Chapter 23: The Spies

Many people have been questioning the strange dip in writing quality this third season of the Mandalorian compared to the first two seasons...but it's not that hard to work it out.

The only person on the entire Lucasfilm writing team that knows what they're doing, that KNOWS Starwars (even more so than hardcore fans) is Dave Filoni.

After taking a backseat on the writing for this season to concentrate on Ahsoka, Filoni finally writes an episode for Mando, taking over from the mess Favreau has been creating..and lo and behold, we're back to season 2 levels of mando greatness. It's a great, tight episode, full of action and excitement. It FEELS like Star Wars again.

With KK still in charge Star Wars will continue to be a mess, focusing on the wrong characters, on forceful identity politics...BUT we do have Filoni. All is not lost.

Bob Iger would do well to finally do the right thing. If you want Disney to start making money with the Star Wars brand once again, put Filoni in charge! But even that could be too little too late..,

What I mean is that this episode at least comes closest to what I expected from this season! I feel like this is what the writters were intending when this season was announced! My problem is.. why did we waste time getting here?

This episode has its cool moments! I liked the beginning of the episode, but lacks the complete element of surprise since it came out after the announcements at Star Wars celebration and therefore we already know some of it!

The rest of the episode is mixed! I enjoyed the action, but I do feel this episode could have been even better if the elements of this episode were added much sooner! Explored the characters and backstories from this episode, in the previous episodes, instead of wasting our time with side quest and cameo fest's!

The important parts of the last 3 episodes could have been combined in one episode! It leaves the season with two moods: dragging or rushed!

The writting is also.. hit or miss!

This was not the worst episode, but it could have been better if there had been a natural build-up instead of suddenly rushing things!

As a viewer I was like the the first 20 mins is actually really good and then in the middle 20 mins was like exposition ( which they could have told through out the whole series ) but whatever it was nice hear the lore but then last few part was good I didn't felt anything truth to be told , it felt like the writers thought let's do this and make the viewer emotional but it wasn't and kind of flat but it does feel like they want to character develop everyone in one episode instead of doing it through out the whole series and it was kind of pirates of Caribbean vibes which I enjoy and there are lots of plot holes in this episode which was like yeah you guys didn't think through .

Finally! After a lackluster season, we get our first great episode. This is what we expected after the fantastic finale of season 2. Last week's episode was brutally bad and pointless; this is what this show should be like -- actual tension and good storytelling.

Last week's episode featured pointless side missions that brought nothing to the series. It was just an excuse for a few famous faces to have a cameo in Star Wars. This time we got good storytelling, great action, and real tension. Who cares about Mando chasing a droid around a city? No one. Who cares about real worldbuilding, character development, sacrifice, human connections, and high stakes? Everyone.

I enjoyed this episode but didn't love it. The story was exciting but the script, acting, and production leave much to be desired.

Now that Mando has lost its novelty - and unfortunately shed its samurai/western pastiche - its quality depends on its story, characters, and spectacle. It has spectacle aplenty, that's the good news.

This episode crams a season's worth of exposition and plot into a few flat monologues. It "tells" and doesn't "show". The story has substance but the storytelling lacks finesse.

As for the characters - the show puts the entire weight on Giancarlo Esposito and Katiee Sackoff's shoulders because everyone else is hidden behind a mask. It's difficult to emotionally connect with masked characters and the production is allergic to the subtle and intimate moments that show who these characters are inside their armor and inside their minds.

I'm mostly disappointed by "what could have been" which admittedly isn't entirely fair, but my time is valuable and I'd rather spend it watching truly great entertainment.