It’s a slow news day, so I thought I would check out Andor. Honestly, I didn’t want to, but finding anything good to watch is like looking for a needle in a haystack these days.
The reviews of this new season are in, but now it’s time for my take.
As I have said, I wasn’t a fan of Andor season 1, it was well made, with a good cast, but it just didn’t blow my skirt up. I am completely oversaturated with Star Wars. I know that Disney will never produce anything close to good, but I went in with an open mind. Honestly.
The Story
This is going to be tricky to break down for a number of reasons. Firstly, I had no interest in revisiting the end of the last season, because I had no vested interest in any of the characters. So, starting season 2, I wasn’t really sure who was who or what they were doing.
Andor season 2 starts a year after the end of season 1. Cassian is an Imperial test pilot, somehow. He steals a TIE fighter. This opening was just stupid!
He gets into the ship and has no idea how to fly it, and just starts playing with the controls. OK, he can fly other ships, but his reaction seemed to show he didn’t know the turret controls from the air conditioning.
He smashes the fighter into the walls and basically makes more damage than a woman trying to parallel park. In the meantime, a group of stormtroopers open fire. It’s OK, though, Andor is the star of the show who dies in Rogue One, so there’s no level of threat or worry.
He then manages to get to grips with the controls, perfectly fly the ship, shoot the troopers and get away. For reference on how stupid this was, see The Force Awakens with Rey Palpatine in the Falcon.
There’s an escape through a canyon. Even though the ships have the ability to fly in the vastness of space, it’s best to smash it into the walls of a canyon. There is a tense moment with Andor escaping, but again, it’s pretty bloody stupid.
Political Intrigue
We then meet Krennic, who seems to know that Luthen is a spy. There’s an infomercial about Luthen’s shop and how clothes are made by spiders. Genuinely, that’s what happens.
There are political manoeuvrings, but I have checked out of these characters, so I have no idea what’s going on. Same with Mon Mothma, her daughter is getting married, Luthen is there, that’s about it from them.
I feel bad for the actors, but I’m just not interested in any of this lot.
Back to Andor, and he’s landed in a hidden base and looking for a friend who was waiting for him. Instead of finding his friend, he finds a bunch of rebels who are fighting with each other.
They might end up killing Cassian, because he turned up in a TIE fighter, but no, it’s OK, Cassian doesn’t die yet. There is zero peril, zero threat and zero tension.
The rebels split into two groups and plan on killing each other. How do they get over this conflict and settle their differences? They play Rock, Paper, Scissors. Again, I’m not joking!
Episode 3
I haven’t seen all of the third episode yet, and I’m not sure I will. Andor season 2 is drifting between ‘bloody stupid’ to ‘I just don’t care’ to ‘I know he’s going to be OK, I’ve seen Rogue One’.
There’s a wedding in episode 3, which is nothing but filler. There is tension between the families, but I just don’t care. In the wedding, the groom cuts off the bride’s lock of hair, exactly the same way a Padawan becomes a Jedi. #Inspired
I just hope Andor will be OK.
It’s Well Made
The overall production quality of Andor is excellent. The direction is, at times, very complex and interesting, with some very well-executed shots. The effects are close to perfect, the set pieces are impressive, and the music is good.
All of the cast are excellent. Credit where credit is due, the actors are acting their hearts out and fair play to them. However, like so many things in modern entertainment, it’s all quantity and not quality.
Watching Andor, I’m at work, editing some articles, transferring a video to digital and basically just cracking on. Andor is on in the background, so I’m not giving it my full attention, but then, that’s not my fault!
As I said, I wasn’t that invested in season 1. Cassian seems like an interesting character, but we know what’s going to happen to him! He’s going to be fine, until he dies in Rogue One. Where’s the tension when you put him in danger?
OK, so most movies are like this, you go and see a James Bond movie, you know what’s going to happen. James will fight the bad guy, he’ll win and save the day. They say, something like Bond, only works when you have a good bad guy.
Andor is no different; you know what’s going to happen, but you need to get invested in the characters. You need a good ‘good guy’, which Andor is, but I’m not really sure who the ‘bad guy’ is.
There’s the Empire, but there are too many of them. There’s Syril Karn, an analyst for the Empire, I forget what he did in the first series. Krennic is there because he was in Rogue One. Remember him from Rogue One? The bad guy from there? You do remember, don’t you? Please say yes!
Overall
Andor is just more content from Disney to get you to subscribe. I do appreciate it’s a better Star Wars than the rest of the puke Disney is throwing up, but it’s just not interesting to me.
If this series came out around 2012, when George first sold his baby to Disney, I might feel different about it. It’s now 2025, though, Disney has stung me, again and again, and somehow managed to make some of the worst content known to man.
Star Wars should have been a license to print money! They should have been laughing all the way to the bank, but no, they managed to produce content which is beyond awful. They have torn down characters, they have destroyed legacies and just flushed Star Wars down the toilet.
I feel bad for Tony Gilroy, the showrunner; he’s obviously got a lot of passion for Star Wars, but he’s had to produce it under the flag of Disney. The very company that seems to be doing its best to destroy the franchise.
The fact that this is a 12-episode series doesn’t help either. It’s not like I have a short attention span, but season 2 is going to be about 10 hours! The writing isn’t good enought to hold my attention for that long.
I know many of you won’t even watch Andor season 2, but what do you think? Am I being too harsh?