no dialog at all. Some scenes are quiet in the show with Mando repairing his armor, sitting with the blacksmith, or putting baby Yoda back in his seat. This allows the audience to catch their breath after an intense shoot out, escaping, or boss fight. Yes, the boss fights. Episode 2 and 4 of The Mandalorian have Mando going against some serious foes which make the whole scene feel like boss fights from video games. Just him having to fight these bosses seem impossible, which only through the help of others does he succeed. Now, for Star Wars fans, there is plenty of fan service to go around with the Mandalorian lore, returning alien species and the turmoil of the fall of the empire. This is the only part of the show that may be confusing to anyone trying to get into Star Wars as they may not know what happened to the empire. As of right now they do have an important role but noting that go beyond as being the group who wants baby Yoda. Another beauty of the show is the mystery behind everything in the show. Being a die-hard fan or never seeing Star Wars before, the show doesn't give you much information which I know is a plot device for us to keep watching. We don't know why everyone wants baby Yoda, we don't know why everyone except the empire wants to kill baby Yoda, we don't know much about the Mandalorians, or Mando's plan with baby Yoda. This leads to a lot of questions and I know over time the show will give us the answers we desire. So let's talk about action, As of right now the best way to describe the show is John Wick in space. The fight scenes go from big battles to small shootouts. Mando's fighting style is always different from each fight which you can see as he improvises whenever he is in a tight spot. Mando has a lot of tools of destruction which he uses differently in every fight. No lightsabers are seen so far in the show and the force is not mentioned (except for one scene in episode 2). For people that want to get into Star Wars, this show offers a lot and with each episode being 30-40 mins apiece, this gives someone a chance to see what Star Wars has to offer at their own pace. The Mandolorian is a lot slower than the movies, which is normal since it is a television show rather than a movie. This is why The Mandalorian is my recommended show for anyone who is interested in starting to get into Star Wars. The beauty of getting Disney plus to watch the show is that you will have access to all the Star Wars movies and animated series if you want more Star Wars. Just know that this is after Return of the Jedi (Episode 6) and before The Force Awakens (Episode 7). With that being said, I am okay if you just watch The Mandalorian as your only Star Wars content. This is a good show on its own and this will give you some good knowledge of Star Wars as a whole. Mando is really cool, baby Yoda is adorable, the story is good, action scenes are well-choreographed, and the soundtrack gives me goosebumps. The Mandalorian also proves to the audience that you don't need an R rating to have a dark and gritty show that the entire family can watch and get into. Overall, I love the Mandalorian and recommend the show to anyone who has never seen Star Wars before.

What do you think? Where should someone start Star Wars if they have never seen any of the movies/shows before? I would love to continue this conversation in the comments! Thanks for reading!