The Mandalorian. Shame Kayos isn't active, we got more onscreen mando'a culture in the first episode than we ever have on screen. (excluding animated and games)
I liked the slower pace. Part of what made me stop watching SOLO 30 minutes in was everything was pop bang go now. I'm not saying this episode didn't have pop bang, because it did, but it wasn't slapstick.
I mean, they had Han Solo go from being a ground marine, framed for a crime, pit fight with Chewie to robbing the dang train in I'd say, fifteen minutes? It was crap.
I won't say we follow the Mandalorian through all his every day minutia, but we do get to see the toilet on his ship. That's one of those small details a lot of scifi glosses over. He also mentions fuel costs.
I sort of feel like after the success of Iron Man and those losers who hang out with Iron Man, Lucasfilm wants to use Jon Favreau to wash star wars "clean". The Western tone fit extremely well. This is a man on a mission, he has clearly defined goals... and he encounters complications. It honestly makes me want to boot new vegas back up, but the only bounties there are lethal. One nice note on the Mandalorian is that he appears to prefer live capture.
Carving the time out to have him tame a mount was shocking, considering how much gets cut out of media these days, it was like a breather episode... in the middle of an episode!
I was a little pissed we got more JJ-Abrams style giant weird monsters stalking the lead, but both giant monsters made more sense than the ones that showed up in Star Trek '09. One of them even gets repurposed as the already mentioned mount.
Other than that, the whole thing was 38 minutes long, and I've heard the entire season consists of five episodes. I'm not saying they can't turn that assignment in, but it does feel, I dunno, bad? I got pissed when BSG switched to "mid season finales" and it sucks here too.
Okay, the season is actually going to be eight episodes long, not five.
I watched the second episode, and it's as good as the first, if eight minutes shorter.
I have no clue how to discuss this episode without major spoilers, so I'll try to remain vague.
Jawas totally golly up the mandalorians ride, and he needs to ransom the parts back from the evil little gits. He kills a lot of them before that, and holy crap was it satisfying.
Jedi academy tried to make you feel bad for killing jawas, they had a "death bark" that made you feel like a real bottom. Not so much here.
Oddly enough, his quest was WEIRDLY similar to one in Fallout New Vegas: Go to the cave, collect the egg. And nevermind THE GIANT MONSTER.
Nick Nolte's character is endlessly patient and helpful, but also carries a tone of finality, when he's done talking, he cuts things off with a "I have spoken".
I kept expecting an ugly double cross from the character, and it somewhat soured the viewing, so I'll say this right now, Nick Nolte's character is decent throughout both episodes.