Star Wars: The Mandalorian

[The Doctor]

It's a fake.

-Ralph

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Oh. Whoops. Well, I bought it in good faith and it's been dispatched. Sorry, Disney! I'll make it up to you!

Edit: Yes, I can see now from customer reviews that it's not a Disney release. I'm surprised Disney let Amazon and indeed Google (which takes you straight to it) facilitate such. Bizarre.

Martin

[Grand Moff Muffin]

It's superb.

Disney only have to announce a Blu-ray release and they've got my money. Their call.

Martin

[Toph]

I don't think Disney ever plans on releasing D+ series to dvd or bluray. It's been a couple years at this point, so it would have happened by now.
They seem to be following the same model they use with Hulu.

[The Doctor]

Aug 4, 2021 19:02:10 GMT Grand Moff Muffin said:

It's superb.

Disney only have to announce a Blu-ray release and they've got my money. Their call.

Martin

I would snap up an official blu ray in a minute. This is The Way.

-Ralph

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Wouldn't there come a time when it makes no financial sense not to release it on disc? Like when it's going to make all the money it's going to make via streaming but there are still millions of Star Wars fans ready to part with instant cash to have it physically on a shelf?

Martin

[Philip Ayres]

At some point.... but this is the X-Files videos all over again: pay once for the physical product, keep paying for the service providing it.

IIRC I saw something from Disney+ saying they had no plans to release the Disney+ Marvel shows on home media

Edit: I do www.cbr.com/disney-no-current-plans-release-marvel-shows-dvd-blu-ray/

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Aug 4, 2021 20:13:18 GMT Philip Ayres said:

pay once for the physical product

Yeah, 'cos like, people only ever paid once to have the original Star Wars in a physical format.

Martin

[Toph]

I can't speak for others, but I know I want to own things that I love.

Money that Disney, Amazon, and other companies have lost because they won't release them
The Madalorian
Siren
Runaways
The Tick
Laid-Back Camp
Amanchu!
A Place Further Than The Universe
The Orville S3 and beyond (will be on hulu, which means no release)
RiD
The Owl House
Amphibia
TMNT 2012 (never got a proper release, just a couple dozen dvds with a handfull of episodes each)

But Disney has always been weird like this. "Back on video for a limited time! Buy it now before it goes back in the Disney Vault!"

[Pinwig]

They do that here too, or did in the VHS days at least. I thought it was because they rereleased films at the cinema in generational waves, so they thought they could reissue the home media with new fanfare too.

[Toph]

They did it around anniversaries here (disney movies very rarely get rereleased in theaters, here), and continued until very recently. The last time I heard the term "released from the Disney Vault" was in promotional materials for the launch of Disney+.

I have every reason to believe that they will occasionally pull series and movies off D+ and claim "It's going back in the vault!"

[The Doctor]

Season 3 has been a bit...has been a bit...there, so far. I will admit that episode 3 tested my patience.

3 episodes on a pointless side quest. Feels like the show is losing its way.

-Ralph

[Jim]

I don't think it's as pointless as some people are seeing it.

SPOILER: Click to show

I think most people (including me!) expected the Mines of Mandalore quest would be bubbling along for the whole season and be resolved at the end, but after episode 3 I think the point of it was setting up Bo Katan Kryze for her sort-of religious conversion and that that's going to be the big thing this season.

Which is good, because I think drawing out a quest which just gets Mando back to his status quo across the whole run would have been tiresome, and there's more story potential in Bo Katan's new status.

Episode 3 was an odd one, for sure! Personally I liked the themes it explored (and it was an interesting parallel to the bookends focussing on Mando and Bo Katan), and the world-building with the New Republic and Coruscant was really nice, but I can see why it was so divisive in the context of this show. Tonally it was closer to Andor.

[Stomski]

Episode 1 wasn't much, but enjoyed 2+3. But I'm a sucker for any Imperial operations shenanigans and seeing the fallout of the fall of the Empire on screen is pretty great.

[Rich]

Episode 1 was lightweight but that's fine for an episode 1. Episode 2 was fantastic. Episode 3 was great when doing the A plot but just boring for the B. I love a bit of world building but just didn't find the story at all interesting. The scene at the beginning of episode 3 was superb: got a new TV before Christmas and it looked spectacular - better than any film I've watched.

[legios]

I quite enjoyed episode 3,it had a couple of interesting performances from the guest cast with some interesting ambiguity to both of them. But I've been doing some pondering about my reaction to both this season and the previous season and I think I know why I am starting to drift away from this show a bit.

Firstly, it was never whatever the "arc plot" was that I was enjoying about this show. What I was most enjoying was watching Lone Wolf and Cub wandering the edges of society getting into misadventures once a week. For me the "Din is stuck with this child that people want to kill him over" felt like it was just the excuse to set them both wandering, but I get the feeling that the series places an importance on it that is much greater than I do.

Secondly it occurred to me watching the last few episodes that I think the show a) considers Din's group of Mandalorian's to be cool and impressive figures, and b) thinks that the audience is invested in Din getting back into the cult so that he and Grogu can find a home there... I'm...not so invested... From my perspective the Children of the Watch look like a very sketchy bunch indeed. Their behaviour is that of an insular cult, and on top of that - for all their talk of "Mandalorian Culture" they don't actually seem to create or transmit any culture. The only thing they seem to teach their succeeding generations is violence, and things you need to go to places to do violence. The only things we've seen them make are weapons and armour... I've never really bought into the whole "Mandalorians are individualityless killing machines with cool armour, aren't they cool."

Perhaps they are going to pivot back to the "Din needs to learn that there is more than one Way, and that others can be valid paths" characterisation I thought they might be going for. But that the moment it doesn't feel like that, and I do think that as a result the show and I are starting to be on divergent courses.

Karl

[Bogatan]

Kind of feel the same, Im not really a western fan but wandering around while everyone tries taking the kid worked.

Im not sure if this format will, but it Im still entertained so far.

Having the same problem with Bad Batch. It started strong following directly on from Ep3 and the end of clone wars and kept up its momentum for the rest of the season.

Season 2 especially early on felt more of an effort. And a bit like the middle bit of Mando ep3 it drifts in and out of general world building and then other episodes have been full on kids cartoon type stuff that honestly feels more like Ewoks than any other Star Wars. Its improved as the season has gone on, but still its two sides do not always mesh well.

Generally I think Star Wars feels stuck right now. Everything is filling in back story. Mando must be heading down the Emporers return path towards the sequel trilogy. Endor sets up Rougue One which sets up Ep4.

Bad Batch is filling in the early years of the Empire that Obi Wan, Endor, Rebels, Rogue One didnt touch on.

The short story collection that came out last year was essentially just filling in Clone wars back story.

For all the crap Solo got for fan service explanations of everything its far from the only offender.

[Stomski]

Some good points.

I did like the early episodes which felt more like 80s TV where the weekly episodes were more self contained.

Shows like Lost, 24 etc. really over popularised the long series arc and this is now compounded with Breaking Bad, TWD and GoT. So it was good to return to simpler story telling.

[Bogatan]

Latest episode was great.

SPOILER: Click to show

Spoiler
Very much doubt they would make CG Zeb if hes not going to have a decent role in Ashoka which effectively starts to sound like Rebels Season 4...5? but live action.

Very excited.

[The Doctor]

Sat down last night to catch up on the last 3 episodes. Just watched one then stopped. The fun has gone out of this show. The Mandalorian culture was amusingly daft when seen in short doses but less so when it is the focus.

-Ralph

[Stomski]

Well it's a different show, this is now Bo Katan Season 1, not The Mandalorian Season 3.

[The Doctor]

Thus far I find that character to be a bit dull. We shall see!

-Ralph

[Fortmax2020]

Apr 8, 2023 6:52:12 GMT The Doctor said:

Sat down last night to catch up on the last 3 episodes. Just watched one then stopped. The fun has gone out of this show. The Mandalorian culture was amusingly daft when seen in short doses but less so when it is the focus.

-Ralph

This is the way.

[Pinwig]

I've thoroughly loved this series right the way through, but watching the most recent episode last night felt like a shark might be being jumped. The stunt casting took me right out of the story and the society on offer all felt a bit phantom menace.

[The Huff]

The shark was jumped for me when the space pirates turned out to be literal pirates...

[Cullen]

I thought the last episode was awful. Used to really enjoy the Mandalorian but this series has been a bit of a let down.

[Hero]

Blue protocol droid was pretty cool. IIRC he was a fan creation.

[Rich]

I'm regretfully on the 'this show is going the wrong way' team. Last episode was really bad. Did see a comment somewhere that maybe the Mando episodes in Fett, which saved that show, left Mando series 3 short on content. I don't think that's it exactly but I do think the newly announced film, which this programme is obviously building towards now, added to the way it's being used to create interest in the other related D+ series, means that it is getting watered down. It's all feeling a bit Netflix Defenders rather than Endgame. Also, trying to explain the First Order is just a waste of time.

Nonetheless, I still have hope for the end of this season. Fingers crossed.

[Jim]

I quite enjoyed that last episode! It had strong prequel trilogy / Clone Wars vibes to it, embracing the pulpy side of Star Wars (as they did also with the pirates in previous episodes).

The bit I didn't have much love for was the Kryze / Axe Woves bit which all felt a bit too predictable and plodding.

[The Doctor]

Episode 5 was more like it: actually felt like an episode of this show. Episode 6 was the Bo Kazan show though I did like the robot bar.

Overall, I feel the show has lost it way though. It's become the dull show about folk with buckets on their heads rather than one lone ranger and his ward.

I could not give two ***** about restoring Mandalore and that beast thing.

-Ralph