Whilst Star Wars Celebration over the weekend revelled in all things “Star Wars” with various exciting announcements and trailers, it marks something of a contrast to what’s been going on with the franchise’s flagship series “The Mandalorian”.
Very well-received by critics and fans across its first two seasons, the show’s current third season has been met with a mixed reaction – leading to plenty of articles asking when the series lost its ‘must watch’ status.
In particular, last week’s sixth episode, “Guns for Hire,” which boasted cameos from Jack Black and Lizzo, has led to a public venting of issues with the neo-Western sci-fi title.
User review scores for that episode pulled in its weakest fan reviews to date on IMDb with an inordinate number of 1/10 scores. User reviews for the season overall on Rotten Tomatoes have slid to just 57% – a far cry from the 92% of the first and 91% of the second, whilst at Metacritic they’re on 4.1/10 compared to the 7.7-7.8/10 for the first two seasons.
As THR indicates, the complaints from the reviews have run the gamut from technical issues with special effects to jarring cameos, but a good portion seems to be about the show not having a clear identity and story goal like the first two seasons had.
In addition, there have been complaints about Mando and Grogu becoming side characters in their own show as the focus has shifted more to Bo-Katan (Katee Sackhoff) and the other Mandalorians. Part of the backlash ties back to “The Book of Boba Fett”, which effectively had two “Mandalorian” episodes wedged into it and reversed what was otherwise a ‘perfect’ ending to the show’s second season.
Ratings numbers from Nielsen are weeks behind, so it’s not yet clear if this impacts viewership. Producer Dave Filoni seemingly addressed some of the criticism at Star Wars Celebration over the weekend, telling Empire the new season is about “reflecting different points of view” in the galaxy and that “Star Wars” is made by creators who each have their own point of view.
Two more episodes of the series remain. Will they be able to turn the tide?
