I have what you would call a complicated relationship with Star Wars–specifically the newer era of Disney properties. No, not necessarily the new trilogy (I am a staunch fan of The Last Jedi, which might put you off from any opinions that I have in general, but oh well), but more specifically, the carbon copying of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and how content is released / crafted.
There was a trend that Marvel did very well until Avengers: Endgame, where everything felt connected and good. Now, I’m just burned out from Marvel, and oh, how refreshing it was to watch The Mandalorian season 1 because it felt very standalone.
Then Season 2 brought in Boba Fett (spoilers), and Season 3 just really had to lean in even further with how connected it all really is. This is all to say it makes a galaxy far, far away feel very small indeed.
So cue in Andor. The first season was the very definition of a slow burn. I really dug Rogue One a lot, I thought it was very fresh and original, with just enough connective tissue to make you go “ahhh”. Yes, it did have cameos from Saw Guerrra, to Mon Mothma, C-3PO and R2-D2 but they didn’t feel gratuitous, rather that they were earned and made sense to be there. Andor brought in the guy who pretty much saved that project, Tony Gilroy, who punched up the script, re-worked the third act, and made it a pretty rock-solid movie. Uncanny valley aside (Tarkin–Leia…*shudders*), I really, really adored that movie.
So it made sense that I would love Andor, and I gotta tell you–for the first three episodes…I didn’t. It was painfully slow. I didn’t know where it was going, so I stopped watching for a long time, and late last year, I picked it back up after hearing just how much praise this show was getting.
I’m so glad I did.
You gotta trust in the process with Andor. It’s unflinching with how it takes its time, and ultimately, it’s all the better for it. It truly is the best Star Wars show–and dare I say content–in years. So refreshing.
The first three episodes of Season 2 are finally out, and it’s a doozy. It takes place roughly 1 year after the events of season 1, and (this took me a bit) about 5 years before the Battle of Yavin.
**SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT**
The first episode opens up with Cassian (Diego Luna) working directly with Luthen (Stellan Skarsgård who I will watch in anything, I adore the man) to steal goods for the rebellion. Stealing what I presume is a prototype tie-fighter is both hilarious and kinda grounded in reality, oddly enough. Cassian is a good pilot. But he’s clearly out of his depth, and him figuring out the weapons system just in time to take out the rocket launcher storm trooper was both tense and comedic when he just blows up.
I didn’t think the next scene would be him being kidnapped by a group of squabbling rebels who are just hungry, tired, and without their leader. I also didn’t think this would last for three episodes but you have to trust the process.
Over the course of three episodes (later, I found out that we will jump ahead every year after three episodes, so everything will be tied up right until the moment we meet Cassian in Rogue One), we jump into meeting pretty much everyone. There’s a large focus on how Mon Mothma is dealing with the arranged marriage of her daughter to the son of (a smuggler? Seedy sales guy?) who helped moved her money around so she wouldn’t be caught funding the rebellion, while also dealing with the fact that her lifelong friend who is helping her out to cover up that money is is underwater with debt and going through a divorce. Oh, and he’s threatening to spill the beans.
The wedding stuff was pretty interesting, just to watch a new marriage ceremony that was steeped in…I wouldn’t say alien culture, although I guess it is alien to us. The groom saying he wasn’t going to return his father’s knife was just one strange aspect of the overall ceremony, and god damn did he ever look unhappy to get married.
We even get some time with Bix, Brasso, and…Wilmon? I don’t remember his character from season one. I’m sorry, it just seemed forgettable. They’re hiding out on a farming planet, trying to duck immigration patrols because they all left without proper visas. There is a thinly veiled mirroring of current events, that, while not intentional, are important to remind us that even in fantasy, we still have evil people hunting down good people. This brings us to probably one of the more distressing scenes in Star Wars history that has probably been happening in the background the whole time, sadly unmentioned, but very real: evil people sexually assaulting people below them.
And it’s not even swept under the rug. Bix, the one who is assaulted and ultimately kills the Imperial man who was trying to get her to have sex with him so he could turn the other eye for her visa, literally says to the guard just outside the building “He was trying to rape me.”
I’ve seen lots of commentary on this, about how this doesn’t belong in content that was originally designed for kids, but fuck that. This is a war. There are going to be atrocities like this, and I applaud Tony Gilroy for being unflinching in his quest to showcase just what the real cost of war is. There is, of course, death, but it’s more nuanced than that; people are taken advantage of–their very basic rights, stripped away. Humanity becomes lost, there is both deep oppression, both emotionally and physically. There is nothing easy about war. It’s messy, and it’s something to be reminded of, something that we should feel uncomfortable watching. To not show it would be ignoring the total sum cost of just everything that happens. Anything less is just pretending that everything is okay.
Doctor Who has frequently come under fire for this in recent years, with people complaining that a kids’ show shouldn’t be “this dark,” but I should remind those people that Doctor Who hasn’t really been for kids in a long time. There will always be parts that will be for children, but just like how Andor has shown, there are real consequences and uncomfortable truths; you can’t pull the wool over kids’ eyes forever. And I think its up to parents to have those hard conversations after watching this content to address exactly what is going on–that it’s not okay.
Now that I’ve gotten that off my chest…
It was good to see Krennic again, I love Ben Mendelsohn because god damn can that guy chew the scenery up. It was heavily implied in the last season that Syril and Dedra were going to be a thing (they almost kissed), but I do think it’s funny that someone so fanatically devout to the Empire as Dedra is that she has any time to be a good girlfriend or in a healthy relationship. She does knock Syril’s mother down a few pegs (thank god, because she is so overbearing–and also I never can quite get out of my head that she’s the same actress who played Mrs. Figg in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.)
So much happens in the last episode. Brasso is suddenly dead, after I was pretty sure Cassian, who is now an expert with the ship, came in to save the day. Luthen has pretty much ordered to kill Tay, Mon Mothma’s friend and I’m pretty sure Cinta, Vel’s lover and fellow rebel, is going to be the one to do it. The wild camera angles and music with Mon just dancing like mad because she’s fucking losing it and can’t hold it in anymore was frantic, sad, and manic.
All in all, I was blown away by just how good these three episodes are, and it continues to cement that this is the kind of Star Wars I want: original story, with some connective tissue to the overall story. All I hope is that they don’t ruin it somehow by bringing in Yoda…or a cameo that is just not needed.
I’ll keep these reviews encapsulated to each of the three episode arcs, as they seemed to be little snapshots for us to follow as complete arcs, or at least snapshots of them.
It’ll be interesting to see how they pick things up on the next go-around.
Till then,
may the force be with you.
