The Mandalorian: What’s Not to Love?

The Star Wars spin-off on Disney+ ticks all the boxes for this Star Wars fan but Disney+ has made a critical error and the time to exit will come (beware, mini spoilers there are)

Being in Australia, we had to wait just that wee bit longer to delve into the much-anticipated Disney+ release of Star Wars spin-off The Mandalorian.

I tortured myself that little bit more and didn’t sign up on day one.

And even when I did, was still ploughing through other streaming shows (can you believe I’m only JUST watching The Fall? Don’t judge!), so held off in delicious anticipation of eventually settling into a couple eps of The Mandalorian.

Before I did indulge, some of the reviews and crits and, let’s be honest, minor litany of whinges and moans started coming through, although not in the same hateful histrionic way they did during the final eps of GOT (it was never gonna be perfect, haters. Move on!)

People are obviously entitled to their opinion and I’m not usually swayed so much either way, unless it’s someone who I’m close to and I super trust — or I’m pouring my way through Trip Adviser to research travel options, and even then I take so many of them with a grain of salt because too many people want to have a whinge and not enough leave credit or praise where it’s due.

(That’s a whole other article right there…so might just leave it for now)

So the verdict?

I LOVE The Mandalorian.

I’m even listening to the great original score as I’m writing this.

Love, love, loooooooveeeeee.

It’s not gonna win 76 Emmys.

The script is not without fault.

The acting and directing is a little wobbly at times.

But any true Star Wars fan who didn’t get tingles when the baby Yoda first appeared is dead to me.

And themselves.

And the Star Wars universe.

(check out a range of theories — some serious, some not so — from CNET on who the cute lil tacker is here.)

Disney and the creatives involved with The Mandalorian picking up the mantle of the Star Wars universe for diehard fans and the new breed that will come (it is their destiny…) who want the story to live on…and on…and on…is brilliant and then some.

IMHO, they have selected a great moment in the longer Star Wars storyline (just after Episode VI, Return of the Jedi) to kick off The Mandalorian, used the hybrid sci-fi = western genre to hang the story on, woven in characters/ aliens/worlds so as to tune us perfectly back into the greater universe and feel like insiders, and are, so far at least, intriguing us with a standalone main character and story we care for and want to know more about.

Yup, I’m a fan and am happy to shell out my $8AUD a month to see the series out, in the same way I did for GOT.

However…once that month or two is over, I’ll be gone. I will have watched all the old-school Disney animated films by then (perfect viewing for the holiday period, right?), after which THERE WILL BE NOTHING LEFT TO WATCH.

Ok, yes. I’’m exaggerating a little, or should be more specific and say FOR ME there will be nothing left to watch…

Which leads me to my main point — which is that Disney+ has made a critical error, and the time for dumping it will come…

Point being, not only is the back catalog just that wee bit limited, but outside of a few announcements about the forward catalog (a couple other new Star Wars spinoffs, The Diary of a Female President and some new Marvel stuff), there really isn’t any great reason to shell out your hard-earned each month rather than just sign up sporadically for short periods at random times when a whole series has hit the deck.

I’m sure the Disney folk have thought their strategy through knowing this but in all likelihood figure a stack of folk will just have Disney+ as a set and forget subscription given the pricepoint is lowish.

BUT…with such a crowded streaming market, and Apple pushing its way into being an aggregator, I wonder how this will all pan out?

My prediction is that given the war chest Disney no doubt has, it will buy up one of the other streamers (Hulu is my guess) so that it can flesh out its backlist and provide a full streaming platform — alternatively, it may go the other way and build the catalogue up to a point with a somewhat rusted if not huge loyal audience to sell it and that audience’s data to another streamer for a share of revenue.

Time will tell, but as it currently stands, Disney+ is not a force to be reckoned with even if it thinks “The Force will be with it. Always.”