I know it's been discussed to death, but just wanted to say I was late to the Mandalorian and I completely agree with you— it felt very true to the Star Wars universe, while at the same time expanding it considerably and not relying on cheap recycling of past characters and plot arcs.

And all of this on the kind of technology platform which could easily have enabled the absolute worst of the Lucas instincts to thrive as far as overcomplicated plots and gee-whiz special effects. Somehow it managed to take us to a dozen different planets and yet stay firmly rooted in a story about parenthood— and that, between a faceless warrior and a voiceless puppet. Wild!

> I dunno... The Mandalorian has achieved everything that the prequels and episodes 7-9 were unable to; it did exactly the things folks said were impossible.

That's a good way to put it. Entirely agree.

Seeing characters from the original be the bad-ass your younger self imagined they were but couldn't be is what The Mandalorian achieved. They crafted a story that allowed that to happen.

check out The Orville, it is more of a classic star trek than the new official star treks