delnegro-IMDb

The episode opens with a display of military and tactical incompetence that makes the "marines" in David Cameron films look like Sun Tzu's smarter cousins.

Then we move on to a scene that seems straight out of a cartoon western aimed at three-year-olds, decorated with a lot of characters from previous episodes and films, in the hopes that nostalgia will mask the lack of substance or acting ability.

Then we get a CGI space fight so poorly choreographed that you have no idea what's going on (not that it matters), which seems to have been included just so the animators could have a go at (very badly) imitating Davy Jones from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

Finally we arrive at a generic video game location where a generic NPC is just waiting in a generic empty room to give the main character his next generic quest.

Three stars for the costumes and art direction in the second "act", minus one star for everything else.

A simple but effective plot (with only one glaring hole - when one of the characters apparently "forgets" he can simply put his helmet on to avoid being recognised), good acting, and excellent direction (the intro alone is a masterpiece of framing and timing, and the rest of the episode doesn't disappoint).

I'm not a huge fan of Rick Famuyiwa's previous episode (chapter 6 - which has very entertaining individual performances, but is full of plot holes, contradictions and repetitive shots), but I guess its problems can be attributed to the original story and set(ting) limitations. This one definitely proved he's a competent writer and, above all, an excellent director (not just of action sequences, but dialogues and character interaction as well).

Approximately 20 minutes of people running through and across hallways, followed by 10 minutes of people driving a truck along a hallway.

By some margin the weakest episode of The Mandalorian so far.