onirium
Joined May 2004
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onirium's rating
I'm finding the 3rd season of The Mandalorian way too uneven and all over the place. Fabreau hasn't learned any lessons after the Boba Fett fiasco and this season is just as confusing and uneven as that series was. The Mandalorian is supposed to be a space western but this season they try to be so many other things I'm not sure what to expect anymore. It's not that I'm a purist of any genre, I simply like consistency in style and quality. If episode 19 was an amateurish version of Andor, episode 20 is like some filler episode from the Bad Batch. The story that revolves around the Mandalorian covert and how they try to save a child from the clutches of an alien dragon. There is little in terms of advancing the plot although we do see how the relation of Bo Katan and the other Mandalorians solidifies. Style and story-wise the episode is extremely cartoonish. Big and bigger monsters, no sense of risk to anyone (characters survive unscathed no matter what happens to them, some situations are nonsensical), fast chases... the setting felt a bit poor at times, you know they are inside a room and not at the top of a mountain for example... Not a bad episode, it was fun to watch and it had a couple of excellent moments (wait for the final chat between Bo Katan and The Armorer), but it was certainly not at the level this series can reach. They can do much better than this.
I can see many fans believe this is the best episode so far and I can understand why. It is more action packed, more focused and the ending is powerful, unexpected and intriguing. But the main reason why this episode "feels" better is simply because it is so action oriented, it is not hindered by the shortcomings of the horrendous writing. Ironically, since the story is practically non-existant and there is less dialogue, the episode turns out to be slightly better. There is one thing I really dislike about it though and it's not the first time it happens. This episode makes Middle Earth feel so small compared to the books and the LotR trilogy. The sense of wonder and huge scope is totally gone. Armies can cross lands and countries in what seems to be hours. In a previous episode we saw a character getting lost in the middle of the ocean, deciding to swim back to land (!!) and encountering two ships in a short time. That was preposterous, but seeing an army cross hundreds of miles in a matter of hours is not much better. Also, we are supposed to be watching the biggest TV production ever, but battles feel small and restrained compared to what we saw in the films. I can't hate Rings of Power like some people do, it has some good things, but it is always underwhelming and even its best moments feel bland and half baked to me.
Watching Rings of Power is like having a good friend who loves the Lord of the Rings films and has watched them a million times, but hasn't really read the Tolkien books. He has decided to write some fan fiction and I have to endure listening to him for hours on end as he goes through his poorly written, lore breaking, comic book inspired retelling of the raise of evil overlord Sauron and the forging of the One Ring. Now, because this guy is such a good friend and he's so passionate about his work, I keep coming back to the story and I struggle to hide my yawning, even if it happens in my beloved Middle Earth with characters I love (although I can barely recognise them because he's changed them so much). Will it improve? I have serious doubts. Maybe my friend should have spent more time fine tuning his writing. Being passionate about something doesn't necessarily translate as good quality.