The Mandalorian, “Chapter One”, Review!

The pilot episode of The Mandalorian is written by Jon Favreau and directed by Dave Fioni who are both executive producers.  The show was created by Favreau and debuted on Disney+.  There is the pulsing of a scanning device as The Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) stands in a snowy environment.  Pascal of course was in Game of Thrones also Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017).  The bounty hunter heads over to a settlement.  Two thugs are working over a blue, fish-like alien (Horatio Sanz).  One speaks Huttese, saying he will remove the glands of the victim, the other is Quarren, with a tentacled face.  The door irises open and The Mandalorian enters.  

The bearded human tries to blame his spilled drink on The Mandalorian.  Mistake.  The bounty hunter walks up to the bar not speaking a word.  The human thug asks if his armor is Beskar steel.  We found out about this Mandalorian element from the Star Wars: Rebels episode "Heroes of Mandalore" (2017).  The bartender slides over a drink and The Mandalorian whirls into action taking care of the two thugs.  The alien thanks him, his design reminds me of Star Trek aliens, and the bounty hunter shows the hologram of him, his bounty.  The Mandalorian walks with the alien in binders.  His contact, the same kind of long snouted alien informant that was in A New Hope (1977) plays a tune on a pipe and a speeder pulls up.  The Mandalorian doesn’t want a droid driver and the contact brings up a broken down speeder with a bearded driver (comedian Brian Posehn).  Interesting casting. 

THE MANDALORIAN -- “Chapter One” -- PEDRO PASCAL -- Francois Duhamel/Lucasfilm. 

They reach a ship just two heavy engines and a long hull almost like a cargo hauler.  The driver warns them about the ice and the bounty watches as something brings the speeder down from under the ice.  The ice cracks and a massive beast with walrus-like tusks latches onto the ship.  The Mandalorian tries to take off, but instead grabs his pole-like weapon with tuning fork-like end straight out of the Star Wars Holiday Special (1978). The creature gnaws at the landing gear and the bounty hunter shocks it with the weapon.  The ship takes off, his bounty screams and then babbles that the ship is Razor Crest, pre-Empire.  The Mandalorian says nothing as the alien goes to find a vacuum tube to “evacuate.”  He finds it below deck along with a weapons locker.  

The alien mentions Life Day, another Holiday Special reference, and finds carbonite slabs with several bounties.  The Mandalorian appears behind him and throws him into carbon freeze!  The ship descends to a planet (the planets are not identified) and the bounty hunter heads over to a cantina.  It is full of strange looking aliens, very Star Wars!  Sitting at a table is veteran Greef Carga (Carl Weathers) and The Mandalorian places the bounty pucks on the table.  Weathers brings a distinctiveness to the Star Wars Galaxy having played Apollo Creed in Rocky (1976) and taking on the sci fi Predator (1987).  His assistant works to remove the bounties in carbonite, the slabs float out of the cargo hatch.  Greef has one high paying job.  He shows the chip and The Mandalorian takes it.  This is probably the first time we see how a bounty hunting task works. 

The Mandalorian walks the streets, Jawas scurry about, and reaches a door, knocks, and the droid eye guard like in Return of the Jedi (1983), pops out.  He shows the droid the chip, it has the same dialogue as RoTJ, which is kinda funny.  Standard greeting. The door opens and the bounty hunter follows a GNK power droid.  There is many SW references dropped in this show.  The door opens and it is full of Stormtroopers in dusty, weathered armor!  The Client (Werner Herzog) is there, an older distinguished man in robes, he wears a medallion with the Imperial crest.  Herzog is a filmmaker of incredible esteem centered around his work as part of the New German Cinema.  A man walks in and The Mandalorian has his blaster out and his staff before the stormtroopers can draw their blaster rifles!  The Client introduces Dr. Pershing (Omid Abtahi).  

He sits and shows The Mandalorian a bar of Beskar steel.  The Client has Dr. Pershing give the bounty hunter a chain fob.  The Client and Greef Carga gives me a Firefly vibe of untrustworthy contacts like Badger.  On the street, we see a cooked Kowakian monkey lizard!, this won’t be sold at Galaxy’s Edge!  He walks into another building and down steps to a hall of other helmeted Mandalorians including children.  The bounty hunter reaches another Mandalorian working on a forge with multiple shafts of blue flame.  The Armorer (Emily Swallow) wears an almost Viking-looking helmet and fur coat.  The Mandalorian places credits and the Beskar steel bar.  The Armorer asks him if his signet has been revealed and he says not yet.  She uses the bar to forge him a pauldron for his armor.  He flashes back to when he was a foundling child, running in red cloth, as blasters cut down others. The Armorer attaches the shoulder pauldron to his armor.  This also something new seeing Mando armor forged. 

The Mandalorian heads his ship to a dry, desert world.  He walks down the boarding ramp and begins scanning.  The bounty hunter has his staff weapon out and scans the plain seeing reptile-like Blurrgs.  These are the beasties pulling the Marauders in Ewoks: The Battle for Endor. (1985).  This scene is similar to Luke sighting the Banthas.  Suddenly, one leaps up and catches his arm!  His flame throws blasts out of its mouth and The Mandalorian tries to strike its head.  The Blurrg drops from an electrified dart.  He sees his rescuer, an old Ugnaught (voiced by Nick Nolte?), Kuill, he has a Colonel Mustard-style mustache and rides a Blurrg with a rifle.  This is the porcine alien from Empire Strikes Back (1980).  

Kuill offers his help and finishes with “I have spoken.” At his farm residence, the Ugnaught and says that he helped others try to find the bounty.  The next day, The Mandalorian is thrown trying to mount a Blurrg.  He tries to ask about a landspeeder, but the Ugnaught says his ancestors were beast riders.  The bounty hunter tries to calm the beast and then mounts it ready to ride.  The Blurrgs leap over rocky cracks in the landscape.  Kuill says that the visitors had brought trouble and he only wants peace.  The bounty hunter scans the remote hacienda and uses a periscope-like device to see the alien gunmen.  Then, sees a bounty droid, very like IG-88 in ESB.  IG-11 (Taika Waititi) has walked into the hacienda and takes on the gunmen sending them running.  

It is hunting for the “Asset.”  IG-11 has a thin profile, flips his body, and carries double blasters firing in any direction.  The Mandalorian wants it to stand down, but is blasted in the shoulder.  He shows his chip identifying that he is in the Bounty Hunters Guild.  They agree to split the bounty and get into an intense firefight!  The Mandalorian has discovered the location of the bounty and the droid holds off the gunmen as they race to the door.  IG-11 declares they are trapped by the army of gunmen and begins to self-destruct revealing from a panel a thermal detonator.   The Mandalorian tells him to instead cover him him while he hot wires the door.  

One of the aliens brings in a large blaster cannon.  IG-11 goes out, but is cut down by the blaster cannon, The Mandalorian blasts the gunner, then uses his grapnel to pull the cannon so he can cut down the remaining gunmen!  He checks on IG-11 and pulls him up.  For some reason, this reminds me of Brisco County and Lord Bowler in the 90’s Western, steam punk action show.  They use the blaster cannon to breach the door.  The bounty hunters find the Asset in a small sphere.  The Mandalorian never takes off his helmet like Judge Dredd in Dredd (2012).  There is so little CG, it does not have the fakeness of CG trying to be sci fi.  I love the action, characters, it is the “feel” of Star Wars in a new setting, which is true Star Wars!  This show has everything except Teek!  

    

Five Bars of Beskar Steel out of Five!   

#TheMandalorian, #JonFavreau, #DaveFiloni, #PedroPascal, #CarlWeathers