'The Mandalorian' Episode 1 Review: A New Hope

The Mandalorian’s first episode has been released with the debut of Disney’s new streaming service, and it is undoubtedly the headlining reason to buy the service - so, should you get Disney+ and give it a watch? Assuming you aren’t a victim of Disney’s ridiculous region restrictions (thanks Cade for your help!), here’s everything you need to know about the first episode of the first-ever live-action Star Wars TV series.

With TV shows being the future of digital content, a project like this was inevitable, but that doesn’t exactly give it an urgent need to be top-tier television - at least in the eyes of Disney. However, The Mandalorian has an extremely talented team at its helm, with director Jon Favreau and a cast including Pedro Pascal, Gina Carano, Giancarlo Esposito, Werner Herzog, and Taika Waititi.

Obviously, it’s hard to review an entire show when only one episode has been released, so I’m going to be doing weekly reviews until the season concludes. For Episode 1, The Mandalorian re-introduces us to the world of post-Empire Star Wars after almost 2 years since the release of The Last Jedi. It quickly re-acquaints the audience with the setting and fully ignores any need to explain Star Wars to its viewers.

This is both a great thing for us Star Wars fans, and a not-so-great thing for people who have never seen a Star Wars film. The Mandalorian is purely a show for fans of the films, no ifs or buts. It’s done this way on purpose, and I think the benefits outweigh the consequences of approaching a project like this. With all the films being hosted on Disney+, audiences can simply watch other Star Wars content on the exact same service that The Mandalorian is hosted on.

In terms of the show’s quality, it’s brilliant to see a series finally crossing the bridge between television and cinema. We can finally enjoy live-action Star Wars in an episodic format and The Mandalorian’s first episode sets up an amazing vision for the future of the Star Wars franchise. While we’re introduced to a select few characters in this first episode, there is still a long way to go before we get to learn more about them.

For those who really love the soundtracks and orchestral feel to Star Wars projects, The Mandalorian does not shy away from delivering a grand piece of music during its most climactic scenes, and it holds back on doing so with tense moments too to strengthen the tension rather than chip away at it. A good soundtrack knows when to be over-the-top, and also when to purely provide audible context to a scene. I’m happy to say that the show’s soundtrack does just that.

The rest of this review includes spoilers.

The episode’s dialogue and writing was entertaining and fast-paced at times, such as The Mandalorian’s (Pedro Pascal) witty “I like those odds” one-liner and the running gag of IG-11’s (Taika Waititi) extreme want to self-destruct. Some scenes feel unnatural and purely done for exposition, such as the flashbacks of our protagonist’s childhood from merely seeing sparks.

What has most viewers talking is the episode’s cliffhanger ending, which introduces fans to a baby Yoda Species character - something which has never really been done before and opens opportunities for many different storylines like a possible Yoda relative or further exploration into his species. It will be interesting to find out where this takes the show and what reasons there are for the child having a classified bounty on its head. Talking about the ending is obvious, but I wanted to get it out of the way.

The Mandalorian’s true potential shines in its ability to create tension through dialogue and story rather than the classic Star Wars way of creating villains that chase the good guys. In almost all media, Star Wars has always had this cliche way of presenting an antagonist, having an epic final battle, and deciding a winner by the end. The new trilogy tries to shy away from this, but instead it just stretches the cliche out into multiple battles in many forms. While this episode does include quite a few fight sequences, and they are done well, I am more intrigued to see the plot side of the show rather than the shooty-shooty-laser-at-stormtrooper side. There’s something for everyone here.

This show’s choice to focus on an anti-hero creates a massive potential for storytelling and world building, and this makes me very excited for the future of The Mandalorian and other original Disney+ Star Wars series.