Think back just a few years ago to that insane time called 2020. We all hate everything about that year, except for The Mandalorian. When we were all stuck in our homes, we all flocked to Disney+ to watch the beskar-clad warrior-dad Mando (Pedro Pascal) travel across the galaxy, seeking a home for Grogu (yet to be fair, we mainly watched for the cute child). And the father-son duo put a smile on our faces every week. From the first episode of the Star Wars series at the end of 2019, The Mandalorian dominated conversation and pop culture; The Baby Yoda Phenomenon took over the internet in just a few hours.
Everyone was talking about the show online and off. It was the new Stranger Things, the next Game of Thrones, the television series of the new decade. But in 2023, it's not the same; something changed. The Mandalorian is seeing drastically decreasing viewership as the third season nears its end. The show is still popular, but for Star Wars fans and not the average viewer, and even fans are complaining about the recent season's subpar execution. Everyone knows who Baby Yoda is, but no one talks about him with the same excitement, even though he has been immortalized through memes. The mass appeal has worn off, it’s no longer loved so much, and there are many reasons for that; why The Mandalorian isn't a big deal anymore.
The Third Season Is Disappointing
The first two seasons of The Mandalorian changed television and saved the Star Wars franchise. After the universal disappointment with Disney's Sequel Trilogy, Star Wars was on a downward trend into irrelevance. The Mandalorian was premiering at the same time as The Rise of Skywalker and didn't seem like it would change anything because only hardcore fans would even know what a Mandalorian was in the first place. However, viewers were surprised that the show didn't require any homework to enjoy or any considerable knowledge about Star Wars at all. The Mandalorian stood all on its own, still feeling like the same universe we know and love, but entirely brand new.
Of course, the absolute-fricking cuteness of Baby Yoda and the intriguing mystery surrounding him didn't hurt either. So The Mandalorian changed franchise television, telling a fresh new story supported by an established universe accessible to newcomers and old-timers alike. But now, more than halfway through Season 3, it's clear that The Mandalorian has lost sight of what made the show so great in the first place, namely, the standalone small-scale storytelling of one man in a big, big galaxy. It's dealing with the whole galaxy, and not very well, either, as The Mandalorian seems to be aimlessly following too much senseless lore.
Mando and Grogu are now dealing with the fate of all Mandalorians, and some episodes are lost, justifying the sequel trilogy. Filled with inconsequential storylines and lacking direction, the third season is a great disappointment compared to the previous two.
Too Much Time Passed
It was three years before Season 3 finally arrived, and it feels like three lifetimes. The last season aired during the year of Covid 2020, and the world has changed, and the craze surrounding The Mandalorian died. With the pandemic came riots, elections, and lots of unimaginable insanity. People had more important things to worry about and still do. That doesn't mean people are any more serious because of the global crisis - quite the opposite, in fact - but times change fast in our modern age, and shows must as well if they want to stay relevant.
And, the fact that Lucasfilm filled those three years with many, many other less-than-stellar Star Wars shows in an attempt to repeat the success of The Mandalorian didn't help fans remain eager, as Lucasfilm has unfortunately made The Mandalorian feel like just another passing season Star Wars.
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