The Mandalorian | March 2023 for S3

[Porthos]

While I don't doubt numbers might be lower, Samba TV is notoriously unreliable when it comes to streaming numbers.  We just have too many examples of "not passing the smell test" or just plain flat out wrong when compared to more reliable sources like Nielsen.

 

Not that Nielsen doesn't have its own problems, as it doesn't break down by episode — just that I'm not taking Samba TV numbers all that seriously.

 

(that's why I personally ignored the story in the first place)

[Marek the Jedi]

10 hours ago, Porthos said:

While I don't doubt numbers might be lower, Samba TV is notoriously unreliable when it comes to streaming numbers.  We just have too many examples of "not passing the smell test" or just plain flat out wrong when compared to more reliable sources like Nielsen.

 

Not that Nielsen doesn't have its own problems, as it doesn't break down by episode — just that I'm not taking Samba TV numbers all that seriously.

 

(that's why I personally ignored the story in the first place)

 

thanx for Info @Porthos, I was not aware about unreliability of Samba TV

 

Marek

[PlatnumRoyce]

14 hours ago, Porthos said:

While I don't doubt numbers might be lower, Samba TV is notoriously unreliable when it comes to streaming numbers.  We just have too many examples of "not passing the smell test" or just plain flat out wrong when compared to more reliable sources like Nielsen.

 

Not that Nielsen doesn't have its own problems, as it doesn't break down by episode — just that I'm not taking Samba TV numbers all that seriously.

 

(that's why I personally ignored the story in the first place)

What are you thinking of? 

 

[John Marston]

 

[George Parr]

This show just lacks the *oomph* for me this season so far. It's always kind of good, but there hasn't been a single episode that I felt was great. With just four episodes left, I don't think this season can match up with the last two. It would need an almost perfect streak the rest of the way for that.

 

The dialogue has some issues that weren't quite that noticeable in the past, and it hasn't really had any magical moments like the last two seasons had. The fight-scenes have been good at times, but they haven't really offered anything unique either, so they can't really make up for other issues.

Edited March 22, 2023 by George Parr

[Menor the Destroyer]

Yeah, I enjoyed the latest episode but it still felt lacking compared to what the show has offered in the past. Still the jetpack action was quite cool and Bo-Katan continues to be the MVP.

[Torontofan]

Issue is the show blew its load in the end of season 2

 

You cant bring in luke in all his glory and just do a season of just goofing around and random adventure. 

[Porthos]

On 3/25/2023 at 5:39 AM, Torontofan said:

Issue is the show blew its load in the end of season 2

 

You cant bring in luke in all his glory and just do a season of just goofing around and random adventure. 

 

Sure you can.  In fact a great danger in serialized storytelling is falling into the Escalating Stakes trap.  MCU might be falling into said trap, but that's another debate for another thread.

 

The only thing you need to do is tell compelling stories and execute it well.  Having a vision for the season and building up to something is good as well.  The other great danger is being somewhere in between the two (ie building up to something, but not-so-well).  

 

But the whole idea that something needs to have Higher and Bigger stakes than before is... Well can only escalate so far.  And one that I wish more storytellers would try to stay away from.

[Menor the Destroyer]

Also the show is clearly building up to something bigger. I don't think that is something that this season can be criticized for. If anything, it's been less standalone than previous seasons. 

Edited March 28, 2023 by Menor Reborn

[Torontofan]

20 hours ago, Porthos said:

 

Sure you can.  In fact a great danger in serialized storytelling is falling into the Escalating Stakes trap.  MCU might be falling into said trap, but that's another debate for another thread.

 

The only thing you need to do is tell compelling stories and execute it well.  Having a vision for the season and building up to something is good as well.  The other great danger is being somewhere in between the two (ie building up to something, but not-so-well).  

 

But the whole idea that something needs to have Higher and Bigger stakes than before is... Well can only escalate so far.  And one that I wish more storytellers would try to stay away from.

yeah marvel movies were all connected by thanos threat. 

[BadOlCatSylvester]

Today's episode was the best in a long time, and the first one of this season that I consider on par with the previous seasons. The action was great courtesy of Spider-Verse director Peter Ramsey, and I really enjoyed the way it paid off story beats from the last four episodes. And the stakes are finally being raised as evident by the final few minutes of the episode.

[George Parr]

I agree, it was the best one yet.

 

There was a bunch of minor stuff that seemed a bit off, but in itself the episode was really good, and the ending was very intriguing. Not among the really great episodes yet, but probably comparable to episodes 3 and 4 of season 2.

 

Spoiler

I really liked the feel of the ending, we could use more of that.

 

Some of the character-driven moments worked really well, and we got a bit more about where the story is actually heading, something that was a bit lacking over the past few episodes.

 

The villains were plain as usual, and not a real threat, also as usual. But they were fine as means to advance the plot. I just wish they would take a page out of the old movies or even Andor and not make henchman devoid of anything remotely threatening. It just makes firefights and dogfights rather lame if  you know the villains are just there as filler and or target practise who get blown away without much of a sweat.

 

 

Some of the minor stuff I meant:

 

- why do X-Wing pilots constantly run around in their combat-gear? That doesn't make any sense at all. It happened in the past as well. The only reason I can think of is "look, orange suits! you recognize these guys as rebel pilots, yes?", and that is a very weak reason

 

- space travel seemingly being done in an instant yet again. Way to make the galaxy look small. The pilot travelled from his base to Coruscant, had a short meeting there, then went off to find the Mandalorians, all in what seemed like an hour and half. This has been a weakness since 2015. They REALLY need to learn to create a vague sense of passing time, so it doesn't look like you can reach every place in 5 minutes. The OT and PT never had that issue, because they moved fluently between the different plotlines, hiding the exact time that had passed.

 

- Nevarro is apparently populated by 50 people. They really need to find a way to scale things right. In Boba Fett they made a Tatooine town look like a sprawling metropolis, and here a decently sized settlement has barely any people in it. Neither really fit. Yes, there is a limit to how many extras you will use on a tv-show, but there are ways to make the number look bigger. Like, don't have them walk slowly to a meeting point and have a shot where you can see all of the tiny bunch, but already have them there, preferably with some caves to hide in. Have just a bunch of people in front, but add some in the background digitally if necessary, or at least imply there is a larger group than that.

 

[Menor the Destroyer]

Good episode, still not quite great but the season is heading in an interesting direction. 

Spoiler

The pirates did feel pretty lame as villains, but still was awesome seeing the Mandalorians fighting. 

 

[Potiki]

On 3/22/2023 at 4:31 AM, PlatnumRoyce said:

What are you thinking of? 

 

Nielsen data we got today very much does not back up this claim they made: "Meanwhile, the interconnected spin-off series “The Book of Boba Fett” barely edged out “The Mandalorian” by 2%." 

 

source: https://www.thewrap.com/top-tv-shows-disney-plus-mandalorian-season-3/

 

Also can't beat this example:

 

 

Black Adam is pretty close to Black Panther 2 right? But 

 

 

Reality is it is a blowout ~600m minutes vs. ~2.2B, even accounting for runtime it isn't close roughly 5m views for Black Adam vs. 14m for Wakanda Forever. 

 

Samba is a not useful metric even when comparing to their own data, it doesn't make any sense fro Mando S3 to come in under Boba Fett and other data backs that up (FlixPatrol Trending data, Nielsen, Piracy etc.) 

[PlatnumRoyce]

1 hour ago, Potiki said:

Nielsen data we got today very much does not back up this claim they made: "Meanwhile, the interconnected spin-off series “The Book of Boba Fett” barely edged out “The Mandalorian” by 2%." 

 

source: https://www.thewrap.com/top-tv-shows-disney-plus-mandalorian-season-3/

 

Also can't beat this example:

 

 

Black Adam is pretty close to Black Panther 2 right? But 

 

 

Reality is it is a blowout ~600m minutes vs. ~2.2B, even accounting for runtime it isn't close roughly 5m views for Black Adam vs. 14m for Wakanda Forever. 

 

Samba is a not useful metric even when comparing to their own data, it doesn't make any sense fro Mando S3 to come in under Boba Fett and other data backs that up (FlixPatrol Trending data, Nielsen, Piracy etc.) 

Internet ate my reply so I'll summarize: I like this point in general but I don't think the BA point given that this + runtime of films implies BP2 would have had 175% of Black Adam's minutes viewed. It's significantly more than that on Nielsen but the two films aren't all that close in relative terms per Samba. 

Yeah, Mando's nielsen numbers are impossible to square (though I think my favorite thing is how their number on Mortal Kombat seems to be clearly wrong)

[John Marston]

Lower ratings than Season 2 confirmed

 

Long gap plus the show just being the same thing over and over probably are the reasons 

[Menor the Destroyer]

14 minutes ago, John Marston said:

Lower ratings than Season 2 confirmed

 

Long gap plus the show just being the same thing over and over probably are the reasons 

This article is straight up misrepresentation of the data. 

[Porthos]

Is it really so difficult for people to understand that Nielsen tracks shows by minutes watched and not overall number of viewers and that episodes have different length times?  Sometimes wildly different?

 

Given how many people just fail to take this into account, I suppose it is.

[Potiki]

I have it as slightly up (in views) over season 2 but not enough to be meaningful and season 3 got the advantage of a Wednesday release.

 

Roughly 2/3rds of viewership of Season 2 premiere was for the new episode vs. 57% viewership for season 3 premiere episode. 

 

S2 - (1032 x .666)/55 = 12.5m 

S3 - (823 x .57)/37 = 12.68m

Edited March 31, 2023 by Potiki

[Porthos]

I think people are either gonna really like or really hate this latest episode.

 

(put me in the camp of "really like", ftr)

 

It still is suffering a bit from Because the Plot Says So disease, and the resolution was a little too neat (only a little mind), but it's connecting much better than many episodes this season.  Considering this is a Bryce Dallas Howard episode, that's not too surprising, in my book.

 

So the connective tissues are indeed being formed. Still not quite reaching the level of S1 or S2 but is still good on its own terms.

 

My only real criticism is:

 

Spoiler

People taking Mando's word on the whole "I was rescued" thing.

 

Then again, it does give the other Mandos present an "out" from their predicament.  Which, considering this episode was all about politics is fitting.  I think I would have liked a little skepticism of the claim, but I suppose we already had that earlier in the season so perhaps it'd be retreading ground.

 

Still, as I said, the claim has the advantage of being true (which satisfies the superstitious present).  Gets Axe Wolves off the hook keeps Axe Wolves alive as well, so he was probably at least a little self-interested in going along with the claim.

 

 

Have a few other thoughts, but good to see the season more or less on track and deliver a fairly enjoyable episode in the process.

Edited April 5, 2023 by Porthos