Raised By The Great British Mandalorian Discovery

Posted on December 21, 2020

I’m not a huge fan of television these days. Oh, I used to be! I had my daily shows and life just wasn’t the same if I missed one. These days? Meh. Enter a pandemic and suddenly finding time to watch shows with Ralph became something enjoyable for us both because of so much negative news. I used to think we had a lot of choices back in the eighties and nineties, but those decades are nothing compared to now. Perhaps we have too many choices. Then again, who cares? As long as we find SOMETHING. Well, I admit I was looking forward to a couple of shows we picked up again and ran with, and I thought I’d share my thoughts on them.

Not that you asked. You didn’t. But I’m going to tell you anyway.

Biggest Breath Of Fresh Air
This one has to go to the new season of The Great British Bakeoff. After some truly poor, WTF judging moments in series 9, the crew finally found their footing again with one of the most memorable batch of bakers in a while. Each season has been a joy to watch due to the bakers, but this latest bunch seemed just a little something more. Co-host Sandi Toksvig was sorely missed this series. We loved us some Sandi! New co-host Matt Lucas is fine, and I think he’ll grow in the role. Co-host Noel Fielding seems to have been a favorite of the bakers and he’s apparently highly supportive of them, which is fantastic! I just wish they didn’t portray his humor so awkwardly on the final edits of the show. It makes Ralph and I miss Mel and Sue all the more. No spoilers, but did we agree with the winner of this year’s Bakeoff? We think the best baker of the three left won. Did we think the winner was the best baker overall? No. But that’s what happens when a baker has a really, really bad week and gets ousted. Loved this new series, though, and stayed with it, including all episodes of An Extra Slice.

To Boldly Go Slowly Where You Haven’t Before
Oh, how I’ve been waiting for Star Trek: Discovery Season 3!!!! Season 2 hit us at warp speed with a tight number of episodes constantly taking us a step closer and closer towards the finale. And, man, what a season arc! So, does season 3 match up? Nope. But it could. I’m convinced what I thought would be a season arc will wind up being a multi-season arc. I expressed my displeasure a couple of weeks ago at how bloody long it was taking to find out more about “The Burn”. My husband looked over at me and said “Well, it’s only episode 3.” No. It was episode 7. Come on! Character growth is awkward in this season, too. Michael Burnham has become less and less Vulcan-like this season, and before you can say “Wait. She spent a whole year waiting for her crew to arrive!”, don’t. I swear, if we wind up with filler episodes about this time before the finale, I’ll scream. There are so many interesting characters in this cast, and so few of them are given much to do. Tilly stands out again this season, and we love us some Tilly! But, come on, writers. How about opening the stories up a little to your supporting cast members and giving us more of a story arc to sink our teeth into?

Baby Yoda Has An Eating Disorder
I’ll admit it. I wasn’t a fan of most of the first season of The Mandalorian. The word “dull” comes to mind for the first half of that season, then things started to pick up. Honestly, I couldn’t have cared less when Season 2 came out, but Ralph was eager to dive in, and I like it when he’s happy. Season 2 was a huge improvement, though the new planet and new task/monster of the week wore pretty thin. Gotta say I was hugely impressed with the episode Carl Weather directed! And director Robert Rodriguez didn’t disappoint either! As for the season finale, wow. Just WOW. Could definitely see a movie based on this series sometime in the future. I am now eagerly awaiting Season 3. Season 2 made a believer out of me, no matter how many unfertilized eggs Baby Yoda ate.

Please…No More. Make It Stop!
Another show I looked forward to was Raised By Wolves. Two words; Ridley Scott. Talk about wildly imaginative, barren, and yet full of mystery! Ridley brought all of these traits to the show and I was convinced we were in for something really special. And once Ridley Scott left the director’s chair and the season made it to it’s final episode? 3 words; piece of shit. It honestly felt like the writers threw every conceivable idea at the wall, looked to see what might stick, and then discarded the rest or pushed it off to the side without addressing it. We held out hope. Truly we did. We sat down, watched the last episode, finished it, looked at each other, and mumbled “WTF???” There’s a season 2 in the works, but I think I’ll stick with Discovery and Mandalorian when it comes to my sci-fi quenching.

So, how about you? Anyone agree? Have a differing opinion?

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Kristoffer Gair (who formerly wrote under the pseudonym Kage Alan) is the Detroit-based author of Honor Unbound, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To My Sexual Orientation, Andy Stevenson Vs. The Lord Of The Loins, Gaylias: Operation Thunderspell, several short stories featured in anthologies (to be combined in a forthcoming book), the novella Falling Awake, its sequel, Falling Awake II: Revenant and Falling Awake III: Requiem.