Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Pedro Pascal, Gina Carano, Katee Sackhoff, Giancarlo Esposito, Temuera Morrison, Mercedes Varnado, Misty Rosas, Omid Abtahi, Ming-Na Wen, John Leguizamo, Timothy Olyphant, Richard Ayoade, Simon Kassianides, Titus Welliver, Carl weathers, Michael Biehn, Rosario Dawson, Diana Lee Isosanto, Bill Burr, Mark Hamill.
There was a time when a graphic novel adaption, or a spin off from a much-loved film would be met with the mixture of apathy and delight. Apathy because there was only so much that television could do in terms of making the programme accessible and in keeping with the character’s back story.
People over a certain age will remember how thrilled they were when they learned that The Incredible Hulk, starring the incomparable Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno, was being brought to the small screen, and yet there were still issues, ones that in truth were not fleshed out until Mark Ruffalo took on the role of Bruce Banner in the Marvel Studio films.
The Mandalorian could have suffered the same fate if it had been brought to the screen any earlier, but in a different way, it fell perhaps perfectly on to television screens with the fan fall out of the final three films in the Star Wars Cannon; any earlier and it might have led those same fans to believe that what they were seeing was just the start of something leading up to brilliance in the last chapters of the Skywalker story; instead the first two series of the show have offered, dare it be said, a new hope that the franchise is far from over.
If the first series was clever, witty and intriguing, then the second series took a giant step into folklore, it had style, grit, belief, surprises and gut-wrenching power to turn even the grizzled older, and sometimes disillusioned fan around and stare in marvel and appreciation at the unfolding story.
As with the first series it is the child that takes centre stage, the sense of innocence that comes with anything that is operated by a puppet master and which conveys so much meaning in one small movement performed by the person underneath, is to be applauded and admired. It is though, the whole team that carry this admiration, and with Pedro Pascal providing the voice, and occasional face, of the title character, the return of Boba Fett to the timeline, and still superbly portrayed by Temuera Morrison, Katee Sackhoff laying down her own indisputable marker on screen as Bo-Katan Kyrze, and Giancarlo Esposito as Moff Gideon, and all behind the scenes of the production, The Mandalorian does not suffer second series nerves, if anything it insists on being taken seriously, but also with a huge smile on its own indisputable face.
Arguably there was a lot wrong with the final episodes of Star Wars, but it has not hindered the appetite of the audience, it has thankfully only made the delivery more urgent, more destined to succeed.
Ian D. Hall