I hadn’t been to a movie theater for some time before my family cajolled me into seeing “The Mandalorian and Grogu” over the weekend. The experience itself was enough to remind me why I usually wait for movies to hit streaming these days; a full 30 minutes of trailers and commercials before the film started, and a broken air conditioner combined to make for a maddening trip.

Focusing on the movie itself, I came away feeling mildly entertained, but not exactly blown away. That’s how I’ve felt about most Star Wars titles emanating from Disney since the company took over the franchise in 2012, but it’s not how I remember feeling the first time I watched “The Mandalorian” series on Disney+. After seeing the movie, I decided to revisit the series to see if my memories of it as an incredibly well-done Star Wars project were accurate, or if time had simply sweetened my recollection. The resultant rewatch was my favorite stream of the week.

“The Mandalorian” takes place in the days after the Empire’s fall. Imperial warlords are scattered across the galaxy, bent on fighting the forces of the fledgling New Republic. When a lone bounty hunter known simply as “the Mandalorian” takes a job he can’t refuse from one of these warlords, he’s shocked to learn that the cargo he’s been hired to transport is an infant child — a revelation that forces him to make a choice between duty and his deepest beliefs.

The thing that hit me first when I turned on Season 1 of “The Mandalorian” was how little fan service the show attempted to use to attract viewers in its early days — at least relative to other Star Wars movies and shows. To be sure, the warrior race of aliens known as Mandalorians is popular in Star Wars lore, but the show’s main character had never before been seen in the franchise.

Season 1 does an excellent job of building a world that is both new and familiar. Of course, fans get to see stormtroopers and other trappings that make a title identifiably Star Wars, but they also get to explore new parts of the galaxy far, far away. Audiences are also confronted with a different view of the galaxy, from the perspective of a character who doesn’t necessarily have any loyalties to the Empire or the New Republic. Viewers have come to know the Rebels as the good guys in Star Wars, but in Mando’s world, the good guys can’t be everywhere at once, and not everyone has reason to think of the New Republic or the Jedi as heroes.

As I watched, I couldn’t help reflecting on how new Star Wars projects have gone awry so many times since Disney took over. You can ask 10 Star Wars fans what’s gone wrong with the franchise in that time and get 10 different answers, but in my view, the overarching desire to show fans what it thinks they want to see has been Disney’s worst instinct.

“The Mandalorian” itself is guilty of this in later seasons, as the show becomes overburdened with characters from other Star Wars titles like Boba Fett. It’s hard to blame Disney and those running the show at Lucasfilm for indulging this instinct; characters Boba Fett, Ahsoka Tano, and Luke Skywalker are timeless, and including them in “The Mandalorian” was a way to build connections within the franchise and advance the story overall.

The formula worked incredibly well when Disney first took over Marvel, and churned out hit after hit for the company for more than a decade. But in Star Wars, such efforts have always felt a bit clumsily done, as if Disney were more interested in simply showing viewers their favorite characters than in crafting a thoughtful way to include them in stories.

One thing I do know for sure: the first season of “The Mandalorian” is excellent TV, and excellent Star Wars. Viewers can find the show streaming in its entirety on Disney+ now, and we expect “The Mandalorian and Grogu” to stream there in mid-September, allowing viewers to hold the film up to the show to compare for themselves.

The Mandalorian

November 12, 2019

After the fall of the Galactic Empire, lawlessness has spread throughout the galaxy. A lone gunfighter makes his way through the outer reaches, earning his keep as a bounty hunter.