There is a widely-circulated joke on social media that “The Mandalorian,” for all its deserves, feels extra like a TV sequence the characters on “Andor” would watch, versus a present that exists in the identical sci-fi actuality. (That goes double for its spinoff sequence, “The Ebook of Boba Fett,” with its zany cyborg biker gang hijinks.) The season 3 premiere would not precisely refute that sentiment, both. Between Kowakian monkey-lizards chilling in bushes, the Swamp Factor-like pirate captain Gorian Shard, and the essentially hilarious picture of Din Djarin sitting hunched over within the Anzellan droid smiths’ workshop (all on high of Grogu’s fixed presence, love him or hate him), “The Apostate” fortunately indulges within the sillier, pulpier elements of “Star Wars.”

So why would not it actually work for me?

Now, earlier than y’all accuse me of hating enjoyable or insisting “Star Wars” be Very Severe™ on a regular basis post-“Andor,” I believe a part of the problem is the method. “Rebels” and “Clone Wars” bought darker and extra mature as they went alongside, but there was all the time a spot for silliness. Heck, the “Rebels” episode “The Way forward for the Drive” even discovered room for cutesy baby-related shenanigans in an in any other case deadly-serious plotline about little one abduction. Season 2 of the “Clone Wars” spinoff “The Dangerous Batch” has equally made house for lighter episodes about racing or “Indiana Jones”-styled expeditions whereas exploring a bigger story about fascism, the exploitation of labor, and the disintegration of particular person rights.

Basic opinions undoubtedly differ, however more often than not I really feel these lighter parts work to maintain these reveals family-friendly with out distracting an excessive amount of from the heavier matters being raised. By comparability, the sillier moments in “The Apostate” too usually come throughout as consolation meals that winds up downplaying the drama beginning to unfold.