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S02E51: Rapidly Rewatching Mando S1E6
12 Plays3 hours ago
You see, there was this prisoner on a New Republic prison ship who needed busting out... find out what happens as a space-fantasy version of a western jailbreak movie turns into a space-fantasy version of... a haunted house movie? Or a superhero movie? You decide as we dive into "The Prisoner" on our Mandalorian rewatch!
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Short for a Storm Trooper' Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
We're breaking out the prisoner and we're doing it real fast. Aren't you a little short? Aren't you a little short? Aren't you a little short for a storm trooper?
00:00:12
Speaker
Welcome back to short for a storm trooper where I have Ben and Phil who I forgot to introduce last week, but you know them by now. And we are looking at episode one, chapter six of the Mandalorian entitled the prisoner directed by Rick family. And interestingly enough, not written by Jon Favreau or Dave Filoni, but written by family.
Mando's Prison Break Mission
00:00:35
Speaker
Well, and family. What's you say that that's a hard name to say. And Christopher Yost also gets a writing credit.
00:00:42
Speaker
Here's the summary. Mando seeks work from an old contact, Ron Malek, and joins a motley crew of mercenaries for a high stakes prison break. Their target, a Twi'lek prisoner aboard a New Republic transport.
00:00:55
Speaker
The job quickly devolves into chaos as the crew's mutual distress boils over, leading them to betray Mando and lock him in a cell. Channeling his inner slasher movie monster, Mando stalks and systematically neutralizes the crew through the ship's dark corridors. He escapes with a prisoner and his payment, leaving his betrayers behind to face a trio of New Republic X-Wings. to shake it up yet again and give my opinion on this. This is a fun episode.
00:01:23
Speaker
It is the the thing that is most striking to me is that it is definitely at least two genres of movie in one. And Chachi PT alluded to it in this. It starts off just as a typical Western prison break with a real motley crew of bounty hunters, unsavory types, definitely the most unsavory people that you see in Star Wars anywhere. You don't like any of them. They're all horrible.
00:01:53
Speaker
uh then as it says here once mando gets out it turns into a haunted house in space it is like alien but the mando is the xenomorph and i am all here for it uh because he goes to town and i was a little bit surprised at the end to learn that he did not actually off all those people he threw them in a cell but you know He's, you know, tough as nails, but heart of gold is Armando.
00:02:22
Speaker
Uh, and he flies off into the sunset. I did love the very, very, like I think it's the very last line where he basically says like, yeah, I knew this was a bad idea. That was kind of what I was thinking through the entire arc of the story, but a really, really fun one. Uh, Phil, what did you think?
00:02:38
Speaker
This is a great, this is a great
Music and Character Analysis
00:02:40
Speaker
one. And I think in real contrast to what we talked about last week with episode five, um, I think just from the jump, even I love the twist on the music, the opening, the opening theme for the show had just a little bit, a little bit sort of like synth beat over it, which I just really, really liked that. And you know,
00:02:58
Speaker
We've talked in the past about Andor, how much I liked Andor. This felt like an episode of Andor. it's about you know Season one, heist episode, mission of the week. Love the action. Love the characters. Great performances. Bill Burr.
00:03:11
Speaker
you know yeah Could you go wrong? And he does great. you know I think he he really has some dramatic range that he shows off in this one. um I do feel like, yeah, and I'm a big fan of Fumuyawa. He's made some great movies. If you haven't seen like it like The Wood or Brown Sugar or Dope, would definitely recommend checking those out.
00:03:32
Speaker
ah some great movies from him so i think it's the pacing the editing the lighting design even the tension of this of the uh episode all great uh and a fun ending with mando as you said i think i think what he says the child is i told you that was a bad idea that's it yeah and which is funny it's very funny right because they know they like have their own sort of way of communicating um i was a big fan of this one it certainly feels like the most bottle episode or like episode of the week, I feel like of the ones we've seen thus far. And so there isn't sort of that connection to the larger arc, but I wasn't mad at it. Again, it was really fun, really enjoyable, had me gripped the entire time.
00:04:13
Speaker
Yeah. Ben, how about you?
Character Dynamics and Cameos
00:04:15
Speaker
I totally agree. I love this episode. And for me, I think the standout thing, the thing that made it really great was the characters because we spend essentially the first half of the episode kind of building up and understanding who each of these characters are. Let's not sleep on Clancy Brown as Bird, my friends.
00:04:32
Speaker
Yeah. He's the big guy with the horns and stuff like that. And, you know, like My inner 80s kid was was watching the Kurgan again, you know, from Highlander. So, yeah i will enjoy that you know, i I think a lot of people here who are listening to this probably only know Clancy Brown as the voice of Mr. Krabs in SpongeBob SquarePants.
00:04:56
Speaker
Or as the voice of Lex Luthor in Justice League. Yes, absolutely. But those who are really in the know know his role as Rawhide in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai. Yes. Oh my gosh. Which for those who don't know, i actually watched for the first time at Ben's house with Ben and Bob and Ben's wife, Carrie.
00:05:17
Speaker
Such a good movie. Fantastic show. You guys definitely check that one out. It defies explanation. That's a whole podcast on some other post show. So yeah. anyway yeah i' be Really great. Love seeing Bill Burr, love seeing Clancy Brown. That great supporting performances. I'm actually going to reframe. I don't think that Mando turns into a xenomorph. I think he turns into Batman.
00:05:39
Speaker
Oh, fair enough. Yeah. Actually with that kind of with that kind of flickering hall shot where he's kind of closing on Mayfield, that's taken right out of the third Nolan Batman movie. thought it was really effective and a lot of fun. And so, yeah, like the sort of the turning of the tables.
00:05:55
Speaker
The ending where, of course, you know, he fulfills his contract. Mando always fulfills the letter of the contract. And then, well, leaves a little extra something there. And the X-Wings come in and and then we're we're we're out of the episode. Yeah, total fun. Love the characters, I think, especially. And a lot of really good, fun microcombat. You don't need, like, big set piece equipment. explosions, huge vehicle runs, anything like that. You could do a great thing if you if you just put some people in the room and get the stuntman freehand.
00:06:26
Speaker
Yeah, I did want to comment on the cast. So you mentioned the big ones of Bill Burr and Clancy Brown. ah the The female Twi'lek, Mando's old flame, that was really left some questions going in the old noggin, didn't it? But played by Natalia Tenna, who most famously was Osha on Game of Thrones and also Tonks in the Harry potters Potter movies.
00:06:50
Speaker
Oh, and that was Yep. I recognize. Also, the three X-Wing pilots at the end were Dave Filoni, Rick Famiglia, and Deborah Chen.
00:07:03
Speaker
So it was a little director's reunion. um i have to say that scene just demonstrated to me why some people direct and some people act.
00:07:14
Speaker
ah But it was a fun nod. I'm glad they got a chance to be in it. um Do we? Oh, we do do. I was just about to say, do we see Jon Favreau, who famously actually is an actor? But he is the voice of Paz Vizsla. He's the voice of the the Mandalorian that got into the fight with Mando, who then you know came back and saved him. oh really?
00:07:37
Speaker
didn't know that. so Yeah, that was Favreau's voice. Not his body, but his voice. But...
Voice Actor Debate
00:07:41
Speaker
yeah oh and here's here's one last uh cameo in this the new republic guard who winds up getting killed is matt lanter who was the voice actor for anakin skywalker in all of the animated series and some would argue is a better anakin skywalker than hayden christensen is we're gonna get it are we gonna get into this one I would say he is a better Anakin Skywalker than Hayden Christensen when directed by George Lucas.
00:08:15
Speaker
Fair. But when Hayden Christensen is directed by Dave Filoni as Anakin Skywalker, then he is Anakin Prime. But we'll get into that when we get into the Ahsoka recap, which will come sometime around Ahsoka season two, which I think is like 20, maybe late 26, early 27. We'll get into that later.
Dark Tone and Unique Place in Star Wars
00:08:38
Speaker
um What else about episode six, The Prisoner?
00:08:49
Speaker
Wow, that was weird. um These guys are just vile. That's the thing that that I mentioned it in the recap at the beginning. These guys are so unsavory. And I love the fact that Star Wars has this dark edge has the underworld i would have loved to have seen the star wars underworld series that was planned and would love to read those scripts that i know are sitting in a vault somewhere in skywalker ranch but holy cow the there's nobody that you like in this set of characters yeah and again it comes back to like i mentioned it a little earlier that it it really does remind me of an episode of andor i think Mandalorian has a little bit of a lighter, more comedic touch. This one, I mean, there are certainly some comedic moments in it, um but it it really did feel like a darker turn here, which I really enjoyed. um And and also it felt sort of like tonally really consistent, which I didn't feel like was the case in episode five.
00:09:47
Speaker
I think it also is interesting that we're seeing the Mandalorian kind of with Piers in his, you know, in his bounty hunter set and his kind of scum and villainy set. Right. And so, yeah, Bob, I agree that these are, these are not people who are, you know, kind of bad, but with a heart of gold, these are, these are real killers and scoundrels. And so
Anticipation for Future Episodes
00:10:11
Speaker
you kind of don't sweat over it too much, but then again, ah not to spoil anything, we are going to see Mayfield again. Bill Burr does come back and I did know that. their episode I did know that we' were going to see him again, which I'm looking forward to. um yeah,
00:10:26
Speaker
Something I'm looking forward to, because i also know this, is that Fumuyawa, he becomes like pretty important right for the Mandalorian series. He directs more episodes and becomes an executive producer, especially i think in season three, pretty involved. right So I'm excited to see. you know I really like this. This his first one that he's done. I'm really excited to see what he does going forward in the series as we get through it.
00:10:50
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Well, guys, ah next week, we are going to start getting into the beginning of the end, chapter seven. I believe it's next week that we get introduced to a really, really bad guy who is played by possibly one of the best villainous actors world.
Closing and Listener Engagement
00:11:11
Speaker
of our generation but let's get into that next week shall we looking forward to it let's do all right well thanks again for listening make sure if you haven't been watching along with us on the mandalorian jump on in you can catch up really quickly and uh hop into chapter seven and chapter eight we'll talk about chapter seven next week in the meantime hit like hit subscribe tell your friends may the force be with you we'll see you soon bye Who's that mindless choice to do?
00:11:40
Speaker
Podcasts help you see them through. Star Wars is your favorite in it. Let's chat for 15 minutes. Aren't you a little short? Aren't you a little short?
00:11:51
Speaker
Aren't you a little short for a smorntroover? Aren't you a little short for a smorntroover?