I finished all of this with my mom, and now get this thread as my reward. Just random, probably dumb notes I have to offer:
How hard is it to not say shitty things on twitter? It's not that hard.
Funny this is the last thing said in this thread. I only poke around on Twitter as much as one can without an account, and it's bad. I don't know how anyone does it full time. Anyway, The Mandalorian...
There are a lot of movie references, or so I perceived. I know there are a lot of western references, but specifically Chapter 4 is an economic version of Seven Samurai and Baby Yoda literally gets his face sucked Alien-style when they play with their stew. There were more, but my memory sucks, and the last 3 weeks have seemed like a year.
I was wary of this series, as I figured The Child/Baby Yoda/Grogu was the ultimate tool for selling merch. I ended up happy with these oddly efficient bursts of Star Wars, if for anything that I enjoy watching Star Wars things. Still lots of bizarre characters and evolutionary creativity. There aren't a ton of specific creatures or droids that you can latch onto, no porgs (for better or worse) or BB8's or K-2SO (a personal favorite) but the core pairing of a religious fanatic and a 50 year-old wordless child somehow worked out in a way I should have reasoned out better by now. That's the nature of Star Wars, on paper it's dumb as hell, but there is just the mythos, charm, and fun that keep it going. The Child isn't quite a MacGuffin - for all I know they're the key to balancing the force for the next 800-900 years - but they work similarly in attracting attention from all over the universe, reeling in all of the different characters and plots that make this series tick.
Too bad about Gina Carano, she was a favorite of mine in the series.
Junior says Giancarlo Esposito has been in everything, which proves something I'd previously surmised: If you were in Breaking Bad, I have a hard time seeing you as anything but being in Breaking Bad. Bob Odenkirk, especially, but it was hard to see Giancarlo as not-Gus. Fortunately, he's on a similar plane of evil in The Mandalorian as he is in that series.
Overall, I came out positive. I watch very few TV series overall (that time is probably taken by sports if we're being honest), so I'm glad I spent time with this one. Makes me want to get ambitious and watch all of The Clone Wars cartoon series from the beginning. Also, Rosario Dawson's appearance has me intrigued by a possible Ahsoka Tano series. The character really is quite vanilla for a lot of The Clone Wars, but obviously she's come of age in this space between Episodes VI and VII, and unlike 1SO, I missed the light sabers a bit in The Mandalorian.