You know what’s weird? I went looking through my archives and apparently I didn’t do review lists for the first two seasons of The Mandalorian. Why not? I did them for The Book of Boba Fett and Obi-Wan. But why not for The Mandalorian? What was I thinking? I loved the first two seasons! I love this whole show! I wish I could go back in time in my own mind and figure out what happened. At least present day Sean can make up for those mistakes.

TV Rating: 8/10 – Very Good

I really enjoyed the third season of The Mandalorian. I know a lot of people haven’t liked it, but I don’t know what those people are thinking. It was a fun season, full of neat episodes, and some great character moments. This has been a fantastic show from beginning to end, and I can’t wait to see where Din Djarin and Grogu show up next. They’re great new characters and they went on quite the adventure this season — even if it was a dumb movie to have their reunion in The Book of Boba Fett. What were they thinking?! Anyway, since I watch all the shows, I wasn’t lost, and I had a good time with The Mandalorian season 3.

Join me after the jump for my full review/thoughts on the third season of The Mandalorian. Expect FULL SPOILERS for the whole season. And feel free to share your own thoughts in the comments below.

6. I very much enjoyed this whole season

I can maybe see what people were complaining about with season 3, but I didn’t feel that way at all. This was a very clear season with a clear goal, and it had a lot of fun achieving that goal. This was a season about Mando bringing Grogu into his culture, and through that, uniting with other Mandalorians to reclaim their home planet of Mandalore. These are things that have been present for the whole show. In the very first episode, we saw that Din’s covert was hiding in the sewers of Navarro. In season two, we were introduced to Bo-Katan and her quest to reclaim Mandalore, as well as the split between the tribes. So this story has been part of the show since the beginning, and this season saw the story to its logical, heroic conclusion. TV shows get bigger as the seasons go along, and the third season of The Mandalorian had the biggest scope yet.

The third season also never lost sight of its grounded story either, starring its main characters. This was a journey for Din Djarin as he accepted Grogu as his son and brought him into his world. People were wondering why Din was so obsessed with going for a bath on Mandalore. The answer is simple: he wanted to raise his son in his culture. The Children of the Watch may be a cult, but they’re Din’s cult, and he is still a believer. And if he’s gonna raise a son, he’s gonna raise him in the cult. So he had to return to the fold before he could commit to Grogu’s tutelage. Made perfect sense to me and worked as a continuation of their story.

Beyond that, the season was just plain fun. We had a nice mix of episode types, moved various characters forward, and had plenty of cool action. We had a lot of monster fights, which is becoming part of The Mandalorian’s style. No problems there. And I enjoyed everything to do with Bo-Katan Kryze. I would say she went on more of a journey than Din this time around, and I liked her journey. From bitter and sitting alone on her throne to leading the charge to defeat Moff Gideon and reclaim her home planet, with disparate tribes united behind her. She and Din made a great team, and she made a great mother figure for Grogu, which was a fun thread throughout the season. I loved how Grogue ended up sitting in her lap as she piloted by the final episodes. That was just plain fun.

The third season of The Mandalorian was another fine chapter in this series. It got bigger, it accomplished a lot and it really moved a lot of major characters forward.

5. The Lizzo/Jack Black episode was great

I thought the appearances by Lizzo, Jack Black and Christopher Lloyd in that one episode were great! I thought the whole episode was a lot of fun. It was clearly a parody of a Law & Order episode, with Din and Bo-Katan as two street cops investigating a crime on these mean streets. That’s a fun idea for a one-off episode. And I’m perfectly happy with The Mandalorian having fun, one-off episodes. It doesn’t need to stick with the strict serialization for the whole season. Have some fun! Fill some minor parts with some awesome celebrity cameos. Why not? Doesn’t break my immersion whatsoever.

4. The two-part finale was even greater

That was one heck of a season finale. The Mandalorian has done great season finales in the past. The season 2 finale was an emotional one, as Din and Grogu parted ways thanks to a Luke Skywalker cameo. But this finale took two episodes, introduced a whole new world of Mandalore, saw everybody team up, teased us with character deaths and betrayals, and then ultimately gave us a very exciting battle between good and evil. I loved all of it! This was great Star Wars action. It may not have had an emotional scene where Din Djarin takes off his helmet and kisses Bo-Katan, but it did have multiple scenes where Din and Grogu fight side-by-side, with the foundling using the Force to help in combat. That was truly excellent.

3. Let Moff Gideon stay dead

The villain is dead. Let me stay dead. He lasted for all three seasons, was very menacing, and surely his Darth Vader-esque super armor was a big event send-off for the guy. He dies being engulfed in flames as a light cruiser crashes into his base. I keep seeing people say that he can survive and come back, or that one of his clones really died. Why? Why do we need Moff Gideon to come back? He’s served his purpose, he did his job as the main villain for three seasons. I’m fine with him dying in that explosion. Works perfectly fine for me as a send off.

2. Grogu is really coming into his own

I like what happened with Grogu this season. He’s out of the little floaty baby carriage. He got a mech suit so that he could join in the battles and the fun. He warmed up to Bo-Katan across the episodes. He’s using the Force and not getting tuckered out. I loved the scenes in the finale where him and Din battled side-by-side. That was great growth for his character. Star Wars really shot themselves in the foot with his slow aging, because he can’t really become a talker anytime soon. But they’re doing what they can, and I appreciate it.

1. Bring on season 4, and all future cameos and crossovers

I very much enjoyed how season 3 ended. It’s a nice happy ending, with Din and Grogu kicking up their feet and starting the next phase of their adventures. No deaths. No disappointing betrayals just to juice the drama. Just our heroes being heroes and winning the day, like classic Star Wars. And to that end, I’m all for the two of them showing up again. I’m all for them cameoing in Ahsoka. I’m all for them showing up in Dave Filoni’s big movie in a few years. I’m all for The Mandalorian season 4. These characters are great and I look forward to them showing up in much Star Wars content in the future. Hopefully not Andor season 2, but for sure that Rey Skywalker movie, right?

Jedi Mandalorian Grogu and Rey are gonna be pals.

———————