TL;DR – While we may have started ticking off some side quests, if you are going to do that, you should at least make them as fun as this.   

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ service that viewed this show.

The Mandalorian Review –

I have not been sure how to feel about this season of The Mandalorian, and viewing statistics has shown that I am not alone on this front. This week’s episode does not help that feeling in any way. But in all its weirdness, it might have at least found something weird and wonderful.

So to set the scene, at the end of The Pirate, Bo-Katan (Katee Sackhoff) was given a mission to go out into the universe and gather all the disparate Mandalorian groups and bring them back together. The first stop on this quest is the outer-rim planet Plazir-15, where a group led by her former crew member Axe Woves (Simon Kassianides) is located. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.  

Now we need to be clear from the start, like most of this season of The Mandalorian, this episode has big-side-quest energy. It feels like the distraction you must do before you can continue with the main quest. However, if you have a side-quest episode, it doesn’t hurt to fill it with excellent guest stars like Jack Black, Lizzo & Christopher Lloyd. It was nice having a ‘wait is that …. Oh wait,;…. It is” moments. It also helped that all guest stars knew what tone to hit and chewed every bit of scenery. Like full respect for the energy that 84-year-old Christopher Lloyd gives when performing that separatist rant. It helps that Bryce Dallas Howard knows how to get the most out of this world.  

It very much felt like this was an episode of two parts, the first being the hunt for why the droids were falling apart, the second being our Mandalorian epilogue. I honestly didn’t mind the odd dive into a police procedural this week as we try to explore what was going wrong. Part of this was because Plazir-15 was a reasonably exciting planet to explore, where it felt like a really diverse planet in Star Wars. Add to that some good callbacks to the prequels, with one of the better parts with the battle droids. However, while there was a fun romp with questioning and foot chases and a general ‘something is wrong with this place’ vibe. I didn’t connect with everything else, that just felt like an afterthought.  

In the end, do we recommend The Mandalorian: Chapter 21 (Guns For Hire)? Yes, sort of. I think this is an episode that is going to be very subjective for people. If you connect with the side-quest, then it is a bunch of fun. If you don’t, it will be another long watch for you.      

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you seen The Mandalorian yet ?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day.    

Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of The Mandalorian
Directed by – Bryce Dallas Howard
Written by – Jon Favreau
Created by – Jon Favreau
Based On – Star Wars by George Lucas
Production/Distribution Companies – Lucasfilm, Golem Creations & Disney+
Starring – Pedro Pascal & Katee Sackhoff with Simon Kassianides, Mercedes Varnado, Jack Black, Lizzo, Christopher Lloyd, Brendan Wayne & Lateef Crowder and Christine Adams, Harry Holland, Dale Dickey, Matthew Wood, Seth Gabel & Jen Kober