I didn't watch it when it came out because I was already souring on Star Wars and I pretty much forgot about it, but I've been playing a Star Wars EU based custom DND style tabletop with some buddies for a few weeks and one of them gave me a thumb drive with Andor on it.
It was pretty fucking good. And that's what leads me to being disappointed. It's like having a glimpse of what could have been but wasn't. Even at its "height" of Mandalorian Season 1, Disney Star Wars tv shows were nothing more than normieslop, and got progressively worse from there. I stopped watching after season 2 and only dipped back in to watch Ahsoka because I liked Rebels, and it was the worst thing I've ever seen. All of this was on the high seas of course.
But the here's this relatively obscure show that most people didn't even watch ending up having the best writing out of anything Disney Star Wars produced. And of course it's ignored in favor of more DEI slop like Acolyte. Andor will probably never get a season 2, if it does they'll almost certainly fuck it up, and the entire Star Wars tv show experiment will be remembered like a wet fart during a job interview. All the while, Andor shows that there was at least at one point, a chance for it to have been more, but was deliberately steered away from that by malicious actors at the top.
Was it really that good or did you lower your standards to such a degree that you've started to look away from all the DEI crap?
It was actually that good. Easy 8/10 even without DEI goggles.
To be clear, there are too many powerful women. Imp would hate it for that alone, and I can't fault him for that. The writer could have easily cut out 2 or 3 of them without losing much. Mon Mothma gets a pass because she's an OT character who's shown to already be the leader of the rebellion, so it makes sense that she did some shit to get there. A few others have believable roles, and none of them are too grating and all are acted well enough with a good enough script that it's palatable. But it's overshadowed by the main male characters. Andor himself is legitimately the star of his own show, which is shocking given it's Disney, and he is given the star treatment. He's shown to be intelligent, ruthless, cunning, dedicated, and is given a full arc explaining why he becomes the guy we see in Rogue One. The other main one, Stellan Skarsgård, dominates every scene he's in, and is easily shown to be head and shoulders above any of the female cast members. And I can't think of any male characters who are written to be idiots, bumbling fools, comically sexist feminist caricatures, or written poorly to make female characters seem better in contrast. Even the male head of the Imperial Security Bureau is shown to be a good leader and that he has the job for a reason.
Hyper security prison meets leaky water pipe.
Andor actually feels like 4/5/6 Star Wars in long form. It's got some slow stretches, but most of why they are boring is because you're just waiting for another scene with Stellan Skarsgard.
Skarsgard has got a great character and interesting dialog, but he's also a really good actor. I remember first seeing him in Aberdeen, where he played a convincing drunk; he didn't look like an actor acting drunk he looked like he was actually a chronic alcoholic. There's usually some little movements or stance that belie the act.
I'm starting to feel like some of it is a ploy to draw you in, then like the Mandalorian it will turn to shit. If it turns out it's a single season show and it has a story that is appropriate as such, I'll watch it someday. For now, I just don't want to offer time to something they will screw with me later on.
I do think the others are right too, the bar has been lowered. I was sitting around with my Dad over the weekend with some old TV shows on, and I can't stop thinking watching them "can't say that anymore", "could you imagine a show today letting them do that", etc.
You're probably better off not watching it. It's several years old, and at this point in hindsight, we know that Disney went down the wrong path and has been deliberately producing utter bullshit ever since. They're not capable of making something as good as Andor now, and would deliberately avoid doing so even if they were capable. It's a good show, but knowing that this is the only good thing that they have ever and will ever make leaves a sour taste in my mouth. If you prefer to just stay on the side of avoiding all Disney Star Wars all together and more or less forgetting it even exists, you're probably better off.
In a lot of ways it comes down to I have enough to watch anyway. They cut my interest by making crap to the point that I cut TV out so much and they will never get that time back.
I cancelled d plus in 21 and just read the old EU books and comics at this point (have 1-6 on dvd), but I’ve heard Andor was good and I think it would be a massive ratings hit had they not run off so many fans like myself
If ye have a tall ship and the grit to sail the open ocean in search of plunder, I would recommend giving Andor a try. But only if you want to be thoroughly pleased and entertained for 10 hours followed by a sinking hollow "well this is it. It'll never be good again" feeling.
Pretty much sums up my feelings on the show too. to add, most of the good Star Wars stuff to come out of Disney is stuff that only loosely mention Jedi and sith. Andor, Rogue One, and Mando are the only good Star Wars things Disney has produced. Rebels and Bad Batch are decent.
but everything related to Jedi and sith that Disney has produced has been utter garbage. my guess is their focus groups identified lightsabers as being the coolest thing from Star Wars that everyone likes, so their marketing team says "do whatever but put lightsabers in it!". the result is some of the most uninspired "fan service" I have seen in a long time.
Bitch, Kyle Katarn did all of that shit simply as his FIRST mission as a merc hired by the Rebellion.
Not saying it was better than EU, but it was a well-written story that slotted well into the original trilogy in a vacuum.
>Rogue One
>Disney
Sort of. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Wars_television_series#Underworld
Rogue One was supposed to be an episode of a series that was in production and then on hold prior to the Disney acquisition. Then it got re-pitched afterwards and ended up as a standalone movie. It kind of straddles both eras. I wouldn't give Disney credit for it. At least not full credit.
that explains a lot
I think it's the quality of writer. A truly exceptional writer can write a story about kicking an empty Coke can down the road for 10 minutes into something worth reading. But a shit writer who was only chosen for being fat, brown, and gay can be handed a universe capable of some of the most exciting and gripping stories imaginable and churn out something less appealing than a rotten cow carcass left in the sun for a week.
If the guy who wrote Andor were allowed to write a story about Jedi, it would probably be worth watching. But of course the story he would come up with wouldn't have enough faggots in it.
As far as DEI goes, I did notice there's one lesbian relationship in Andor, but it's hilariously accurate that one of them is a massive cunt to the other.
But other than that, the male characters never got shown up or made to be bumbling fools to pave the way for a girl boss. Andor and Luthan in particular are shown to be exceptionally capable the entire time. There's even that whole multi-episode prison arc where there are no female characters whatsoever. They also casted hot chicks for most of the female roles, and there were a surprising number of blacks casted as villains.
Also, the blasters in Andor actually seem like real dangerous guns. Like fuck, I don't know if it's the effects or the sound design or camera work or what. But every time someone shoots a blaster or especially gets hit by one, it seems like they are really getting fucked up with an angry mass of superheated plasma. Like more so than in any other Star Wars installment before, even more than the original trilogy honestly. A damn far cry from the Nerf lightsabers in Ahsoka.
It’s because they were using Space AKs aka RayK47s :
https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/08/andor-ak47-weapon-99.jpg?quality=75&strip=all
There are rumors of a season 2 coming next year that will connect it to the Rogue One movie. I also only recently watched it and was pleasantly surprised, I had thought Star Wars a lost cause.
Oh it still is