Adrian

Well, clearly I'm in the minority (judging from the ratings) but I have to say this is a mediocre offering. I'm genuinely extremely surprised at the ratings. Anything above 60-70% on Rotten Tomatoes is generous. Sure, It's OK for whiling away a 30 minutes or so if you really have nothing decent to watch - but, in honesty, it just ambles along as most movie spin offs tend to do: As a lacklustre companion to the main event. I'm reminded of programmes like the Planet of the Apes TV series I watched as a kid. Loved it as a child, when even the faintest association with the movie characters was enough to thrill me - but as an adult I now find it terminally dull. A cash-in by-product for only the most completionist of fan-boys/girls - one best kept as a memory from childhood and never revisited. The central Mando/Baby Yoda story is slow to develop (assuming there is actually much to develop} - with each episode being a stand alone, simplistic story wherein the Mando, while on his travels, drops in on an individual or community in need of assistance, does his hero thing (usually teaming up with a local to do so) before sodding off at the end in readiness for the next episode and his next heroic escapade. He's an intergalactic Kwai Chang Caine of sorts. (Ahh yes. Kung Fu - another beloved show from my childhood which, in retrospect, was just a dull Kung Fu cash-in. One that, at the time, was good enough for kids like me who were too young to see Bruce Lee movies - and who therefore had no basis for comparison). Even the score is dreadful. And yet that score somehow fits the series well: It's technically competent - but devoid of any originality, gravitas or thrill. Eminently forgettable. It has all the character of something a commissioned professional cobbled together merely to fulfil their contract obligation by the agreed deadline. Soulless. I find it curious that the ratings are so high. When Disney bought LucasArts fanboys all over the world feared the Disneyficaton of Star Wars - yet here we have precisely that and the response is overwhelmingly positive. We'll see if the central ('Baby Yoda') story develops. I suspect (given that we're 5 episodes in with little progress) that the show is going to take their time with that one. I think I'll have long given up before then. The usual approach with TV series like this is to string you along in hopeful anticipation until the ratings start to dwindle, whereupon they'll quickly cobble together a finale. I'm not even the greatest of Star Wars fans, but I have to admit that the recent Disney/LucasArts movie offerings are monumental compared to this inconsequential durge. On the plus side - at least 'Baby Yoda' is cuter than those ghastly Ewoks ever were.