Foxymophandlemama said:
They seem to be doing well with the audience. What more do you want?
I'm not picking on you. I'm just trying to understand your point of view and it's hard to do that in this format.
Why must it have more plot?
I'll take the bait...
- I've said this before, but there's just no emotion. Every single character is seemingly the most stoic of their tribe/species, and the ones who aren't are either goofballs or bad actors (both of which we got in this latest episode via Amy Sedaris and the wannabe bounty hunter, respectively). As I've said before, it doesn't help that the main character is STILL behind a mask for a seemingly manufactured reason (story-wise). I would honestly find this series at least 10% better if we could actually see Pedro Pascal's face and connect with his facial expressions. One of the main points of storytelling is to elicit empathy from the audience, but they're handicapping the hell out themselves when we can't even see the main character's face. Even the prequels had more emotion/feeling than this series so far.
- The dialogue isn't bad, but it's not good either. Again, nearly every exchange comes across like it's a cut scene from a video game; generic, on the nose, and/or cliched. And if it's not any of those, it's just flat out vanilla. If wanting better dialogue makes me pretentious or needy, so be it.
- The acting, at times, feels broader than anything we've seen in Star Wars before (save for Jar Jar, of course). I've been really surprised at how hammy and networky some of the side characters have been.
- The show feels needlessly rushed for a format that doesn't have to adhere to a restrictive time length. Relationships either aren't developed or feel like we missed about five steps between "Nice to meet you" and friends/lovers. Similarly, the plot lines simply aren't allowed to breathe. I don't need hour-long episodes, but another 10-15 minutes each episode would do wonders.
- As has been mentioned already, the "monster of the week" format is starting to feel like stalling. The only reason Star Trek, The X-Files, or basically any network show is episodic in nature is to make it easier for audiences to jump in at any time. You don't need to know anything to get hooked. But here, for an eight-episode series, the format makes no sense. I'm all for "complete" episodes that have a beginning, middle, and end, but not when it plays more to network TV than it does to cable (and I don't mean that in a "PG" sense, but rather the tone/vibe/structure).
- Mando constantly waivers between being very good at his job and very bad at his job. If he needlessly leaves Baby Yoda in yet another easy-to-escape/not-looked-after situation one more time, I'm reporting him to CPS. Seriously, though, it's just getting old at this point.
In short, five episodes in, I can confidentially say that this show is average at best. I still like it, find parts of it entertaining, think it's beautifully shot, am stunned by the effects work, and want to see where it goes, but I think a lot people are giving it too much slack simply because it's servicing their Star Wars kick in easter egg-ish fashion, not because it's actually a well-developed show.
To me, your "Geez! Why can't you just
like it?!" attitude is just as weird as you think the "haters" are being. We want it to be better BECAUSE we love Star Wars.
