The Mandalorian - A Masterclass In Wasting Time 

Imagine how cool this series could have been if they stuck with the original premise of a bounty hunter in a space Western.

That awkward moment when Din Djarin became a side character of his own show and a sidekick to Bo-Katan.

That whole episode was just inexplicable, but what really bugged me was Mando being so insistent on reviving that assassin droid that he makes them tear down the statue in it's honour, then flies to another planet to look for a part it needs for repair but when the first person he asks doesn't have the part he instantly gives up on the droid and it's never mentioned again. What was that about?

The last season of the Mandalorian is like watching a let's play where the protagonist has to check every single room, pick up every single item and do every single side quest before going on with the plot.

The levels of apathy towards Star Wars at this point is something I will never believed a decadde ago.

Wasn't The Mandalorian like one of TV's most popular/well-liked shows a year or two ago? It's impressive how quickly they killed it

Season 3 demonstrates why limited series are always better. Had they left it at Season 2, it would have been a satisfying ending. Sure it was fan service that didn’t quite add up if you thought about it, but it struck all the right emotional beats. Having a sense of ending and closure is what makes story so powerful and lingering in our minds. Studios just want to milk something successful and no longer care about the art of it.

Imagine a The Mandalorian that is "Have Gun, Will Travel" in space and each episode is a crisp 30 minutes long.

Gotta love how they waited until the last two episodes before the plot got going

Din Djarin: *removes helmet* The Armorer: "You are no longer Mandalorian." Bo-Katan: *removes helmet* The Armorer: "You walk both worlds." Double standards in a nutshell.

Mandalorian isn’t alone here. Many shows are using this formula today: Take a 2 hour movie, multiply by 4, and create 8 one hour episodes and call it a season.

The moment Disney figured out the little Green Goblin was rolling in the dough, they started milking the idea of "oh look another cool space adventure with your 2 favorite friends who also have plot armor"

Honestly the Mandalorian just feels like watching a video where the player does all of the side quests before completing the main missions

My favorite part of your criticisms is how easily you show that the storytelling COULD be effective if the people involved just… cared.

It’s ironic how when asked about how the show would recover from Gina Carano’s firing, Favreau and Filoni said “It’s a big galaxy with a lot of characters.” While simultaneously bringing in so many unnecessary cameos.

I really liked the whole "reclaiming Mandalore" premise of this season after the trailer dropped coz I figured Bo would ask Mando to help her unite the people so that they can reclaim what is left of their planet. And that's what we got with the last two, the only problem is that it was in fact the ONLY idea that the writters had for this whole season,... I don't even mind a filler episode or two per season if those bring some value to the overall season, like with The Bad Batch where most of the filler fetch episodes seemed completely pointless but when the season concluded you could see that most of the story tropes from them had a larger effect on character development and interaction. With The Mandalorian, we got two episodes and 6 FILLERS, THAT GAVE 0 VALUE. It's insane to me to think that an animated tv-series that's meant for kids from the same production house has a better, more fleshed out story than their heavy hitter main tv-series.

Thank you. Too many people have been calling this season "quality" and it just didn't sit right with me week after week.

Man its so disapointing. I thought Din Djarin was gonna keep the darksaber and rebuild Mandalore, becoming its new ruler. Meanwhile we see Grogu and Luke rebuild the Jedi Order. But instead we got nothing. Just soulless corprate nothingess.

As a nuclear engineer without an ounce of creative writing within me, I feel like I could write a masterpiece if I watch and learn from all of the Drinker's videos. Bloody amazing!

One of the best examples of tight and efficient movie is "A quiet place." Love how well written and how well it flows.

I love the shots of Baby Yoda force-jumping through the air, because you can tell they just threw the doll in the air and hit Record.

It's not made to please the fans, it's made to please themselves and their friends.

There were some really standout episodes in the first and second seasons I really enjoyed. I actually liked how they tied Din and Bo's story together, but as you pointed out they waste so much time not really fleshing it out.

While I do agree that there were always scriptwriting problems in the earlier seasons of the Mandalorian, at least Seasons 1-2 felt like they had some sort of purpose. Characters actually learned and developed to varying degrees by the end of each episode, and the broad story made some form of progress. With season 3, nearly every important plot point and character moment is some sort of retcon or backtracking of a previous plot point or character moment from a past season or an entirely different show. With the characters of Mando and Bo-Katan there is almost not a single character trait or impactful moment from their past that isn’t completely undone by this season for the sole purpose of selling more toys

Man, I feel like every other scene Din is being saved by Bo-Katan or Grogu. I remember the first season where they portrayed him as this bad ass bounty hunter who could handle himself with ease. Ever since the Book of Boba Fett, he's been getting his ass handed to him and being saved. This season had Kathleen Kennedy written all over it.

Tremors is a great screenplay. Even the sound editing is done in such a way that boots walking around will foreshadow encounters with the monster later in the same location. The most subtle things are all added for the purpose of storytelling. Not a wasted second in that film.

Mando should have needed Bo's help to locate the Living Waters, because since the mines contain beskar ore, which is the pride and joy of Mandalore and is jealously sought after by the rest of the galaxy, they've been designed like a labyrinth and only the royal family and those entrusted by them to harvest it know how to correctly navigate the mines and reach it. This would have also been the right time to foreshadow an Imperial presence on Mandalore for the season finale.

Pretty insulting they made Bo Katan a leader after she failed being that spectacularly 2 times before

One of my favorite things about your channel is that you don't just critique. You offer alternatives and creative solutions to plot holes and drag. 👍🎉

You know what would have been cool? A season where Mando is a kickass bounty hunter.

The episode where the pirates invade Navarro was by far the highlight of the season for me. Seriously, the dialogue, writing, action, and pacing of that episode was phenomenal. I wish it carried over into the other ones

I was really difficult to remain a hold out after the Lizzo and Jack Black episode, but the real deal breaker for me was how Bo Katan ends up being essentially gifted the dark saber. Remember there was this whole drama before about how it can't be gifted and it can only be won by duel or battle. Like the show is seriously so afraid to take any risks now and essentially just closed off massive potential for a climactic rivalry between Katan an Djarin. And if all that wasn't bad enough, the finale was only 38 minutes.

They had 2 years to plot, write, film 8 episodes (most episodes less 60 minutes) and this is the best they could come up with? Remember when shows had 24 or 26 episodes per season!

Technically, the original homeworld of the Mandalorians was none other than Coruscant itself. Of course this was so long ago that most of the Mandos themselves don't even know this. Also, the combined flight time for that N1 starfighter to get from Mandalore to Tatooine and back again would have been roughly 36 hours.

You are pretty kind Drinker, to not talk about some of the gaping plot holes exposed by the end of the newest season. Not even mentioning the bizarre adoption / water baptism at the end, and then Mando not even being honored or anything....and then basically forced to leave and go explore. Not like we just reclaimed our homeworld and theres probably like plenty of work and help needed. I used to write comics as a child around the age of 10-14 that made more sense.

It's astonishing how a studio with so much money, a bulletproof IP, any talent it wanted...That also initially had the goodwill of the fans, pissed it up the wall so spectacularly. How?

My favorite part of the Mandalorian was when Disney lost hundreds of millions of dollars.

Stories that move at snails pace in order to maximise the amount of screen time are what streaming services specialise in. I rarely make it past episode 2 in any series for that very reason.

I liked the slow pace of The Mandalorian, where he's doing simple/mundane things like fixing his armour, going after a bounty, taking his time to look around, or even shopping with Grogu. It's like an "in the life" series of a Star Wars character. But after a while... ehhh.

I remember watching the mandalorian over 2 years ago and finishing season 2 just thinking "damn i hope they don't turn it into a flop next season".

I want to see more scenes of that scientist taking long, slow walks up and down very long hallways. That was riveting.

The thing is, I think it was written in 5 minutes. I think Book of Boba Fett torpedoed the ideas they had for season 3 and they had to rethink it very quickly. I think it was going to be a 50/50 between mando and grogu originally

I actually read a good story years ago that used "The Way" well It was mentioned only a few times to show how important it was ending with a duel for heirship of a clan. The two friends had beat the dishonorable opponents to end up facing each other in an honorable duel, the loser was spared an inch of his life and helped up by the winner then raised the winner hand together and declared "This is The Way"

Nothing worse than a story without a story in it.

Suprised how he not even mentioned how they literally just gave Bo Katan ownership of this show. After book of boba fett we were left with the impression that mando would learn to use the dark saber, redeem himself, and become the leader mandalore needed. Instead they completely undid not only that but all of his character development from season 2, so they could pass of his story to Bo Katan, who has never needed to be rescued by anyone. And unless you saw clone wars, you probably don't even like the character that much given how little screen time she had in season 2. Disney yet again subverting expectations to make a character's show completely about someone else.

This show is like watching parents who keep getting back together after rough periods of breakups.

Every time I try to watch a series these days I just get reminded that I’m better off ff just reading a book. All the best story and the best paced plots are in books

Hot fuzz script was so well done.Evwry single thing that was said at some point in the movie,all of them turned out to be important plot points and great call back joke.Its honestly one of my favorite comedies of all time.

An aspect in episode 2 and 3 that really ruffles me is that in context to the season finale, that there is this UBER secret imperial base on mandalore and they dont bother to send out their massive complement of fighter to take out an unknown ship (mandos n1) that clearly breached their airspace but then send out their entire fleet to just randomly bomb bo katans house for no apparent reason

@5:40, "past the Morlocks" 😆 That IS what they are, isn't it! You nailed it lol, hadn't even thought of them as that but that is what they are.

Man, cheers to you Critical Drinker. Listen every day. You are one of the Elite - absolutely. Your reviews are such a f****** breath of fresh air. I raise my glass to you, sir 🥃! "Don't know!" "Nah, it'll be fine" and the ultimate "Go away now!" Best of the best of the best.

The problem with the mandalorian (other than everything) is that they had Grogu become an instant cute little hit so they just want to pump out as much cute Grogu content as possible. So what should have been an adult grittier western around the species that literally almost wiped the Jedi order in the old republic, is now daddy day care as long as they can make green alien cute.

Mandolorian season 3 is both too short and insanely drawn out at the same time. That is actually kinda impressive in a messed up way.

The quality of the writing took a nosedive this season, I agree there's alot of long walking sequences in season 1 and 2 but there wasn't whole episodes where about only 11 minutes actually matters to the story (looking at you episode 6). before it felt like every scene actually advanced the story

Disney didn't kill my love for Star Wars. Although, they have killed my hope for anything new being anywhere close to good.

I still believe it were the Disney Executives, completely disconnected from reality, that forced the writers to bring Grogu back to Mando for absolutely no other reason than to keep their toylines going and "because girls watch it for Grogu". My girlfriend wanted to watch him train as a Jedi with Luke... why in the seven hells did they bring him back to do nothing?

The first two episodes could’ve been compressed into one episode but then it would mean they had to write another episode which meant more work for them so they didn’t

I love it when you show an alternative path the writing team could have gone down. It's illuminating, entertaining, and a pre-emptive strike against any tempted to throw "It's easy to criticize, but hard to create" at you. It also begs the question of how a random RU-vidr is able to quickly assemble intelligent plotlines where a billion-dollar franchise has failed.

i remember a doc on 70s comedy show happy days! one of the writers said very cynically we ran out of ideas after episode 10 of the first series.it was always the kids get in trouble fonzi fixes it! the parents get in trouble fonzi fixes it! the cafe is in trouble fonzi fixes it! wasnt much to build on or pad out for 25 mins.how many times can we get potsie to sing?so we invented a new type of script writing ! we noticed when the fonz came on the show stopped as the audience applauded ! made the run time a minute or so less! so we did it with every character ! tom boseley walks in prolonged applause arnie takes an order prolonged applause .in the end every main characters entrance stopped the show as the audience cued deliberately by us gave them a standing ovation! we only had 15 mins of dialogue to fill! then we started to do it with lines and catch phrases fonz saying hey or ritchie singing the first line of blueberry hill and any other laugh line always stopped the show because we were telling the audience to stand up and cheer.we figured eventually we wouldnt have to write at all just bring em on and let thec audience do the rest! every week we came up with ways to slow it down and write less! bring in girl neighbours for fonzi or a girlfriend or have a love interest a mini fonz for joanie.as soon as they walk on prolonged applause so 4 new characters meant even less writing!its true eventually we jumped the shark! but wed got away with not really writing a show just a long sketch for over 7 seasons by then so we didnt care!

I am glad I'm not the only one that recognizes that Hot Fuzz might be the tightest script ever written. There is not one wasted moment in that entire film. Absolutely every single thing has a payoff.

Once I saw Bo Katan in Season 2, I knew it was only a matter of time until she hijacked the show and became the spotlight. And of course knowing Disney, it came true lol

I've always said the Mandalorian looks like a great video game that I'd rather play myself than watch someone else play. The way it's shot so tediously slow, with him going on so many pointless side quests reminds me so much of a game. I was never sure if that was a compliment or not.

While I didn't think Mandalorian's 1st and 2nd seasons were bad, season 3 definetly just sucked the life out of this show I DONT GET HOW THEY COULD DO THIS THAT BAD

As someone who fell in love with this show from the moment in the pilot when Mando walked in, took out everyone who tried to stop him wordlessly only for him to say to his target "I can bring you in warm, or I can bring you in cold," and immediately fell in love with the character of Din and the simplicity of the show, this season is really heartbreaking to watch. It has lost everything that made people like me be invested in it. This season is a really big disappointment.

A video game cut scene has more depth of story than the entire Mandalorion.

i'm so glad i'm not the only one who thought about the morlocks.

You showed it’s possible to write a better episode. Step by step. Seemingly by accident. Disney is absolutely screwing this stuff up on purpose when there’s a male lead.

What really cooked my limit, Ep.1 was Mando intent on getting IG-11 back at any cost. Then Mando takes the first random droid within reach minutes into Ep.2. Cut Ep.1 altogether and nothing changes other than a shorter season. You hit it perfectly, filler upon filler frustration.

6:39 "all of this stuff is made to waste time" perfect description for Disney

This is also on top of rumours that there was a lot of cut scenes from the third season. Right now I’m just more curious about what happened behind the scenes than the entire third season.

The added clip from The Worlds End with Simon Pegg was much appreciated XD one of my favorite parts of that movie

“Just give the fans what they want!” Picard S3: “Make it so” Star Wars: “Nah it’ll be fine”

This was the Bo-Katan show. She easily defeats enemies that others struggle to defeat (the spider cyborg in ep 2). She saves Mando twice in the second episode. All of her plans go off without a hitch. Literally 5 episodes in a row have the ending shot of her. Not to mention Moff Gideon's escape from custody happening off-screen, with the next time we see him in S3, he's back to his old tricks like his capture in Season 2 never happened. In the end, it just goes to show that the Golden Boys of Favreau & Filoni aren't above the typical Disney bureaucratic interference. It didn't matter that Grogu went with Luke, because Disney realised they couldn't have S3 without him, ergo forcing F&F to create BoBF to undo S2 finale's events. I've put up with Disney's shit hitherto but now I'm just abandoning them. They don't deserve us as fans.

yep fully agree with you. when i saw the first ever episode of season one and they did the goes into a bar and get in a fight scene i knew how it would be,, and then predictably the story of mando going to aplanet and training oppresed villagers to fight together by the power of unity wasnt far behind

"A wise man named WIlliam Shakesman once said 'brevity is the soul of wit'. That means DON'T WASTE MY TIME." - Mr. Plinkett Props to you for giving props to Hot Fuzz, probably one of the tightest screenplays ever written.

There’s a reason why no movie or show uses the phrase “there’s no time to waste” anymore.

These corporations want most hours of watch time for more profit so in webseries they tend to waste time and bore the audience to death.

Every time I need to focus on a movie script I’m writing or film I am prepping I watch you to make sure I f**k it up less. Fav channel

I hope one day someone does a full montage of Mando walking so we can see how many times in different environments he did it and how long we wasted watching him walk around.

When Bo Katan was elevated to leader, I was actually just waiting for Din Jardin to die in the season finale and Bo Katan becoming "The Mandalorian". Because Kathleen said so.

I loved the Mandalorian (most of it anyways!) for the first two seasons. And then I felt like it was nicely wrapped up! The big overarching plot of getting Grogu back to his kind was fulfilled, and Din learned that there were more important things than keeping his helmet on. I was excited to spend more time in the Star Wars universe with season 3 (even though his episodes in Book of Boba Fett completely ruined the entire “get Grogu to Luke” plot 😅) but now there’s just… no point. Grogu is just… with him now?? I guess? And they really dumbed Din down, to the point where I can’t identify with him anymore. If taking his helmet off for Grogu was that important, why is he now on a one-track mindset to being redeemed? I guess he just has nothing else to do 😅 But between that and him getting his ass kicked so often (yeah episode 2 was so annoying for that and the other reasons you mentioned!) he’s just… not as cool to me anymore 😕 I gave up after the third or fourth episode. I’ll binge it when the series is done, but I just feel like they don’t know where to go with the Mandalorian now. As much as I love the character, I may have to pretend it ended after two seasons lol

I don't think season 3 was bad, especially compared to the rest of Star Wars, but compared to season 1 it just doesn't hold up as well. Yeah it was slow, and a bit contrived, but the action was decent, the CGI was good, visually it works well enough, I think the main problem is that Din is a side character in his own show. Don't get me wrong, Bo Katan is a great character, and is pretty solidly written, but It does take away from any development he otherwise would have gotten.

They called me crazy. THEY ALL called me crazy. I said this season was gonna be bad. The whole point of the series was getting Grogu to safety. Now he's here for marketing reasons.

I like addressing these shows from the point of view of a writer, rather than just general critiquing. This is one of the reasons you're one of my favorite reviewers.

I like the part where Mando strips off his armor and dives into the waters just for Prince to tell him "That's not Lake Minnetonka."

The ironic thing is the season finally could have used a lot MORE time, it felt incredibly rushed.

I gotta be honest. I really loved the first 2 seasons of this show, but season 3 has been absolutely abysmal and it’s an insult to anyone with anything even resembling a brain

Thing with Bo Katan is that she's been developed in the animated shows and anyone who knows her knows that she wouldn't backstab someone like Din. Which also creates another problem that all of these characters coming from animated shows are completely new to those who haven't watched them and they will have no clue what they are talking about or how they operate. At least they've been upfront with Ahsoka saying that is it aimed mainly at Clone Wars and Rebels fans.

If you look at Gideon having the darksaber in the 1st season of the Mandalorian I think they were going towards a fantastic premise. Sabine had rightfully won the darksaber in combat then liberated Mandalore from the empire. Thinking she was too young (about age 20) to rule Mandalore she gave it to Bo-Katan. This was after both Bo-Katan and Sabine knew the legend of the darksaber and how the rightful owner could not "give it away." Bo-Katan was very reluctant to take it, but some clans didn't care about the legend and convinced her. Gideon then attacked Mandalore and destroyed it a couple years later (and every other Mandalorian controlled system as it was an entire sector). Bo-Katan explicitly says she lost because she was not the rightful owner of the darksaber and many clans chose not to come to her aid. Doesn't that want you to know who the rightful owner of the thing was???? Why would they set this up then drop it???? They completely dropped something they had obviously setup. This shows the deep flaws in a strict religious clan like system and how the good guys can lose even when they do what they think is right with tragic consequences. It also shows what happens when mere mortals get God-like responsibilities and what happens when they don't live up to them. I think originally, they were going to leave baby Yoda with Luke and then do a VERY dark season where Mandalore is taken back from Gideon with Din Jarin, Bo-Katan, and Sabine leading the charge. Sabine and Bo-Katan's poor choice led to them both to losing everything. Bo-Katan was exiled alone in a castle on one planet and Sabine to the outer rim in a tower miles from everyone else. There would have been lore expansion and a very deep and dark plot. Some of the lore behind this is very f$%ked up. I think Disney keeps seeing the plot laid out and then goes "that's too dark." You cannot have a show with WAR in it and have it constantly have cutesy little things in it. Sometimes the cute and light stuff works but not always. Every time I see horrible plot and characterizations in Star Wars now, I look to one thing: Disney cut out all the dark. It's this simple. Sabine and Ashoka in the new show could not say anything of note about their backstory without the show going R rated. They were just wooden and emotionless. We could not have Thrawn be a tactical genius because he would be too scary. They turned Thrawn into a cartoon villain.

The Drinker reviews, the Drinker critiques and the Drinker fixes... all in one! Fantastic.

Mando is a side character. Grogu dumps Jedi training to return for cuteness ratings boost Far too many side plots

This show has so much potential,and so much love and fan base it has when it came out on Disney+. Of course we can’t have any good and decent show these days.

I completely agree with this video! As a huge fan of efficient storytelling, I found The Mandalorian to be an exercise in frustration. It often felt like the show was stretching out 10 minutes worth of content into a 40-minute episode, relying on slow walking and overly deliberate dialogue to pad out the runtime. Episode 2 of Season 3 was a particularly egregious example of this, with pointless filler scenes and a meandering plot. I appreciate a show that can make every scene count, but unfortunately, The Mandalorian often falls short in that regard.

Ever listen to a child make up a story in real time? "Once upon a time a guy was walking down the street. Then he saw another guy... and... um... then he kept walking. Then the other guy yelled something. But he didn't hear him. Then he crossed the street. And then... uh... he walked some more..." I think Disney hired a 6 year old to write this show.

It's amazing how Star Wars managed to fall this low being one of my favorite franchises ever. On top of that how LucasFilm brought Rey Sue back gives me little to no hope in future improvement...

By the power of grayskull, Hot Fuzz was such an underrated movie. Thanks for reminding us that fun, good movies exist.

The First 2 Seasons definitely felt like never ending fetch quests, didn’t make it to the 3rd. But in contrast, Andor felt like a breath of fresh air ! Amen

So glad you highlighted Hot Fuzz as an absolute masterclass of film. Would love to see you do a video on it, and what makes it so good in comparison to the current sludge being churned out.

I've been telling my brother how great this show is (pre season 2). Now I have to apologize. Thanks Disney, you've embarrassed me in front of my family.

Yes we need a word for this because it's very common nowadays for shows to go on for a half hour and nothing bloody interesting has happened!