I didn't mind the idea of what was happening on Coruscant, just the length and the amount of "nothing happening" in retrospect.
The episode was chockfull of Legends and other media references, which I always enjoy. The most upfront of those for me was Mount Umate, the exposed mountain peak. it comes up in a Mando-centric episode of Clone Wars and is also prominent in the first High Republic book from a couple of years ago. You could hear a slowed down version of "March of the Resistance" from TFA in the background.
Having slept a few hours, my Positive and Negative list at first blush
Positives: Mando and Bo vs. the TIE interceptors and bombers. Second great space battle in 3 episodes after basically zero in the first 2 seasons.
Bo Katan tucking the Mythosaur card under her vest. We all suspect she's up to something besides being new BFFs, but this is the first real good look at it. Maybe she's starting to believe in the prophecy considering Din never put eyes on it.
Coruscant - wonderful to see it again in all its glory, looked like the opera house where Palpatine tells Anakin the story of Darth Plagueis the wise, great to see some real bureaucracy at work for the New Republic and how they're using the Empire's resources and staff; lots of fun references, including a couple of Kevin Anderson's Jedi Quest series with Kyp Durron from nearly 30 years ago in terms of the sight-seeing on Coruscant; lots of Mon Cals, which are my favorites; reference to Andor with both where Pershing was living and where he was working - slightly more airy versions of where Henry Thomas was assigned after the fallout in Andor.
Viszla sti;l has a stick up his ass - feels like he's the voice box for what the Armorer might be thinking.
The Living Waters - cool tie back that what she does in the forge starts with the Living Waters.
NegativesA lot of logic flubs for me, with the most glaring being the New Republic assigning the old Imperials a letter and number combination to be called by, the exact thing that drove stormtroopers like Finn away from the First Order. It's hard to imagine the New Republic doing that kind of de-humanizing.
The underuse of Dr. Pershing - he's a total genius and an eloquent speaker, let's have him work as an administrative assistant?
Lee Isaac Chung - it really feels like they got a multi-Oscar nominated foreign director and nobody wanted to tell him that his episode was 15 minutes too long. They could have cut out Pershing's brushing elbows with the glitterati and his speech and just started with him getting to the apartment complex, cut out the Mount Umate part (which I liked, but only as a reference) and the subway car chase which has happen in 4 million other movies/TV shows and just get them from the apartments to the SD to the re-Nedification process and it would have been a lot more tolerable.
The one time my kid gets to watch it at 2 AM (cuz it's Spring Break) and she was falling asleep halfway through. Boo, says I.
Feels so good, feelin' good again.