It was clear from early in the first episode of The Mandalorian that the vibe it was going for was “vintage Western.” Now, with Chapter 4’s “Sanctuary,” the only question is how many different vintage Westerns are going to be part of that vibe.
Fair warning – there are spoilers ahead
Baby Yoda Alert
On the run after his second thoughts at turning over “the asset”—for simplicity let’s just go with Baby Yoda now—The Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) looks for a remote hiding place, and seems to have found one on a non-industrial planet. But first he has to determine whether the battle-hardened soldier he meets, Cara Dune (Gina Carano), is friend or foe. Then he has to decide whether to take up the cause of a group of villagers who are being raided by creatures who look like a cross between Lord of the Rings’ Uruk-hai and the bulldog that just won the National Dog Show.
What follows is more or less a spin on The Magnificent Seven, which was itself a spin on The Seven Samurai, and a plot that has even informed comedies like Blazing Saddles. It’s a simple enough premise to execute, necessitating a training montage in which The Mandalorian and Cara Dune try to prepare their inexperienced employers for the fight, plus a not-particularly-interesting final battle sequence directed by Bryce Dallas Howard (joining dad Ron in overseeing a story in the Star Wars universe). The preponderance of “Sanctuary” feels like wheel-spinning and place-holding as a result of the mix of familiar plot and rote action. It serves the function mostly of introducing Carano’s character and allowing Baby Yoda to do adorable things, like the quintessentially kid-like maneuver of doing something you know you’re not supposed to do while looking your parent straight in the eye.
The one noteworthy exception to that sameness is finally allowing for a bit more humanizing of The Mandalorian himself, thanks to a verging-on-romantic-interest subplot involving one of the villagers, a widowed single mother named Omera (Julia Jones). Basically, it’s a chance to re-emphasize the rules of the Mandalorians that might keep our hero from a chance at happiness, and it gives Pascal a few new notes to play in his voice performance. But it’s increasingly becoming a lot to ask that we should care about the series’ lead character even half as much as we do for his cute sidekick.
By episode’s end, The Mandalorian is riding off into the sunset yet again, a lonely gunslinger living “The Way” that doesn’t make it look like he’ll be settlin’ down any time soon. This particular snippet of story, however, is one that made The Mandalorian feel more like TV than a cinematic story—and in particular, an episode from a pre-1970s TV show. There’s still room for this series to grow into something great, provided it doesn’t get hung up on its genre roots to the point where it’s simply Have Gun (and Baby Yoda), Will Travel.
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Let’s Hear From You
How is The Mandalorian shaping up for you? Has it captured your attention? Or have you found your interest in the series waning? Has it become all about Baby Yoda for you? Let’s chat in the comments below.
Want to learn more about “The Mandalorian”? Read the other reviews and recaps of Disney+ titles here.