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Andor
I finally finished Andor, and I am just blown away. It's really the best show I've seen in a very long time, and I just did not expect that from a Star Wars property.
Background: my first fandom was the Star Wars Expanded Universe novels. I was super into the post-Return of the Jedi 'verse that those books created. I love the original trilogy, I love Luke and Leia and Han and the Rebellion, and I have been thoroughly unimpressed by both the prequel trilogy and the new films and TV series from the last decade or so.
Basically, before this my feelings were:
Original trilogy = imperfect but so intensely lovable and formative
Expanded universe = Same
Rogue One = a good movie but I don't feel fannish about it
Everything else = garbage with some real potential (mostly in the form of characters) scattered throughout (sorry to anyone who feels differently! that's just how I feel!)
So I was not expecting to ever have feelings that weren't nostalgic fondness about Star Wars ever again. I would never, ever have guessed that there would be a Star Wars TV show that I cared about at all, much less one that instantly became one of my favorite shows. One that is objectively good.
Quality-wise, this is the best thing that's ever come out of Star Wars. It doesn't have the reach of the original trilogy, of course, or that pulpy delight that makes kids fall in love with it. But it is actually better.
Because it's a 12-episode reflection on living under imperialism. It shows the endless, grinding misery of tyranny and also the human cogs that make it work. It shows all the reasons and ways someone might choose to stand up to evil. It's about resistance and community and just trying. And I'm in love with it.
The show comes in roughly four movements, of which the second is my favorite, followed closely by the fourth. But all of them are good and necessary and doing different things.
The first act, set on Ferrix, is about community, and it is absolutely no accident that it uses the visual language of a coal mining or factory town to do that. Ferrix is earth, both in its palette and in its themes. The big moments about community and standing together and being secure in your roots all come on this planet, and I fell in love with that from the first shot of the wall covered with work gloves that hearkens back to walls covered with hard hats in our world. Labor unions standing up to their exploiters are the real life inspiration for this resistance movement on a little, dirty planet. I love that so much.
The second act is simply the best heist movie I've seen in years and years and also includes my favorite character on the show.
The third act is prison. I won't say anything else. But it is. A lot.
And then there's the finale, which circles back again to Ferrix and revives all of our themes.
Throughout, there are B-plots where we get to know talented imperial bureaucrats, the worst guy in the universe, and Mon Mothma. They are all excellently done.
Actually, literally everything about the show is excellently done. The characters and actors, the writing, the production design, the direction. I am still having the hardest time believing this is the Star Wars property I essentially waited all my life for but never really thought would exist. Finally a Star Wars that actually has something interesting to say about resistance to empire!!!!!!!
[Btw, the original trilogy is not really trying to say anything about resistance to empire. It's just a Joseph Campbell ramble in the trappings of a space opera. And that's okay! I love it for what it is! But it is definitely not a thoughtful examination of resistance to empire!]
I found the show incredibly intense to watch. I had to keep pausing it and taking breaks because it was so suspenseful, and I never knew what was going to happen. The creation of suspense is truly masterfully done. I knew that Cassian Andor would live, obviously, because this is a prequel to Rogue One, but other than that, I felt like literally anything could happen--the plans could explode in their faces, the characters could die...anything. It's really rare that I feel that way when engaging with a story.
Because nothing is perfect, here is my complaint: not enough aliens. All of the significant characters are human (except for one very good droid). The alien characters are just incidental. This seems like such a missed opportunity to me! Because the empire is clearly a xenophobic movement! They could do so much with aliens! I got the feeling that the writers were like, "We're too serious a show for aliens," but come ON. You are never too serious a show for aliens. I really hope they introduce more in the second season.
Oh, and my other complaint: how long I'm going to have to wait for season two. And the fact that apparently season two will be the final season. I am begging Disney to take the team making this show and give them a spinoff afterwards. There are an endless amount of rebellion stories they could tell and I want them! I want them all! From a team this good!
Actually, I thought of one more thing: I do not love how they retconned Cassian Andor's story from Rogue One. The guy-who-only-looks-out-for-himself becoming an idealist fighting for something greater is done all the time. And the way it's done here is truly excellent! One of the best I've seen! But I would really like a story like the one we were told in Rogue One: of someone who grew up in a resistance movement. When was the last time you saw that?
Still, the result of the retcon is so wonderful that I can't complain too hard.
Random spoily things I loved behind the cut:
+ The Ferrix-as-mining town aesthetic. It just gave me so so so many feelings.
+ The way the Ferrix stuff is always about solidarity and resistance arising from community
+ KARIS NEMIK MY BABY MY DARLING I adore him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I knew he would die from his first episode because he's the kind of character who always dies, but oh my gosh favorite character, I could listen to him talk about resistance for the rest of my life cinnamon roll too good too pure etc. etc.
+ Lieutenant Gorn. The actor who played him was so good and brought a lot to the role and I just really vibed with that character
+ Space!Scotland!!!
+ The heist the heist the heist!!!!!!!!
+ How much time we get to spend with Dedra and how good she is at her job. I like her, even while I hate that she's working for Evil.
+ ANTON LESSER! I did not expect to see him and when I heard his voice (before they showed his face) I shrieked like a teapot.
+ Mon Mothma's everything.
+ Mon Mothma throwing her husband under the bus!!!!!! HE DESERVED IT.
+ The complicated relationship has with her daughter.
+ Syril is TERRIBLE and his obsession with Dedra is disgusting and so so so realistic like we all know this guy and not even an imperial toady deserves to have to deal with him
+ And omg his MOM
+ Luthen's speeches about what he's given up. We get to see that this guy hates himself for the things he has to do in the name of his cause but he's committed himself to the cause and wow, it's just more nuanced than I expected.
+ Cassian just shooting Skeen, no hesitation
+ B2EMO's everything
+ Maarva's everything, especially her speech
+ Bix's face
+ Lonnie the mole
+ THE PRISON BREAK IS SO SO SO GOOD and moving and wow. When he was thrown in jail I was like, "Ugh, I don't want to do this," but then the payoff was so good
+ Vel struggling with the tension between her ideals and what she wants as a person
+ The Big Guy (whose name I never caught) literally using the brick that used to be Maarva to BEAT DOWN THE EMPIRE. Maarva would be cackling with joy!
+ A finale where all the plotlines converge with all of our characters in the same physical space for the first time
+ The funeral scene--all of it--but also just a funeral being the spark that lights the flames of resistance to tyranny!!!!
+ CLIMB!!!!!
+ The show started with Cassian trying to save the sister he lost (I believe she's dead), and it ends with him saving his other sister, the one he still has.
I realized after I wrote all this up that I don't talk much about Cassian Andor himself. But Diego Luna is so wonderful in the role and does such a good job of being the character around which the story pivots. He deserves those acting nominations. I love him.
Background: my first fandom was the Star Wars Expanded Universe novels. I was super into the post-Return of the Jedi 'verse that those books created. I love the original trilogy, I love Luke and Leia and Han and the Rebellion, and I have been thoroughly unimpressed by both the prequel trilogy and the new films and TV series from the last decade or so.
Basically, before this my feelings were:
Original trilogy = imperfect but so intensely lovable and formative
Expanded universe = Same
Rogue One = a good movie but I don't feel fannish about it
Everything else = garbage with some real potential (mostly in the form of characters) scattered throughout (sorry to anyone who feels differently! that's just how I feel!)
So I was not expecting to ever have feelings that weren't nostalgic fondness about Star Wars ever again. I would never, ever have guessed that there would be a Star Wars TV show that I cared about at all, much less one that instantly became one of my favorite shows. One that is objectively good.
Quality-wise, this is the best thing that's ever come out of Star Wars. It doesn't have the reach of the original trilogy, of course, or that pulpy delight that makes kids fall in love with it. But it is actually better.
Because it's a 12-episode reflection on living under imperialism. It shows the endless, grinding misery of tyranny and also the human cogs that make it work. It shows all the reasons and ways someone might choose to stand up to evil. It's about resistance and community and just trying. And I'm in love with it.
The show comes in roughly four movements, of which the second is my favorite, followed closely by the fourth. But all of them are good and necessary and doing different things.
The first act, set on Ferrix, is about community, and it is absolutely no accident that it uses the visual language of a coal mining or factory town to do that. Ferrix is earth, both in its palette and in its themes. The big moments about community and standing together and being secure in your roots all come on this planet, and I fell in love with that from the first shot of the wall covered with work gloves that hearkens back to walls covered with hard hats in our world. Labor unions standing up to their exploiters are the real life inspiration for this resistance movement on a little, dirty planet. I love that so much.
The second act is simply the best heist movie I've seen in years and years and also includes my favorite character on the show.
The third act is prison. I won't say anything else. But it is. A lot.
And then there's the finale, which circles back again to Ferrix and revives all of our themes.
Throughout, there are B-plots where we get to know talented imperial bureaucrats, the worst guy in the universe, and Mon Mothma. They are all excellently done.
Actually, literally everything about the show is excellently done. The characters and actors, the writing, the production design, the direction. I am still having the hardest time believing this is the Star Wars property I essentially waited all my life for but never really thought would exist. Finally a Star Wars that actually has something interesting to say about resistance to empire!!!!!!!
[Btw, the original trilogy is not really trying to say anything about resistance to empire. It's just a Joseph Campbell ramble in the trappings of a space opera. And that's okay! I love it for what it is! But it is definitely not a thoughtful examination of resistance to empire!]
I found the show incredibly intense to watch. I had to keep pausing it and taking breaks because it was so suspenseful, and I never knew what was going to happen. The creation of suspense is truly masterfully done. I knew that Cassian Andor would live, obviously, because this is a prequel to Rogue One, but other than that, I felt like literally anything could happen--the plans could explode in their faces, the characters could die...anything. It's really rare that I feel that way when engaging with a story.
Because nothing is perfect, here is my complaint: not enough aliens. All of the significant characters are human (except for one very good droid). The alien characters are just incidental. This seems like such a missed opportunity to me! Because the empire is clearly a xenophobic movement! They could do so much with aliens! I got the feeling that the writers were like, "We're too serious a show for aliens," but come ON. You are never too serious a show for aliens. I really hope they introduce more in the second season.
Oh, and my other complaint: how long I'm going to have to wait for season two. And the fact that apparently season two will be the final season. I am begging Disney to take the team making this show and give them a spinoff afterwards. There are an endless amount of rebellion stories they could tell and I want them! I want them all! From a team this good!
Actually, I thought of one more thing: I do not love how they retconned Cassian Andor's story from Rogue One. The guy-who-only-looks-out-for-himself becoming an idealist fighting for something greater is done all the time. And the way it's done here is truly excellent! One of the best I've seen! But I would really like a story like the one we were told in Rogue One: of someone who grew up in a resistance movement. When was the last time you saw that?
Still, the result of the retcon is so wonderful that I can't complain too hard.
Random spoily things I loved behind the cut:
+ The Ferrix-as-mining town aesthetic. It just gave me so so so many feelings.
+ The way the Ferrix stuff is always about solidarity and resistance arising from community
+ KARIS NEMIK MY BABY MY DARLING I adore him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I knew he would die from his first episode because he's the kind of character who always dies, but oh my gosh favorite character, I could listen to him talk about resistance for the rest of my life cinnamon roll too good too pure etc. etc.
+ Lieutenant Gorn. The actor who played him was so good and brought a lot to the role and I just really vibed with that character
+ Space!Scotland!!!
+ The heist the heist the heist!!!!!!!!
+ How much time we get to spend with Dedra and how good she is at her job. I like her, even while I hate that she's working for Evil.
+ ANTON LESSER! I did not expect to see him and when I heard his voice (before they showed his face) I shrieked like a teapot.
+ Mon Mothma's everything.
+ Mon Mothma throwing her husband under the bus!!!!!! HE DESERVED IT.
+ The complicated relationship has with her daughter.
+ Syril is TERRIBLE and his obsession with Dedra is disgusting and so so so realistic like we all know this guy and not even an imperial toady deserves to have to deal with him
+ And omg his MOM
+ Luthen's speeches about what he's given up. We get to see that this guy hates himself for the things he has to do in the name of his cause but he's committed himself to the cause and wow, it's just more nuanced than I expected.
+ Cassian just shooting Skeen, no hesitation
+ B2EMO's everything
+ Maarva's everything, especially her speech
+ Bix's face
+ Lonnie the mole
+ THE PRISON BREAK IS SO SO SO GOOD and moving and wow. When he was thrown in jail I was like, "Ugh, I don't want to do this," but then the payoff was so good
+ Vel struggling with the tension between her ideals and what she wants as a person
+ The Big Guy (whose name I never caught) literally using the brick that used to be Maarva to BEAT DOWN THE EMPIRE. Maarva would be cackling with joy!
+ A finale where all the plotlines converge with all of our characters in the same physical space for the first time
+ The funeral scene--all of it--but also just a funeral being the spark that lights the flames of resistance to tyranny!!!!
+ CLIMB!!!!!
+ The show started with Cassian trying to save the sister he lost (I believe she's dead), and it ends with him saving his other sister, the one he still has.
I realized after I wrote all this up that I don't talk much about Cassian Andor himself. But Diego Luna is so wonderful in the role and does such a good job of being the character around which the story pivots. He deserves those acting nominations. I love him.
no subject
I would say: watch the first three episodes and see if it works for you. You might not like it, but it won't be because it's Star Wars, it'll just be because no show works for everyone!