The Mandalorian: Chapter 5 (The Gunsligner) Review - A Mind-numbingly Enjoyable, yet Purposeless Distraction
Initial Air Date: December 6th, 2019
Directed by: Dave Filoni
**The episode reviews will contain no major spoilers, but be warned that I will be dropping little plot details and moments throughout the review. You have been warned.**
The Review
It was at this point in the series where I began to wonder whether or not we were watching an animated series come to live-action. That notion was extremely disappointed, but after seeing this episode, I was all but resigned to that idea. I had hoped for a longer-form story with this series; perhaps an overarching narrative that translated from episode to episode, but it appeared that aside from a few loose threads, the episodes were simply "The Adventures of Mando and Baby Yoda."
So for what it's worth, under the new perspective and the new criteria, this episode is completely, and utterly average.
At first, *MINOR SPOILERS* admittedly it was nice to see a familiar location Tatooine. It really was. I was excited to return to a location that was familiar and see how Jon Favreau decided to play in that sandbox. But after the episode had ended, I realized that a great deal of the episode was nothing but fan service. And not earned fan service either. Fan service in the sense that there was nothing else enticing about the episode, and the crew had no choice but to return to Tatooine to make the episode relevant.
We see Mando team up with a rookie bounty hunter, and while the show does make some decisions that are unexpected, ultimately it ends up the way you expected it to, and that's disappointing. There was very little originality that went into the episode. Essentially, this show has become a series of events in which Mando tries to get money in order to make himself and Baby Yoda safe. And while that is a good storyline to follow for an episode or so, it's hard to enjoy it if that's the ONLY storyline the show decides to follow for the majority of the show.
The episode does also introduce a new guest character, an assassin played by Ming-Na Wen. Wen is good in almost every role that she is in, but she provides almost nothing to an episode that had almost nothing to begin with.
In essence, the episode relies on your adoration of Baby Yoda and brand loyalty to this show and to Star Wars in order to keep you watching it. It has zero consequence besides ONE shot at the end of the episode. And even baby Yoda is left with a side character that felt like she was taken directly out of the prequels.
Did the episode have good action? Absolutely, albeit not a lot. I wouldn't expect anything less from this show. But it provided very little else. And as far as I'm concerned, that's a loss.
So for what it's worth, under the new perspective and the new criteria, this episode is completely, and utterly average.
At first, *MINOR SPOILERS* admittedly it was nice to see a familiar location Tatooine. It really was. I was excited to return to a location that was familiar and see how Jon Favreau decided to play in that sandbox. But after the episode had ended, I realized that a great deal of the episode was nothing but fan service. And not earned fan service either. Fan service in the sense that there was nothing else enticing about the episode, and the crew had no choice but to return to Tatooine to make the episode relevant.
We see Mando team up with a rookie bounty hunter, and while the show does make some decisions that are unexpected, ultimately it ends up the way you expected it to, and that's disappointing. There was very little originality that went into the episode. Essentially, this show has become a series of events in which Mando tries to get money in order to make himself and Baby Yoda safe. And while that is a good storyline to follow for an episode or so, it's hard to enjoy it if that's the ONLY storyline the show decides to follow for the majority of the show.
The episode does also introduce a new guest character, an assassin played by Ming-Na Wen. Wen is good in almost every role that she is in, but she provides almost nothing to an episode that had almost nothing to begin with.
In essence, the episode relies on your adoration of Baby Yoda and brand loyalty to this show and to Star Wars in order to keep you watching it. It has zero consequence besides ONE shot at the end of the episode. And even baby Yoda is left with a side character that felt like she was taken directly out of the prequels.
Did the episode have good action? Absolutely, albeit not a lot. I wouldn't expect anything less from this show. But it provided very little else. And as far as I'm concerned, that's a loss.
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