If I did not help run a website that covers Star Wars, I would have given up on Andor after two episodes. That was likely clear if you read what I wrote the week of Andorâs debut, âIf You Like Watching Diego Luna Walk Around, Youâll Love Andor.â Reader, I do not like watching Diego Luna walk around, at least not at that length or with that much frequency. I thought big chunks of the three-episode premiere were flat-out boring.
Six episodes later, I think Andor, created by Tony Gilroy, has evolved into one of the best Star Wars shows on Disney+. Itâs certainly the most interesting.
Admittedly, itâs still not the most thrillingly paced. For the second straight week, the showâs title character has spent the entire episode locked up as a prison laborer for the Empire. His main adversary, an Imperial Security Bureau officer named Dedra Meero (Denish Gough), made very little progress in her investigation into Rebel activity â and she still does not know that Andor has already been imprisoned (under an alias) for a minor crime. (Andor, meanwhile, does not even know Meero exists.) Several key characters, including Stellan Skarsgardâs Luthen Rael, do not play a role on this weekâs Andor. This is not a Star Wars TV series for people who want non-stop action. (Or, for that matter, intermittent action.)
But there are plenty of Star Wars movies and shows that provide that sort of stuff. Andor, like its title character, has taken a different path. It focuses on the nuts and bolts of life in the Star Wars galaxy, showing the step-by-step process by which the Rebel Alliance grew â and the step-by-step process by which the Empire controlled its citizens through fear and overwhelming power. Although the show does not treat the Rebels and Empire as moral equivalents â the Rebels are fighting for freedom while the Imperials torture their enemies and imprison them in perpetuity after sham trials â it does empathize with the mindset of the individuals within the Empire, who must navigate the personal and professional pitfalls of life within a corrupt and sadistic organization. While Andor remains in a literal prison, all of its main characters are trapped in one way or another.
While Andorâs time in prison hasnât been especially eventful from a story standpoint, itâs been a tonally effective chapter of the seriesâ overall story. His work on an assembly line building pieces of Imperial technology (likely for use in the Death Star) serves as a metaphor for the entire show: How repressive governments create a system of control, and how they make their subjects accessories to their own oppression as cogs in an enormous machine designed only to enrich the few at the very top of the chain of command.
In hindsight, these prison scenes also add interesting context to those early episodes where Andor wandered endlessly on the planet Ferrix. Now Andorâs freedom has been stripped away; one wrong step in any direction can get him fried by the Imperial prisonâs deadly, electrified floor. The way Andorâs existence has been upended serves as a microcosm of the way the Empire is tightening its grip over the entire galaxy. Itâs bleak stuff â like the final act of The Empire Strikes Back stretched across multiple hours.
Another pleasant aspect of Andor: It is a prequel that is almost impossible to anticipate from a story perspective. Sure, Cassian Andor himself canât die; heâs got to escape that space jail eventually and show up at the start of Rogue One to steal the Death Star plans. But from episode to episode, his journey, along with the evolution of many of the supporting characters, has defied prognostication. (Did you think Andor would spend two episodes in prison hanging out with Andy Serkis? I sure didnât!)
The seasonâs final three episodes (and Andorâs upcoming second season) will wrestle with many enticing questions. Will Syril Karn (Kyle Soller), the obsessive former âcorpoâ who first recognized Cassian Andorâs illicit activities, convince Meero to help him? Will Syril rise through the Imperial ranks, or will he grow so frustrated with his inability to navigate its bureaucracy that he eventually joins the Rebels? Will Serkisâ character aid Andorâs budding escape attempt or expose it? We just donât know â a refreshing change of pace from just about everything else in Star Wars in the last few years, which has been occasionally fun and exciting, but rarely this unpredictable.
Iâm still not sure Andor couldnât have worked just as well at, say, nine episodes instead of 12. But I will admit I have gone from dreading having to watch this series every Wednesday to actively looking forward to it. And suddenly I find myself thinking the plan for the rest of the series â which will supposedly compress the next four years of Andorâs pre-Rogue One life into a quartet of three-episode arcs â does not seem like an expansive enough palette to conclude this story in satisfying fashion. Then again, if Season 2 features this caliber of writing with a lot less aimless walking, it could be the perfect Star Wars TV show.
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