Lost in Space (2018) s01e05 – Transmission

Even though this episode opens with Parker Posey trekking back through the forest after watching the Robinson kids hide the robot last episode… it seems like more time has progressed than a few hours. Unless all the survivors moved all their space-campers (the Jupiter space-camper) to the same campground overnight and legitimately elected, but dipshit leader Raza Jaffrey has got a plan for communicating their mothership.

They're going to build a tower and put a bunch of lights at the top and hope the mothership sees them from orbit. There aren't any establishing shots of the tower during construction, which makes it kind of hard to visualize, but director Deborah Chow instead focuses on Jaffrey being a jackass and how much better it would be if Robinson dad Toby Stephens was in charge.

It's obvious stuff, but it's also totally fine. Compared to the other guys, Stephens is definitely a winner.

After Posey's walk through the dewy woods, the action cuts to Molly Parker. She will have a solo mission this episode, something to do with her calculations of the planet's changing seasons. They're changing way too quickly. Juxtaposed with Parker going out and investigating, there are flashbacks to her relationship with her kids on Earth, scenes where Stephens just happens not to be there. First up, we discover Maxwell Jenkins was born premature and in a NICU, and so obviously, Parker was going to fudge his scores to make sure he got to get lost in space with the rest of them. Later, there's more with the other kids and shade at off-screen Stephen's expense. Maybe not the best flashbacks, but okay.

The majority of the episode's character development and it all happens onscreen. Taylor Russell and Ignacio Serricchio become erstwhile friends and allies. Hopefully, they don't have a romance because Serricchio's fifteen years older than Russell, who's twenty-four playing an eighteen-year-old, so he looks a full eighteen years older than Russell. We also get Serricchio finding out Posey's still alive—or, more, vice versa—and some drama from that interaction, especially since it gets Russell suspicious.

Meanwhile, Mina Sundwall spends most of her time flirting with Ajay Friese. Friese is Jaffrey's son, and Jaffrey's an asshole to his kid. Good enough banter and Friese calls Sundwall on her brattiness.

Jenkins's plot has him wanting to tell Stephens about the robot and never getting the courage. Posey also snoops on that subplot, using it to cause some drama. Really get to see Posey machinating this episode.

The ending is an unexpected (though forecasted) action sequence with heavy Jurassic Park nods, like straight riffs on scenes. Chow's very intentional about it in the direction, but then composer Christopher Lennertz doesn't lean into the John Williams-esque stuff he's done before. It's also weird a little later when there's a big Spielbergian "boy and his robot" moment.

It actually made me wonder if they shouldn't have tried harder to make the movie feel like Spielberg. Maybe they would've gotten a sequel.

The episode definitely has a different feel than the previous ones—the now enormous background cast—but "Lost in Space" still seems to know where it's going.

The Mandalorian (2019) s01e07 – The Reckoning

This episode feels like old home week—even though “The Mandalorian” is only on episode seven, it’s been in the weeds for three episodes so even the promise of Carl Weathers (who’s no better than before, though also no worse) at least reminds of when the show didn’t disappoint.

Better, though kind of pointlessly, Gina Carano is back. Weathers shows up at the beginning in a hologram message to tell Pedro Pascal if he comes back they’ll kill Werner Herzog together and Pascal can stop worrying about bounty hunters going after Baby Yoda. It’s peculiar how trusting Pascal is about Weathers—even though Pascal tells Carano he doesn’t trust Weathers, there’s no indication Pascal behaves any differently (other than bringing along Nick Nolte’s also returning ugnaught for “backup”) than he would otherwise.

Jon Favreau’s not the… smartest writer. It’s actually kind of amazing how far he’s gotten with the show given he’s never really on the ball, characterization-wise. It’s like he’s intentionally leveraging “Star Wars shallow,” which is fine as it compensates for Favreau’s lack of ability.

Really this episode gets away with it all—Carano and Nolte being shoe-horned back in, Weathers being awful, Pascal being strangely naive given his almost weekly betrayals up to this point—because, well, Baby Yoda, but also director Deborah Chow. The show hasn’t just been in the weeds narrative-wise the last three, the direction stunk. Chow’s direction is good.

The droid bounty hunter also comes back, pointlessly but presumably setup for next episode—the episode ends on a very, very, very hard cliffhanger—so hopefully Chow’s back directing next week too.

There’s some super Baby Yoda powers going on in the episode—I’m not up enough on my current Star Wars lore to know if the power showed up in the prequels or post-quels but it seems to be the first time this Force power has gotten any use.

Outside Favreau’s Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game campaigns.

Herzog’s also back and eye-rolling bad. Giancarlo Esposito finally shows up and he’s all right but just as much of a stunt cast as Herzog. Ludwig Göransson’s music hits the godawful time and again.

The episode does feel a little like it could’ve been at least the fifth episode, maybe fourth, depending on how important you want to pretend Carano’s been to the show’s development.

Oh, but wait—what’s the deal with the creature makeup on Weather’s three sidekicks? It’s so cheap. Two of them are obviously in big helmets to keep the makeup budget down. “The Mandalorian” isn’t supposed to run out of money. It’s a tacit Disney+ promise.

The Mandalorian (2019) s01e03 – The Sin

All of Star Wars, all the movies, all the cartoons, books, comics, games, toys, socks, The Holiday Special, underwear, blankets—all of it—has been building to this episode of “The Mandalorian,” where they’re finally able to make Boba Fett adorable. Yes, Baby Yoda is adorable but of course he’s very adorable—and I was wrong, the scientist guy identifies Baby Yoda’s gender as male, which is a bummer, but also it’s probably not worth the headache. But Boba Fett and Baby Yoda being adorable together… who knew it was possible. Jon Favreau, Kathleen Kennedy, other folks but definitely Favreau and Kennedy. They knew they could make Star Wars heartwarming.

And damn if they don’t get away with it too. Because Baby Yoda is preternaturally adorable.

It’d be nice if there was something more to the show, of course. If Werner Herzog weren’t just useless stunt-casting and what if Carl Weathers were actually any good instead of being shockingly bad, actually. This episode also has a bunch of other Mandalorians coming into play and there’s a big serious action set piece with it, with some cool jetpack stuff. The episode’s got a lot more visual payoff than the last one. But not as much as the first episode. All of these visual realizings of the Star Wars Universe—like Jawas do have space ships to get from planet to planet and wouldn’t they be amazing—so it’s cool to watch. The production design is impressive.

Some of Deborah Chow’s direction is annoying, some of it isn’t. She gets away with the heartwarming but she also has this thing where they do focus blurs. I’m assuming they’re digital effects because it’s 2019 and why wouldn’t they be; given we’re already having to put up with the patented Star Wars transition wipes, the focus stuff just feels like a little much. They’re also weird because they’re the only things off in Chow’s direction. Otherwise it’s got the best direction in the show so far. And not just for the Rocketeer homage, which is way too much but still awesome.

And Pedro Pascal. Sure, he’s fine. But he’s better talking about Baby Yoda than talking about anything else. He’s always got this pause where it seems like he’s thinking of what to say and then it’s never anything impressive. He seems dumb, actually. Like too dumb to be out on his own. Favreau’s not the best writer. You don’t have to be when you’ve got Baby Yoda.

Oh, and the midichlorians might be back. Wokka wokka.