"Anything I want?"
"Well... within reason," my dad replied. "Come find me when you've picked something."
I combed over the shelves. Hollywood Video was great about keeping everything in alphabetical order, but at 7 I had no idea that the different genres were separated into sections as well. Was I in sci-fi or fantasy? Family or action/adventure? I don't know. And with the ultimate dissolution of Hollywood Video, I suppose I never will, but it doesn't matter. Fate, or the Force, moves in mysterious ways.
"I found one," I said, bringing forward the VHS.
"You know that's not the first one," my dad said.
I shrugged. I didn't care. The cover looked cool. An overarching badguy, two laser-swords crossing in a dangerous battle, a handsome man and a beautiful girl looking at one another longingly... This looked like a pretty epic adventure, and the title set it off even more. The Empire Strikes Back. It sounds like they meant business. I had no idea then, but that moment in Hollywood Video with my dad would stay with me forever.
It's funny how our brain decides to keep certain memories and dump off other ones in an Inside Out fashion. One wouldn't necessarily think that a decades-old memory of my renting Episode V would have stayed with me, but I suppose the impact that Star Wars has had on my life gives a bit of an explanation as to why.
I watched The Empire Strikes Back for the first time at 7 and fell in love with Leia, wished I could swing a saber and move things with my mind like Vader, idolized the swagger of Han, listened to the wisdom of Yoda, and couldn't believe the epic reveal of Luke's parentage. That started it. At 8 my grandmother gifted me the box set of the original trilogy, remastered but not yet remade (Han still shot first, damnit), and those tapes were switched out of our VCR in a constant rotation for years.
I remember seeing The Phantom Menace in theaters. I introduced my baby brother to Attack of the Clones when he was 2 years old and started his obsession even earlier than my own... poor bastard. I saw Revenge of the Sith in theaters 3 times, and as an angry teenager who struggled with my own problems and finding my true self, I identified with Anakin far closely than my mother would have liked. Hell, I even wrote a college paper on tragic heroes in literature through modern media with him as the star. And I got an A.
It sounds silly. A cultural phenomenon started in the 70s has kept me enthralled in its content for the vast majority of my life. Wow. So damn dorky. But it's true. And I'm not the only one. Star Wars has been a staple throughout many peoples lives, and although Disney has certainly sent a couple torpedoes through it all in recent years... Andor has pulled it from the fire and set it back on the podium.
Andor is a prequel series that centers around the titular character of Cassian Andor as he navigates his life from being a thief and a scoundrel to becoming the integral rebel that delivers the Death Star plans to the Alliance in Rogue One. He's a complicated character in Rogue One but not exactly one that I felt needed to have an origin story. Well... I've been wrong before. I couldn't have been more wrong on this one.
Diego Luna's Andor starts as a man who is basically living hand to mouth. He has some dark memories of his past, and lingers on thoughts of a sister that was left behind on his homeworld of Kenari. His adoptive father was killed by imperials when he was just a teenager, and the grip that the Galactic Empire has placed on its planets has only squeezed further in the interim. Despite being a notoriously petty thief, he is recognized for his potential by Stellan Skarsgard's Luthen. Luthen is revealed early on to be a big name in the growing rebellion, this is only 5 years before the destruction of the first Death Star, and he has a lot of work to do in order to get his contacts in place to fuel the fire that he wishes to see burn across the galaxy.
The Good
There's a lot to unpack here, so bear with me.
I'll start simply with the visuals. Andor is beautiful. From Ferrix's traditional streets that look like a cross between Tatooine and Naboo-style architecture, to the the lush jungle of Yavin. From the rolling hills and incredible nighttime views of Aldhani, to the Senate house of Coruscant... every scene takes the viewer to the place and gives us the full scope of what the characters are experiencing. No matter what location they decided to shoot at or the technology in place to put us all there... Tony Gilroy and his crew nailed it.
Audio in anything is almost as critical as the visual experience. I'm not just talking about the sounds of the blasters and the explosions (all done magnificently, anyway). I'm speaking about the music of the world that you're delving into. Would Gladiator have been the same without Hans Zimmer's epic score? Would we have all teared up when Aragorn told the hobbits they bow to no one if Howard Shore's crescendo hadn't backed up his words? Andor has these moments too. The scores by Nicholas Britell for season 1 and Brandon Roberts for 2 emphasize the gravity of Mon Mothma's choices, Andor's precarious situations, and Luthen's sacrifices.
Acting in the series is superb, and I couldn't expect anything less. Diego Luna has never been a household name in the likes of Tom Cruise or Denzel Washington, but he has shown his acting chops for years with a big break in American film alongside Kevin Costner and Robert Duvall in Open Range. He is stellar as Cassian Andor, and knows how to perform with grand gestures or subtle facial expressions. It's his delivery that breathes life into a character riddled with complications and helps us all to identify and connect with a man who shot his own inside man in the back within the first 5 minutes of Rogue One. Stellan Skarsgard has never played a role I didn't appreciate (except maybe that Exorcist prequel... oof), and his role in portraying Luthen is arguably just as vital as Luna's is with Cassian. He crushes it. Every scene with Stellan is one to be remembered, and in Season 2 we even get some glimpses into his past that clarify further just who he is and what he has built his life around in dedication to the cause. The rest of the cast are essentially supporting characters, with some showing up larger than life. Denise Gough, Kyle Soller, Ben Mendohlson, Andy Serkis, Elizabeth Dulau (give this woman an Emmy), Anton Lesser, Adria Arjona, Genevieve O'Reilly... I don't want to leave anyone out. This cast is not the size of Game of Thrones in its convoluted mixture (even utilizing some of the GOT alumni), but it is a large one filled to the brim with talent.
Lastly, the narrative. Oh man. Where to start?
I think Andor's beginning as a man who is still looking for his sister is a wonderful jump off point. He gets himself into trouble because he has a chip on his shoulder, and within the first few minutes of the first episode we see him gun down an imperial cop in cold blood because he was witness to the accidental killing of another one. It's reminiscent of who we see right away in Rogue One, but there is not a selfishness to these murders that would make it all the more difficult to connect with the one pulling the trigger. Instead, we are placed right alongside the downtrodden members of society that don't have the same level of freedoms as those wearing imperial uniforms. It's this type of action, and his past as a thief, that pull the attention of Luthen in Cassian's direction.
Luthen and Andor work in conjunction from the outset in conducting a heist, sowing the seeds of revolution, and doing the intelligence work required to build their network. They have help in the form of Elizabeth Dulau's Kleya and Adria Arjona's Bix, while also trying to secure the reputation of Genevieve O'Reilly's Senator Mon Mothma as she progressively finds cracks and faults in the imperial machine. All the while Denise Gough's Dedra Meero is desperate to climb the ranks of the Imperial Security Bureau's intelligence operations by finding and eliminating the rebel cell conducted by their unknown entity they have code-named Axis. She works closely with Kyle Soller's Syril to ensure the satisfaction of Ben Mendohlson's Director Krennic (a fan-favorite from Rogue One) in her other assignments involving fanning the flames of rebellion and pushing imperial propaganda.
Doesn't sound much like Star Wars when it's written out, really. Taking the words "Death Star" out of there, it reads almost more like the plot of something a bit more thought-provoking like Blade Runner, or with the political machinations of House of Cards. It's high-brow Star Wars, and it is well aware of it, but it works for Gilroy and his crew as they navigate these "dark times" of the galaxy during the pinnacle of the empire's influence. There are parallels here to modern times, and the showrunners lean into them plenty, but nothing feels like a lecture. And if it does... perhaps that should serve as some sort of a warning.
The Bad
This will be a pretty short section. If you came for an Andor bashing, then I'm amazed you made it this far.
There are going to be naysayers in virtually everything imaginable. Can the show be boring at times? Perhaps. If you're looking for blaster shootouts every twenty seconds, Andor is not for you. This is not typical Star Wars. No one moves a single object with their mind. There is not one lightsaber that gets ignited in the entire thing. The characters that we're all used to seeing are not there. And you know what? It's nice. It's refreshing. But there will be some that say they will not turn on a Star Wars show without a Skywalker or at the very least the reference to one.
There are episodes that focus and linger on issues longer than I would have preferred. The Chandrilan wedding trio of episodes felt like it could have been shortened a bit. I get what Gilroy was trying to convey, but I don't want to question his creative vision too greatly. I look at it a bit like the film Heat. Michael Mann's work is pretty near flawless, there, and I'd give it a 10 out 10. That said... did we need all those scenes of a young Natalie Portman interrupting the flow of the film? Probably not. The same could be said for Leida Mothma's betrothal and subsequent union. We get it. Not every sacrifice comes in the form of a life or a limb. Sometimes it's something else entirely. Now let's move on.
The Legend
It's been a couple days since I watched the series finale of Andor, and I'm still reeling. I needed some time to process it all. I knew that it was some of the best piece of television I'd seen in a long while, but I don't think that I knew what kind of an effect it would ultimately have on me. Season 1 was incredibly good, but Season 2 brought about a definitive level of writing and storytelling that transcends most things on any network.
My childhood and the obsession with Star Wars aside, Andor is a masterpiece all on its own. You do not need to be a Star Wars fan to come into it and appreciate the narrative that is put on display for you, here. You just need to turn it on and enjoy the show.
It's rare that a show comes along and affects its audience in a grand way. Especially when it's not really expected. Andor did just that, and there's no doubting the impact that it will have on its source material and the direction that Disney and Lucasfilm decide to go with its future.
10/10
Legendary
For more of my opinions on Star Wars content, check out my review of Outlaws
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