The Mandalorian, Season 1 (2019)

 

Five years after the fall of the Galactic Empire, a lone Mandalorian bounty hunter is hired to retrieve a package by remnant Imperial forces.  Despite not being any great fan of the Empire, the bounty hunter takes the job.  A bounty is a bounty.

Well, maybe not.  The 'package' turns out to be a tiny alien child of a species unknown to the bounty hunter.  Anyone viewer remotely familiar with Star Wars, on the other hand, will have little difficulty recognising the kid's significance, despite the lack of a species name.

"Yoda's species" has not yet been given an official name

It's no surprise at all from here, of course, that (a) the Force Is Strong With This One, and (b) the Mandalorian is going to renege on his plans to give the kid to the Imperials.

As you might also expect, the Imperials are deeply unhappy about this, and the Mandalorian must stay one step ahead of their forces - which are still the most numerous and powerful in this sector of the galaxy - while trying to learn more about the child, the child's species, and how he might get the kid back to its people.

The Mandalorian wears the influence of the western genre even more openly than the original Star Wars.  'Mando' as he is most commonly called by the other characters, is clearly modelled on the enigmatic drifter character that is common in many western films: a deadly, taciturn gunslinger with a chequered past who is now trying to Do The Right Thing.  Similarly, many of the enemies he fights are just as clearly inspired by the bandits and thugs of western films.  Just in case you missed all that, though, it sets a lot of this season's activity on planets whose environments also invoke westerns.

This is not a subtle or nuanced show.  That applies not just to its genre-emulation, but also to its overall plotlines, characterisation, and action choreography.  Bad guys are Bad because they are Bad, and do Bad Things regardless of the sense of doing them.  Fight scenes are built firmly on "do what's spectacular" rather than what is smart, and enemy skill fairly noticeably waxes and wanes as is narratively required.

But then, subtle and nuanced story telling has never really been a part of the Star Wars franchise.  It's bombastic approach has always been best suited to Big Quests and Big Space Battles and Big Monsters, leavened with occasional doses of humour and Over The Top Emotions.  And The Mandalorian nails that formula quite faithfully.

If you just want uncomplicated Star Wars-y Star Wars, you will get it here.