Is ‘Andor’ The Best ‘Star Wars’ Disney Plus Show?

Is ‘Andor’ The Best ‘Star Wars’ Disney Plus Show? Some are saying this after finishing out the series. Let’s discuss how these acclaims might actually be right.

CAUTION: SPOILERS AHEAD

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FAN SERVICE

It has been romanticized how good ‘Andor’ has been, yet we don’t see the same outpour as we do for other ‘Star Wars’ properties. What’s up with that? Our theory: The fan service isn’t potent enough for the general ‘Star Wars’ viewer. And we’re not saying that’s a bad thing! It’s actually very needed in this galaxy far, far away.

If you’re a fan through and through of all material coming out of ‘Star Wars,’ you probably enjoyed ‘Andor’ very much. There are easter eggs for those who have watched the cartoons, or have read up on some of the backstories that link between films, but because there’s not a Baby Yoda, or a throwback character necessarily leading the mix like a Boba Fett, or cameos from the original trilogies, there are fewer people watching, in my opinion.

However, if you were one of the people obsessed with ‘Rogue One’ like I was, this will firmly cure your salivation for more Cassian Andor, his backstory, and how he became who he was by the time Jyn Erso ends up in the mix.

THE EMPIRE’S BULLSHIT

 

The Empire and the subsect of the ISB show us more behind the scenes as to the psychology of the Empire and its rulers. They have their offices, jobs, hierarchies, and of course, their overachievers like Dedra Meero. It gives us insight as to why they make the decisions they do, how they’re playing the game just as much as the rebels, and how their actions and behaviors across the galaxy caused a rebellion by the people. It also shows down the chain how everything is connected. Syril Karn’s role in particular shows how deep the programming goes, and how some of the people on the side of the Empire can become deranged, drunk on power, and how far they’ll go when they fail.

THE GAME OF PLAYING CHESS VS. “THIS IS GOING TOO SLOW”

One of the complaints you heard from those who first started the series was that it was moving very slowly. People weren’t getting into it quickly enough, which is where you start to lose a casual fan. As time goes on, you realize all the information being given in these episodes and the slow burn of them are actually more like playing chess: You have to have all the pieces in the right place before you start to carefully attack, rather than Han Solo-ing or Poe Dameron-ing it and just hitting it guns blazing on instinct. Out of all of the pieces of this series, the one episode that seemed like the least important was Cassian’s younger years as a child before he meets Maarva Andor, who takes him from his home planet and raises her as her own. Beyond that, each episode is important to the overall scheme and knowing how we get to where we are at the end of the series.

THE PARALLELS OF REAL LIFE

 

Much like the one sequence in ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ of the transporter with the Empire’s flag, this show has a lot of real-life parallels and hints to things like prison labor, fascism, classism, rebellion, and how rebellion itself is built on many tiers from the poor to the wealthy. How some politicians will take matters into their own hands like Mon Mothma, and how there are so many moving parts to create a full-on uprising. Seeing how this comes to be is very telling, and though some may consider it “too political,” here’s the thing: ‘Star Wars’ was always political, you just didn’t want to see it.

THE CINEMATICS AND SET DESIGN

Disney and Lucasfilm shared that this was the first of the Disney Plus shows that were built and created more practically. Shows like ‘The Mandalorian’ and ‘The Book of Boba Fett’ were worked on in The Volume, which is a massive setup created by the company to film out-of-this-world concepts. With the practical sets in ‘Andor,’ we got an insane feel for the grit of the project, and I daresay that elevated the overall product. There ain’t nothing like practical and real, ladies, gents, and non-binary folk.

Quoted from an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Tony Gilroy, the ‘Andor’ Showrunner, explained further as to why he didn’t use The Volume. “In a perfect world, we’d be able to shoot location and shoot old school, and then we’d use the Volume when we want to use it. There are times when the Volume would be really good for us, but the technology doesn’t exist to do both.”

“Our system is completely different. We shoot everything with the actors, and we build out from there if we need to build out. And those two systems, maybe there’s somebody who’s doing it, but economically, you can’t do [both]. So, automatically, we were just like, ‘We have to be a build show.'”

ANDOR IS A PIECE OF EVERYONE HE TOUCHES IN HIS LIFETIME

Cassian already had an amazing character coming from ‘Rogue One.’ Now we truly know how he was radicalized, and in part of that is every person we’re seeing in this show. Maarva was a leader and was ready to fight down to the end. His compassion for his friends like Brasso, who treated him more like family and covered for him in dangerous times. His loyalty to those friends, like putting his life on the line to save Bix after being tortured by the Empire and Dedra Meero. The influence from Luthen, however short in this first season. The leader he saw in Kino in the prison. And the biggest kicker: the talks of rebellion and manifesto given to him from Nemik.

All of these people have found ways to shape Cassian into who he truly becomes – Nemik especially, who doesn’t get the credit he truly deserves. But his words, the words from Kino, all of the things Cassian endures during this time period, it’s a parallel to how we live as humans: Those who we surround ourselves with, we absorb their qualities. There are hints and marks left on all of us within our lifetime, and with all of the minds and leaders molding Cassian, it will be very telling by the end of Season 2 as to how we got to ‘Rogue One.’

THE ACTING AND SCRIPT ARE SPECTACULAR

 

There was not a single line you felt was cheesy or out of place. No forced dialog to tie back to a previous film. The actors all were cast perfectly, and much of what we see here is Oscar-Winning-Level performances. Fandom releases such as ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Marvel’ get a bad rap from cinephiles (feel free to Google the latest argument between Quentin Tarantino and Simu Liu), but the acting in ‘Andor’ is top-tier and empowering. The different sides of Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly), the epic monologue from Luthen (Stellan Skarsgård) as to what he gave to be part of this rebellion, Maarva’s empowering speech post-death (Fiona Shaw), the chilling stage five clinger personality of Syril (Kyle Soller), Dedra Meero (Denise Gough) and her venomous and power drunk torture scene with Bix (Adria Arjona), and the ever-so-amazing embodiment of Kino from Andy Serkis – whom many of us forget is a phenomenal Gary Oldman-level actor because of how many times he’s hidden behind his CGI Bounds (Side Note: Serkis deserves every acclaim ever, thank you very much).

And of course, Diego Luna as Cassian Andor, who shows many sides of the character, even just by acting with body language and eyes. It’s one thing to have a killer script and act it out, but the way that Luna is able to BECOME Cassian and show this with more than just language is phenomenal, and as he comes into his own facing off with Luthen and gives him the choice to either kill him or take him in, we clearly see that Luthen will keep Cassian around (knowing his story continues into ‘Rogue One’ already lets us know Luthen decides not to kill him), and sets us up with a perfect moment to have a time-jump for Season 2.

HOPES FOR ‘ANDOR’ SEASON 2

As we just noted, we know that Cassian’s story continues, not only by ‘Rogue One,’ but confirmation that ‘Andor’ will be 2 Seasons and 24 episodes. Showrunner Tony Gilroy says “Cassian’s commitment to the cause is not in doubt. If it was about him becoming a revolutionary, then the second half is about him becoming a leader,” quoted from Polygon.

“We’re going to skip a whole year. We come back a year later, many things have changed,” Gilroy said. “And we’ll do three episodes, and we’ll jump a year. And we’ll do another three episodes, and we’ll jump a year. And we’ll come back to the final four episodes, and those episodes will be the last three days really before Rogue One, and the final scene of the show will be walking you into Rogue One.”

The next season is slated for 2024, and with that description from Gilroy, we’ll know what to expect. I had fully hoped as a fan of ‘Rogue One’ that we’d have a direct connection similar to how ‘Rogue One’ ended walking right into ‘A New Hope.’ Given the post-credits scene, we now know the Death Star is being built (and using prison labor to do it, apparently upsetting ‘Clerks’ fans in the process about subcontractors), and that we’re going to see significant time jumps.

My one true hope in all of this is that we will see how K-2SO came to be, and that Alan Tudyk will be brought back to voice the robot. Not even going to lie about it, when the K-2 unit attacks Cassian and sends him to prison, I freaked out thinking we were getting K-2 in Season One. They knew what they were doing to us.

IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED IT…

I’m not going to be like one of those obsessive ‘Game of Thrones’ people and try to shame you for not watching this property, but I do think that fans of ‘Star Wars’ who have not taken the plunge yet should find time to do so. It does start slow, and it might deter you, but the payoff for it is a lot more worth it than being annoyed by a slow start. Some people believe we’re getting too much ‘Star Wars’ content from Disney, but I personally love these side stories and fleshing out the world that is ‘Star Wars,’ and there’s not a single show yet that has disappointed me in expectations. There are more missteps personally for me in the movie properties they’ve released (Ahem, ‘The Rise of Skywalker’), but the shows are nailing it in my opinion.

Check out ‘Andor’ now, streaming on Disney+.

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