THE MANDALORIAN (S1E4) “Sanctuary”: Falls Short

The western outline of The Mandalorian has never been too unclear but in this week’s episode there’s absolutely no disputing it. The town in the middle of nowhere, the townspeople who can’t fight, the widow who can’t shoot, the raiders/robbers imminent for attack, and the bounty hunter forced to protect them out of the love that breaks from his stoicism. With poor editing and standard action to match, The Mandalorian retains the aesthetic of Star Wars but refuses to adapt its creativity.

Fishing Villages

This week’s episode opens with raiders attacking a fishing village on a planet in the middle of nowhere. We see these people fishing, we see their makeshift tents and we see their kids playing, in a sort of cliche “This is a peaceful life” type scenario, before the inevitable attack.

We’re seeing the attack through the eyes of a mother and child hidden inside one of their lakes. The fog billows over the destruction and over their enemies and even over them, and it creates a very mysterious environment for one to view the situation through. Mando comes along with his newfound refugee son, ready to settle. But of course trouble with the village finds him before he can find it.

He lands near a bar, becomes intrigued by a woman with armor and weapons, gets soup for the kid, fights the lady, and ultimately decides to talk to her about nothing which leads us to the main problem about this series. Consistently these episodes lead nowhere. At best it’s half of a tangible plot best strung out to be as long as possible, filled in with dialogue and encounters that mean nothing so we get that off chance that we get dialogue that means something!

It’s a prime example of something too afraid to be an hour long, to take its time with its characters and world but at the same time it’s too afraid it’s going too fast and reduces its half hour run-time into something fast and fun in the moment but slow and laborious in the long run.

Mando goes back to his ship, encounters two villagers who noticed his arrival and they offer money for his help with the raiders. He refuses at first but upon learning that they have housing for him he takes them up on the offer, and calls up his lady friend from earlier to help him with the job.

They get to the village to get to work, Mando flirts with the widow we saw the attack from at the start of the episode, and a plan of attack begins to get going. Mando and crew head into the forest to find exactly what they’ll be fighting. They see the tracks of an Imperial Walker, head back to the village, and are slowly but surely convinced that they need to arm and train the citizens to fight back and help the defense.

David And Goliath

What follows is a Mulan-esque training sequence where Mando teaches the citizens how to shoot a gun, how to engage in combat, how to wield a large stick as a weapon, etc. It’s a cheesy sequence, a little bit, but it gets the point across well enough before the fight sequence. They lure the walker into falling, they blow it up, scare the raiders away, and live happily ever after.

Mando considers leaving the child with the village as he flies with the stars but quickly reconsiders that after someone nearly shoots the kid. He’s still being tracked. He says his thanks and his goodbyes and he leaves to wherever he’s going next. Who knows where that is.

This marks half the season in and where has this show gone? We started out with Mando getting Baby Yoda and spent two episodes doing what could’ve been done in one and got sidetracked somewhere else. And there’s no meaty, interesting characterization to make up for this. Mando hasn’t developed beyond his stoicism despite the child showing what should be a source of empathy.

The show’s drive to really not do anything could be because of Disney+’s weekly scheduling, because you need something to keep the viewers attached but even then it’s a weak excuse. Weekly shows currently on do this much better, stuff like Watchmen or Servant, shows that have this stuff figured and planned out. Is it a lack of artistic vision? A lack of planning? Who knows. There’s four episodes left. All there’s left to do is hope it picks up steam.

Conclusion

The Mandalorian is fun. It’s nowhere near the heights of many other prestige TV shows but at the very least it’s entertaining. Where the bar has fallen for Star Wars as a franchise as this point, where the line has been drawn for total content saturation, who knows, but it’s fun. How this will be looked upon when it’s all said and done is a mystery, how people will see this critically after the Baby Yoda craze ends and when the dust settles. But for now, it’s fun. And that’s something, at the very least.

The Mandalorian is now streaming on Disney+