(The following describes my feelings about Season 1. I guess I had dumb faith that they would stay consistent between seasons but I was poorly mistaken. My comment on Season 2 is here: https://trakt.tv/comments/661270)
Absolutely AMAZING. This has to be the best superhero medium put into video form aside from One Punch Man. Lately, films and TV have been rapidly going downhill and my hope for good quality entertainment was mostly lost. I was not expecting this level of action, vast worldbuilding, detailed animation, talented voice acting, sophisticated writing, tonal maturity, nor character depth- especially in 2021 after the entire entertainment industry is recovering from a certain pandemic. In my opinion, this completely blows past any sort of MCU/DCEU movie, animated Justice League adaptation, or really any other animated comic book adaptations. I went into this completely blind, I highly recommend you do the same (and stick around til the end of every episode because they each have additional content after the credits) Unfortunately for now it's only available on Amazon Prime but I will absolutely be purchasing this once it is (hopefully) released on BluRay. This will hang on the Masterpiece shelf in my movie and TV collection.
[2024 Rating Update: Season 1: 10/10 | Season 2: 4/10 | Average: 7/10]
It's a good show. I think that, as a whole, this show is essentially unlike any other show, in a good way. Pretty much everything that happens is so odd and weird but it works. Maybe the source material, too, when it was released, was the same way in that it's unlike any other comic or whatever, and perhaps that's still the case.
Everything that happens is compelling, even though you'd think it wouldn't be, because of the nature of it all. Well, as I said, it works. No matter how outrageously weird and odd it is, it works, and also manages to keep getting more outrageously weird and odd. And I imagine there's still so much more that hasn't been explored yet from the source material. Let that sink in.
For me, I don't necessarily like it as much as other people do, and not because I find the things that happen throughout the show disgusting or repulsive, or whatever. I just think I have a much different outlook than a lot of people, in general, or something along those lines. I don't recall ever getting emotional or anything like that with anything that I've watched, not just shows or movies. Anything. I've never been as expressive toward anything as I've seen people be, etc.
It's like I'm so desensitized in an overall sense, I react differently to what I watch than a normal person would. I don't feel much, and when I do, which isn't often, it's mostly just feeling uncomfortable and almost physically recoiling when watching or seeing something that makes me look away or minimize my browser and turn down the volume to zero. And that's always something like a person going on stage or something like that, in that sense, where the reactions of other people trigger me to do that.
That being said, and I apologize for going off-course with that, I enjoy watching this show. But it isn't that memorable to me. But I recommend it to anyone who reads this that hasn't watched the show to give it a shot. If you're not as desensitized as I am, which is highly likely, you'll either like it very much or dislike it very much. Or maybe you'll dislike it from a reaction standpoint but will continue watching it and may even like it when it comes down to it.
I know that I'm certainly in the very small minority that doesn't understand all the hype and very extreme love of this show. I'm probably in a smaller minority that doesn't find it that funny, also. I truly don't understand what's so great about it. At its best, it's enjoyable, at least. At its worst, which is more frequent, it's mostly boring.
And on a bigger scale, it is rarely funny. Maybe a lot of the jokes or humor fly over my head, or maybe I genuinely don't find it funny, most of the time. At best, the only saving grace of this show is that it mostly manages to entertain and never gets too boring. Other than that, it doesn't seem like the rare, phenomenal show that it has been treated as and came along that is loved by the masses and is deserving of that. It's just...a, a show, like any other. A hit or miss. And for some odd reason, this one hit the jackpot, maybe to a greater extent than what has ever been achieved before, for shows like this.
And just for the sake of context, on top of my rating (7 out of 10) of the show, since this is the internet and people get offended for the heck of it, this is how I feel but I don't hate the show. I'm entertained by it, although there are boring/less entertaining bits throughout it. That has yet to change, and I don't think it will. But I do think this is the type of show to take a break from watching, for a little while, now and then, even when it is airing, to enjoy it to the fullest possible capacity.
The Mandalorian started out OK, but ended up as some half-baked, lazily written show that exist merely to lure parents to justify a Disney+ subscription. Kids get the usual Disney contents, moms get Baby Yoda, dads get Star Wars nerdy reference. The show almost feels like being made by a bunch of fanfiction writers with familiarity of the setting but zero sense of screen writing.
Nothing wrong with liking it, it's just the show appears to be all style and no substance.
Storyline shows no complexity at all. In fact, most of them are fillers. You can skip 4 of 8 episodes and you'll still understand the story just fine. Characters are completely uninteresting. None of them are developed. None of them had nuances: protagonists are morally good heroes; antagonists are one dimensional evils. The show relies only on a cute muppet and flashy action, but has zero substance. Had a potential great world-building with some details, but they chose to abandon it for rule of cool (and cute).
The "it's Star Wars, so it'll be simple" excuse commonly said by the series' defenders doesn't hold up if you actually consider other Star Wars titles such as Knights of the Old Republic, Republic Commando, Jedi Academy, Thrawn trilogy, the original and Tartakovsky's Clone Wars, and so on. Those titles are known for having remarkable storytelling; something that The Mandalorian doesn't have for its poverty of creative vision.
I have so much to say about this show and how bad it is. If you want a excellent supernatural drama, then watch this BUT only from season 1 to 5. The fifth season's finale offers a great ending to the show and after that, everything is just plain bad. The plots stop making sense, they bring back characters just to kill them off and introduce new ones nobody gives a shit about. Think about everything that makes the show amazing, all those characters you love. Well, you'll be lucky if they decide to kill them off, because they managed to ruin Castiel and Crowley's characters to a point where I can't even stand them. Season 10's Crowley is just terrible, all he does is sit on his chair in his castle or whatever the hell that is (look i made a pun) and kill random demons. Regarding Castiel, a lot happens to him after the fifth season, sure, but his character just doesn't evolve. This is so irritating because i was such a huge fan of this show but now i feel like i'm gonna have to drop it.
I can only recommend the 5 first seasons, after that everything is just bad.
Just look at the gap between season 1-5 ratings and season 6-10 (or 11 now, since it has been renewed), and really the only people still defending this show are tumblr hardcore fans and shippers.
