Review: The Mandalorian, "Chapter 22: Guns for Hire" | Season 3, Episode 6
You're not hardcore unless you live hardcore.
“Let’s address the bantha in the room.”
While there are many cutting-edge technological aspects to how The Mandalorian is filmed and designed, it is, at heart, a very old-fashioned show. As I watched “Guns for Hire,” I thought less of how the show calls to mind something like 50s- and 60s-era Western programs,1 and instead of one of my very favorite series of all time, Columbo. This won’t become a lengthy treatise on that detective show, please note.2 But Columbo and The Mandalorian do share one important strand of creative DNA worth acknowledging here: the guest-of-the-week hook.
On Columbo, it was simple enough to understand that hook: each episode would feature Lt. Columbo of the Los Angeles Police Department investigating a murder committed by a character played by that week’s marquee guest. On The Mandalorian, the idea is that with each incremental quest that Mando completes, he comes into contact with various guests, some of whom even pop up from season…