and as I mentioned twice above, its first season should absolutely be the model for how to make this show successful.

That and Boetticher westerns (which the last episode bore a lot of resemblance to) should be hugely influential. Especially since those films had a relatively wooden lead in Randolph Scott who Boetticher surrounded with excellent character actors in small roles and as villains. Since Mando, by default has limitations don't use comedians that can't fucking act, get great, under-utilized character actors and let them bring things to life. Much of Justified's success can be attributed to the same tactic although Olyphant was a fantastic, charismatic lead.

Also, Boetticher was a model of simple, economical storytelling and action direction doing more in 80 minutes than most directors can do in twice that.


Not to derail this into a Justified discussion but it is infinitely rewatchable and had precisely one bad season and that was still better than most shows on TV.