Well, I finally watched the episode. And unfortunately, I’m not impressed, which is a feat considering how low my expectations were.

The main problem with Mando as a whole has already been identified by several people: the universe doesn’t feel “lived in”. The characters don’t have any nuance, no life beyond what’s on screen, they’re just machines designed to spew lame one-liners and repetitive exposition. I didn’t used to be bothered by this, but after Andor showed how convincingly “real” a Star Wars story can be, Mando just feels like a vaudeville show by comparison.

But even disregarding the lack of believability, this episode just felt… bland. Not a single moment in the entire episode really stood out to me. Every scene just felt like I’ve seen it before, and that’s because I have: almost every moment in this episode was an imitation of a much more memorable moment from the previous seasons. The Mando writers have begun to eat their own tail, so to speak, and the new season just feels forgettable as a result.

I hope this episode was just a fluke, and the next few episodes will be able to pull their act together: the critical reactions to an advance preview of Chapter 18 sound very promising. But if the new season doesn’t turn out good by at least episode 3, I’m done with Mando forever.