Fans claim massive quality drop – The Hollywood Reporter

Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff), Grogu, and Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) in “The Mandalorian.”

Courtesy of Lucasfilm

last week in star Wars Celebration, Disney released a wave of exciting announcements, such as Ahsoka A trailer and three new movies (that’s really going to happen this time around, promise!). However, while fans embraced the news, Disney’s crown jewel star Wars TV world – The Mandalorian – It could be said that he was having the worst week ever.

The show’s final episode, “Guns for Hire,” scored the drama’s weakest fan ratings (trans IMDb) since the release of the sci-fi drama The New West four years ago. The episode wasn’t exactly outlandish, however, as fan sentiment about the show’s third season in general has been building, with Rotten Tomatoes user reviews this season dropping from their usual low-’90s perch to just 57 percent and the IMDb average similarly high. (though not sharply) receding down.

The premiere of the series’ third season (Disney usually only offers one episode of the series) was widely praised by critics The Mandalorian to the critics every once in a while), however some in the press are beginning to take notice as well.

A somewhat surprising callback to a show that’s been universally beloved since its launch, it’s a rare title that made consumer hits critically acclaimed and generates love awards (the first two seasons were nominated for Best Drama Emmys).

So what happened?

Interestingly — and adding some credibility to the negative feedback — the complaints aren’t centered around one thing, but rather are a collection of grievances that range from plotting and dialogue to unconvincing special effects to incongruous cameos (one recent episode featured Lizzo, Christopher Lloyd, and Jack. Black, who gave camp Star Wars Holiday Special vibrations).

CNN critic Brian Lowry Wrote that offer He is going through an identity crisis. collider was hitting Mandalorian with titles like “This is what kills The Mandalorian Season 3.” Forbes He says the series has fumbled a major storyline and “the entire season seems to have lost its way, with both Mando and Grogu fading into the background and no clear overarching story to follow (or villain to root for).” This “lost his way” line is repeated, with Movieweb the address“How The Mandalorian lost its way”, criticizing the “complete lack of anything to move the story forward.”

Fans were, of course, wilder: “Massive drop in quality,” declared one on Rotten Tomatoes. Another: “This show has transformed from all appreciation. It is no longer the man who has no name in space but the man who has no purpose in space.” Another: “The show isn’t a Mando show anymore, plot points dropped for relevance, nonsensical missions and the worst, by far the worst acting I’ve seen in SW.”

This segment – “The Show Isn’t Mando Anymore” – raises another major complaint, giving the season more screen time to fellow Mandalorian Bo Katan (Katee Sackhoff) and a bit less to hero Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal). One Mandalorian The director, Rick Famuyiwa, has suggested that Dean Jaren isn’t necessarily the defining character of the show anymore, which is rather odd. “Who is the Mandalorian at this point?” contemplation. “So I guess it could be anyone.”

“This season is not season 3 of The Mandalorian, season 1 of Bo Katan featuring Din Jaren and Grogu following her around,” one fan teased. “Din Djarin is now a supporting character and Grogu exists for marketing purposes only.”

Pascal has been dividing his time shooting HBO movies The last of us First season when Mando The third season was filmed, although the show regularly uses stunt doubles – Brendan Wayne and Latif Crowder – under the helmet, with Pascal providing a voice-over in post-production. this chapter, The Mandalorian He started over prominently credit Wayne and Crowder for their work on the series.

Nielsen data for The Mandalorian The third season is so far limited to the first two episodes only (six episodes have aired). The show averaged 856 million minutes watched, a modest drop (14 percent) from the first two weeks of the second season — but that’s not enough information to conclude there’s any kind of trend. It will be interesting to see subsequent episode numbers, however, when the throwback kicks into high gear.

Some argue that the issues with The Mandalorian The franchise started prior to the third season. spin off Boba Fett book It was considered a bit disappointing, however, as it was the best reviewed episodes Mandalorian-centric entries that are awkwardly pinned into the season. And while these episodes were enjoyed by fans, they were also controversial, eg The MandalorianThe season 2 story was about Din Djarin searching for the Jedi to return Grogu to his people, only for that decision to be reversed in Boba Fett book. It was a weird kind of inconclusive plot that led to conspiracy theories about corporate meddling and hack control that Baby Yoda feels somewhat like.

Weirdly, while all this is going on, star WarsA decades-old rival legacy franchise, Star Trek, is experiencing a completely opposite phenomenon with its current TV show. The third and final season of Paramount+ Picard It generates near universal acclaim after finding many fans and critics The first two seasons of the show are chaotic and disappointing (the viewership averaged just 57 percent — just like Mando third season). The audience score for the new season rose to 89 percent, and the critics’ score rose to 98 percent. Picard Season 3 generated so much excitement that on Tuesday, Paramount announced that the final two episodes of the show would be broadcast in IMAX theatres On April 19th.

There are only two more episodes left Mandalorian To go this season, it’s not a long time to turn things around, but a great finish can lay a lot of ground. Both are directed by Famuyiwa, whose entries tend to rank among the strongest shows. Let’s go , MandalorianIt was supposed to balance it out star Wars Franchise, don’t leave him in the dark!